Collegiate Times

"This one group was in a discussion of whether or not the Junkman statues were real. So one of the guys walks up to me and says to his friends, 'Look, I'll prove it,'" Johnson said. "And I'm standing there real still while this guy walks up to me and decides to put his hands up ... in a sensitive area."

When Junkman came to life in the man's hands, Johnson said, "I saw real fear on his face."

Strapping into the costume takes nearly 10 minutes and necessitates a sturdy ledge from which to step into the stilts. Johnson's favorite spot is the loading dock behind the ADLC building where he maintains a small studio.

While the physical transformation is apparent, for the quiet and retiring Johnson, the emotional transformation is more incredible.

"I feel like I'm Optimus Prime," Johnson said. "I'm no longer Jesse."

Johnson's brother said the change is evident.

"I never really would have seen that transformation. He's really shy and held-back. When he's in a mask, he can get away with whatever he wants to," said Will Johnson, a senior computer engineering major.

In a crowd outside McBryde Hall, Johnson's attitude is apparent. With fist-bumps, a patented Johnny Bravo-esque pose and a swagger heightened by his swaying tail feathers, Armored Hokie absorbs the clicks of camera phones and muffled gasps of "That's so cool!" with aplomb.

Which begs the question: Could Armored Hokie be added to the pantheon of Hokie crusaders?

"He's be able to get through crowds easier with all that stuff, but the Hokie Bird is a lot easier to crowd surf," said Candice Wilson, a senior music major who saw the Armored Hokie on the Drillfield.

Armored Hokie does, however, have a high intimidation factor.

"It's fun to see him when he sees fans of the other team and he starts to take these giant, aggressive strides toward them, and to watch them get nervous," Will Johnson said.

Alicia Longworth, the assistant director for sports marketing and promotions, declined to let the Collegiate Times interview the existing Hokie Bird.

Johnson said that he hoped the university would take on his costume for use at official events, adding that he would like to train a successor in stilt walking before he graduates in the fall of 2009.

Longworth wrote in a e-mail that her office would need further information and contact with Johnson before deciding whether they would assume official possession of Armored Hokie.

No matter the university's eventual decision on Armored Hokie, the Johnson brothers jokingly bandy about another idea: building an Armored Cavalier for the Hokie to vanquish.

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