---
title: "You Can Buy a NASA Engineer’s Fire-Spewing Scorpion Art Car on eBay"
description: "For the man who has everything."
date: "2016-06-21"
modified: "2016-06-21"
authors:
  - name: "Jonathon Ramsey"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/jonathon-ramsey"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/4089/you-can-buy-a-nasa-engineers-fire-spewing-scorpion-art-car-on-ebay"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "For Sale"
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Art"
  - "Burning Man"
  - "space"
---

# You Can Buy a NASA Engineer’s Fire-Spewing Scorpion Art Car on eBay

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/062116-scorpion-car-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

If you've ever had the startlingly specific dream of buying a 55-foot-long robotic scorpion built on a truck chassis that spews fire from a seven-barrel flamethrower in its tail...boy, is it your lucky day, or what. Because [that's exactly what former NASA engineer Kirk Jellum has listed on eBay](<https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/262487161520>).

Jellum, who spent 12 years working on the Hubble-replacing [James Webb Space Telescope](<https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/>), is an old hand at building laborate art cars, having retiring six years ago to spend all his time building them for Burning Man. The first project—a 40-foot-long praying mantis—was no slouch, but Jellum went bigger and badder with the second: the 55-foot-long, 45-foot-wide, 45-foot-high [replica of a pet female emperor scorpion](<https://gizmodo.com/5938175/the-3000-pound-fire-breathing-robot-scorpion-roving-the-nevada-desert>) named “Fluffy” you see here. has [seven computer-controlled flamethrowers](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v94ODMy3W4I>) in the articulated tail, 21 hydraulic actuators to make the tail, legs, and claws move like the real animal's body parts, and 150 LEDs, for the obligatory light show.

![Scorpion Art Car](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/062116-scorpion-car-art.jpg>)
**NK Guy**

Jellum and his two-man building crew invested seven months creating Fluffy's duplicate. Assembled atop a 28-foot, 1991 International 4900 boom truck, Fluffy weighs 11,000 pounds and [isn’t the slightest bit road legal](<https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/scorpion-art-car-burning-man-for-sale/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=webfeeds>). She folds down to smaller dimensions for travel—33-feet-long by 11.5-feet-wide by 11-feet-high—but you’ll still need a semi-trailer with oversized load accommodations if you want to take her home. Oh, you'll also need at least five friends, because the scorpion takes six people a day to set up—and just as long to tear down.

Jellum says there’s $225,000 invested in the project, but $50,000 will win the auction; compared to the BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo you could buy instead for that price, makes Fluffy seem like a no-brainer. Note, though, that you won’t just be getting a fire-spitting scorpion—you’re getting a rolling piece of art with miles and experiences under her wheels—er, claws. This arachnid has been to Burning Man every year since 2011; she’s been the [focus of a feature-length documentary](<https://vimeo.com/65560942>), fought a [desert battle with a giant, fire-spouting octopus](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6QQ-m-APL4>) called El Pulpo, and [even had a 40-person dinner party served inside her](<https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2012/08/23/gifting-an-epic-dinner-in-the-desert-at-burning-man/>).

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