When asked how he makes action figures from flip-flops – or tsinelas in Filipino – Elmer Padilla could hardly come up with an explanation.

"I guess it's just talent. I didn't learn it. I just create them with my mind and hand."

There are many things in Elmer's life he finds hard to explain these days. Less than two months ago, he was barely making ends meet as a rickshaw driver in his hometown in the central Philippine province of Samar. He said he's worked all kinds of jobs, but none of them earned him enough to provide a decent life for his family.

"When I don't drive, I dive, using only a tube attached to a compressor to breathe, to fish. Life was really hard," Elmer related to CGTN.

With little opportunity in his hometown to lift his family out of poverty, he decided to move his family to the big city. He had family in Imus, a city not far from the Philippine capital Manila, so that's where they first settled. He tried to apply for a job in construction but failed. With less than a dollar left in his pocket, he walked the streets in desperation.

His one last shot, Elmer thought, was to use a talent he knew he had but was never much of a moneymaker. He collected discarded flip-flops, sat outside a market, then started cutting the flip-flops and piecing them together to make action figures. Moments later, a crowd had formed around him.

"It felt good that people were watching, and that people bought what I made," Elmer said.

Those people took photos and posted them on Facebook. From then on, one thing happened after another. A local television news magazine picked up his story. Then a reporter from a rival network, Marie Lozano, asked him if he wanted to make action figures for Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo, the actors who play Thor and The Hulk in Marvel movies, as she was set to interview them. He gamely obliged of course, and in footage released by ABS-CBN News, the two actors were thrilled when they received the toys.

Mark Ruffalo even went out of his way to tweet about Elmer and his creation, which he described as "inventively creative, sustainable, and just pure awesome."

If Elmer's life hadn't changed before then, that tweet completely turned things around for him.

"I can't believe that someone I idolize has expressed so much appreciation for my work, especially the part where he said they're environment-friendly. I am so grateful," Elmer said.

Of course, Elmer was one of the first to see the latest Marvel film "Thor: Ragnarok", a full week before its worldwide release. And if he's not on television getting interviewed, he's at a toy or comic book event. All that while orders for his toys are piling.

"I have to really sit down and work soon," he told CGTN, "Yours is the last interview I'm giving."