Big Things!

14 Mar 2006 Category: Features, Worldwide

Oh my god! Guess what happened to me today! There I was, innocently surfing on the net, when I discovered a whole world of BIG THINGS out there!

Well, ok, this is nothing to shout about too much - I simply want to share the joy I felt when discovering those - mostly pretty ridiculous - objects.

I am not quite sure why these objects really exist. Often, they are used as advertisements. Makes sense. Being THAT big, they surely draw your attention to them.

But advertising alone doesn’t seem to be the whole answer. One of the best big things sites was a Canadian one called - have a guess - Big Things. What surprised me most about this thorough collection was that you could chose those sculptures “By Artist”…

See what I mean by saying “not only for advertisements”?

Big Things can be found in any country. Often at the entrance of nature parks, or marking some kind of “holiday family spot”.

And some you can actually play on (and not just have your picture taken.)

This giant octopus reminds me a lot of one of our first articles we ever wrote on Ping about playground characters!

On the whole, fish or sea creatures seem to be the most popular Big Thing - and not just in Japan.

This big oyster is actually a slightly different category, since it bridges over to funny buildings - but I just wanted to share that with you! The same goes for this massive Japanese snowman.

Here are some of my favorite Supreme Strange Big Things:

A giant Wiener sausage??? What would you be doing that for?

Or look at this scary viking from the City of Burnaby!

And now check out those kinky boots in the middle of the street! Excellent!

And last but not least - I was most impressed by a giant Gundam!

Hope you find some inspiration in our little adventure into the world of Big Things. Most images were taken from

Big Things in Canada
Big Things in Australia and
The Australian Big Things Guide

See, what you can find!

14 Comments

1. Big things in Australia are common in rural areas. They exist mainly to put a small town on the map. For instance, you can imagine a conversation going like this:

   A: “Man, have you been to the big pineapple?”
   B: “No, where is it”
   A: “It’s in ____ town, it’s huge! You’ve gotta check it out.”

   And then you go there, check out the big pineapple, and maybe have a bite and be back on the freeway. The town earns a little income from their fibre glass monstrosity.

   There’s a television show in Australia called Rove Live where the host, Rove, will always recommend his international celebrity guests to check out the Big Pineapple. It’s pretty funny how they are shocked why someone would build a big pineapple.

   Posted by: Alastair on March 14th, 2006 at 10:10 pm

2. How about giant donuts?

   http://www.agilitynut.com/food2.html

   Posted by: Tim on March 15th, 2006 at 1:11 am

3. There’s a giant coffee cup near our old house. It’s pretty wicked, but the whole thing smells like asbestos.

   Posted by: cyber^2 on March 15th, 2006 at 8:18 am

4. Don’t forget the Big Bananna, in Cairns Australia I think it is… Australia seems to have a lot of these big things.

   Posted by: Chisa on March 15th, 2006 at 10:07 am

5. BIG STATUES are just cool! I agree, The big GUNDAM, although actually a tiny GUNDAM wins, hands down.

   Great site!

   Posted by: Shay on March 15th, 2006 at 11:05 am

6. whoa! i love those pretzels on the doughnut site! excellent! thanks a lot!

   Posted by: Uleshka on March 15th, 2006 at 5:18 pm

7. Ha ha. Brilliant! Sometimes you must ask yourself: “Why??” (^_^) Haven’t anyone by the way made a giant Godzilla yet?

   Posted by: Massimo Fiorentino on March 15th, 2006 at 5:27 pm

8. YOU ARE BIG

   Posted by: Olltta on March 15th, 2006 at 7:59 pm

9. oh! thanks to the nice comment from China!

   Posted by: Uleshka on March 15th, 2006 at 8:14 pm

10. Writer Danny Wallace mentions a tour of Australian big things in his fantastic book “Yes Man” in which he decides to say Yes to absolutely every choice in his life - big recommendation, really, really funny!

    Posted by: James on March 15th, 2006 at 8:36 pm

11. This is so cool!
    Thanks for sharing…never thought of such idea - BIG THINGS. Interesting…

    Posted by: nukie on March 30th, 2006 at 4:06 am

12. What about my big………..

    Posted by: WIKI on April 1st, 2007 at 3:17 pm

13. Thre should be a big pear on this!!!!!

    Posted by: Jedd on May 1st, 2007 at 6:39 pm

14. This is so cool!
    Thanks for sharing

    Posted by: kurye on February 22nd, 2008 at 7:23 am

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