~~GIANTS OF THE PRAIRIES~~ road trip: which one do you visit first?

At the risk of prejudicing the results, the roller coaster is good, the UFO landing pad is underwhelming, and the giant gopher is worth a visit for the town it's in, which also has a gopher museum and fire hydrants painted to look like a family of anthropomorphic gophers

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Surprised this didn't get more traction. My serious side would be tempted to go for sundial, nerdy side Starship Enterprise or UFO pad, wilful contrarian side 'World's Second Largest Bee'.

ohhh yeah, welcome back my poor neglected poll. it probably didn't get any traction because I was a bonehead and posted it on inauguration day, and well, not much could compete with bernie's mittens

Second Largest Bee should win this

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/c4/1a/4bc41a1c7cecc83f6098080acb0363d2.jpg

compare to "largest bee"

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/xc/XABFALbee_chantall.jpg

(disputed with Norway)

World's Largest Dragonfly
Canada's Largest Dragonfly

Two different entries, but if they're not the same thing then my head will explode trying to work this one out.

voted Enterprise obv

second largest bee came close tho, not gonna lie

I’ve seen the enterprise. It’s about 2h from my house.

hero ^

more photos are needed itt

But I have never seen the 2nd largest bee

*points to door*

After googling some pictures, I am going with my initial choice of World’s Largest Beaver.

Second Largest Bee is 7 feet tall and 16 feet long, lol at these carefully angled photographs designed to make it look bigger

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/09/20/87/0920877f7ac24f0f40810cec9f451160.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/09/20/87/0920877f7ac24f0f40810cec9f451160.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/CEMJ0isbbFIqrrT_Sj4Jnx6LZb4OeD_RT8tULBJFJNWooeTPQ4Eqn9cyEGsPUXg_NWu41UYTHUmm-2gQfg-Xv2S34aYf

World's Largest Dragonfly
Canada's Largest Dragonfly

Oops. This is the same thing, but I can't imagine there'll be so many dragonfly aficionados that there's a risk of vote-splitting

There are pictures for a lot of them in the wikipedia article where a bunch of the list comes from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_of_the_Prairies

I like the wacky/dopey cartoony-ness of these ones:

suzie the softball
https://www.todocanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/Sooftball-Village-of-Chauvin.jpg

giant potato lads
https://southernalberta.com/business/datapics/photos/vauxhalltown.jpg

I'm so disappointed that I didn't know there was a world's largest freestanding banana in Manitoba when I put together the list - late write-in entry for this guy imo
https://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/600*432/150810-melita-banana-c.jpg

I voted for the skunk because I misread the town name as Berserker. It's a pretty terrifying statue of moderate size anyway.

Yeah, I know it's not Canada, but we're planning a trip to downstate Illinois, where there is all sorts of giant stuff, from:

World's Largest Geriatric Walker
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/il/ILEDWwalker_snoddy.jpg

to the World's Largest Ketchup bottle

https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0f/bc/54/c3/world-famous-brooks-catsup.jpg

To the world's largest statue of the world's tallest man (the proverbial Giant of Illinois)

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/il/ILALTwadlow_dk1_360x540.jpg

I'm looking up pictures now and a lot of these aren't that impressive size-wise. I guess the competition for "world's largest" is only fierce when it comes to certain subjects. The USS Enterprise looks very disappointingly small too.

This genuinely looks cool, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegreville_egg

If I hadn't already voted I would vote for this guy, I think.

https://i2-prod.examinerlive.co.uk/incoming/article4898940.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/dickie-bird-cuts-open-the-2000-denby-dale-pie-667897979.jpg
They have a tradition of making giant pies in Denby Dale, at one point they held the world record for biggest ever meat and potato pie. I thought the thread could do with a pic of Dickie Bird thrusting a sword into a gigantic pie.

Not gonna lie, I regret my vote.

https://i.imgur.com/dnUodmo.jpg

I mean, I read "World's Largest Animated Grizzly Bear" and got way too excited about the possibilities.

World's Largest Bunnock is...kinda sexy?
World's Largest Kielbasa is definitely not.

Going with World's Largest Animated Grizzly Bear. The 2D-ness speaks to me, I guess. It reminds me of this giant miner ("Big John") from Upper Michigan that I used to see when I visited my grandparents.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/WxxWLD_wdE8mu489ndjWgWAXFbcRYBSSijD5U3-pNiPFWgdYNBEfgleaph9TH1ZwX2UPZ7el90oUYsQdFcbqnH7zHLGOl2mwaGJxIRQ_9yu3hLdO77gOpkr_YqLep6oZKRqyrSr4yv9Sr6aBtGQZRfjn

This facebook (sorry, sic) video of the giant animated bear shows that it is impressively noisy! Plus the two guys on camera do a pretty convincing Wilhelm.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=261796425029888

I'm looking up pictures now and a lot of these aren't that impressive size-wise

Second Largest Bee is 7 feet tall and 16 feet long, lol at these carefully angled photographs designed to make it look bigger

Okay but it's still a pretty fuckin huge bee.

Me I've always been partial to the Longaberger Basket building

http://slickmen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Longaberger-Basket-Building-Newark-USA.jpg

Note: last I heard this is for sale! We can pool our savings and buy it together.

https://www.nbc12.com/resizer/NrJmbylh7K12FCMNnlV_ejnRfdQ=/1200x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-raycom.s3.amazonaws.com/public/NNJYJHYZBVFPVKTMZXZAUF5AWM.jpg

Don't put all your ilx0rs in one basket.

I'm a big fan of novelty architecture. Like, look at this crab! Look at it! A crab that you can go inside! How wonderful.

https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1537875518472-Weird-Novelty-Architecture-6.jpeg

Poll results would probably be pretty different if picture polls were a possibility though, yeah... spare a thought for all the people in the pre-internet age who may have read about some of these 'world's largests' in a guide book and got to experience the disappointment of e.g. the animated bear in person after taking a detour to see it.

I guess I was imagining a 50-ft version of this thing:

https://i.imgur.com/nxy1AnD.png

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

an absolutely stunning result for the world's second largest bee

the thread starter is currently busy playing Hitman but has indicated that she sees this as "evidence of a hive mind mentality"

I myself voted for the 2nd largest bee, because the question is which one you visit first, and it makes sense to work up to the larger bee

I have already ridden the world's largest indoor rollercoaster and seen the gopher. I would not immediately prioritise doing either again, partly because of the redundancy and, in the gopher's case, because the whole gopher-centric vibe of that town is frankly a little unnerving

Oh my God, you're not kidding! From the Torrington Gopher Hole Museum:

https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/gI6z7FjGbz1ZDMAi7o7iWw/o.jpg

You gotta play to your natural ... ah ... advantages

Or, When life hands you gophers you make ...

nightmares. you make nightmares.

Torrington was aghast in 2013 when Clem was found toppled from his pedestal, the victim of what the town called "inherent design flaws" and possibly some gopher-hating fiend giving Clem a hard push. The smiling fiberglass rodent was rebuilt, repaired, and reattached with enhanced nudge-proof anchoring in 2015.

i love ilx

thank for the new display name

Taxidermist humor is all about getting mounted and stuffed.

i know it's not prairies but

Just learned there is a giant pistachio in Alamogordo, NM pic.twitter.com/4g9qkFWUD7

— Godzilla vs Bong (@Grief_Eater) March 1, 2021

NEWS FLASH giant cheeto comes to Cheadle, limited time only

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-hamlet-of-cheadle-now-home-to-giant-cheeto-statue-1.6095656

no word on whether it is the world's biggest or merely one among more impressively-sized puffy dusty cheese snacks, however