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23-Foot Inflatable Octopus Puppet Is the World’s Best Parade Float

by Derrick Rossignol
Sep 28 2018 • 1:53 PM
Giant parade balloons are cool for multiple reasons: They’re huge, they’re immediately recognizable, and they’re usually your best chance to see a fictional character floating down the street. There’s also at least one significant drawback to them, though: They’re kind of lifeless. Yes, they look like what they’re supposed to look like, but all they really do is float in the air without any sense of natural-looking movement beyond their limbs swaying lifelessly in the breeze. But there’s a solution to this very serious problem! Designer Tim Davies has invented Ocho the Octopus, a giant air-filled octopus that has functional moving limbs (via Geekologie).
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This innovative puppet is giant, measuring at about 13 feet high and 23 feet wide, and it also seems relatively simply to use. In the videos above and below, we see Ocho’s user equipped with a harness, above which Ocho floats, and which the operator works mostly by holding on and flapping his arms up and down, it appears. Ocho also has lights on his tentacles, so this must be quite the sight at night.

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Davies writes of Ocho:

“Ocho the Octopus is huge – 4m high, 7m wide – maximizing the immediate wow-impact on spectators. At the same time, its delicate control mechanism enables the puppet to build spontaneous rapport with its audience. Lightweight and easy to maneuver by a single puppeteer, Ocho is nimble and responsive to those it meets with a soft skin, making it tactile and safe for close contact.”

What do you think of Ocho? Let us know down in the comments!

Featured image: Tim Davies