Seattle’s Darrell Toland must sleep well at night. His house isn’t so different from others in the neighborhood, but it comes with an extra feature that ensures unparalleled home security: An enormous recreation of the robot from Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 film, Castle In The Sky.
Over on his Tumblr, Toland has answers to any of the questions you may have about how the big anime robot came to live in his front yard. He explains that he created it simply “because it’s cool” and that it’s made out of “a fiberglass and styrene shell on a steel and foam frame” set atop a pedestal that consists of “3500 lbs of steel reinforced concrete” that “was a bugger to pour by hand.”
Toland says he refers to his robot as “The Gardener” rather than its Castle In The Sky name, “The Guardian,” and that, despite it coming equipped with “lights and sounds like in the film,” he’s probably joking about its ability to patrol the neighborhood at night to grab children who should be sleeping or fire a “death ray laser” from its eyes.
Even though it isn’t actually going to come to life and menace the city, The Gardener’s Tumblr shows that the big machine gladly accepts humanity’s homage regardless. Aside from photos of his creation just standing around in different weather, Toland also documents the various items left in the robot’s outstretched hand. Some people leave sunglasses and flowers as offerings. Others give the sculpture lemons, pincecones, and toys. One person even made The Gardener a huge mitten to wear during the colder months.
While those leaving gifts in The Gardener’s big metal hand certainly seemed impressed with Toland’s work, there’s no word yet on whether Miyazaki himself finds this sculpture acceptable or some kind of “insult to life itself.”
[via Boing Boing]
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