A 30-foot-tall “Big Ron” fiberglass figure was added Thursday under the big Route 66 shield near the entrance to Route 66 MotorHeads Bar & Grill, Museum and Entertainment Complex in Springfield, Illinois.
The complex at 600 Toronto Road, in an old Stuckey’s on an alignment of Route 66, already contains tons of Route 66 memorabilia and other attractions.
Here’s a Facebook Live video from the ceremony Thursday evening:
Geoff Ladd posted some images from the ceremony:
The Springfield State Journal-Register had the details about the statue, also known as a Muffler Man:
Sporting a blue Motorheads hat, the spectacle of Big Ron started as an idea for tourism between longtime friends Dino Dinora and Ron Metzger, the owner of Motorheads.
Originally, the intention was to buy a giant secondhand to place near the sign that towers over the bar to compliment the Route 66 emblem, which is the largest on the spanning 2,278-mile road.
Metzger quickly realized however, that buying a giant wouldn’t be easy—because finding one was near impossible.
“This started out as small talk and as the time went on (Dinora and I) were going to try and retrofit an old one but we realized we couldn’t do it,” Metzger said. “So, I made a rendering and sent it out to have (the statue) custom built to suit us.”
Instead, Metzger employed Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studios, an art character creation team in Natural Bridge, Virginia to build from scratch. A first draft drawing of the original “Mr. Motorhead” was sent to Cline before the final vision was mocked up, featuring the classic fuel pumps that attach around the base of the seven-story Motorheads sign.
Enchanted Castle has fabricated several Muffler Men along Route 66 in recent years, including two at Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios on 66 in Tulsa.
Several passers-by snapped photos of Big Ron as it was being set up:
Metzger said the project cost about $100,000, with Route 66-related funding from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunities.
The Journal-Register article also contained photos of the original artist’s rendering of the statue and Big Ron arriving on a large flatbed truck before his installation.
(Screen-capture image from video of Big Ron in front of Route 66 MotorHeads Bar & Grill in Springfield, Illinois)
This is so frickin’ Awesome that Motorheads has a giant statue for their business.