What Can You Tells Ss about the Mantis at Container Park?

One of the sights we like to take in on our trips to Vegas is the mantis at Container Park downtown. What can you tell us about it?

Called "the Mantis," this sculpture is a 150-to-1 blowup of one of an order of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. When fully extended, the Mantis stands 40 feet tall and is 30 feet at its widest; it's also fire-breathing, shooting flames fueled by liquid propane (about 50 gallons a day) up to 60 feet in the air and can reportedly speak 20 different languages through its 40,000-watt audio system.

It wakes up as night falls, alerted by a drum circle, "Call to the Mantis," in which the public is welcome to participate (bring your own instruments). It continues to move and belch fire through 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, closing hours for Container Park.

It's actually not a permanent attraction. It's on loan from the creator, an aerospace engineer by the name of Kirk Jellum, who created it in 2010, with a little help from a team of friends and colleagues, as a first-wedding-anniversary gift for his wife and, incidentally, for an appearance at Burning Man. (We couldn't find any indication of how she received it ... or if they're still married.) It required 500 hours of design work and 3,000 hours of construction time. It's highly portable and can be moved at anytime; it made an appearance at Zion National Park before being hauled to Las Vegas.

We like a description we've seen of the massive metallic mantis: "a giant metal monument to love and monsters."

You can see lots of images here.

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Bob Dec-31-2023

Pretty cool

According to the Google machine...  the Mantis was purchased from Mr. Jellum by the Late founder of Zappos Tony Hsieh who created the container park.  after the mantis, Mr. Jellum Built a 150:1 scale fire breathing Scorpion for some investor, and unfortunately... the Mrs. kicked him to the curb in 2021.

Raymond Ray Dec-31-2023

I HATE THAT THING😡😡😡😡

That thing went off and scared the CRAP out of me. Spilled my dring all over my friend...(🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣)

Question of the Day - 31 December 2023

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