Bits and pieces, news, views, reviews and stuff
So 2020 sees another trail featuring Aardman’s characters from Wallace and Gromit. This one though is much shorter and all the sculptures are at the Mall at Cribbs Causeway.
Before lockdown we managed to find them all within a couple of hours.
Click the images for larger versions.
At the Mall there is a Gromit trail.
This is Yodeleyheehoo. This sculpture was in the basement in John Lewis.
I think this was my favourite.
Featuring Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw, The Grand Adventure will see 15 sculptures pup-up in various locations around The Mall – launching on Saturday, 24 October. You’ll be able to travel around the world visiting brand new designs, as well as firm favourites from previous trails, each representing a different country.
At the Mall there is a Gromit trail.
This is Arabian Lights. This sculpture was in a glass cabinet at John Lewis, which made it difficult to photograph.
Featuring Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw, The Grand Adventure will see 15 sculptures pup-up in various locations around The Mall – launching on Saturday, 24 October. You’ll be able to travel around the world visiting brand new designs, as well as firm favourites from previous trails, each representing a different country.
Arabian Lights was part of the 2015 Shaun the Sheep trail and was in the musuem entrance foyer.
At the Mall there is a Gromit trail.
This is Shanghai Shaun. This sculpture was one of three in the food court area.
Featuring Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw, The Grand Adventure will see 15 sculptures pup-up in various locations around The Mall – launching on Saturday, 24 October. You’ll be able to travel around the world visiting brand new designs, as well as firm favourites from previous trails, each representing a different country.
I had seen this sculpture before in July at the shop.
At the Mall there is a Gromit trail.
This is Kanzashi. This sculpture was one of three in the food court area.
Featuring Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw, The Grand Adventure will see 15 sculptures pup-up in various locations around The Mall – launching on Saturday, 24 October. You’ll be able to travel around the world visiting brand new designs, as well as firm favourites from previous trails, each representing a different country.
I had seen this sculpture before in July at the shop.
One of the things we missed this year (not that it happens every year) was doing a statue trail.
Back in 2015 we did the Shaun in the City trail across Bristol, the wider area and finished off seeing them all at Covent Garden. We managed to see 62 out of the 70.
In 2018 we did the Gromit Unleashed 2 trail which as well as Shaun the Sheep and Gromit, also had Wallace getting in on the act as well. This time we did manage to capture all 67 sculptures.
So it was quite nice on a visit to the Mall at Cribbs Causeway to see a few sculptures in the Gromit Unleased shop.
There was the vanilla Shaun the Sheep.
There were a few Chinese inspired sculptures as well, including Kansashi
Then we had Year of the Gromit.
Also Shanghai Shaun.
I quite enjoyed seeing Caractacus Paws again, which was one of my favourite Gromit from the Gromit Unleashed 2, though Bristol’s Own was probably my actual top sculpture.
The other Gromit there as The Sea of Hope.
Though not a Gromit or a Shaun, I did quite enjoy seeing the huge Morph as well.
As with my other blogs I am looking at the ten most read postings over 2015.
The tenth most read post on this blog was posted in the last two weeks of 2015, and was about WHSmith. At WHSmith you can afford to give them anything but the ordinary this Christmas contained an old advert from the high street store.
I visited Legoland in 2013 and felt that it was A bit tired and this was the ninth post in this top ten. Certainly when we went this year in 2015 there were some new models in Mainland.
You have entered the Quiet Zone! was eighth most read post and I asked what’s the point of the Quiet Zone Carriage?
Back to Legoland for number seven, Legoland Miniland.
The sixth most read post was on Ten Incredible Sand Sculptures that have been on the beach at Weston-super-Mare over the last ten years.
The post at number 5 was from the Cinematic Advent Calendar which I posted back before Christmas in 2012. The post in question was #24 – Back to the Future and as 2015 was the year in which Marty McFly went to in the film series, it’s quite apt that it in this year’s top ten.
More Lego at number 4 with The Bat Cave in Lego.
The third most popular post was “the cafe on tv at weston super mare is it real” and the answer is, it isn’t!
Over 2015 there were seventy Shaun the Sheep sculptures places all across Bristol and the top two posts on the blog were about these Sheep. At number two was Ten out of Seventy and the most read post was about all seventy sheep, Shaun in the City.
Happy New Year for 2016.
Though the Shauns have now left the centre of Bristol, I am still catching up posting my photographs of the ones I managed to capture with my camera.
We were passing by 40. On the Waterfront when I managed to find us a parking place, and over we went to get a photograph.
Reminding us of the waterfront with pictures of the docks, this Shaun was very much at home next to the water.
This was a very shiny sheep, 46. Shaun Bean was covered in chrome and was next to the Arnolfini.
Not sure of the connection with Sean Bean though.
Looking very much like Johnny Depp, 45. The Pirate Captain had a tricorne, flintlocks and a cutlass.
He was guarding the M Shed, or was he looking for buried treasure?
Over on the other side of the water, looking rather lonesome was 39. Air Fleece.
Very much a Red Arrows sheep, bright red and RAF symbols all over.
Out of the 70 Shauns across Bristol we managed to capture 62 of them.
These are the eight we missed. Luckily other people managed to capture them on film.
We did in fact find 12. Bumble but we were driving pass and decided it wasn’t safe to stop and we would go back at some point, we never did.
Over on Henleaze Road was 14. The Tale of Peter Rabbit™ a somewhat scary looking rabbit-sheep hybrid.
The very 1970s looking 15. Groovy Baby!
We had intended to visit Ashton Court to see 16. Buttercup and 17. Flora but it was pouring with rain on the two days we thought we might have time to do this. So both sheep were missed. Buttercup was in the courtyard next to the cafe.
17. Flora was also at Ashton Court, up by the Golf Club.
32. Sparkles the Unicorn was hiding away on Horfield Common, what stopped us was the sheer amount of traffic around Bristol, on what should have been a quiet day for vehicles.
Looking very tasty is 33. Star Bake next to the Boston Tea Party on the Gloucester Road,
Another one where the amount of traffic contributed to missing them, this time it was 34. Primrose at St Werburgh’s City Farm.
Photographs by Mary Kelly on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 who managed to capture all seventy.
Yesterday saw the end of the great Shaun the Sheep hunt.
In the end we managed to find and photograph 62 out of 70.
A combination of weather and traffic in the end stopped us from completing the challenge. Thoiugh we did do it, it wasn’t that much fun to trudge through the rain and the mud finding Shauns. Also we had to go to Bristol to do it, and the M5 was too often a slow moving car park.
Over the next week or so I will post the photographs of the Shauns we did managed to capture.
There is an opportunity to see them all (with the London Shauns) in both Bristol and Covent Garden over September.