Gromit statue auction raises £2.3m for Bristol children's hospital
Between July 1 and September 8, the Gromit Unleashed exhibition saw the city of Bristol play host to several dozen statues of Gromit, the anthropomorphic dog from Wallace and Gromit.
On 3 October, the statues were auctioned to raise money for an expansion of Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. One lot, Gromit Lightyear, designed by animation studio Pixar and depicting Gromit as Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise, sold for £65,000.
The eighty-one statues, depicting Gromit in a variety of styles, were designed by several artists, including Nick Park (creator of Wallace and Gromit), and Simon Tofield (animator of Simon's Cat). In total, £2.3 million was raised for the hospital. Nick Park said he was "stunned" by how successful the auction was.
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If I am not mistaken, this is Higgs Raccoon's 100th story posted to Flayrah (and he did it without resorting to copy-and-pasting Newsbytes and Previews, too), so congratulations to Higgs! Welcome to the 100+ club; club members are entitled to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and maybe bragging rights. Maybe.
Are think you are mistaken, actually... The contributors list says it's only #99. :P
I think it takes a while for that to update; if you look at the sidebar, it says I only have 17 stories before July 16, when I have 18 (I'm a bit obsessive about this stuff). Besides, you were at 99 before this story was published; I was keeping track.
Trust me, you're at 100.
This is my part of the world and I ran into a couple of the Gromits whilst they were on display around the city.
For friends with kids, this has been - in some cases - a lengthy adventure. Over several visits they've toured around the place visiting every Gromit and checking them off as they go. "Gromithunting", I've heard it called, and quite an expedition it was if you were going to check off every last one.
Near to Bristol, the city of Bath has displayed series of decorated lion and pig statues in recent years. Not as much fun as these, though!
If I may blow my own (photographic) trumpet, here's one of Bath's lions, and one of its pigs:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4466802/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5793427/
Adding to Allicorn and Anon's comments above, in Liverpool they had decorated Superlambananas, and Chester had decorated Rhinos.
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