Awesome Balloons

It doesn’t seem like balloons would be particularly complicated to make, but How It’s Made shows us how creating party balloons requires lots of industrial equipment, including electrically-charged vats of liquid latex, balloon-shaped molds, and spinning brushes to create the openings we blow into.

For the art installation, Colapso in Bilbao, Spain, SpY created this simple yet effective display. Sitting inside a cube, a 10-meter balloon gradually inflated over four days. When the balloon burst, it revealed it was filled with colored smoke. The cloud lingered for only a few seconds but produced the perfect red sphere captured in this slow-motion video.

It’s a June tradition for The Slow Mo Guys to perform stupid antics with a giant water balloon. This time, Dan dove face-first into the thing as Gav captured slow-motion footage of his crash landings. Not only did he shoot from the outside of the balloon, but he also got the camera’s skinny probe lens inside of it for some shots.

Luke Adams Glass offers an extensive selection of miniature glass objects, from tiny cocktails to thumb-sized skulls. These teeny balloon animal dogs are some of our favorites. Not only do they fit in the palm of your hand, but they’re also way more affordable than Jeff Koons’ iconic balloon dog sculptures.

BMX rider Kriss Kyle proves he has balls of steel by performing a series of tricks while 2100 feet in the air. The Red Bull-sponsored stunt features a custom-fabricated mini bike park that hangs from the bottom of a hot air balloon. We can’t believe he did the part where he balances on the outer rail. Catch the behind-the-scenes film here.

World records are broken every day, thanks in no small part to the internet. Drew Builds Stuff and his brother Adam wanted to join the world record club and settled on an archery challenge. The goal: break the record of 38 water balloons burst with a single arrow while following the precise Guinness World Record rules.

Zealous and his pals set out to break the record for the highest paper airplane drop. So they engineered a plane that could handle the weight of a camera and a GPS module, launched it to the edge of space on a balloon, and waited for it to fall back to earth. Naturally, it was much more complicated than they thought it would be.

When it comes to showing the power of small lasers, popping black balloons is one of the most effective demonstrations. With the right kind of reflector system, laser beams can be guided to hit precise targets, so they can pop numerous balloons in sequence like in this satisfying short video using a Wicked Lasers LaserCube.

Farming is a tricky business. When growing a crop like rice, it’s not easy to access the plants to apply nutrients or pesticides. This clever farmer uses a set of large balloons to suspend spray pipes over the plants, minimizing damage and keeping vehicles from getting stuck in the marsh.

We’ve long been fans of artist Glenn Jones’ cheeky illustrations. Here, he envisions a world in which Snoopy and Woodstock are balloon animals. Even their doghouse is inflatable. The playful image is available on various shirts, including tees, tanks, sweatshirts, and hoodies. Now we want to see the rest of the balloon Peanuts.

Over the years, Gav and Dan from The Slow Mo Guys have produced a number of videos which involve doing silly things with giant water balloons. This time, they sandwiched Dan between two of the heavy balloons and then popped them to capture a new perspective on the water-soaked action.

In keeping with their name, the guys from How Ridiculous set up a series of fun and challenging obstacle courses, loaded them with balloons, then competed to see who could pop the most while running, tossing darts, driving go-karts, riding on electric skateboards, and piloting R/C cars.

You’d think a battle between balloons and darts would have an obvious winner. But when you line up a bunch of giant balloons in a row, the dart eventually runs out of energy. How Ridiculous put this to the test – but they first tried popping them with everything from a marshmallow to a volleyball.

As part of a balloon animal kingdom, a multi-national team of 34 artists and students from the Netherlands, Turkey, and Spain created this giant sculpture of a dinosaur from 150,000 biodegradable balloons. The 64-foot-long creature was on display in Istanbul in November 2020. We want to see the popping footage now.

Masayoshi Matsumoto is no birthday party balloon artist. Nope, his specialty is creating complex balloon animals that belong in an art gallery. His inflatable sculptures require many more bends and twists than typical balloon art, resulting in greater detail and realism. Check out his YouTube channel for tutorials.

The guys from How Ridiculous usually spend their time dropping things from a tower. This time around, they took their destructive tendencies indoors, where they overinflated a variety of balloons to the point of breaking. The explosions culminate with an absolutely massive balloon that stands more than 40 feet tall.

Teach your old books a new trick with these playful bookends that feature a duo of inflatable doggies showing off. The bubbly and joyful red pups are made from cast resin, while the angle structure is made from sheet metal for weight and stability. Each bookend measures 9.75″ L x 4.75″ W x 7.75″ H.

The guys from The King of Random teamed up with Todd Robins from Kuma Films to capture slow-motion video footage of what happens when you burst a bunch of balloons that have been inflated inside of each other. It took an 11,000 fps camera to really show off the split-second explosions.

Perhaps it’s some deep-seated childhood disappointment, but there’s something about the sound of balloons popping that sets us on edge. But that’s all you’re gonna get in this video from performance artist Jan Hakon Erichsen, as he uses a variety of knife rigs to shamelessly destroy a bunch of the party inflatables.

Moose Toys turned up at the 2020 New York Toy Fair with Squeakee, a robotic dog that looks just like a shiny balloon animal. It responds to basic commands and touch, and you can even “pop” it with a pin. While it’s certainly not as sophisticated as Sony’s Aibo, this toy is sure to be a big hit with its quirky character – and its $60 price tag.

Located in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, Angelo’s II restaurant likes to celebrate the holidays in an epic fashion. For Halloween 2019, they decorated the exterior of their building with an inflatable Stay-Puft marshmallow man emerging from the roof, and giant kraken tentacles bursting from its windows. Video by Mon Valley Drone.

The athletes of STORROR offer up one of the coolest parkour settings we’ve seen, as a team of acrobats run and jump among the rocky formations of Cappadocia, Turkey while numerous hot air balloons float in the distance and overhead. That bit in the ancient building was bonkers. Go behind the scenes of the journey here.

The Slow Mo Guys have a history of goofing around with giant water-filled balloons. This time out, Dan managed to squeeze himself inside one with a snorkel on, and Gav captured a view from inside using a waterproof probe lens. The footage isn’t the best they’ve shot, but it’s worth watching for the sheer ridiculousness.