Up, up and away!
Balloon Boy Halloween costume a hit for Saskatoon company
BY ERIK ROLFSEN, THE PROVINCE
BY ERIK ROLFSEN, THE PROVINCE
Kevin Hanchuk, employee at Plantraco Microflight, a remote control toy company is making and selling hundreds of Balloon Boy halloween costumes, October 21, 2009. (Photograph by: Gord Waldner, Saskatoon Star Phoenix)
A Saskatoon company that specializes in online sales of remote-control and model aircraft has created a Balloon Boy Halloween costume that's flying off their virtual shelves.
Bud Kays, managing director of Plantraco Microflight, came up with the idea in the aftermath of last week's news coverage of the infamous hoax in Colorado, when news outlets as big as CNN breathlessly followed a homemade helium balloon through the sky believing a six-year-old boy was trapped inside.
"I guess I kinda gotta take the blame [for the idea]," Kays said.
Plantraco has sold "dozens" since putting them up for sale on Tuesday, Kays said, and orders are coming in so fast that he's bringing all hands on deck to cope with the demand.
"I don't know where it's going to end up, but we may need to have a product-assembly bee over the weekend," he said.
The Plantraco website shows a young man with his head sticking out of a cardboard box that rests on his shoulders, carrying an inflated mylar balloon on a string. The marketing copy tells prospective customers that "you too can enjoy all the media attention you want with Plantraco's Balloon Boy Hoax Kit."
Plantraco has made actual flying airships and saucers for a number of years, Kays said, and he had a hunch while watching media coverage of the incident that the balloon was too light to carry six-year-old Falcon Heene.
That experience will be a big help in assembling the costumes, which go for $19.99. Plantraco regularly keeps thousands of of mylar bags in stock to make their products.
"It's right up our alley," Kays said.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Bud Kays, managing director of Plantraco Microflight, came up with the idea in the aftermath of last week's news coverage of the infamous hoax in Colorado, when news outlets as big as CNN breathlessly followed a homemade helium balloon through the sky believing a six-year-old boy was trapped inside.
"I guess I kinda gotta take the blame [for the idea]," Kays said.
Plantraco has sold "dozens" since putting them up for sale on Tuesday, Kays said, and orders are coming in so fast that he's bringing all hands on deck to cope with the demand.
"I don't know where it's going to end up, but we may need to have a product-assembly bee over the weekend," he said.
The Plantraco website shows a young man with his head sticking out of a cardboard box that rests on his shoulders, carrying an inflated mylar balloon on a string. The marketing copy tells prospective customers that "you too can enjoy all the media attention you want with Plantraco's Balloon Boy Hoax Kit."
Plantraco has made actual flying airships and saucers for a number of years, Kays said, and he had a hunch while watching media coverage of the incident that the balloon was too light to carry six-year-old Falcon Heene.
That experience will be a big help in assembling the costumes, which go for $19.99. Plantraco regularly keeps thousands of of mylar bags in stock to make their products.
"It's right up our alley," Kays said.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 1:06 PM
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