Thursday, March 28, 2024

Gifts to the Community: Outdoor toy shop has been growing for 25+ years

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The larger-than-life sculptures by Miller Welding Services on West College Avenue came to be through the spirit of Christmas. Bob Miller and his employees got the idea for these sculptures about 25 years ago, with the concept that they were supposed to be Christmas presents. The first sculpture they made was the rocking horse in 1995. Around Christmas time, 10 minutes before closing, Miller and his employees came up with the idea.

Bob Miller (left) and his Miller Welding Services crew are considering what giant toy they’ll make next. (Photo by Darren Andrew Weimert)

Over the years, other sculptures started to pop up, including a jack-in-the-box, tricycle, helicopter, and the most recent one, the nutcracker. Miller says they aren’t hard to build, and it takes them three to four days to make a sculpture. The crew normally uses the material leftover from jobs to create them. Around Christmas, Miller puts lights on the sculptures to light up West College Avenue. He says he loves to bring his grandchildren to see them. People have come into his shop to ask him when he is going to put the lights up so their children can see them.

Miller says the rocking horse still rocks and the jack-in-the-box used to pop up when they first made it. One time someone offered to buy one of the sculptures, but Miller declined. People have asked to borrow the tricycle sculpture for contests and student films. Originally, the crew wanted to make a sculpture every year; however, they would often run out of time. Miller says there might be another sculpture soon, but they don’t have anything planned yet.