Whoa! Look what just washed ashore. No, it's not a zombie shark, it's an inflatable recreation of an extinct shark known as the Megalodon, or Sharkzilla as it was recently dubbed. Make no mistake, those are not braces, they're stainless steel jaws of death. This massive inflatable-mechanical beast was featured in front of a live audience for Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week event, which can be seen in the video below.
"I couldn't believe my eyes. A giant mechanical shark that could move its metal jaws and crush stuff with it? Haha. It was awesome." -Curious onlooker
We do not recommend sticking your head in for a closer look.
This ultra custom inflatable shark was an engineering challenge for special effects company Technifex, as well as Promotional Design Group. For this very special product, Technifex produced the hydraulic mechanical jaws, and PDG produced the fully digitally printed inflatable body and head. This prehistoric custom shark was engineered to be part inflatable and part machine. Cue up B-movie script! We're kidding. Maybe.
Digital printing on inflatable products is something we specialize in. As such, we were entrusted to create a spectacular inflatable design for this prehistoric beast of a shark. As with a lot of projects in the entertainment industry, a tight deadline was standard, and we did what we know how to do. Our inflatable design team worked almost 20 hours on a daily basis for 14 straight days to create this life-like prehistoric Megalodon shark. Our talented designers worked tirelessly on this time sensitive project to achieve maximum realism by creating a life-like skin surface appearance or "texture" by using the latest design and art programs available. The realistic shark skin could only be achieved after meticulous hours of creating art, piece by piece and template by template. Our designers' art is only as good as our printers though, which is why we made sure to use the best quality digital printers in the industry to print this giant inflatable shark. Our extensive printing department was able to print every pattern of shark skin in the highest detail possible. After the skin was printed it was coated with a special UV coating to prevent the artwork from fading. This will ensure years of use without fading or cracking.
After two short weeks of production, all the hard work finally paid off, and the end result was frightening. This giant inflatable shark was one scary looking beast! The Discovery Channel used this Sharkzilla inflatable for multiple programs during their annual Shark Week television event. In one instance, they used the hydraulic metal teeth to bite and crush beer kegs and pieces of wood, simply to illustrate the colossal strength of the prehistoric beast's bite. Sharkzilla was the first time PDG combined an inflatable product with a mechanical unit. Challenging projects bring out the best in PDG, so give us a call and see if we can make history together.
Custom project, built to last.
