It was nearly a decade ago (Balloon Life, October, 1989) when a then, newly hired editor of this publication offered the following in his first editor's comments:
Imagination. If there is a single, common ingredient among balloonists it is surely our imagination. You see it in every phase of our sport, from our balloons to balloon pins, from customized uniforms to colorful chase vehicles and even in the names we give our loveable aircraft. Yet nowhere is this gift of imagination more noticeable than when it grabs hold of reality and takes form as a flying special shape balloon.
Once a venue reserved for the most expensive advertising campaigns, these fanciful balloons are an emerging facet of our sport. No longer restricted to those with deep pockets, or as my father used to say "more money than sense", more and more private individuals are letting their dreams and fantasies take shape in hot air. And as the demand for special shapes increases, so to does the competition to build them
That editor was this reporter and thus began this
publication's first Special Report on Special Shapes. Included were articles
on those considered the "big boys" of the shapes world of the
time Malcolm Forbes, Soukup & Thomas, Harold Warner and interviews with
original shapes brain trusts Per Lindstrand and Don Cameron. Even the ad
pages were filled with shapes news; T&C featured a new clown while Aerostar's
ad was titled "Shape of Success" featuring a variety of their
first special shapes.
Today the issue is no longer can we build it. In the years that have passed since that original report Fiesta's own Special Shapes Rodeo has grown from a handful of shapes to a hundred-fold. We've proven we can build it, now the question is, can we preserve it? A couple of first generation Lithuanians from West Bloomfield, Michigan, owners of the world's largest privately held special shapes collection, hope to do just that, with a new, purpose built museum
Like so many other balloon pilots, Linas Mastis' introduction to the sport was an accident. He was offered a balloon ride as a thank you for a magic show performed at a British hospital where he was studying for a medical degree. From that first ride it was only a short time before he and Raminta were married and bought their first balloon, Mastis Magic. Today, both are commercial pilots.
It was another accident, this
one much more serious, that shifted the Mastis' focus away from competition
ballooning and into the realm of special shapes. "In 1992 we went to
Saga (Japan) as fledgling competitors we wanted to see the world in ballooning
and thought the way to do that was to compete," says Linas. "While
I was flying, the big accident where the pilot above failed to yield to
the lower balloon happened right in front of me and I watched them streamer
in. I think it was right there that I lost interest in competing."
Still wanting to see the world the Mastis's decided to focus their efforts on special shapes. "We had always admired and fantasized about what Malcolm Forbes and Soukup-Thomas had created and brought into the sport, but with me being younger, and of a different financial strata than Forbes, it took a while before we could afford anything, much less a special shape," says Mastis.
Calling again on his magical background, Mastis did have a plan in mind. "We had always wanted to make Grand Illusion," says Raminta Mastis, "we had been working on it for five years and it was to be our pride and joy."
Indeed drawings and modeling (Claymation) for
Grand Illusion had been ongoing for more than five years. The balloon,
a rabbit emerging from a top hat, was a natural, given Linas' magical ties.
After all, a rabbit out of a hat is the classic magic trick. Who can't remember
the line from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show, "Hey Rocky, watch
me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"
But Grand Illusion was not to be the Mastis's first shape. Production delays (eventually three manufacturers would work on G.I. before it was debuted) and a chance encounter at Albuquerque would see to that.
"I was at Albuquerque and had not even made it onto the launch field when I saw this beautiful green balloon over the top of the tents, and I ran like a maniac just to see what it was," says Linas. Upon seeing the full balloon for the first time Linas reacted, "Wow, that's slick!" Slick, is exactly what, or who, it was; a funky green character complete with purple Mohawk hair built by Fantasy Balloons as a spoof to the Disney balloons Ear Force One (Mickey Mouse) and Donald Duck.
The Mastis's were struck by Slick's bright
green color and the hairdo, thus the following April, while contemplating
an invitation to the Forbes' Chateau de Balleroy International Balloon Meet,
where they were to debut the still behind schedule Grand Illusion, they
bought Slick. "In fact, I had sent a letter to Forbes explaining
that we would have to bow out as Grand Illusion would not be ready
on time and the only other shape we had was Slick," says Mastis.
"Fortunately Forbes wrote back saying they had invited us, not our
balloon, and we should come and bring whatever balloon we wished."
Grand Illusion would in fact make its debut at the Forbes meet two years later in 1995 but instead of being the Mastis's first shape; it proved to be their sixth! They had, in very short order, acquired Jumbo Jim, Magical Express, Magic Carrots, and the Flying Shoe. To be sure, there was a method to their madness.
"When we started with Slick we were afraid we were late entering into the shapes genre and that we had missed the peak for building shapes. Forbes already had a dozen shapes and there was Harold Warner in Canada and the Soukup-Thomas fleet," explains Mastis. "I knew that what I wanted was a museum quality collection, and Forbes already had a fleet of 12, so our quest became to acquire as many as possible before they disappeared. Our goal was to acquire the world's largest privately held collection of special shapes. I figured that if I had a number, at least more than 12, it would legitimize our claim to the world's largest collection."
Mastis' dream of a special shape collection crystallized
while Grand Illusion was under construction at the Cameron factory
in Bristol, England. "We spent a month or two in England," says
Mastis, "and I saw a lot of commercial and other shapes being repaired
or worse, just set aside. I was surprised at the short life so many of them
led, often built for a specific ad campaign then just put away. So I started
researching shapes, going through Cameron's files, reading books, and collecting
as much material on shapes as I could. I learned at that time that Cameron
alone had built more than 300 special shapes, most of which I had never
seen. I assumed that since I was a shapes fanatic and had seen so few of
them, a lot of people from the United States had never seen them. I decided
then to see how many of these shapes I could bring back to life and bring
to the United States."
What followed has been a lifetime game of playing Sherlock Holmes and sleuthing out those shapes that are most desirable for the Mastis collection. And just what qualities does a shape need to qualify for consideration by the Mastis's?
"We don't want product replicas or commercial type stuff - we want something that's cute and being attractive to kids is important," says Raminta Mastis. "The Pepsi can would not qualify," she says, "unless it was the first Pepsi can built," adds Linas. "Just like Slick was the first shape built by Fantasy Balloons, we'd like to have the first Cameron, the first Lindstrand, the first T&C shape, and so on," says Linas. Other shapes that might have some historical significance would also be considered, for example Slick, because he was built completely by hand without the aid of computers.
"My wife is a dentist so we try to look at
it like evaluating the smile factor," says Linas, "and we try
also to be certain it has not been seen in the United States if possible
and not overly used."
Of course half the game is learning of their very existence and then finding the balloons. This can take an extraordinary amount of time and effort, long before beginning the process of negotiating the sale. Take for example the S.S. Magic (the flying sailboat). Linas Mastis tells the story
"It was built to represent a Japanese conglomerate sponsoring a yacht in the America's Cup Challenge. It had been purchased through an advertising agency and had one weekend 4 hours of flight time on it before it was put away following some problem with its funding,
I found out such a shape existed by looking at
an old picture book from Saga. I proceeded to call the manufacturer, T&C,
who called the dealer that sold it and the translation that came back was
that the balloon was "sleeping" which they understood to mean
that the envelope was dead.
However, on a subsequent trip to Japan we went to the warehouse and found it stored high and dry on a pallet some 12 feet above the warehouse floor. In Japanese "sleeping" apparently meant only that it was idle, or dormant."
Of course other balloons (envelopes mostly, as Linas says he is interested in saving the unique architecture and construction methods involved in special shapes, not merely the collecting of equipment) were sought out for different reasons. Instead of buying Raminta a diamond of several carats for their wedding, they purchased a special shape bunch of 8 carrots. To celebrate the birth of their son in October they recently purchased the Clown, the same one shown in that T&C advertisement nearly ten years ago.
If the sleuthing work done to
find the desired envelopes is the fun part of their dream, surely the financing
required is not. "There were no deals, no fire sales, and none of these
envelopes were donated to us," says Mastis. "Some I even paid
more than their original selling price. Then there are attorney's fees,
travel, recertification, repairs, etc.
"Maintenance is another expense. We spend thousands of dollars in annuals, insurance, and storage and we even have a mini repair station and fabric on hand. Often we fly a Cameron inspector to our home to do the annuals and repairs because it's cheaper than shipping the envelopes overseas."
Along with the acquisition of so many special shape envelopes (at this writing the Mastis collection numbers 14 shapes, 5 conventional round balloons and a gas balloon, making 20 total) has come an entire library of books, photographs, construction models and drawings, even a closet full of apparel flight jackets, shirts, patches, pins and more.
With so many envelopes and so much material came the need for a place to house it all, thus ground was recently broken on a 5-acre site that is now the Mastis home in West Bloomfield ("We call it West Balloonfield," says Mastis) for what they hope will be the culmination of their dream, a special shape museum. The museum is being designed with the ultimate goal of how to best preserve, to prolong the life and to, when necessary, rebuild this assortment of unique and historical shapes. One of its more unique features will be a rotating rack system that will allow storage of the envelopes in a stretched out manner, with clean, dry air flowing through them. It is a system Mastis designed in an effort to combat the balloon envelope's number one enemy in storage, moisture. The idea for the system was developed after seeing how fire fighters hang and dry their hoses.
Still, this undertaking is a private and costly
venture. Linas and Raminta are quick to admit they do not travel in the
same financial circles as their idols, the Forbes'. "I work by the
hour for everything I do," he says. "We've given up a lot personally,
including ten years of living in a home," says Mastis. "Until
this year we lived in a one bedroom apartment and we've worked a lot of
double shifts to accomplish this," he adds.
So the final question must be why? What is the return for following one's passion?
"I really believe in the need to preserve the history of special shape ballooning for future generations," says Mastis. "And it is our further hope that after we have established the museum as a home for this unique form of flying, that others will wish to help with the preservation and will donate or sell us additional envelopes rather than letting them be destroyed or thrown away.
Some of that hope is coming true already for even though Mastis admits to having targeted some specific additions to the collection, he and Raminta now have begun to receive phone calls from shapes owners, asking if they would be interested in acquiring certain shapes.
In the final analysis there is no economic return to the huge investment made in acquiring these shapes. Instead the return is much more fervent. It is the joy the Mastis's feel every time they share one of their shapes with the public that is the ultimate return on their investment. "Think back," says Mastis, " to the first time you ever saw a balloon. If you can remember and feel that single moment, when the excitement, when the magic of the moment made you smile. That's the return we get, in every smile we see."
"There is no rhyme or reason for what we do really," says Raminta Mastis. "Some people collect beanie babies. We collect giant ones!"