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Bell Plastics Giant Man/Fireman

Hayward, California, United States
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Characters and mascots
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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026
This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.
A custom-made fiberglass firefighter figure about 14 feet tall, by Mark Cline of Virginia, that joined the collection of giant statues at Bell Plastics, a fabrication shop at 2020 National Avenue, Hayward, California, in March 2016.
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Bell Plastics Giant Man/Fireman
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 37.6493° N, 122.1260° W
FIELD GUIDE

The story

Bell Plastics, a custom plastics fabrication shop in a Hayward industrial park, is known for the fiberglass giants around its yard, and its firefighter is a commission rather than a rescue. Roadside America says the Fireman joined the shop's collection in March 2016 and calls the figure "a bit of a hybrid", custom-made, 14 feet tall and made by Mark Cline in Virginia. A tip on the same page says the shop's owner asked Cline to create the "highly customized firefighter" and that it was shipped from Virginia.
In August 2019, Roadtrippers listed "a fireman" among the shop's Muffler Men, alongside two Paul Bunyans, a cowboy and a Mortimer Snerd. The same article quoted the owner saying visitors are always welcome but "sometimes we're here, sometimes we're not". The shop's website, archived in December 2024, advertised an open house with giant statues and gave the address 2020 National Ave.
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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT
Visits are best made during business hours or at its open house; Roadtrippers (2019) quoted the owner saying 'sometimes we're here, sometimes we're not'. The shop's giant figures are described in sources from 2016 to 2019, so call ahead before travelling.
ACCESS
Bell Plastics, 2020 National Avenue, Hayward, is a working fabrication shop in an industrial park. Do not climb the fence when it is closed.
COMMUNITY

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Current
Cowboy statue (Bell Plastics)
Hayward, California
A fiberglass Cowboy "Muffler Man" figure, known to the collection's owner as "Cowboy Don," part of Bay Area fabricator Bruce Kennedy's large private collection of giant fiberglass advertising figures at Bell Plastics in Hayward. The collection -- profiled by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the largest private holdings of surviving Muffler Men, the roughly 20-foot fiberglass advertising giants produced chiefly by International Fiberglass of Venice, CA until that company closed in 1976 -- includes two Paul Bunyan figures, a Happy Half-Wit, a Uniroyal Girl, two Doggie Diner heads, a custom Fireman figure, a Santa Claus, several dinosaurs, and the Cowboy figure, alongside the collection's best-known piece, "Big Mike." Bell Plastics opens the collection to the public one day a year via a free open house.
Roadside giants
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2.8 km away
TRANSPARENCY

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