Welcome to Part 3, the final part of our special shape story at MJ Ballooning.
By the time Part 2 ended, my childhood dream of owning special shape balloons was no longer just a crazy idea, it had come true. As a kid standing on the field watching those incredible shapes rise into the sky, I never would have believed that one day I’d be the one owning them. Yet somehow, I had reached eight special shapes in the collection, including Snow White, Sonic the Hedgehog and Action Man; some of the most popular and recognisable character shapes ever built. After a gap of more than two years, Part 3 picks up the story and covers the final seven special shapes I’ve acquired since then, taking the collection to fifteen in total. This blog looks at how each of those balloons was added, and where things stand today.
Join me as I walk you through each balloon one by one, on the road to fifteen…
If you haven’t already, for this all to make sense and so you get the whole story, read Part 1 and Part 2 here.
So, just a recap. I wrote Part 2 in October 2023 after a busy season, about 6 weeks after we unveiled Action Man, and now we head into early 2024.
Ralph the Rozière
A once-forgotten Rozière balloon, Ralph began life not as a character towering over festival crowds, but as a plain white envelope tucked away at the Cameron Balloons factory. Built in 1999 for an RSA Films commercial marking “The Big Number Change” to the UK telephone numbering system, this Rozière had spent decades without fanfare, stored away with only six hours logged and never free flown before we stepped in.
The discovery came about on a routine visit to Cameron Balloons with my friend Liam from Bristol Balloon Collectors. Over kit loading out the back of the factory, Andy who worked there mentioned a unique balloon gathering dust that might be of interest. Though at first glance it was just a plain white Rozière, its rarity and history made it interesting. After coordinating with RSA Films, whose team kindly agreed to transfer ownership, we arranged to collect it and in March 2024, it became part of our growing special shape collection as G-BYNX, the only Rozière of its kind in the UK. A joint balloon with Bristol Balloon Collectors.
Once it was ours, we quickly realised that a plain balloon might not capture the imagination in the same way our other shapes do. Basically, it was a bit boring. During a conversation in June 2024 with Liam, thrown out almost as a joke, I suggested “we should put a face on it next and turn it into a character.” That offhand comment sparked something brilliant. Liam sketched initial character expressions, and with help from Cameron Balloons, we worked on artwork concepts together. After bouncing around a bunch of names beginning with “R,” we settled on Ralph the Rozière, a name I had suggested.
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The makeover wasn’t quick nor cheap. We took the balloon down to the Cameron factory for his transformation, finalised artwork, got the registration repositioned, and watched as his character came to life on the envelope. His debut was timed for Bristol Balloon Fiesta week, where his first inflation with the new artwork was a complete surprise, even to us! Ralph made his public debut in a static display and night glow on the opening Friday, beaming his new smile at the crowd. Since then, he’s appeared at many events across the UK and the famous Vredefeesten in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. What began as a forgotten balloon stuck in factory storage has become one of our most well-liked shapes.
J&B Whisky Bottle
Wind forward to July 2024 and the opportunity to reach 10 special shapes had arrived, in the form of a giant green whisky bottle. It’s the third of three J&B bottle special shapes, G-OJBW from 1997, commissioned as part of one of the largest commercial ballooning contracts ever seen throughout the 80s and 90s. The bottle is a little wider at the bottom than the previous versions and is still in airworthy condition.
Previous owner Matt and I reached a deal, and he kindly offered to drop the balloon down to me in Bristol. The next day we took it to local launch site Snake Meadows to participate in an inflation evening alongside Action Man and the Orange, where we also got the C of A renewed.
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If you ever have chance to see this balloon up close, take note of the hand painted artwork - it truly is a work of art.
Nivea Deodorant
Next up is a super rare one, which started an extremely busy next 12 months for me and saw the collection significantly increase in size. One morning whilst working from home in November 2024 I received a message from some friends in a messenger group chat. It was about a listing in a French Facebook group of an old balloon for sale, the Nivea roll-on deodorant F-GOUD. It had been in France its whole life since build at Cameron Balloons in 1999. I knew of its existence in France but wasn’t expecting it to come up for sale or be seen ever again. At first, I wasn’t particularly keen to take it on. But after the working day had finished, I revisited some old images and reminded myself just how rare the shape actually is. That’s when I decided it was worth having a proper conversation with the owner about the potential of bringing it over to the UK. Of course, we also had to carefully consider the shipping costs before taking anything further.
After a week or so once we were all happy with the shipping arrangements, the courier arrived at their unit in France to pick up the envelope. I had a phone call at around 10am that day saying that barely anyone was there and the people there were refusing to help lift the balloon into the van. A moment of panic! Not a lot I could do from Bristol, hundreds of miles away in a different country. In the end after being told in a French accent “it too ‘evvy”, we managed to persuade the staff to very kindly help, they safely got the balloon into the van, and it was on its way. A day or so later it was delivered. I opened the lockup, and we put the balloon in ready for the 2025 season. I think we put it on top of Snow White at the front! We decided we would keep this secret for a few months as I was also working on other additions at the time and was planning something big to start the year. It was difficult keeping such a rare and unexpected shape under wraps for so many months, but we managed it.
Nivea is owned jointly between myself and friend Chris, and even though we were sent an image of them doing some kind of grab test on the fabric (no idea as to what strength), we had no intention of flying it and was bought just for static displays. Good job as there was no export C of A! Some of the pilots that inflated it throughout 2025 think that it could still be airworthy, but unfortunately, it’s unlikely we’ll ever find out.
Even though we are lucky enough to have some of the great shapes in the collection like Sonic and Action Man, Nivea is the one I get asked about most of late with people wanting to know when we’re going to inflate it because it’s so rare. I am hoping to arrange Nivea to be inflated once or twice in 2026.
It’s a nice addition to the collection. I felt at the time that my only reliable tether shape that isn’t extremely heavy was Choc Dips, so it was good to have another smaller shape just for tethering. Even though, it isn’t small at all, but compared to something like Sonic, you know what I mean.
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Above are images of our first inflation of Nivea at Ashton Court on 2nd March 2025. Due to the balloon being sat in a warehouse for around 15 years before its journey to England, the envelope bag, let’s say, wasn’t looking its absolute best. So, we switched it into a spare bag I got hold of about a year before, which was the Churchill dog’s bag.
Miracle Man
We arrive at number 12 - this one wasn’t easy! Jesus, or as we call it, “the Miracle Man”, landing in my collection posed the biggest challenge of all the balloons, so let me tell you all about it. It all began with a conversation on a warm summer evening at Ashton Court in Bristol. I’d been aware of the legendary Jesus balloon for years; a massive, striking special shape that was a regular at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta from 1999 until 2007, but I never seriously imagined I’d ever have the chance to call it mine or even see it in person. That all changed in the summer of 2024 when Bryce Risley, visiting from Albuquerque to oversee the build of the Zozobra balloon, casually mentioned that this incredible balloon was sitting unused in storage back home.
Stored in a large plastic crate at Aerco, a balloon repair station in New Mexico, the envelope of the balloon had been gathering dust for over a decade with no planned future. Bryce reminded me what a true standout it was; not a simple add-on shape, but a striking figure with hands spanning some 20 feet. After some progress with the team at Aerco, they confirmed they were keen for it to leave the facility and wouldn’t charge for the balloon itself. At that point, with event schedules and the season in full swing, I decided to postpone any serious planning until the quieter months after balloon season.
Towards the end of the year, I revisited the idea, not just because people who knew the balloon spoke so highly of its detail and presence, but also because it reminded me of a conversation with the late photographer Ian Pillinger years earlier, when he’d called the Jesus on a cloud design “absolutely spectacular”, a shape he said was the best he’d ever seen (and he had seen everything). That memory stuck with me and made me realise this wasn’t just any balloon, it was one worth bringing into the collection.
By January 2025, with help from friends to sort the shipping, and the cooperation of Aerco, all the shipping paperwork was complete. The balloon began its three month journey across the ocean to the UK, arriving into Liverpool before being driven down to Bristol in early April. On 9th April at 10am it was finally delivered to me. I was very excited to say the least! A handful of us gathered that evening to unpack it and sort the flying wires, ready for its first inflation in almost 20 years.
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We had the perfect morning at Ashton Court on 12th April to inflate the balloon, for what I believe was the first hot inflation since around 2007. It was spectacular. Looking back to Part 2, when I bought my first balloon, Lips, it’s incredible to think that less than four years later we were welcoming one of the USA’s true greats of the special shape world into the collection, and well into double figures by that point.
Seeing his massive fingers and all those intricate little details slowly fill out with air felt properly mesmerising. As the cloud rounded out and his face took shape, it stopped being just fabric on the field and started to feel like a character again. It gave me that same slightly weird, wide-eyed feeling I had years ago watching special shapes at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta; that mix of disbelief and quiet magic when something enormous and unexpected comes to life right in front of you. We’d done it!
Read the full story here - "Miracle Man: How I Acquired the Iconic Jesus Hot Air Balloon"
Philips Light Bulb
Let’s rewind to Part 2 when I told you the story behind Sonic and how we brought him over from the USA. Well, Malcolm who sold us Sonic also had another special shape tucked away which not many people seemed to know about. The whole conversation about Sonic began sometime in 2022 / early 2023 while chatting about his other shape in storage - the Philips light bulb.
As much as I love Sonic and he’s our most popular balloon along with Slick, I had always been after Philips. Its design is unique, and it had not been properly seen for decades. By early 2025 we had been discussing the balloon on and off for years, and it seemed we were getting somewhere with new C of A paperwork completed and heavy duty wiring cut out of the envelope ready for shipping. Philips used to have a lighting system which lit up the bulb part for night glows, before the time of LED lights. Built in 1995 and registered G-BVWI, it is only an active 65 weighing 224kg meaning there is barely any spare lift and will be pilot solo on a morning if we ever free fly.
Read all about the Philips light bulb here - “An Enlightening Philips Balloon Experience”
Remember at this point I still have Nivea tucked away from November, and Miracle Man on the way over from the USA, so I was thinking of potentially unveiling our three new shapes within the space of a few weeks during April. This didn’t work out in the end as things went quiet on Philips for several months, until late July, when Chris and I finally agreed a price with Malcolm and arranged for the balloon to be delivered soon after. It was an exciting time and arrived with me on the lunchtime before the 2025 Bristol Balloon Fiesta. Upon delivery we switched it straight into the rental van for the fiesta; after informing the organisers we had an extra late entry.
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I posted this video the night before the fiesta across my @mjballooning channels, generating a real buzz for the event and our special shapes. Watch on Facebook: fb.watch/FR4t7s2fJ4/
Our amazing team managed a static display of Philips and Sonic side by side on Saturday morning of the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, reuniting them after many years.
Cornetto Ice Cream & Panasonic Battery
The next two are a two in one because we bought them together. At Telford Balloon Fiesta over the August bank holiday weekend in 2025 we helped Philip Howarth with inspections on both of his special shapes, the Cornetto ice cream and Panasonic Battery. Even though we’d had a busy year with three new additions, and I think the Philips CAA ownership transfer still in progress, I was keen to get closer to the magical fifteen. To be honest I only wanted the battery because of it being a reliable shape to fly, however we ended up agreeing on both as an excellent joint deal, and the Cornetto is a very nice addition.
The cornetto is type LBL Cornetto, registered G-OZOE, built in 1995 and has spent time previously in Germany and the Netherlands. The Panasonic Battery is G-OKCP from 1999, another Lindstrand build, as LBL Battery. Both are still in flyable condition and ready for 2026.
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As you can probably imagine, doing this as a hobby comes at a pretty serious cost, but I’m not complaining. Everything worth doing costs something, and this is something I’ve always wanted to be part of. Let’s just enjoy seeing these shapes together and appreciate that we still get to see them. There won’t be any new balloons joining the collection for the foreseeable future - but never say never. For now, we’ve got more than enough to keep us busy.
I must say a huge thank you to everyone in our team that helps me in making all this crazy stuff possible and our amazing pilots that fly my balloons.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Part 3. I had amazing feedback on the first two parts, and I hope you found this one just as enjoyable. As ever, if you see me at a balloon event or anywhere, please do say hello.
And there we are - the end of the road. Or should that be the beginning of the adventure? The collection now stands at fifteen special shape balloons, the result of a long journey that started with my fascination as a boy and gradually became reality with lots of time and hard work, while never quite losing that sense of magic.
Follow your passion, you never know what could happen.
Thanks for the support. And no, this story isn’t a dream, this is reality.
- Matt
