From factory shadows to fiesta fame, meet Ralph the Rozière! Every balloon has a story, but few rival the unexpected charm and journey of Ralph, a once forgotten Rozière balloon that’s now one of the favourites in our special shape collection and stealing the spotlight at the UK’s biggest ballooning events. Here’s the story of how this balloon was brought back to life and transformed into a crowd favourite with a bit of creativity and imagination. From overlooked to unforgettable, Ralph proves that even the simplest shapes can make a big impression.
On March 8, 2024, we shared a cryptic teaser with our followers: “NEW BALLOON ALERT! Just picked up something special… But, what could it be? It’s a rare one!” That mystery balloon turned out to be something truly extraordinary, an incredibly rare Rozière balloon, now part of the MJ Ballooning collection and co-owned with Liam from Bristol Balloon Collectors.
Let’s wind the clock back to a few weeks before we picked the balloon up. Me, Liam and Mark were at Cameron Balloons picking up one of my shapes one morning with Andy Booth. We were talking about old special shapes and sharing some stories of them, when Andy mentioned that they have a balloon which had been in the factory for many years that we might be interested in. I said yes, absolutely we’d be interested. Between mine and Liam’s collection we have more than 20 special shapes, five of mine still in airworthy condition, and Cameron’s trusted us to look after it, which was very kind of them.
We discovered which balloon this was over an email thread with me, Andy and registered owners of the balloon, RSA Films. It was a plain white Rozière balloon which none of us even knew existed. Okay, it wasn’t the most exciting looking, but it was extremely rare, and we knew it would still be popular. After a couple of weeks, once approval was given from RSA Films and ownership transferred over to us, we arranged collection from the factory.
Registered as G-BYNX, this balloon wasn’t just rare, it’s the only Rozière of its kind currently in the UK. Its arrival marked the ninth special shape in our collection at MJ Ballooning and would also be part of Bristol Balloon Collectors.
This Rozière was originally built in 1999 for a television commercial commissioned by RSA Films of London. The campaign was for “The Big Number Change,” a major update to the UK’s telephone numbering system at the time. To reflect the scale of this change, the ad was filmed in the breathtaking Namib Desert; the world’s oldest desert, known for its towering red sand dunes and rugged, otherworldly terrain. The balloon was designed as a plain white envelope, a clean slate to match the theme of a new beginning. It tethered for the purpose of the advert, but after that, it quietly disappeared from the spotlight until we stepped in to preserve it all these years later. 25 years later, to be precise.
As soon as we had it loaded into the trailer, we headed to western region launch site, the maize field, in Newton St Loe on the western edge of Bath, to have a look over the balloon. It looked in perfect condition with only 6 hours in the logbook and had never free flown. Due to the unique shape and dome on top, the Rozière operates using a rip panel deflation system instead of a parachute, with Velcro and two rip locks, which are tied in with thread.
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A couple of weeks after, with help from Kirstie, Mark and Jayden to give the balloon a bit of identity, the registration was added. Sticky letters were ordered from Zebedee and sewn on.
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The inaugural Bristol Balloon Collectors inflation day soon arrived in April, where we would reveal our newly acquired balloon to the world! G-BYNX appeared alongside many other old balloons that day and stole the show for many of the enthusiasts there to watch. Incredibly, this was its first ever inflation in front of members of the public. Two other hot air versions of this exact shape also exist, but in silver; the Breitling Orbiter 3 replicas.
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We were both pleased with the condition of the balloon and how it looked, but you have to ask, do people want to see Sonic and Thomas or a plain white balloon? You know the answer! The character shapes are the big attraction for events and always will be.
It was on 15th June that I made a comment to Liam during one of our chats that “we should put a face on it next” and “turn it into a character”. I wasn’t really being at all serious, but that sparked something in his head and soon after he sent me some initial designs of cartoon-like expressions that could be put onto the balloon. Maybe this could actually work?
Liam contacted Dave Groombridge of Cameron Balloons with some first draft design ideas, to which he replied they would get some figures and visuals for us the following week.
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We wanted to call it “[Name] the Rozière”, so went through a bunch of names beginning with the letter R and soon agreed on my suggestion of Ralph. Using a custom font website, I spent hours looking for a font that matched what I had in my head. I wanted this on the back, just above the Nomex, so that people looking at this side would realise it was a character on the front. This was a real team effort with Liam doing most of the primary work on the face with just a few tweaks and me doing the name on the back.
We both agreed we wanted a friendly face with a smile, but nothing too over the top or quirky. I mentioned about having different expressions front and back, but this would be too costly. I also didn’t want just a black line for the mouth as thought this would look a bit cheap, so favoured having some red and tongue showing like many other shapes. It didn’t take too long to come to an agreement with Cameron’s on the design for the face, but we still weren’t sure if we’d go ahead with it as were awaiting the final quote.
This isn’t the first time something like this had been considered, for example the onion and gas flame, which are both fairly non exciting and plain shapes, had been transformed into characters by simply adding a face, and giving it a name.
We decided to go ahead with the plans and got the newly named Ralph down to the factory for his makeover! It cost us both a lot of money but was something we really wanted to do. Some weeks later I got a call from the factory asking me to confirm we were happy with the artwork whilst led out on the factory floor alongside the epic Zozobra special shape. The lettering was especially tricky, and they also had to reposition the registration. The work was completed by the Monday of Bristol Balloon Fiesta week, where me and Mark went to collect it ahead of a very busy weekend ahead of us.
The balloon was entered into the fiesta and in the programme as the Rozière, as seen when we got it, but little did everyone know we had a big surprise planned for the opening day! Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do a secret inflation before the event, so its first time out the bag with the new artwork would be mine and Liam’s first time seeing it as well as the public. Liam was entered to take part in the Friday night glow and the winds were meant to drop a little beforehand, just enough to inflate Ralph and reveal all!
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It was an exciting evening, and we managed to inflate him for five minutes and glow him in the first night glow of the 2024 fiesta. We glowed beside the Z-210 raamwinkel balloon from the Netherlands and Ralph was much taller than even a balloon of this size! He likes to spin in the wind a little, so the team have to try and keep him under control.
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We have looked into getting him flying and had an inspection carried out earlier this year, however the balloon was never meant for free flight and was not built to an airworthy standard, so it’s unlikely this will ever happen.
Ralph went on to appear at Icons of the Sky at Longleat in 2024, and we treated local ballooning fans to an appearance on 18th May at Snake Meadows in Saltford. See if you can spot Ralph at the Midlands Air Festival and further upcoming events during the 2025 season!
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We must say a big thank you to RSA Films and Cameron Balloons for help with this project.
So, that wraps up our story of Ralph the Rozière. What started as a plain white envelope tucked away for over two decades has become one of the most charming balloons in our collection. He may not have the flash of Sonic or detail of Snow White, but with his friendly face and towering presence, Ralph has quickly won hearts wherever he appears.
He might not fly, but he’s definitely going places.
Until next time, thanks for reading - Matt
