DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Carlos Weber, holding his pet poodle, Odie, stands in front of an 11-foot-tall SpongeBob SquarePants he erected on his front yard in Lanikai to replace one that was stolen earlier this year. He said he will keep it up and add extras depending on the holiday.
SpongeBob’s back
and bigger than everNeighbors welcome back
the sculpture, rebuilt after
a smaller one was pilfered
SpongeBob is back. And he's six feet taller than his doomed brother, who was stolen in May from the front yard of a Lanikai home on Aalapapa Drive.
The huge sculpture, a likeness of popular Nickelodeon cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants, with pilgrim shoes and a toothy grin, went up late Halloween afternoon and drew more than 100 area kids and their parents.
"A lot of the kids were getting their picture taken with SpongeBob," said the sculptor, Carlos Weber, a 57-year-old surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. "They were glad to see SpongeBob back."
Down a couple of houses, a group of high- and intermediate-school students said they couldn't quite understand SpongeBob's purpose in Weber's yard. "It's the most irritating, ugly thing ever," said Mackenzie Doka with a laugh. "I think it's cool."
Weber's original SpongeBob, which stood about 6 feet tall, was stolen nearly seven months after the kooky cartoon creature had been erected. Police never found the thief, or thieves, but some of SpongeBob's limbs were later spotted in neighborhood trash bins.
About three weeks ago, Weber started planning SpongeBob's comeback "mostly cause I missed him because he was just so cute and good-natured ... and I felt ornery enough to want to bring it back once it was stolen."
He prepared his neighbors by hanging a banner over his carport that read, "I'll be back -- The Sponginator."
The new SpongeBob is made with many of the same materials as the old one. In all he cost Weber about $240.
SpongeBob's "sponging" is polyester batting spray-painted yellow; his huge round eyes are exercise balls cut in half; wood frames his square shape; his hands are made of bandages; and his shorts, mouth and tie are spray-painted X-ray film that was going to be thrown away at Weber's hospital.
SpongeBob's so big that Weber and some friends had to suspend him from cables between two palm trees. His predecessor was free-standing. SpongeBob's shoes, movie props that Weber's brother-in-law sent from Los Angeles, just barely touch the ground.
Weber jokingly said that he should invest in a security system for his yard art, even though "to take this one down, it would be a heck of a lot more difficult."
Still, he said, "I am a little bit worried" that something will happen to the new SpongeBob.
Weber and his wife started putting oversize sculptures in their yard a few years ago for Halloween. First, they had a scarecrow, then the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz" and Harry Potter from the popular children's book series.
Once the characters were up, they'd stay up for four to five months or more and don garb for the holidays. The first SpongeBob wore a Santa hat at Christmas, a yarmulke at Hanukkah and bunny ears for Easter.
When the character was stolen, Weber put up a huge sign that read, "SB (for SpongeBob) phone home," and built a pineapple shack, where SpongeBob lives in the cartoon, with a pathway leading up to it. Later, they invited neighbors to SpongeBob's funeral.
Ninth-grader Jackie Thomas was "really disappointed" when SpongeBob was stolen. When she saw the new one while out trick-or-treating, she thought "it was really cool to have him in our neighborhood."
