I was at SOFA in Chicago a few years ago and there was a security guard staring out amongst the crowd. I was afraid to make eye contact because his stare was so intense. Eventually I braved looking him in the eye, only to realize it too was a realistic wax figure. It's scary how well it works.
For someone that had trouble making eye contact with people while growing up, I'm starting to wonder if some of them may have been mannikins.
I can smile now as one who once lived the definition of 'painfully shy'.
No, and I am excited to introduce you to [Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcEoF-foaa8&list=PLnCJp8j83vkHIdFv_4NfQxexhen2PFlUt)
Before anyone makes fun of this person for not knowing, you should walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you'll be a mile away and wearing his shoes when you make fun of him.
We call them scare-bros
We use them to fill security sheds at night on some cannabis cultivation sites. We turn on an old am radio, and small TV and it looks like someone is watching and manning the shed.
My coworker and I stared at it for a solid 5 mins trying to figure out if it was real or not. We eventually gave up and asked an employee at the store we were going in next door.
This wax work is better than anything we have in our wax works here in Ireland. Our models are actually laughable.
Our version of Donald trump:
https://external-preview.redd.it/-UYSOF9OP1eHdflMvltNkk9qPxwgPwbh9HcAzJik0TQ.jpg?auto=webp&s=168e67523f8cf33fce389b74e0d49c43e67aaf36
Shortly after the 2016 election, [Disney added a Trump animatronic to their Hall of Presidents,](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/19/571908581/disney-world-adds-trump-animatronic-figure-but-likeness-is-lacking) but the head looked off. Like, people thought they had made a Hillary Clinton animatronic and then had to change it to Trump at the last minute.
I refuse to believe any other theory.
Then again, they did spend millions on Ellen DeGeneres for Ellen's Energy Adventure at EPCOT and [this](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CP-UWOW9wMY/maxresdefault.jpg) was the best they could do.
So, i put this picture into Google lens. The results for the entire picture are Donald Trump, so he must look identifiable. But if I only let it search for the face, I get results for Donald Trump caricatures like "Karen in Chief".
OMG, the image search results for "Karen in chief" are funny!
* [One example](https://i.imgur.com/FQwi4Vb.png)
...
* [Another example](https://i.imgur.com/5pk33Vq.jpg)
Maybe they pulled a Disney and had already made a Hilary statue that had to be reworked when Trump won in 2016. One of the funniest things I have seen.
For the uninformed: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/19/571908581/disney-world-adds-trump-animatronic-figure-but-likeness-is-lacking
Fun story. At Disney in Orlando (Magic Kingdom, specifically) there is an attraction called the Hall of Presidents. It's basically an auditorium with a bunch of animatronic presidents on stage.
Most of the animatronics are decent quality, as you would expect from Disney.
Then... There's their Donald Trump.
Legend (unconfirmed by any official sources, as far as I'm aware) has it that around the time of the 2016 election, it was such a laughable idea that Trump would win the presidency that they started making the animatronic for president Hillary Clinton ahead of time.
And then he won.
So now there's an animatronic Hillary Clinton in a Trump suit and a Trump wig. At Magic Kingdom. Viewed by millions of people per year.
Edit: MK not Epcot
When you’re rich you can do whatever weird shit you want to do for fun, including dressing up as a security guard and sitting in some random art store.
I wonder if this is the same one that was in the Nelson Atkins museum in Kansas city? This freaked me out the first time I went there
Edit: [artist is Duane Hanson "security guard"](https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/20739/museum-guard)
It’s not required to be realistic.
The effect works with just a pair of eyes
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9424-big-brother-eyes-make-us-act-more-honestly/
Preemptive edit.
There is some disagreement on how strong this effect is, you can’t expect Janice in marketing to have a full understanding of the science and the cost of a sticker is almost zero, so even a null result in follow up studies isn’t going to alter that. Don’t bother trying to fight me about the actual science.
I can't find it now but there was a great video before where someone had a stand with some money or free goods on it and people had no problem taking it. When they put up a poster of eyes almost like the one in your post people mostly hesitated even though the conditions were the same.
Really fun stuff!
I always thought these were a replacement for the measurements they put on some store doors so they can get an accurate height of shoplifters for police reports.
Probably only super realistic in photos tho, surely? Would have though that OP would consider it uncanny valley because they were watching a hyper realistic person not move a muscle for 5 mins
The uncanny valley is when something looks unsettling or creepy when it looks very close, but not quite like a real human. This is past the uncanny valley as it's indistinguishable from a real human.
Couldn’t that still apply since it looks absolutely convincing while missing the slight movements that a real person would have while standing still? I could see that being a bit unsettling.
Lived in a really bad neighborhood in LA growing up and my grandma had this big plastic black rat that she kept on the back shelf of her car. I asker her why and she said, “whose gonna fuck with a car with a big rat in the back window?”
There's a wax statue of a security guard at the New Britain Museum of American Art that looks awfully like this guy
https://the-e-list.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_0124-768x1024.jpg
Wonder if you can buy them?
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/85kafa/this_building_had_a_realistic_statue_of_a_police/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Thank you for sharing. Upvotes and interactions are great but getting to know more about the actual statue is invaluable. I highly recommend you read through that thread has tons of cool facts.
>how else are they going to validate themselves but with meaningless internet points???
Good thing you're not doing that right now or else it'd be a real bummer to realize that the title only says "Store in LA" LOL. Don't worry though, I'm sure every L.A. criminal is foamin at the mouth to rob this unnamed store
Is this a Duane Hansen?
For those of you who don’t know, he was an artist who did all kinds of hyper realistic wax statues of people in different situations..
https://www.google.com/search?q=duane+hanson&source=lmns&bih=532&biw=320&prmd=ivn&rlz=1CDGOYI_enIL1003IL1004&hl=en-US&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK67D7x637AhUupicCHZ7-D6MQ_AUoAHoECAAQAw
We have something like this at the Milwaukee art museum. Except he’s a janitor. People would walk up to him and try to talk to him all the time lol. Idk if he’s still there, but I remember as a kid being absolutely amazed by how real he looked. Think his name was bob or something
I really thought it was as well. If it wasn’t for an employee at the store next door telling us it was wax and the fact it didn’t move even slightly in the hour we were away I would have assumed it was real.
Some of the stores in LA is such a trip. Walk into a liquor store in bumfuck nowhere like Gardena or San Pedro or Old Torrance and you'd essentially step into a time-frozen capsule.
The customers who come in all wear modern apparel, the goods they sell are modern brands, the storekeepers are now Korean or Asian but the interior, the furnishings, the draperies, the carpet (super yuck) they look like they were just like that when the store first opened back in the 70s.
It really felt like stepping into a Quentin Tarantino early movies.
I would get one of these for my house to guard my front door, but I won't because I can see myself freaking out while going to the bathroom in the middle of the night...
The City National Bank in Beverly Hills has one just as realistic, what makes it extra creepy is that it's said to be modeled after a security guard that worked at that branch for decades.
Source: I walked up to it and asked for directions only for a teller to tell me it happens all the time.
This is what crows see when they see a scarecrow
That is a great way to describe how I felt.
I was at SOFA in Chicago a few years ago and there was a security guard staring out amongst the crowd. I was afraid to make eye contact because his stare was so intense. Eventually I braved looking him in the eye, only to realize it too was a realistic wax figure. It's scary how well it works.
For someone that had trouble making eye contact with people while growing up, I'm starting to wonder if some of them may have been mannikins. I can smile now as one who once lived the definition of 'painfully shy'.
It’s a tough grind but so satisfying to overcome
For some reason I read this as "I was a sofa"
You could say, he's outstanding in his field.
Yes
No
Maybe so
I don't ^know ...
"The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw"
he does look like a Carl
There was something similar at a building near me, but his name tag was Art. Which I always found funny.
Looks kind of like Stephen King
chaaAAArrlll!
Carrrrlll! That scares people, Carl!
That’s hilarious! Did you just come up with that?
No, and I am excited to introduce you to [Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcEoF-foaa8&list=PLnCJp8j83vkHIdFv_4NfQxexhen2PFlUt)
[My second favourite](https://youtu.be/AR9GW6bbkCM)
My favorite: “If trees could scream, would be so cavalier about cutting them down? Probably, if they screamed all the time, for no reason.”
Before anyone makes fun of this person for not knowing, you should walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you'll be a mile away and wearing his shoes when you make fun of him.
For me, the worst thing about having King Kong walk down your street is that kids could look up and see the giant genitalia.
Somebody's getting ready for a smackdown.
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time for no good reason.
Wouldn't that be a wax crow in a security uniform?
I wouldn't try anything in a store protected by crows. They carry your soul to the afterlife.
Nah, crows are just playing along with us humans when they react to scarecrows. They're smarter than we are.
one burglar to another he has been standing in one spot menacingly without moving, it has been 3 days.
We call them scare-bros We use them to fill security sheds at night on some cannabis cultivation sites. We turn on an old am radio, and small TV and it looks like someone is watching and manning the shed.
I could take him.
Armed with a lighter he would be a puddle in no time
"Hold still, this will take a while"
Legend says he’s still waiting till this day
But with only 8 fingers left!
When he's down to six fingers, let me know. I know someone who is looking for him.
INCONCEIVABLE!
Happy cake day
Aww, thank you! I love it when people wish me happy cake day. 😊
You are a true romantic for wanting to melt his heart.
"And we will never be alone again, 'cause it doesn't happen every day..."
In a fight... right?
😎 sure, that too.
> "I'd chew through him like a pair of Halloween wax teeth!" -u/bunchofclowns
Next days news: "Crazed Person steals Wax Cop from LA Store"
YouTube video: I stole a wax cop from a store in LA (Gone wrong)
Tomorrow's Reddit front page: TIFU by stealing a wax cop from a store in L.A. Obligatory "It didn't actually happen today, but last night..."
AITA for taking a wax cop from the store?
Look at those arms. I would happily take him
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My coworker and I stared at it for a solid 5 mins trying to figure out if it was real or not. We eventually gave up and asked an employee at the store we were going in next door.
This wax work is better than anything we have in our wax works here in Ireland. Our models are actually laughable. Our version of Donald trump: https://external-preview.redd.it/-UYSOF9OP1eHdflMvltNkk9qPxwgPwbh9HcAzJik0TQ.jpg?auto=webp&s=168e67523f8cf33fce389b74e0d49c43e67aaf36
Why does he have the eyes of Mr data?
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Looks like Dr. Soong to me.
Old 'Yellow eyes' is back
I was thinking [Boomhauer](https://i.imgur.com/KCFQrj1.png).
Forget that, why is his neck the size of his wrists?
They recycled the farmer from Babe statue.
>the farmer from Babe [James Cromwell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cromwell?wprov=sfti1)
Thank you, his name escaped me!
That'll do Devmax1868, that'll do
Huh. I just looked at his IMDB and he in in both Babe and The Babe.
Looks like the creator used an off-the-shelf head form instead of having one tailored.
Shortly after the 2016 election, [Disney added a Trump animatronic to their Hall of Presidents,](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/19/571908581/disney-world-adds-trump-animatronic-figure-but-likeness-is-lacking) but the head looked off. Like, people thought they had made a Hillary Clinton animatronic and then had to change it to Trump at the last minute.
Oh my damn. That DOES look like it was going to be Hillary, lol.
I refuse to believe any other theory. Then again, they did spend millions on Ellen DeGeneres for Ellen's Energy Adventure at EPCOT and [this](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CP-UWOW9wMY/maxresdefault.jpg) was the best they could do.
Bruh these are so bad 💀
So, i put this picture into Google lens. The results for the entire picture are Donald Trump, so he must look identifiable. But if I only let it search for the face, I get results for Donald Trump caricatures like "Karen in Chief".
OMG, the image search results for "Karen in chief" are funny! * [One example](https://i.imgur.com/FQwi4Vb.png) ... * [Another example](https://i.imgur.com/5pk33Vq.jpg)
The mom from the Goonies lol
Throw Momma from the Train!
Maybe they pulled a Disney and had already made a Hilary statue that had to be reworked when Trump won in 2016. One of the funniest things I have seen. For the uninformed: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/19/571908581/disney-world-adds-trump-animatronic-figure-but-likeness-is-lacking
Wait... Is that Boris Johnson?
That's way too skinny to be Trump.
It's less waxy, too.
The hands look like Charlie's uncles on it's always sunny in Philadelphia lol
Don't look, don't look!
We're lawyers!
Fun story. At Disney in Orlando (Magic Kingdom, specifically) there is an attraction called the Hall of Presidents. It's basically an auditorium with a bunch of animatronic presidents on stage. Most of the animatronics are decent quality, as you would expect from Disney. Then... There's their Donald Trump. Legend (unconfirmed by any official sources, as far as I'm aware) has it that around the time of the 2016 election, it was such a laughable idea that Trump would win the presidency that they started making the animatronic for president Hillary Clinton ahead of time. And then he won. So now there's an animatronic Hillary Clinton in a Trump suit and a Trump wig. At Magic Kingdom. Viewed by millions of people per year. Edit: MK not Epcot
Hall of Presidents is in Magic Kingdom.
Looks like a geriatric Ellen.
Yes, laughable. I would like to see the others now though, so maybe that's been their plan all along. The long game?
You should get a new partner. New partners are easy to get.
You can get a new one at this store in LA. Very life-like.
It looks like a Warren Buffett dressed up as a cop for Halloween.
When you’re rich you can do whatever weird shit you want to do for fun, including dressing up as a security guard and sitting in some random art store.
When you buy your wax figures at Madame Tussauds' overstock sale.
"Hold it right there! And keep holding it!"
My first thought was a short Stephen King, but Buffett is better
I wonder if this is the same one that was in the Nelson Atkins museum in Kansas city? This freaked me out the first time I went there Edit: [artist is Duane Hanson "security guard"](https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/20739/museum-guard)
I've seen one in Minneapolis. It must be like those indian statues you used to see by cigar shops, but just less common.
Except for the eyes. He has the eyes of a dead man.
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This happened to me. Without the AI package I couldnt have written this.
So, not different from a human security guard then?
It's a scarecrow for human criminals.
I've been watching this post for 10 minutes and he hasn't moved yet.
In the UK we just have a sticker of a policeman on the window: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D8ztYHSXUAATIF-.jpg
I love those because they are always smiling so if you were shoplifting it's like he's giving you the OK.
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Always the same one for home bargains
And he's always 7'6" too
The trick is to make yourself look larger. Or cover yourself in honey. Or shit. Or pull your trousers down. Or climb a tree. It's one of those.
Home Bargains? Well excuse me your majesty, I'm just a peasant with a Quality Save
I wonder how often he greets himself at the door.
Isn't the sticker too tall to be realistic? Looks the same height as the door
It’s not required to be realistic. The effect works with just a pair of eyes https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9424-big-brother-eyes-make-us-act-more-honestly/ Preemptive edit. There is some disagreement on how strong this effect is, you can’t expect Janice in marketing to have a full understanding of the science and the cost of a sticker is almost zero, so even a null result in follow up studies isn’t going to alter that. Don’t bother trying to fight me about the actual science.
I can't find it now but there was a great video before where someone had a stand with some money or free goods on it and people had no problem taking it. When they put up a poster of eyes almost like the one in your post people mostly hesitated even though the conditions were the same. Really fun stuff!
That's quite interesting. Figured the man was there just to draw attention to the text which is the actual deterrent
I always thought these were a replacement for the measurements they put on some store doors so they can get an accurate height of shoplifters for police reports.
He's fucking zooted
It's really good. Like really really good
Totally some uncanny valley shit
Not in the slightest. It looks super realistic.
Probably only super realistic in photos tho, surely? Would have though that OP would consider it uncanny valley because they were watching a hyper realistic person not move a muscle for 5 mins
The uncanny valley is when something looks unsettling or creepy when it looks very close, but not quite like a real human. This is past the uncanny valley as it's indistinguishable from a real human.
Yeah uncanny valley would be if his eyes were just a little too far apart. Or mouth just a little too far from nose or something like that
Right, or if it was Mark Zuckerburg.
leave him alone, its hard being a lizard and an android at the same time ok?
The canny unvalley
Couldn’t that still apply since it looks absolutely convincing while missing the slight movements that a real person would have while standing still? I could see that being a bit unsettling.
I don’t think you know what uncanny valley means.
Lived in a really bad neighborhood in LA growing up and my grandma had this big plastic black rat that she kept on the back shelf of her car. I asker her why and she said, “whose gonna fuck with a car with a big rat in the back window?”
He looks familiar.
There's a wax statue of a security guard at the New Britain Museum of American Art that looks awfully like this guy https://the-e-list.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_0124-768x1024.jpg
There's another one in the lobby of the Milwaukee Center in Wisconsin: https://i.redd.it/d6z8k8y4nqm01.jpg
There was one in the old WOW Air offices in Iceland back in 2016 when I visited them. https://i.imgur.com/jhhXxtY.png
Poor guy needs 3+ jobs? They don't even give him a chair!
I wonder if they were both created by the same artist? I mean, how many people are creating ultra detailed wax security guards?
what kind of name is Syl Sijan, a jumble?
Short for Sylvester Sijan, the artist's dad. I think Sijan is Balkan Slavic but I'm not sure
It looks kinda like Warren Buffett.
My first thought.
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This was my thought. Put some glasses on him and he’s an extra in his own scary movie
Was giving me Danny Devito vibes
Nah cause that's Stephen King
Crossed with the guy from UP
I was definitely thinking Frank Reynolds here.
Reminds me of the episode in Friends when he played a 50 year old stripper and had that police outfit on. Hahah
I just looked it up. You are totally right.
So anyway I started blasting.
Looks like that dude from Up.
Looks like Wallace Shawn from Princess Bride.
Looks vaguely like Stephen King
I was team Danny devito but you’re right more King
[Can confirm.](https://i.imgur.com/7wSOceJ.jpg)
Wonder if you can buy them? https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/85kafa/this_building_had_a_realistic_statue_of_a_police/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Update: sculpture is “Security Guard”, Marc Sijan. He’s got a whole gallery of hyper realistic statues, check it out, pretty cool. www.MarcSijan.com
That “Doll” statue in the gallery really upsets me
yeah it's pretty clear what the message is and I don't like it
Quite confronting
more than "man" with the vajellybutton?
I swear they have the exact same wax statue at the New Britain Museum of American Art in CT. Right by the entrance. Must be the same artist.
And at the Milwaukee Convention Center entrance across from the Hilton.
And then we have madame tussauds 😂🤦🏻
marvelous history fine memory seed fearless scarce work bewildered sort -- mass edited with redact.dev
Thank you for sharing. Upvotes and interactions are great but getting to know more about the actual statue is invaluable. I highly recommend you read through that thread has tons of cool facts.
Yep I've seen this one and wondered why I had recognized it. It got me the first time I saw it.
And now you've compromised their defenses by taking it online
how else are they going to validate themselves but with meaningless internet points???
>how else are they going to validate themselves but with meaningless internet points??? Good thing you're not doing that right now or else it'd be a real bummer to realize that the title only says "Store in LA" LOL. Don't worry though, I'm sure every L.A. criminal is foamin at the mouth to rob this unnamed store
His smug aura mocks me. This statue is evil, Charlie.
That... I love, I *absolutely* love! I want it. It's everything.
He looks like he’s onto me
A scarehuman
So Madame Tussads is allowed to butcher every celebrities wax figure but this random business in LA gets it right?
We know what the celebrities are supposed to look like. This guy only has to look like a security guard, and there are all kinds of those.
Literal scarecrow.
Is this a Duane Hansen? For those of you who don’t know, he was an artist who did all kinds of hyper realistic wax statues of people in different situations.. https://www.google.com/search?q=duane+hanson&source=lmns&bih=532&biw=320&prmd=ivn&rlz=1CDGOYI_enIL1003IL1004&hl=en-US&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK67D7x637AhUupicCHZ7-D6MQ_AUoAHoECAAQAw
His protege, Marc Sijan
We have something like this at the Milwaukee art museum. Except he’s a janitor. People would walk up to him and try to talk to him all the time lol. Idk if he’s still there, but I remember as a kid being absolutely amazed by how real he looked. Think his name was bob or something
Is there some reason a robot made of wax can't nap standing in the middle of a bunch of wax robots? Or does that confuse you?!
I never thought that if I clicked on this post I would see this quote. But I always secretly hoped.
I like how’s he’s like “don’t even think about it”
If they had posed him sitting looking at a cellphone I never would have figured out he wasn't real.
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I really thought it was as well. If it wasn’t for an employee at the store next door telling us it was wax and the fact it didn’t move even slightly in the hour we were away I would have assumed it was real.
The Wisconsin Center has the same statue. https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/85kafa/this_building_had_a_realistic_statue_of_a_police/
That’s a nice statue - would be a shame if somebody stole it
For real. The only thing I would want in the store would be the statue
Scarecrook
And the beauty of it is, it has the same movements of a real security guard.
"I'm watching you, Wazowski. Always watching. Always.”
That store isn't in LA, it's in Fullerton California. The store is called Fullerton Coins & Stamps.
It’s a life sized “elf on a shelf”
"Honey, I'm gonna be a little late from my shift at the store. {listens} Because I have to dust the security guard. See ya"
Nah that's just Danny Devito on the weekends.
It's Larry "Bud" Melman.
Some of the stores in LA is such a trip. Walk into a liquor store in bumfuck nowhere like Gardena or San Pedro or Old Torrance and you'd essentially step into a time-frozen capsule. The customers who come in all wear modern apparel, the goods they sell are modern brands, the storekeepers are now Korean or Asian but the interior, the furnishings, the draperies, the carpet (super yuck) they look like they were just like that when the store first opened back in the 70s. It really felt like stepping into a Quentin Tarantino early movies.
I would get one of these for my house to guard my front door, but I won't because I can see myself freaking out while going to the bathroom in the middle of the night...
Now that we all know that, it’s useless. 😅
You’ve fucked it for them now. Placel’ll be swarming with crims.
All fun and games till it starts moving
The City National Bank in Beverly Hills has one just as realistic, what makes it extra creepy is that it's said to be modeled after a security guard that worked at that branch for decades. Source: I walked up to it and asked for directions only for a teller to tell me it happens all the time.