Beach balls are fun, right? What if you had the chance to completely take over the beach and play with a GIGANTIC inflatable ball? You’d quickly become the focus of everyone’s attention, and everyone would totally want to play with you. Well, maybe that second part wouldn’t be true if you purchased the “Beach Behemoth Giant Inflatable 12-Foot Pole-to-Pole Beach Ball by Sol Coastal.” What probably seemed like a good time at first glance turned into a nightmare in technicolor. Think about it —the ball is twice the height of a tall man.
For starters, how does one even inflate such a thing? You’d definitely need to lug an industrial strength motorized pump with you to the beach. And where would you plug that in?
Twenty-six percent of the ball’s ratings on Amazon were 1-star reviews, and many of the complaints were about how easily it springs a leak. For one person, the toy sustained a hole after just sitting on a lawn for an hour. It’s definitely not made of heavy-duty material.
But here’s what some other people had to say:
Well, this thing is massive and can quickly get away from a bunch of middle and high school kids. Naturally it went towards the wall finding a fire extinguisher handle and now has a 3 inch hole in it. So I would say the seller’s description that this thing is tough and you can be rough with it is completely incorrect. – Kim K Hageman
Ok — so maybe a fire extinguisher was too much for the plastic. Surely, that was a fluke? Well…
Amazon
But, assuming your ball actually stays intact, there is something else very important to consider: Can you even handle such a giant ball? Amazon reviewer Troy Beaver pointed out that his party full of teenagers couldn’t see each other behind the ball, and everyone was getting run over by it.
Once it was completely blown up, (about an hour and a half with a small air compressor), it bounced….EVERYWHERE….across people, picnic tables, horse fence, the neighbor’s yard, and INTO A FOUR LANE HIGHWAY!!!!!!! My party goer teens were trying to keep it from causing a pile up in front of our house! We had to push the darn thing down into the woods to keep it from blowing (it was windy) back into the road!!!!
After Reid Hamlin and his family spent two hours inflating their ball, all hell broke loose:
We took this ball to the beach and after close to 2 hours to pump it up, we pushed it around for about 10 fun filled minutes. That was when the wind picked it up and sent it huddling [sic] down the beach at about 40 knots. It destroyed everything in its path. Children screamed in terror at the giant inflatable monster that crushed their sand castles. Grown men were knocked down trying to save their families. The faster we chased it, the faster it rolled. It was like it was mocking us. Eventually, we had to stop running after it because its path of injury and destruction was going to cost us a fortune in legal fees. 6 We lost it in South Carolina, so there is something to be said about its durability.
Reminiscent of anything, folks? Maybe we should stick to the standard size next time?
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