For A Million Bucks, The Giant David Hasselhoff Model From ‘Spongebob’ Could Be Yours (Updated)
Fans of David Hasselhoff and/or obscene animation memorabilia, rejoice: “Big Dave,” a notorious 14-foot model of the Hoff, is up for auction, and it can be yours for only a million bucks (or possibly more).
Big Dave took his time to go public. He was built for 2004’s The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, a hybrid feature in which Hasselhoff has a cameo as himself. Lost on a beach, Spongebob and his friend Patrick Star hitch a ride on the Hoff’s back as he swims back to their home. Hence why the model is stretched out as if bodysurfing.
After the shoot wrapped, Hasselhoff claimed Big Dave after learning that nobody had any use for the thing. As he told GQ in 2011: “I’ve got it in my projection room. I don’t know what to do with it. It’s just sitting there, and it freaks the hell out of people. Eventually I’ll probably make a table out of it and put it in a restaurant somewhere.”
Instead, Hasselhoff decided to put it up for sale in 2014, as part of the Hollywood Legends auction at Julien’s Auctions. It was estimated to go for $20,000–$30,000 — a fraction of the $100,000 it cost to make (according to Hasselhoff). However, the actor withdrew the item from the auction with only days to go, reportedly changing his mind after seeing how much publicity it was getting. “He thinks so much of himself that he pulled it,” Julien’s Auctions president Darren C. Julien told The Hollywood Reporter.
Clearly, the Hoff has had another change of heart: Big Dave is back on the market as part of Diligent Auction Services’ The Hoff Auction, which contains 146 items from Hasselhoff’s personal collection. The model is currently tied with the KITT car from the series Knight Rider for the highest price at the auction: $975,000 (actually, $1.17 million when you include the 21% buyer’s premium charged by the auction house).
[UPDATE: Since the publication of this story, the auction house has retracted the $975,000 bid. The current top bid is $100,000. The estimate on the piece is $750K-$1.5 million.]
Hasselhoff has even taken to Twitter to endorse the sale. If he changed his mind again, it would be awkward, to say the least.
Big Dave from The SpongeBob SquarePants movie could be yours! The Hoff auction bidding is open now, go to https://t.co/i9vRAc2aeM#DavidHasselhoff #TheHoff #TheHoffAuction #LiveAuction #Bid #LiveAuctioneers #DiligentEstateSales #SpongeBob #Baywatch #MitchBuchannon #Lifeguard pic.twitter.com/VBZ25RpSnB
— David Hasselhoff (@DavidHasselhoff) January 4, 2021