And its a big one, 1:1 scale Emperor penguin, no less.
This is custom made wooden 'silent server' tray holder. That is, a statue of a servant holding a tray. The detail on this one is amazing. From his feet to the little ice sheet as his stand. There are also metal reinforcements drilled into the beak to make sure it is sturdy.
For younger folk, it is probable that you don't know what a 'silent server' is, as these are no longer that popular. Especially the original antique ones often depict cartoonish caricature versions of 'small slave boys', which isn't exactly politically correct for 2020s. However, there are others based on tuxedo wearing servers.
The penguin is made by Tauno 'Tane' Kuusi. He has been a craftsman most of his life and can build pretty much anything, be it metal or wood. Last year he came into possession of parts for a classical tuxedo-wearing version of the silent server. After I saw that, wondered that a penguin version could work really well.
One thing led to another and Tane went and built the penguin version for me. I can't really put into words both how amazing it is in detail and how much I appreciate it.
HUGE thank you to Tane and Susanna!
The photo is taken from my 'developer cave', where this penguin holds my controllers. For this photo-op, I just had to also feature the one and only Funky Penguin to commemorate the 1000 penguin milestone. I couldn't resist posing him like I did with his debut in 2007.
Now, I also have point out how insane this is; 1000 penguins!
I've been doing this almost continuously from TAGAP's launch in 2007. I never expected to get to this point. Heck, even the architecture of this very website points to it, as I decided to use the "p###" naming format, thinking 'no way will I ever need more than 999'. Well, that one didn't age well.
I still have penguins to feature and new ones come in still every now and then. In fact, next week's entry will be a completely new one. That said, I doubt there will be another 1000 penguins and I will likely never reach another milestone as epic as this one!
