December 12 was was a sad day in the muffler man world. One of 4 known Big Friends was taken down that morning after standing on top of a sign pole for about 20 years or so. He was known as the Valley Home Giant and stood at Valley Homes along highway 160 in Pahrump, NV. He had been repainted since his Texaco days but was still recognizable as one of the very rare Big Friends. Before coming to Pahrump in the early 90’s he stood on the Boulder Highway in Las Vegas. Originally he most likely stood at a Texaco gas station in Vegas. I’ll let the video tell the story of why he was taken down, it is both sad and unfortunate. There are at least a half dozen museums I know of that would have loved to have had him in their collection for visitors to enjoy. I have always hoped one of these guys would be restored back to Texaco colors and thankfully that is still a possibility for the Pahrump Big Friend. After he was taken down the locals including the TV station and newspaper became aware of his value and history from all the inquiries they received about him. This possibly prompted the Pahrump Valley Times to write an article on his disappearance and they were able to find out what happened to him after he was hauled off. Although some may not have realized his value thankfully the guys at the landfill figured there was more to this guy then a pile of junk. He was broken up a bit in the dismantling and shipping to the landfill so they took him in pieces and he is currently in storage. It is hard to say what will become of him although there has been some talk about possibly putting him up at the dump. I can think of a few better places for a Big Friend to stand then the local dump but am very thankful the guys there rescued him from the machines.