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It's time for snowmen! And snow women, and animals, and pop culture icons ...anything you can make out of snow. My daughter packed five-gallon buckets of snow to make a sort-of robot-shaped snowman this past weekend. Those who have more snow, more time, and a dose of imagination have made some startlingly wondrous creations. For this list, I avoided most professional snow sculptures, x-rated images, and offensive snowmen. What's left is a delightful roundup of winter creativity!
1. Super Heroes
Matthew Connor fashioned a Spider-Man snowman, plastered against a wall, of course! He also built a replica of Iron Man out of snow, inspired by his 5-year-old son who is a comic book fan. See pictures of both at Comics Alliance.
2. Snow Cats
Fans of Simon's Cat will certainly recognize this snow sculpture! It's part of a cat snow sculpture roundup that includes Longcat, Garfield, and others.
3. Snow Dino
This "Snowodon" stands out against the snow background thanks to sprayed-on color. Lupiloops built it for her child's birthday, along with a dinosaur-shaped cake.
4. Fire-breathing Snowman
Nick and Anna Berte of Bel Air, Maryland built a giant snowman and rigged it with a flamethrower inside! They had nothing to fear from snowman vandals last winter.
5. Snow Dalek
Doctor Who fan Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy Blog built this Dalek out of snow last year. See more views in the Flickr set.
6. Snow Mob
This crowd of snowmen gathered in 2008 for the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan. Sure, they are small, but there's strength in numbers! Image by Flickr user Christopher Chan.
7. Snomo-kun
When you make a Domo-kun out of snow, he becomes Snomo-kun! See a closer view here. Image by Flickr user Joel Carranza.
8. Master Chief
Some Halo fan built this Master Chief snowman in 2007 (or earlier) and then sometime afterward deleted his/her Facebook account.
9. Chillin' at the Park
From Sweden, where they really understand snow, here are three characters using a public park as if it were summer. Image by Flickr user Jimmy Fink.
10. Moomin
Moomins are characters from a series of Swedish books, well known in Europe and lovingly recreated here in snow, with orange peel eyes! Image by Flickr user poppet with a camera.
11. All Tied Up
A scene from Gulliver's Travels is recreated in this snow snow scene. Image by Flickr user mpburrows.
12. Snowman Party
Scott and Diane Miller of New Jersey took advantage of deep snow on their deck in 2003 to lighten the mood with a snowman party, complete with beer and poker!
13. Grieving Family
The most creative and subversive snowmen of all were those depicted in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin's snowmen didn't just stand there smiling. He made snow tableaux that told stories, usually of murder and mayhem that made us laugh anyway. Ever since they were first published, people have frozen their hands recreating them from real snow. This set is called The Grieving Family. See more such scenes in the Flickr pool Calvin & Hobbes in Real Life. Image by Flickr user Hyperleggera.
14. Suicidal Snowman
This suicidal snowman was inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes strip in which the punch line was his father saying, "You have to admit it's slowed down the traffic on our road." See quite a few more recreations of Calvin & Hobbes snowmen at Web Urbanist. And enjoy the comic strips they came from.
15. Bloody Mess
Update: These lovely snow people were inspired by animator Don Hertzfeldt.