Rare Spyro the Dragon Artifact Discovered at Oregon Gas Station

It’s been quite a while since Spyro the Dragon took center stage, but back in the original PlayStation era, this purple fire-breathing dragon was a key player alongside Crash Bandicoot, forming Sony’s iconic ‘90s mascot duo. While both franchises are now under Activision’s umbrella, echoes of their glory days still linger. Recently, a fan stumbled upon a piece of that history: a promotional statue of Spyro from the 2000 E3 event for Spyro: Year of the Dragon, found in an unexpected location—a gas station in St. Helens, Oregon.

In the vintage footage from 26 years ago, you can see the statue of a prowling Spyro, which was originally showcased at Sony’s E3 booth, keeping an eye on attendees as they explored Year of the Dragon. After the event, the statue was stored alongside a Crash Bandicoot statue in a warehouse in Forest Grove, Oregon, and later gifted to the building’s owner when Sony vacated. Eventually, The Arc Arcade in Astoria displayed the statue until it closed in 2017, after which it vanished—until a lifelong fan named Momoka discovered it in a video showing the statue in what looked like an abandoned gas station.

“I found out about this statue when my boyfriend sent me a reel saying, ‘Momoka, check this out!’ I was in the middle of playing Dark Souls III, so I was really confused. Nowadays, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s AI, you know? It bugged me enough that I paused my game to dig through the comments for clues. Luckily, someone mentioned the statue was in St. Helens. Since I live in Oregon, it’s only about a 45-minute drive, so I was all in.”

Momoka noted that the original poster of the video was tight-lipped about the statue’s location, but they had enough information to start their own search using Google Street View. Initially, they thought Spyro was left in an old supermarket, but none of the abandoned buildings matched that description. After some digging, they found a gas station that was “completely boarded up,” but the door looked like the one in the video. With a late-night sleuthing session that lasted until 5:30 a.m., Momoka discovered the building had changed ownership in 2021 and managed to track down two phone numbers.

“As soon as I woke up, I got ready for work and called the first number,” they recounted. “I just got a recording saying, ‘This number is no longer in service,’ and my heart sank. But as I drove to work, I decided to try the second number. I was terrified because you never know how someone will react. I mean, who calls out of the blue at 9 a.m. asking if they own a specific property and a purple dragon?”

When Momoka called the second number, they got lucky: it was the owner, who admitted he had “forgotten” about the property since buying it in 2021. He revealed that Spyro was still inside the gas station when he acquired the building and had left it untouched because he wasn’t sure what it was.

Momoka shared the statue’s history with the owner, who agreed to give it to them, impressed that someone had tracked it down after all these years. Although they couldn’t meet until Monday, May 18, Momoka visited the site beforehand and was shocked to find the statue was much larger than expected, measuring around 12 feet long.

“Panic started to set in,” they said. “I thought, ‘What am I going to do now?! I had no idea he was this big.’ But honestly, I didn’t care about the size; my mind immediately shifted to figuring out how to get him out of there. The longer I stared through that window, the bigger Spyro looked. I actually have a phobia of seeing giant figures in the dark, so seeing him inside that abandoned building was incredibly creepy.”

Despite the unsettling sight of the beloved PlayStation mascot trapped, Momoka felt even more determined to rescue him. They secured a flatbed truck and temporary storage for the statue before finally meeting the owner on Monday. When they arrived, the owner had already moved the statue outside and was ready for the handoff.

“The second we pulled up, I jumped out of the car and ran straight over to hug Spyro,” Momoka recalled. “I didn’t care that he was super dusty. I felt this instant connection, and it was amazing to finally touch him instead of just staring through that tiny door window. I walked around him to check him out from every angle, since I had no idea what condition his other side was in after being stuck for years.”

Overall, Momoka found Spyro to be in “incredibly good shape,” though they noted some faded paint, a cracked eye, and wings that needed replacing. While the owner was willing to give the statue away for free, Momoka insisted on compensating him. Looking ahead, they plan to restore the statue and eventually showcase it at a retro gaming convention in Portland, reaching out to fellow Spyro fans for assistance.

“I don’t have a timeline yet,” they said. “Right now, we’re just trying to find the right shade of purple for a fresh coat. There are some little white patches and areas that have faded over the years. I also want to replace his wings because one of them is almost my size, so they’re just too heavy. Plus, I’m not sure about the inside of the statue after all this time.”

It’s been over two decades since Insomniac and Sony released a Spyro game, and even though the series is now with Activision, it has remained relatively quiet in recent years. The 2018 Spyro Reignited Trilogy brought Insomniac’s classic games to modern platforms, but there was a significant gap before that, aside from the Skylanders series where Spyro played a supporting role. As of now, Spyro’s last video game appearance was in the 2023 Crash Team Rumble MOBA as a guest playable character.