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After sitting in an abandoned arcade for years, a one-of-a-kind Spyro statue dating all the way back to E3 2000 has just been located and rescued by a member of the game’s community, after a real-life treasure hunt.
The statue, which is estimated to be “12 feet long, 5 to 6 feet tall (including the horns), and 3.5 feet wide”, is believed to have been built out of fibreglass and was originally created for the E3 promotion of Spyro: Year of the Dragon.
However, due to unknown circumstances, ownership of the statue changed hands, and it was later displayed at the Arc Arcade in Astoria, Oregon, until the arcade's closure in 2018.
Ever since the arcade's closure, it wasn't exactly clear what had actually happened to the statue. But recently, a Spyro fan named Momoka (who goes by MomokaRage on Instagram and Twitter/X) was shown an Instagram reel by their boyfriend, revealing that the statue was now being housed in an abandoned building near where they lived, leading them to spring into action to save it.
Four days ago, on Reddit, Momoka shared a message with the r/Spyro community, letting them know about their plans. In this message, they said that the original poster on Instagram wouldn’t share the exact location, but they had since done some "digging" of their own and "tracked poor Spyro down to Saint Helens, Oregon." They told fans they had found the address and would be heading down to take a closer look, saying, "I promise you guys, I’m gonna rescue him.”
This was followed the next day by another update, in which they gave a brief update on the statue's condition, revealing that Spyro’s eyes are broken but that they believe they should be fixable, as they appear to be made of clear plastic. It was in this post that they also went on to share that they had agreed with the building’s current owner to pick up the statue on Monday, May 18th 2026, and also mentioned that the owner not only had no clue about what he was sitting on, but had even forgotten owning the property it was being housed in.
“The owner is an older guy, probably in his 80s,” Momoka wrote on Reddit. “He bought the building back in 2021, and Spyro was already chilling inside. He had no clue what to do with him, so he just left him there. When we talked this morning, he actually asked if I could take him off his hands and said it’d be a huge favour! The guy had completely forgotten he even owned the building. When I called to make sure I had the right person, I asked, ‘Do you own the property at this address?’ He said yes, so I asked if he knew about the statue inside. He goes, ‘Oh yeah, that purple lizard thing! He was there when I bought the place.'”
As of Monday, Momoka has now shared that they have successfully picked up the statue and plan to transport it to a friend’s storage unit, where they will repair its eyes and try to replace the wings. After that, they plan to keep it at their home and hope to eventually display the statue at local gaming conventions for others to see.
Given how common it is for gaming relics to simply disappear or be destroyed, it is encouraging to see an obscure piece of gaming history like this rescued from ruin, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for updates about the restoration process and where it ultimately ends up.
If you're curious, you can see some footage of the statue in its prime below, taken from the E3 2000 showfloor, where Year of the Dragon was shown to the press: