BOISE, Idaho — Christmas is behind us and New Year's is just around the corner, and Idaho's famous potato is getting ready to drop in front of the state capitol.
Inside a Stor-It self storage unit in an undisclosed location in the Treasure Valley, Idaho's New Year centerpiece is already standing by — the Glow-tato.
Stor-It has provided storage for the Idaho Potato Drop since the event's inception 13 years ago. What's inside this unit isn't the original potato.
WATCH: Neighborhood Reporter go inside the Idaho Potato Drop glow-tato
This is the second-generation Glow-tato — redesigned from the ground up, built to be brighter, stronger, and completely self-powered.
What started years ago as carved foam and house putty has been rebuilt using molds, fiberglass, and reinforced structure — designed to be hollow, lightweight, and strong enough to hang above downtown Boise. The previous potato was used as the mold for its predecessor.
"And we used that as an armature to create a mold. And once we built that potato, sprayed it with fiberglass resin, cut that in half, took it apart, hollowed it out, and we had a perfect negative of the potato that we built, texture and everything," Dylan Cline said.
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Cline is the CEO and founder of the Idaho Potato Drop.
This new year's potato comes to life with the lights out, ready for the "spec-tater" crowd.
For the first time, I got hands-on access — stepping inside the Glow-tato to see how it's controlled on New Year's Eve.
"Right now, your sliders, this is your main lights right there," Cline said.
As the event enters its 13th year, organizers say the potato may be familiar — but the celebration around it keeps evolving.
"The event has grown. I mean, every year the event evolves, and we try to add something new every year, whether it be the wings on the potato or a twist to the urban snow park series," Cline said.
Sixty yards of snow was trucked down from Bogus Basin to create this year's stunt ramp. The crew says that is half what they've used in the past.
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