The Gold Macy's Starflakes are a set of novelty balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
History with the Macy's Parade[]
Universal Orlando Set[]
The first set of Gold Starflakes made their Parade debut in November of 2017 at the press preview of the then-brand-new Universal's Holiday Parade Featuring Macy's. The starflakes would serve as the final balloons in the Parade, following closely behind Santa's Sleigh. These balloons use the updated Macy's Star design used since 2014-2015, and features a small "Macy's" in red, surrounded with many white snowflakes. The back of the balloon is the same, but has a large snowflake in place of the "Macy's" text.
Between November 14th 2020 and January 3rd 2021, a Gold Macy's Starflake balloon was on display at Universal's Holiday Experience Featuring Macy's Balloons, a walk-through attraction held in place of the Holiday Parade during the 2020 holiday season.
The two stars returned in the 2021 and 2022 Holiday Parade, following closely behind Santa.
Macy's Parade Set[]
Weeks later, a duplicate set of Starflakes would debut in the main Parade, serving the same purpose as their Universal brethren, as they followed Santa's Sleigh en route to 34th Street. In 2018, the starflakes were replaced by the Red "Believe" Stars and were moved to another point in the lineup.
In 2019, during overnight preparation, one of the Gold Starflakes ended up escaping from the staging area due to the strong winds, causing it to go flying across the street and burst after making contact with a nearby building. It was quickly deflated and removed from the line of march because of this mishap. As a result, the handlers of that balloon would help with the remaining Gold Starflake, and one of the Believe Stars. The balloons were retired after that year, and it's unknown if they will return.
One of the Gold Starflakes was used for a test flight in early October of 2020, alongside the Finn and Jake balloon, which was a test subject for the new handling method that was put in place for the giant balloons in response to the ongoing 2019-20 COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, due to its small size, the Gold Starflake continued to use the standard handling method of several dozen handlers, all equipped with face coverings.