Child Destroys Lego Structure

[Mesabi]

So apparently some poor guy in China had his Statue destroyed by a loose kid.

http://kotaku.com/ma...dest-1779799397

Edited June 2, 2016 by Mesabi

[kibosh]

I'm not convinced this wasn't a publicity stunt. Look at the wreckage. That thing disintegrated. I would expect a lot more larger pieces to have survived. And it's getting the artist and the show a lot of publicity.

[dr_spock]

There is a reason LEGOLAND glue their public models. Rope barriers are ineffective as any LUG thst does public events would know.

[zux]

We had an event having kids assembling huge LEGO Yoda minifigure (2m tall, ~6 feet). This came from TLG with proper instructions to follow. There were couple of features making it possible:

1. heavy base

2. core structure made of few metal beams

3. bricks were placed on glued bases and the whole model was assembled in layers (glued base - bricks - glued base -...)

If the structure shown on picture was free standing without any mentioned features it would better have some army forces protecting it from being touched. I don't see this as a kid's problem.

Edit: TLG reference added.

Edited June 2, 2016 by zux

[Modelmaker]

Reminds me of what I've always told my nieces and nephews after they break some of my lego MOCs. "Don't panic, it's only lego, it's meant to get broken."

If the MOC was that special to me I'll just rebuild, I've built it once before i can build it again.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Modelmaker

[BrickJagger]

I'm not convinced this wasn't a publicity stunt. Look at the wreckage. That thing disintegrated. I would expect a lot more larger pieces to have survived. And it's getting the artist and the show a lot of publicity.

Looks real to me. Judging from the photos of the building process, the creation itself wasn't particularly strong, sometimes simply tipping a model like that over will send it spilling all over the floor.

Also, his response makes it seem like some kid was taking a picture with it and accidentally bumped into it, or something like that.

[AFOLguy1970]

Definitely a builder's worst nightmare. If I built something as large as that, there would be glue or something reinforcing the structure. If it was hollow, I can see how it could have shattered like it did. My 7 year old once ran into a MOC building of mine, and was fairly torn up. He was running around and acting very hyper when the accident happened.

As for this particular incident, I saw the Yahoo article. Of course in the comments, the consensus seems to be that the parent should have been watching the child. Some comments also alluded to the fact that it was not really "broken" since the elements themselves could be reused. While that may true, I could not imagine how long it would take to try and reconstruct the model.

[TheLegoDr]

If it is a large model, on display to the public, then it should definitely have glue. As much as I hate to say that word involving LEGO. But clearly the master builders and people at LEGOLAND glue their models for a reason.

With that said, it is unfortunate, unless it was a publicity stunt, which then I guess it worked? I don't know. I didn't read the article and didn't know anything of this until coming to this forum.

[Modulex Guy]

If I were to build a figure like that, I would have built a wooden base and have two wood posts going up the legs of the model, and just build around the wood. There would be no need for glue, and the model would still have a solid inner support and prevent it from tipping over.

[HoganPrime]

It caused a lot of discussion in China about the negligence of parents not watching their kids (things like this happens so often here) as well as whether it was fake or not.

The builder refused to accept any money from the parents so many people questioned whether or not it was real. Haha so many people in this country are out to make a quick bit of rmb in compensation so it was surprising to see this young man turning it down

[mnpumar]

So many hours of work lost so quickly. :(

[BrickCurve]

If a model that size is not glued or not built with a steel frame, it sort of is asking for trouble.

[Hip]

In the Arms of the Angels

[Capparezza]

What about "Le-Glue"? It says you can wash it off when you need your bricks back. So you can happily glue your bricks together and still disassemble it later. Anyone tested this stuff already? Might be an option for public shows.

https://www.amazon.com/Glue-Temporary-LEGO%C2%AE-Blocks-Non-Toxic/dp/B00TFRSTCK