Well, frankly speaking, this piece of news might sting a little bit – especially for those who know how it feels to have a sore thumb for creating the most awesome MOCs around.
Shanghaiist reports a certain Chinese LEGO builder by the name of Zhao was commissioned to build a life-size, brick-built version of Nick Wilde from Disney’s Zootopia as part of an exhibition in Ningbo Wanda Plaza, a local shopping mall located in Ningbo, China. Using approximately 100,000 Chinese Yuan worth of LEGO bricks or more than $15,000 USD, Zhao spends 3 full days, round the clock, in making the 1.8 meter tall Nick Wilde figure. The build itself is very impressive as you can see from the photos below. The details in Nick’s brick-built head is absolutely gorgeous. Zhao outdid himself and is rightfully proud of his work.
Fantastic as his work may seem, Zhao did not realize that his masterpiece will be short-lived – in just less than an hour in fact. In an utterly heart-breaking moment, an unsupervised kid apparently scampered under the rope barrier and knocked off Zhao’s creation. The result was this:
That’s really harrowing.
As patient as he is (I guess he owes it to his countless hours of patiently working with LEGO bricks), Zhao did not blame the child for what happened, saying that the child doesn’t understand yet the consequences of his action. The parents of the unruly child were humble enough to apologize (well, they should be) for the disaster that their child caused, and even offered to pay for damages. Zhao kindly refused to accept the offer. However, he partially blames the staff of the mall for failing to ensure the security of his work, saying that if they were only vigilant in doing their job than probably this unfortunate event may not have happened.
Well, for one, I admire Zhao for his patience and level-headedness, but I have to say that the parents of this obviously ‘unsupervised’ child should also take the heat. Ropes are there for a reason and children needs to understand the boundaries and limitations that they represent.
Lesson: LEGOs are indeed fun and are intended for children to play with, but like any other form of play, parents are expected to watch over their children to make sure that nobody gets hurt and toppled in the process – especially in this case, a $15,000 worth of LEGO brick-built figure.
