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TIL that in 2016, a Chinese artist spent 3 days building a $15,000 LEGO statue or Nick Wil · legacy-reddit-api-re-20261014

r/todayilearnedu/Sebastianlim3h ago

TIL that in 2016, a Chinese artist spent 3 days building a $15,000 LEGO statue or Nick Wilde from Zootopia. Shortly after it was put on display, a 4-year-old boy accidentally knocked it over, destroying it. The artist refused an offer of compensation from the parents.

score: 9.1k
comments: 560
upvoted: 93%
permalink: /r/todayilearned/comments/1x60fq2

This is a link post with no self text.

TIL that in 2016, a Chinese artist spent 3 days building a $15,000 LEGO statue or Nick Wilde from Zootopia. Shortly after it was put on display, a 4-year-old boy accidentally knocked it over, destroying it. The artist refused an offer of compensation from the parents.

https://abcnews.com/International/15000-lego-sculpture-destroyed-boy-hour-mounted/story?id=39528643· abcnews.com

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Comments (10)

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4.6k pts3h

$15k of legos? Dang, that thing must have been at least 3 feet tall.

1k pts3h

Trying to be funny but ~$300 legos builds up to 3ft.

253 pts2h

At the going bulk rate of 15$/lb, it would have to be way higher than 3ft.

20 pounds of 2x4 bricks is about 2000 bricks. A tower with 4 bricks per level would be 500 layers tall. 9.6mm per layer and you are close to 5 meters! (yes, I mixed pounds and meters).

38 pts1h

If we're "Um ackshually"-ing, the Lego Nick Wilde in the given scenario wouldn't have been composed of a single tower of 4 bricks per level. If we're just trying to see how cheap a Lego tower at 3 ft could be, gluing those bricks together sideways is the cheapest solution.

40 pts2h

And 20 bricks per layer would be about 3 feet

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38 pts2h

I'm pretty sure they were aiming for the lego is expensive joke, rather than actually estimating size. Perhaps they should have said 3 inches tall to make it clearer 😅

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286 pts2h

Nah, it was just the latest entry-level set.

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2.6k pts2h

When I was a kid, the local Museum hired some Tibetan monks to come and do a sand Mandala in the courtyard of the museum. Just as they were finishing the Mandala some crazy guy ran through and destroyed everything, caught on camera. Everybody was incensed, up in arms, calling for this guy’s punishment, except for the monks who were smiling, nodding, and laughing as he ran through, and as the sand was scattered all over. “Destruction is part of creation”.

1.5k pts2h

I mean at the end of making a sand mandala they sweep it all up anyways. The very point of it is to be destroyed. The monks went into it fully understanding the impermanence of what they were making. They sound like they were amused at the circumstances of its destruction.

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1 pts48m

At that point it’s like an early dismissal from class. That man’s early destruction of their work gave them a reason to stop the performance and just relax.

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1 pts26m

I'd like to think they were smiling at the Universe for doing what the Universe does and being at peace with it.

Wonderful story.

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211 pts2h

Impermanence is a big part of sand mandalas!

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142 pts2h

The point of the mandala is the creation followed by destruction. It is sweeped up, then poured into flowing water during a ceremony. It's symbolising transitory nature of life. Someone running through it would just be part of it's temporary existence.

124 pts2h

You're not thinking of the one done at Union Station, are you? That was a toddler

160 pts2h

They said 'some crazy guy'

165 pts2h

Doesn't that description match every toddler?

59 pts2h

Some toddlers are girls

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50 pts2h

So, a toddler

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74 pts1h

I saw an article about a toddler at a museum who had accidentally broken an ancient clay pot that was on display. Obviously people were angry about it and I don’t think it’s good that happened, but I had a realization: if you could bring the person who made that pot forward in time to explain what happened, I don’t think they’d understand much about the it being in a museum and how long it had lasted for, but they would certainly understand that a toddler broke something by accident.

1 pts47m

This also gets at something I’ve sort of wondered about at historical museums.

People go to see these objects thinking their story is over and that it finished back in history. But the objects are still present.

While the historical circumstances that made them are gone and have become history. But the object is not history, it’s historical. It’s still here.

And sometimes, despite the best efforts of curators, the object’s story keeps evolving in the present rather than being anchored to the past.

Such as that particular clay pot. Imagine it survives in a collection for another 5000 years. It’s little plaque in the year 7026 could say something like “Prehistoric pot, circa 4000BC. A merchant’s son named Timmy Stephens attempted to destroy it for ritual purposes in the early 3rd Millennium AD.”

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1.2k pts3h

If you have a Lego set and you plan to let 4 year olds near it, you should have a physical barrier around it if you don’t want it getting broken.

Doesn’t matter what country you are in.

702 pts3h

It was roped off. And the major complaint was that the child went under the barrier and the parents didn't notice. (at least I think. trying to remember that long ago, but i remember seeing the image of red velvet ropes and a pile of lego scattered)

140 pts2h

Good to know bad parenting is universal

316 pts2h

Short of strapping kids into straightjackets and parents carrying them everywhere, kids are gonna kid. Besides, the parents tried to make things right, bad parents just blame the victim of their kid.

39 pts1h

We should making child leashing more socially acceptable. Solves all of these problems.

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33 pts2h

If a child can go under the barrier then there is no barrier.

95 pts2h

Most barriers at public venues like art exhibits aren’t impenetrable lol

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203 pts3h

And that’s certainly part of the reason the artist refused to press legal action and accepted it as kids will be kids. The parents apologized and the artist was gracious about it.

Does anyone read the article?

122 pts2h

It's literally in the headline too lol. I think a bunch of people seem to be parsing it as "refused an offer of compensation [and instead sought public execution of the child]" or something like that

42 pts2h

That tracks with the ongoing reading comprehension crisis

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117 pts2h

We have the Eifel Tower set and brought it to my kids school for a French night. We set it on a table and separated the table from kids with a barrier made from chairs. We still understood kids will be kids and may knock it down.

I dropped it off over my lunch break for the event that night. About 15 minutes after I dropped it off, I got a call from the school. Apparently the teachers decided they wanted to move it and rather than asking me to come back or even just asking how (it comes apart into 3 easy to move sections), they just decided to give it a go. And they dropped it. We spent 5 hours putting it back together and finished about 30 minutes before the event. It was fine that night. Always thought it was funny that it was the adults who broke it rather than the kids.

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39 pts2h

in the video there is a velvet rope fence around it. guess the kid went under it easily being 4 years old though

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1k pts3h

The artist refused an offer of compensation from the parents and instead allowed the local police to incarcerate him for a year.

498 pts3h

I really don't think the artist should have been sent to jail.

176 pts3h

Last I heard he was on death row

58 pts2h

That'll teach him. This wasn't just a victory for Lego Nick Wilde, but also a victory for the justice system.

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33 pts2h

He’s building his own jail cell, not being sent there.

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104 pts2h

Wow, burning the kid alive for that long seems harsh?

67 pts2h

They obviously meant "carcinisation" which isnt much of a punishment. Some day all spices will become a crab. Its basic biology

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34 pts2h

As a parent of a 4 year old this is absolutely fair.

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329 pts3h

"We'll give you the child, what do you say?"

"A thousand times no."

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193 pts2h

This whole post is a nothing burger!

Artist assembled a big Lego statues, kid accidentally knocks it over, artist says “it’s okay, it was an accident.”

Is this really something worth knowing about????

70 pts2h

well usually in situations like this you hear about lawsuits and litigation demanding compensation.

it is nice to hear about someone being a good person, especially in today's climate. I for one did enjoy reading about this

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145 pts2h

article with pics of the actual statue: https://www.boredpanda.com/kid-destroys-lego-sculpture-zootopia-zhao/

63 pts2h

Wow that kid must have run into it at full speed - only the shoes survived!

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38 pts1h

Thank you. How in the FUCK does the ABCNews article have no pictures of the statue?! Why even write the damn article at all at that point?

My God, the bar for journalism is on the floor these days.

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65 pts3h

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTqA2H82oyk

Images that aren't included in the article.

66 pts2h

I like how it said that all that money went down the drain like it isn't lego. The whole point of lego is that you could destroy and rebuild it. Unless the blocks broke but that's not that easy. Especially all of them.

41 pts2h

That part keeps getting me. It's Lego, just rebuild it. Even assuming that some bricks cracked or broke it's not irrevocably destroyed, it's Lego not marble.

The only loss is the time taken to build it.

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50 pts3h

3 days isn’t that long, i’d expect a 4 yo to break just about anything, and the parties involved were all completely reasonable. why is this interesting?

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