Top Gear presenter James May has just built the world’s first full-size Lego house – including a working toilet, hot shower and a very uncomfortable bed – using 3.3million plastic bricks.
James May and 1,000 helpers built the 20ft-tall Lego house on a wine estate in Surrey. A close up picture of the fully functional house, which was built using 3.3million differently coloured bricksAbout 1,000 volunteers built the 20ft-tall house in Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey – but now the vineyard needs the land back to harvest its grapes.
If no one collects it by 8am on Tuesday, it will be hacked to bits with chainsaws.
May says Legoland reneged on a deal to take it to their theme park in Windsor, Berkshire, after deciding it would be too expensive to move.
Meanwhile, miffed Legoland managers criticised May for building the house without their help.
May said: ‘I’m very unhappy about it. I feel as if I’m having my arm twisted into saying “knock it down”.
Blocked sink: The bathroom with a working taps and basin made from Lego‘Legoland only told us on Thursday they were not going to take it.
James May
'Knocking it down is just wrong on every level. It’s a really lovely thing – it would break the hearts of the 1,000 people who worked like dogs to build it.’
May believes that an art gallery, a children’s home or a wealthy private collector might be interested in the house.
But any entrepreneurs hoping to make money from it would face legal problems as Legoland has an exclusive licence to use the plastic bricks as a public attraction in Britain.
Lego has also banned May from dismantling the structure and giving away the bricks, which the company donated for his forthcoming BBC show James May’s Toy Stories.
‘It would dilute Lego’s sales – we can only give them to charity,’ May said.
May slept in the house on Friday night, on ‘the most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever slept in’ – when he also discovered the house was not waterproof.
Martin Williams, marketing director of Legoland Windsor, said: ‘We’re disappointed we were not consulted as our model-makers could have advised on building a movable structure.
‘In our opinion, the only way to move the Lego house now is to cut into it, which would compromise the structural integrity and present us with health-and-safety issues.’
Building blocks: James even used Lego to make a host of utensils including a toaster, whisk, bread bin and iron'We considered all the options but due to cost, timings, logistics and planning permission, we have decided it would not be viable to move the structure to the park.’
Earlier this year the TV presenter made his debut in the Chelsea Flower show with a garden made entirely out of plasticine.
His Paradise in Plasticine boasted palm trees, bushes, a vegetable patch, grapevine, lawn, rockery and pond and featured two and a half tonnes of plasticine in 24 different colours.
The 46-year-old claimed his effort is the biggest and most complex plasticine model ever made.
He produced the the garden as part of his BBC 2 series James May's Toy Stories, where he aimed to 'get kids out of their bedrooms and away from their Playstations'
(Lu sur le Daily Mail)
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