If you’re looking for the tallest tower of LEGO in the world, here's a picture of it right here. This monster was built in the Legoland Windsor theme park in the U.K. of 500,000 LEGO bricks, and stands just shy of 100 feet high. That eclipses the old record of 96.1 feet from August of last year by more than three feet, and has been submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records for authentication.
Notice the stabilizing guy wires, holding the enormous tower of plastic steady as it reaches to the sky. Good thing they had a crane to place the half-millionth piece atop the huge stack. Why all this falderal? Well, if you can believe it, this is the 50th anniversary of LEGO, a half-century ago shoving aside Erector Sets, coonskin caps and Hula Hoops to become one of fave diversions of ersatz builders the world over.
 |  |
|
Via Daily Mail
editor@dvice.com
By Snazzyblue at 2:15 PM ON 05/06/08
Who couldn't do that?
By phatnacky at 4:15 PM ON 05/06/08
you would think the bottom would be crushed by all that weight ...
By MPRAR at 10:53 PM ON 05/06/08
I would have been more impressed if it hadn't been supported by wires but instead it be free standing.
By Phantomgladiator at 2:31 AM ON 05/07/08
Ohh wow, what a waste of time and resources.
By anonymous at 3:56 AM ON 05/07/08
you can tell that its like a pyramidal shape, phatnacky, so there are more blocks on the bottom and it decreases as it gets higher, so the bottom probably wouldn't have been crushed by all that weight.
By Jen at 9:52 AM ON 05/07/08
I have no reason... but I am impressed. And I wonder how they did it... did they use a crane for the 499,999nth piece too?
By jbenson2 at 9:55 AM ON 05/07/08
I wonder why they didn't try to break the 100 foot barrier. It would have required just a few more blocks.
By freddurst at 10:18 AM ON 05/07/08
100 feet is just longer than 30 meters, which is what their goal probably was, considering its the UK.
By dcode at 10:29 AM ON 05/07/08
Phatnacky,
LEGO bricks are made of ABS plastic. That's the same stuff used in high-pressure plastic pipes and the bodies of cars. When formed, the plastic is heated to 450 degrees F and compressed using up to 150 tons of pressure[1]. I'm not sure what the weight of the whole tower would be, but I doubt it exceeds 150 tons per square inch. Also, this weight is distributed, as Anonymous alluded to.
[1] (http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/lego.htm)
By S at 10:55 AM ON 05/07/08
What's the metal cap at the top? It looks as though there may be a pole that runs up through the middle of the tower. If so, I'm less impressed (still looks cool though).
By Matt at 11:23 AM ON 05/07/08
looks cool, but i agree with the other commentors that the wire supports seem to support it.
By Sakebomb at 11:46 AM ON 05/07/08
"By jbenson2 at 9:55 AM ON 05/07/08
I wonder why they didn't try to break the 100 foot barrier. It would have required just a few more blocks."
He ran out of bircks :)
By MrDave at 11:59 AM ON 05/07/08
RE: Guy wires
The wires aren't supporting it, they are there to prevent it from toppling from wind. The weight::surface area ratio of legos is pretty small. A good gust of wind will push a lego brick around. Stack this many together and a light breeze would drop the tower onto a tourist's head.
RE: Pole in the center:
This is to attach the wires to. Legos don't have anchor points.
RE: Cap on the top:
This it to prevent birds and rain from filling the center with poo/water. It also centers the pole on the structure. If the pole were allowed to free-wobble inside it might knock bricks off the structure. Also the pole serves to keep the tower compressed near the top where alternating cycles of sun/night will make the bricks expand and contract and cause them to loosen and pop off.
By Fubiz at 12:24 PM ON 05/07/08
Amazing construction :)
By saul at 12:24 PM ON 05/07/08
@ Phantomgladiator:
Wast of resources? Is there a town that needs these lego bricks that I am not aware of?
By Broke at 12:33 PM ON 05/07/08
Just because the lego was created using 150 ton pressure doesnt mean it can withstand that pressure once released from the mold. Far from it - use your common sense man!
By gambit at 1:15 PM ON 05/07/08
www.thepollroom.com
By Kevin at 1:33 PM ON 05/07/08
Ah, I remember participating in a similar event in Toronto CNE last year. It was said that the tower that we worked on was the tallest one so far at that time... guess it's not anymore...
By JasonH at 4:40 PM ON 05/07/08
My kids and I made a LEGO tower that was 13-15 feet high in our house - free standing. If we had more bricks it could have easily been much taller.
By mnm at 6:16 PM ON 05/07/08
wow
By mweflen at 6:44 PM ON 05/07/08
having a metal rod down the center seems like cheating, to me. You could coat the Sears Tower with Lego, it still wouldn't make it the "world's tallest Lego tower"
By svnft at 7:45 PM ON 05/07/08
anybody else think it's kind of lame that the record can be set with a metal pole running down the middle?
By Ben at 4:40 AM ON 05/08/08
God save the Queen baby.
By Jon Stern at 10:53 AM ON 05/09/08
Lame design. Why wouldn't they use more custom parts and do a better job on the design and colors. It's just random colors of the same boring blocks on it. It doesn't even look like a building. My kid could have done this. Lego has tons of custom parts that could look really tech like radar dishes, windows, moldings, electric wires, etc. Someone will build a much better one soon, I'm sure. And they'll do it inside a stadium so it doesn't need wires.