Tail stolen from Berlin LEGO Giraffe [News]
Reuters reported last night that someone has stolen the tail from the LEGO Giraffe outside the Berlin Discovery Center.
(photo by Peter Mayr)
Caroline Copley of Reuters writes:
Visitors to a tourist attraction in Berlin have been making off with an unusual memento — the 30 cm long tail of a Lego giraffe.
The Lego tail belongs to a six meter tall model that has stood outside the entrance to the Legoland Discovery Center on Potsdamer Platz since 2007.
“It’s a popular souvenir,” a spokeswoman for the center said Tuesday. “It’s been stolen four times now …”
The tail is made out of 15,000 Lego bricks. It takes model workers about one week to restore it at a cost of 3,000 euros ($4,300), the spokeswoman said.
What I want to know is which one of you has the tail. Fess up now!
August 26th, 2009 at 6:12 am
Hey, I was there last year! I didn’t steal the tail, though…
August 26th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Guess we all best look out for any MOC’s with a lot of Yellow bricks? =-)
August 26th, 2009 at 6:52 am
If you want a real laugh, that’s NOT what was reported as being stolen according to Yahoo UK news (here – or if that’s been changed try searching for “The Register” – no link because it’s often NSFW).
Let’s just say something got lost in translation *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*
Louise
August 26th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Interesting, Reuters has nearly identical stories with only one, apparently big, difference. Both stories in English and no indication that one is the correction of the other. I’m sure their editors will be flooded with LEGO fans requesting clarification on this important issue ;) Serious business, giraffe members.
August 26th, 2009 at 8:13 am
“Tail” is the correction. It was originally reported as a different “appendage”. :D
August 26th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I say its that guy May who is building a house out of Lego in the UK.
August 26th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Aren’t those bricks glued? What would be the point?
August 26th, 2009 at 9:03 am
I swear it wasn’t me
August 26th, 2009 at 9:08 am
I’ve seen in comments elsewhere that the mis-translated German word was “schwanz” which has an alternative slang meaning to the more correct one. Can any German-speaking AFOLs confirm this?
August 26th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I bet it was stolen to make 8-bit trip.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Schwanz does, indeed, mean both tail and… “tail”, if you know what I mean.
Also, there’s a certain person living in Potsdam (a city quite near Berlin) whom I know quite well and who I just recently got interested in LEGO again.
I shall ask him if he’s the culprit.
UPDATES AT 11, now for our feature film…
August 26th, 2009 at 9:58 am
- Melfice zegt:
So, Meister.
I understand some miscreant stole the tail of the big LEGO giraffe outside the Berlin LEGO Discovery Centre.
Now, I just happen to know you live in Potsdam, and have recently become interested in LEGO again.
Have anything to confess, Meister? If that IS your real name!
- M to the eister. What’s an eister? zegt:
I uh
*runs*
- Melfice zegt:
AHA!
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen!
August 26th, 2009 at 10:52 am
You guys are talking about a penis, right?
August 26th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Yes Rocko, they are. And I think that would be a fair description of such a thief. ;¬)
August 26th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I just read about this on Lowlug, apparently a lot of Dutch and English media thought ‘Schwanz’ means penis (that’s the slang meaning of the word, but not the official one) and they must have thought the article would be a good laugh. And then they all copied each other.
But if you just read the original article saying that Legoland Discovery Centre is looking for children who want to help rebuild the (…) then it is so obvious they are NOT talking about a penis.
August 26th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Does anyone really think LEGO would make a penis, even for an animal? Plus 15,000 pieces, that sure would be one huge… di…. Nevermind. lol
August 26th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
That thing is MASSIVE!!
August 26th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
A 15,000 piece tail “Tail” made entirely of bright yellow bircks? I mean we all have our limits. Who amount you could say you wouldn’t be tempted to have that thing strapped on you when your wife came home. Let he who is without temptation cast the first brick!
August 26th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I’m truly torn between reminding everybody about our non-commenting under-13 audience and falling out of my chair laughing…
*thump* ROTFL it is!
August 26th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Children under 13 don’t have penises?*
Plus I’m sure they are laughing as much as we are. lol
*I’m guessing like 75% of children who visit here are males.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:14 am
How can a 30cm tail be 15.000 bricks?
I mean the Statue of liberty (3450) is 2882 bricks and it’s more than 60cm.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Could just be 1×1 bricks.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I think 30cm is a typo. Obviously the original reporter wasn’t paying that much attention. ;)
Seems to me that the actual tail is several feet long, but I have no idea how much was stolen. But 30cm worth of LEGO shouldn’t cost 4000 dollars to replace, no matter how many man-hours it takes to glue the thing back on. :D
August 27th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
They might want to consider rebuilding it so that the tail meshes in with one of the legs.
August 29th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Must have been one hell of a well endowed giraffe. And that Yahoo news thing had more bad puns than a dad-joke convention.