It could be the biggest bargain on the property market: a two-storey house that’s being given away for nothing. The only drawback is that this des res is made entirely out of Lego – and you’ll have to find somewhere to put it.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. Toy storeys: James May and 1,000 helpers built the 20ft-tall Lego house on a wine estate in Surrey Stripe me: A close up of the fully functional house, which was built using 3.3million differently coloured bricks About 1,000 volunteers built the 20ft-tall house in Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey – but now the vineyard needs the land back toIf 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 Cosy: James in the bedroom - and you'll never guess what he made the bed, pillows and slippers from! Purrfect: The home even comes with its own cat ‘Legoland only told us on Thursday they were not going to take it. Block head: The TV presenter built the house for his forthcoming BBC show, James May Toy Stories 'Knocking it down is just wrong on every level. 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. 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 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 Plastic fantastic: James in the multi-coloured hallway Building blocks: James even used Lego to make kitchen utensils, including a toaster, whisk, bread bin and iron
Daily Block: The home, which is unwanted by Legoland, also includes reading material 'We considered all the options but due to 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. 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'. Bright idea: James stares through a multi-coloured window as light pours in the homeThis week will continue our series of postings that will be a guide to story levels for completing boss encounters and location of collections items.
It's all up to you. The Cloud's Above Springfield (1) Springfield Nuclear Plant (4) Tardis Location: The Flintstones (4) In Mr. Burn's Office, there is a Hacking panel. Complete the panel to reveal pieces to build a Tardis Pad. Mr Burn's Office (1) Rule Breaker requires approximately 160,000 studs.Super Star Destroyer™ 118 ReviewsFIND MORE PRODUCTS LIKE THISTwo years ago, the problem with the Air Force's B-2 Stealth bombers, which cost $2 billion apiece, was that their radar could not tell a rain cloud from a mountainside.Now the problem is that the B-2 cannot go out in the rain.The investigative arm of Congress reported this week that the B-2, the world's most expensive aircraft, deteriorates in rain, heat and humidity. It ''must be sheltered or exposed only to the most benign environments -- low humidity, no precipitation, moderate temperatures,'' said the report by the General Accounting Office.The report said that the skin of the plane cannot handle the heat or the damp or the rain.
That skin, made of thermoplastics and composites transparent to radar, is supposed to help give the bomber its much-touted radar-evading ''stealthy'' qualities.Without that stealthiness, the plane is less than the unique technological achievement the Air Force has claimed it to be. And with these problems the plane cannot be deployed overseas, where it would be needed in battle. The Air Force issued a statement today saying that, for now, it will cancel plans to station the bombers overseas. ''It would be difficult to operate the B-2 from a deployed location,'' the Air Force statement said. The Northrop Grumman Corporation is building 21 of the planes at a cost of $44.7 billion. Some members of Congress want to keep the production lines open and build up to nine more of the planes, at a yet undetermined cost.The B-2 was developed in the 1980's as a nuclear bomber. Its mission was to penetrate to the heart of the Soviet Union and drop missiles on Moscow. Its most striking technological feature was said to be its ability to evade detection by the Soviet Union's radars.
But no prototype was built, and the plane has experienced a series of technological setbacks during eight years of flight tests. It has never been used in combat. The report by the General Accounting Office said that the Air Force is working on the problem with the B-2's sensitive skin, but that it is unlikely that the problem ''will ever be fully resolved.'' As a consequence, the plane requires climate-controlled shelters.The bomber, which flies at sub-sonic speeds, like a normal commercial jet, is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. That increases by many hours the time it would take for the plane to respond to a crisis overseas. The Air Force had intended to deploy it at bases outside the United States to reduce those flying times. But no climate-controlled shelters for the B-2 exist abroad, preventing the plane from being stationed overseas. In the report made public this week, the accounting office said that during a year of tests ending in March, the B-2 bombers were able to perform their missions only 26 percent of the time.
The failures were in large part due to the fragility of the B-2's skin.Rainwater and humidity damaged the plane's surface, sending the plane back to its hangars for repairs and a new coat of stealthy skin, which cures properly only in a climate-controlled shelter. Moisture also collected in the B-2's ducts and valves, causing malfunctions and requiring repairs. Some of the plane's stealthiness sustained damage each time the aircraft flew, the report said.The B-2 was developed in secret under the classified ''black budget'' of the Air Force. In 1981, the Air Force said it could build 132 of the planes for $22 billion. But after eight years it had spent that sum, and had only a single plane to show for it. ''The real problem with the B-2,'' Sam Nunn, the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview, ''is that it was kept secret too long.'' After its unveiling in 1988, failed flight tests and the end of the cold war created problems for the B-2.
Not the least was its cost. The plane's price tag roughly equals three times its weight in gold.Then came the question of its performance. In 1995, the G.A.O. reported that ''the B-2 radar cannot distinguish rain from other obstacles'' and that its stealthiness was dubious. Then came the question of its mission. The Air Force says the plane does not have to be used as a nuclear bomber; it can also carry conventional bombs for ordinary missions -- to blow up a bridge, for example. But during the first open Congressional debate over the bomber, in 1989, Senator William S. Cohen of Maine, now the Secretary of Defense, called that a ludicrous idea: like sending ''a Rolls-Royce down into a combat zone to pick up groceries.''Though the Pentagon says it does not want or need any more B-2 bombers, the plane has always had strong defenders in Congress, including Floyd D. Spence, a South Carolina Republican and chairman of the House National Security Committee. During that first open debate in 1989, Mr. Spence said the plane's cost was irrelevant, given its power to defend the United States from its enemies.''