Last Friday, the 21st of October 2011, an attempt was made to break the world record for the longest LEGO® Technic chain reaction. The record attempt was an initiative of Maico Arts (43). In his daily life he works on office automation, but for the last 33 years LEGO has been taking up an important part of his spare time. Half an hour before the LEGO WORLD RECORD attempt we were given the chance to interview him!
In half an hour it’s finally going to happen. Do you think it will work?
“Yes, I’m sure, because everything is functioning already. Of course there’s continuous madness. Sometimes modules stop working. There’s always one that gives you trouble, but that’s just how it is.”
How long have you been working on this chain reaction?
“We started building it on Tuesday. You have to unpack everything and place it so that it fits and you’ll get a working chain reaction. I wouldn’t be able to count all the hours that we have spent working on it at home. Nine builders constructed all the modules. I made two thirds of them myself.”
Where do you get your inspiration for your constructions?
“From daily life. Just keep your eyes open.”
What makes LEGO so much fun?
“It’s a good product. And it helps me to express my technical ideas.”
Is this the first record attempt that you are involved in?
“No, I’ve done more of them, one in 2010 in Cologne, for instance. That was a record attempt featuring 86 modules.”
What will you be doing within the next half hour?
“I’m going to listen if the cannon will fire and solve some weird things.”
Maico and Astrid Arts
In the meantime, Maico keeps busy correcting sudden blockages. His wife Astrid Arts (38) continues: “Maico infected me with the LEGO virus during our honeymoon. Then, one time I built a module and infected him with constructing modules. I always use Clikits. All Clickit modules that you can see here were built by me.”
Time is pressing and the two energetically devote themselves to the modules again. There’s a total of 112 modules now. When the record is finally broken, we ask Maico:
Congratulations! Will it be hard to break this new record, do you think?
“No, it’s a piece of cake. Just find a few wacky guys like me and it will happen automatically!”
Kids (and adults) love seeing Lego Great Ball Contraptions! There is a nice article about this World Record attempt on TechnicBRICKS: http://www.technicbricks.blogspot.com/ .