5...4...3...2...1...
I've been coaxed out of my cave and over to West Kensington to witness something very unique
and what will hopefully be a record breaking event
This is going to be interesting
I was kindly invited to the Olympia Exhibition centre to watch the...
BLOODY HELL!!
Sorry about that!
as I was saying..
I'm at Olympia London to attend the toppling of the World Record..
Tallest Tower of KAPLA planks
and.. WOW!
I was not expecting it to be THIS tall and elaborate
..or beautiful
Incredible
Absolutely amazing
I mean, look at it
This isn't just stacking up a bunch of wooden blocks, this is architecture
And it's SO intricate
and look at that empty bit in the middle
Just a few thin columns supporting all that above?
How is that even possible? Astounding!
The tower was designed by just one guy. Benjamin Crouzier
Assisted by a team of 18 people working in shifts
They built this colossal structure in just FOUR days
Ben is clearly a veteran at this kind of thing
He first started building with Kapla planks at a very young age
This childhood fascination blossomed into a mastery of intricate towering structures
A key member of the team is legendary domino artist, Lily Hevesh
If you don't know Lily by name, I'm almost certain you've seen her work
As well as the many viral videos on her YouTube channel..
she's worked in all corners of the visual media industry
Television shows,
Celebrity promotion,
Corporate promotion,
Commercials,
and cinema.
There's also a heartwarming documentary about her
called "Lily Topples The World" which I highly recommend.
Hello Lily. How are you doing today?
Hey! I'm doing well!
How's London treating you?
It's pretty good, although I haven't had time to really explore that much this time,
So, this isn't your first time here?
I've been here a couple of other times
Oh, OK. Cool!
So you must have sampled lots of the food here. Can we get your official rating?
The food is pretty good. There's a lot of nice stuff.
Actually we haven't really gone to a lot of British restaurants,
we've been to Japanese places and Lebanese food
which is good!
And, how long are you here for?
About two weeks.
Wonderful! Plenty of time to try some Fish & Chips.
The team have completed the main tower and are now building the connecting line to the initial trigger point.
and, of course, it's not just a simple run of planks.
Ben has designed a series of smaller towers leading to a single line surrounding the base of the tower.
This requires less people, so what do the rest of the team do during their down-time?
They build another tower of course. Just for fun!
How's the build going, Lily?
It's going well. We've finished it! It's like 28 metres tall now.
It's absolutely incredible.
any hiccups along the way?
We did have a couple of small fails were planks were falling into each other
And some of the parts were buckling which made it really uneven for us to build that tall
But luckily it wasn't an issue, we were able to work past all of it
and I just hope it stays up for like the next hour
Me too. For the sake of my heart-rate
How are you expecting the topple to go.
You know... there's always a chance something could fail, so...
Part of me is like, `don't expect a perfect topple'. yet at the same time i'm like..
`ok I trust Benjamin who designed this'
We already did a test. We did a whole version of this and it worked.
so, I feel pretty good.
Well it's a phenomenal achievement. Congratulations, and good luck!
Thank you very much!
So, just at the end there you may have caught Lily casually saying they had already done a test.
I can't stress enough what an understatement that was!
Just prior to building this structure..
The team fully built and toppled a tower that was only 2 metres shorter than this one!
"a test"
She called that "a test" !
Ok Lily. After the tower has fallen, The big question...
Who has to clear it all up?
Hah! We do! The whole team.
The people who built it, we just go back in, pile them back into bins.
After all the work you put in, nobody offers to give you a hand!?
I mean, if you wanna stay, we could appreciate the help
Oh...I...I.. I'd love to... but...
...I've got a meeting...
wiiiith.....
NASA
ok, No worries.
There's Benjamin on the scissor-lift
Going up high to...
Actually, what IS he doing?
oooh.... oohh!
Oh bloody hell!
STOP! .. Stop... please stop!
aaaahhh
AAAHHHH
Nooooo! Stop. Please stop!
you can stop now
Yes, that's fine. Please stop!
OOOh ooooooooh!
phew!
oh my god, what is he doing?
[ panicy Ami noises continue ]
oh my goodness
[ more stressful Ami noises ]
ooo oooh care...fuuulll !
ugh!! That was nerve-wracking
Oh bloody hell. NOW what's he doing?
Is he pulling out blocks?
Yep. He's pulling out blocks.
A DRONE!? Are you kidding me!?
Get that thing away from it!
Oh, now he's hitting it. Ok, he's definitely lost his mind.
and he's back on the ground. I'm so pleased that's over.
and the tower is still standing!
The angle of those aren't helping my anxiety though.
So it's almost time!
The general public are making their way in to watch the fall-down.
Lots of kids, of course.
Getting inspired to become our future generation of structural engineers.
..or demolition workers.
There's the adjudicator checking things over.
Making sure everything falls within the regulation of being a free-standing structure.
bit late if it isn't.
Ok, this is it!
Wooo!
Wow!
Every plank has fallen. What a success!
Well done Ben and team! I'm SO pleased for them!
That's cute!
Hello
Hello, I am Joanne. I'm an official adjudicator with Guinness World Records.
What we have just verified here today is the official new record
for the tallest tower made from wooden toy blocks
Now, they have set the record at a whopping...
27.46 metres
Surpassing the existing record of 18.76 metres
Wonderful! Thank you Joanne!
And just as Lily said, the team immediately start packing the 100,000 planks into boxes.
So, i'm going to discretely back away before anyone sees me.
though... jumping in that pile is very tempting.
HUGE Thanks to Lily for inviting me today.
By the time you see this, she should have uploaded her `Behind The Scenes' video, which I'll link to.
If you want to see more Kapla and Domino toppling
follow Ben and Lily on their respective socials and YouTube channels.