- (man) I can't rebuild that. - I'm actually tearing up.
It's about Lego, but I'm tearing up.
- Eight years of your life. - You don't get those hours
and days of building these things back.
♪ (dramatic intro) ♪
- (man) Hey guys, it's me, Republicattak.
- We know this.
- Oh, I saw this. He got robbed, didn't he?
- (man) Probably my last video.
- What?
- (man) I came back home two hours ago
and found the car in the parking being having the window destroyed.
- Oh no.
- (man) I found Lego pieces all over the garden
and the terrace. - Someone break in?
- His Lego collection was stolen.
- (man) Broken windows and doors and finally, I saw also
destroyed Legos just down the stairs.
- Damn.
- Have you ever been working on a video and then
you lose everything? That's what this is like.
- (man) And my creation, which was here, gone.
Totally destroyed. - Why would anyone do that?
- Someone just randomly came to his house
and destroyed all his Legos?
- Dang, that's a lot of hard work just destroyed.
- Was it a random burglar or rival Lego gangs?
Are there Lego gangs?
- (man) [inaudible] before departing for work,
because I can be gone... - Why are you making me
react to this? This has a happy ending, right?
- (man) And the same for many of my sets.
All many UCS, too, many new sets,
all including the Millennium Falcon,
which I didn't have the occasion to build yet.
- Really? Oh no.
- He's so sad. This is so sad.
- It's very sad. It's something that you
can totally just relate to.
- (man) So, I'm just stopping videos.
- Just gonna give up?
- (man) It's been... - Oh my goodness.
Aw. It's okay to cry.
Please don't bottle it.
- (man) Fourteen years of collection.
- Fourteen years?
- Fourteen years of collection?
- (man) Without maybe with a lot of money,
I can't rebuild that. - I'm actually tearing up.
It's about Lego, but I'm tearing up.
- (man) My bricks gone. They took whole spots.
- It's extraordinarily sad. It's awful.
- (man) So, I'm just stopping. - No, he's giving up
on his dream.
- Poor guy.
- (man) I don't know what I'm going to do,
but yeah, so it was pretty great to have you
follow me [inaudible].
- It sucks. It's the nostalgic thing
and then it's also the business that you've built.
It's [bleep].
- (man) Inspire other people doing also Legos.
I really enjoyed that. - You're a talented architect.
- (man) I had some plans for my creations.
It was an Imperial March. - (both) Oh my gosh.
- (man) No. Not what it was supposed to be,
but how it was. - Aw, this is just sad.
- (man) With an AT-AT, [inaudible].
- We're huge Star Wars fans. This is really--
I'm wanting to cry.
- I feel really bad because I can tell how passionate he is
about Legos and I have the same passion--
I used to have the same passion about Glee,
as dumb as it sounds.
- (man) I really enjoyed Legos since a child.
I was six years old when I got my first set,
was really a passion. - He's still a little kid at heart.
- It seems like his whole life has been about Legos
and this just completely destroyed him
and I feel really bad.
- (man) It really was my passion. In fact, it was a part of me
because when I walk and I come back to weekend
just for relaxing. - They came for Legos,
but they left with his heart.
- (man) For troubling and what I'm thinking about
for leisure and trying to relax. I'm thinking about my Lego
projects. - Oh no.
He can't relax.
- (man) Gone. So next week,
I have to go again. - Ah.
This guy's going through so much emotion right now.
- (man) And so that's the end of this channel.
- No.
- (man) What's really strange is that they personally come
for Legos. I mean, no laptop been stolen,
no computers. - Wait, they personally
came for Legos? That's really [bleep] up.
- (man) There was a brand new Mac computer.
They didn't stole it. - Must have been people
watching his video.
- This is honestly something a third grader would do.
- (man) So thank you for following me
for all those eight years and bye.
Wishing you the best with your Legos
and just be careful, because there are some
bastards out there and so goodbye.
- Aw. - That is so sad.
- I'm kinda tearing up. - I'm tearing up.
- Eight years of your life. What was it, like $18,000
or something that was stolen?
- You don't get those hours and days of building
these things back.
- If this was just pure malicious intent,
that is incredibly disheartening, incredibly sad.
- Some people think sometimes some things are funny
to destroy or something. Even if you don't care,
it can affect another person.
- (FBE) So this video came from YouTuber Republicattak,
who's been on YouTube for eight years.
- Whoo, okay.
- Wow, and every year he was-- he said eight years
he was building that.
- (FBE) He's been collecting Legos since 2004 with the hopes
of turning this into a career, however as he mentioned,
the majority of his collection was stolen a few weeks ago.
- Dang, that is so awful. - That's depressing.
Why are people so mean?
- (FBE) However, this video went viral on Reddit
and actually lead to a GoFundMe page being created
with the hopes of restoring the $18,000 worth of property
that he lost. - Wow.
- 18,000? Now I can really, really
understand also why.
- It's cool that people jumped in to help.
That shows the power of the internet
and how people can get together.
- (FBE) As you'll see here, he hoped to raise
$18,000 and here is the page. - Aw.
In eleven days? Wow.
- With a thousand and they reached it.
They got 18.
- People watch people to live vicariously through
someone else's passions so that if their passion
gets destroyed, they obviously wanna support in any way
that they can and it seems like he's got a very engaged,
sweet audience that really encouraged him.
- It's another one of those times where the internet just
comes together and helps this poor kid out,
but I feel like something else needs to be done.
I feel like we need to find out who this Lego bully is.
- (FBE) Once they reached the $18,000 that they needed,
he immediately shut down the campaign because he said
he didn't wanna take more that what was needed.
- Oh wow. Well damn.
He's a good guy. He just wants to collect his Legos.
- The fact that it actually happened though,
that someone broke into his house.
That is so scary 'cause you know,
as YouTubers, that's our biggest fear.
- This is one of my biggest fears being a creator
is that someone will target me and infiltrate my personal space
and take things away from me that I hold of value.
- If there's any silver lining to this, hopefully this tragedy
got him more people watching his channel
when he rebuilds all the Legos again.
I hope that happens. - It's not just about the money too,
'cause it's gonna take all the time and effort
to rebuild all that and he was even making
things that aren't sets. He was creating whole scenes
and stuff from Star Wars.
- (FBE) So Republicattak is a relatively small
to mid-sized channel who at the time of the robbery
had just over 4,000 subscribers. - Oh wow, that's even crazier then.
- We all know what he's feeling. We all can see just that
raw sadness. Just having this big collection
just taken away.
- (FBE) How would it feel if something like this happened
while your channel was around that size?
- It sucks, 'cause you're beating people when they're already
sort of not down, but on their way up.
- Ooh, I'm a constantly paranoid person.
I think I would be even more scared to have more attention on me
for this sort of thing that there might be a lot
of bad apples out there that now see this as
a funny thing to take advantage of rather than a real thing.
- It's more positive now, because his story doesn't end,
'cause that's just messed up for that to go unfixed,
but man, that's just a traumatic event
in that dude's life and it's obvious from his video
that it really rocked his world and you can empathize with that
and I think that's why people donated.
- When I first started my first channel that got
hacked and deleted, it was a channel called
Funky Fresh. They figured out my password,
which was "funky" and deleted all my videos
and uploaded some dance videos, so I understand that even--
it might not seem like a lot, but when it's all you have
and when you're beginning to build something,
it's like, "Dude," I can see why he wanted
to just give up.
- There's good and bad on the internet.
There's always gonna be good and bad,
but if we just highlight the good stories
and if we focus on that, I think there's always hope
for better things.
- (FBE) Speaking of leaving YouTube, there's been
so much discussed of late about YouTuber burnout
and in addition to creators, viewers are starting to understand
the reality of being reliant on a platform and algorithms
and the grind that that is. - I know all about that.
- I definitely think it's a conversation that's being
discussed a lot more. I have made a video about burnout
and I know that I get asked about it.
- (FBE) So, we want you to tell us honestly, has there ever
been a time where you have thought about leaving YouTube?
- There's never been a time where I wanted to leave YouTube,
but there's definitely been a time where I felt
not motivated or just like I'm personally
burning out on trying to be creative,
'cause we've been doing this for six years
and we post every single week and we've never
missed a Tuesday.
- In the beginning, when I wasn't big,
a lot of times I was like, "Well, this isn't working.
I'd better quit," so I took maybe four breaks.
- I'm not burnt out because I take breaks.
I have a balance, you know? Because I don't feel the need
to turn my camera on 24/7 and document everything.
When I started making YouTube videos,
there wasn't even money in it, you know?
And I was doing it for fun and 'cause I wanted to just
make cool content and share it with people.
As an established YouTuber, you lose some of that
because you kind of get into this mindset
of algorithms and views and money, you know?
And it's difficult to really remember why you started doing it.
- I had a huge mental breakdown the beginning of this year
and I was not okay. It's something I'm
so passionate about and it's the one thing
that makes me happy and it's also the one thing
that makes me the most stressed and burnt out.
It's like weighing and balancing, finding the balance for sure.
- I mean, it's the bread and butter. You can't leave it
if you need a job. That being said,
there are always points where you're burnt out.
- It's super fun, the stuff we make and we're super grateful
to be able to do it, but it is still a job
and that's not a bad thing, but that does require
a lot of effort and focus and hard work.
- I'm currently on a hiatus from making YouTube videos
for my own mental health. There is no--
has never been a blueprint for making YouTube videos
and there's no rulebook or no psychological guidance
on how it can affect you over time and we're all,
as much as we're exploring and discovering these
new creative endeavors, we're also exploring
and discovering the way that they affect our emotional state
and so, it's really a matter of checking in with yourself
and getting professional help and not being afraid to do that.
- (FBE) So finally, there are signs of encouragement
with the GoFundMe that this creator might eventually
start making videos again due to the massive support
he's received. So, what do you wanna say
to him as he makes his potential return?
- It actually reminds me of my when I first
started my YouTube. I started out with
pretty much nothing and that's what I like about him
is he's just doing what he loves and then sharing it.
- If you want to make your potential return,
then do it, but I do think that there's
gonna be a lot of trauma around what happened to you
and so I really encourage you to talk to a professional
or talk to someone about it.
- When I do stumble upon a channel like this,
it is always very endearing. It also is seeing how authentic
these people can be. Keep on doing it, dude.
As long as you enjoy making those videos
and it seems like you really enjoy Legos,
I would say keep on living your dream.
It sucks that it happened to you, but there's a lot of people
who wanna see you succeed.
- Republicattak, please keep making videos.
We love Legos and we love Star Wars.
- Yes. So, we would love to see
you build those Legos, 'cause I never imagined
buying it myself, but seeing someone else make it
would be absolutely incredible to watch,
so please, please continue your channel
and do not give up.
- It sucks, what happened to you, and I can imagine how
that makes you wanna just stop and just give up.
Just don't give up, man. I'm excited.
I'm gonna subscribe and I can't wait to see
your next video.
- Hey, make sure you subscribe to Lego man.
Seems like a sweet guy. He loves Legos.
We all loved Legos at some point. He probably has so many
scars on the bottom of his feet from walking around
in that house with all the Legos everywhere,
so subscribe and support-- let's support each other, all right?
- Thanks for watching this episode of YouTubers React.
- Make sure to subscribe to all the creators
in this episode. Links in the description.
- Let us know in the comments what we should react to next.
- Thanks for watching, bye.
- Hi guys, JC here, producer here at FBE.
Make sure to check out Republicattak.
All his links are down below and right over here.
Support him like you support us. Thanks guys, bye.