Fabian Moritz is not your average German football fan: He does not mind the relative goal drought at the World Cup and he wants England to do well.
The 19-year-old may have just flunked his school leaving exams, but his remakes of World Cup matches using Lego figures have become a Internet sensation.
“Each goal takes between two and three hours to do,” Moritz said in the tiny “hobby room” in his parents’ house in Laatzen in northern Germany where he works, fresh from staying up until 3:00am on his latest creation.
PHOTO: AFP
“I’m a bit miffed by the quality of matches so far this World Cup, it’s painful to watch. But for the videos this is good ... A four-three scoreline would take more than a day,” he said.
The films — available at www.legofussball.eu — are so good that he has a deal with British newspaper the Guardian to make videos of all the England games, and a contract with the Bild daily for all of Germany’s.
“On one day I had more than 340,000 hits on my homepage, it’s crazy ... I’m getting inquiries from all over the place, from Holland, Denmark, Japan, France, Switzerland, England and others too.”
PHOTO: AFP
His Lego version of England’s 1-1 draw with the US, complete with goalkeeper Robert Green’s catastrophic blunder — at www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2010/jun/14/world-cup-2010-england-usa-brick — has been viewed 1.3 million times.
By Internet standards this is a massive amount.
Moritz began making the films three years ago for matches of his local club Hanover, using a highly time-consuming technique called stop-motion.
This involves taking an individual photo for every frame of the video, and moving the Lego pieces by hand in between. One goal can require up to 80 photos.
Moritz then makes the film on what he refers to as his “rubbish” computer, using “special tricks” to make the ball appear to fly. He adds the original television commentary.
The attention to detail is awe-inspiring. The figures resemble the players, the crowd jumps up in celebration for goals and Moritz superimposes a red line for offside decisions. Some supporters even have vuvuzela horns.
“Franck Ribery is my favorite figure,” Moritz says, proudly showing off the French midfielder’s blue-shirted Lego double, which looks like it was taken from a Lego pirate set.
England’s balding striker Wayne Rooney is instantly recognizable, as is Germany coach Joachim Loew with a hairdo taken from a Lego Harry Potter set. He has hundreds of figures, some of them more than 30 years old.
“What really annoys me is when the figures fall over because I have to work out exactly where it was before,” Moritz says. “The goalkeepers fall over a lot.”
Moritz chooses for his videos the most exciting of the three daily World Cup matches, but being under contract to make videos of England games has meant he has had to compromise.
“For the 0-0 [between England and Algeria] I had to ask what I was supposed to film ... It was so boring,” Moritz said.
“The guy from the Guardian said I should make clips of how angry the fans were, and of how Rooney was insulted, and various weird songs, and I managed to put something together,” he said. “I don’t have that many hair pieces [for the Lego figures], but it was okay because the England fans tend not to have that much hair anyway.”
On his Web site, Moritz has even posted a Lego version, in black and white, of England’s 1966 World Cup victory over West Germany, complete with the famous “they think it’s all over” original commentary.
And he doesn’t want England to exit the competition early.
“If England get knocked out then I’m going to miss out on money,” he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique