10,000 people vote for a LEGO set recreating the horrific reality of sewage waste

The latest LEGO Ideas 10K project pays tribute to wastewater workers by recreating the horrific reality of what’s lurking inside our sewers.

Filed firmly under ‘LEGO projects we never thought we’d see’, Ideas user MOCingbird’s latest design champions the ‘essential contributions’ of professionals who manage and maintain water and wastewater infrastructure. The 360-degree build is intended as an educational piece, informing kids and adults alike about what’s going on in the sewers beneath city streets: namely, fatbergs.

Comprised of waste like cooking grease, wet wipes, food, plasters and so on, fatbergs are effectively a stomach-churning accumulation of all the things we shouldn’t be flushing down the toilet. They can grow to enormous sizes, weighing more than 100 tonnes, and are a serious problem. Not only are they (obviously) bad for the environment, but they also risk clogging sewers, leading to flooded streets.

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“While it’s impossible to squeeze the entirety of this complex topic into just one LEGO set, you can still start somewhere,” the builder writes on the project page. “Dedicated to all the water and wastewater professionals out there, ‘Sewer Heroes: Fighting the Fatberg’ turns the spotlight on the urban underground in a way never seen before in LEGO form, playfully bringing into focus one of the biggest problems of our sewer systems’ infrastructure: the infamous fatberg!”

Their design packs in 2,521 pieces in total, including pearl gold parts for the fatberg itself – just to really hammer home the fact it’s basically a big greasy iceberg – and eight minifigures. Given MOCingbird’s previous 10K efforts include a basement and sewerage model, it’s clearly a subject they’re passionate about. Whether this is the one that finally gets across the mark (and becomes an official set) is now up to the LEGO Ideas review board.

We’ll find out when the results of the third 2022 review are revealed in summer 2023. Here’s a complete round-up of every project in this round so far:

Sewer Heroes: Fighting the Fatberg
Cipher Machine
Golden Clifftop Temple
JWST
Classic Thunderbirds
The Wright Flyer
BOTW Temple of Time
Pixar’s Up House with Balloons
The Travel Suitcase
Japanese Courtyard Garden
The Lost City 
Pac-Man Moving Display 
Castle Dracula 
This Is Fine 
Ancient Roman Temple

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