this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024
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Teenager finds ‘holy grail’ Lego octopus from 1997 spill off Cornwall coast (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 6 months ago by sbv to c/[email protected]
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The octopus is one of nearly 5m Lego pieces that fell into the sea in 1997 when a storm hit a cargo ship 20 miles off Land’s End, Cornwall. While 352,000 pairs of flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, and 92,400 swords went overboard, the octopuses are considered the most prized finds as only 4,200 were onboard.

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[–] [email protected] 114 points 6 months ago (3 children)

To clarify, the octopus mold itself isn’t particularly rare or expensive. The article refers to this individual piece as a “holy grail” because among the parts of the Cornwall flotsam, the “octopuses are considered the most prized finds as only 4,200 were onboard” in the lost cargo. The family in the article has been scavenging for years to collect the various parts, so this is something that is valuable to their subset of collectors but not really valuable to the typical Lego collector or fan.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Good to know cause ive got an old bin of lego and got like 5 octopus

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

@MycelialMass @Squorlple was going to mention just the same 😅

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

Thanks for clarifying, I thought it was odd considering the octopus doesn't seem like a rare piece.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Interesting, thanks

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

~~What the fuck, I am 100% positive I have one of those in my childhood Lego crates back in the basement of my mom. Will definitely search for it~~

E: nvm, skipped past the part that they are only special when fished out of the sea spill.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

Just dump it in salt water for a year or so. I👏dentical

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

E: nvm, skipped past the part that they are only special when fished out of the sea spill.

How can someone tell them apart, it's not like they have serial numbers?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Probably by the degree and type of erosion, I would guess. Sellers and traders of these pieces also likely would have to keep up some level of reputability in order to remain in the market.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's plastic, the erosion would likely be minimal if any (sadly, as that contributes to why plastic is so bad for the environment)

[–] threelonmusketeers 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Tom Scott went to visit a couple years back: The beach where Lego keeps washing up

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That sounds cute. And then it gets very un-cute.

That is horrifying..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

TL;DR?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Plastic pollution

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

:(

[–] threelonmusketeers 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's a six minute video. Are our attention spans that short now?

There's also a TL;DR in the body of the main post.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Are our attention spans that short now?

Short form content has completely fucked us up..

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Ocean is full of plastic Legos, got it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

So, if this is in fact from 1997 it would have been on the beach a long time. I myself have beach-combed legos and the ABS is in no way nearly as good condition as this when it's been out to sea a while.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

I went to the beach and all I got was this stupid octopus

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

.