After receiving a certificate for building
the Colosseum, I badly wanted to do it again. So I got my hands on the Millennium Falcon, that's
over 7,500 pieces and I lined everything up, I had all three cameras and witnesses,
timekeeper, everything all set up ready to go. Around bag three, I was
coming across extra pieces. And I would go back in the manual, find out where
they go, attach them, it was taking up so much unnecessary time. And I came across a section, it was towards the
end. It was the section that snaps onto the top and I had an extra piece, it was a wedge plate.
I just couldn't find where it was supposed to go and it had gotten to the point where I was
just like 'hey, maybe this is just an extra piece'. Usually pieces this size aren't extra
but I was thinking hey maybe this is a mistake. And so, I just moved on, I completed the build. We
celebrated, it was great. I went to bed that night and I woke up the following morning and was like
this isn't right, I really need to know if this is a leftover piece because one of the rules is
that everything has to be properly attached, it has to be put together perfectly. So I went
back through and I took that top piece off and I went through the instruction book and
sure enough, it was totally supposed to be attached to the set. So I submitted
everything, I did the witness statements, time keeper statements and in my cover letter
report, I included 'hey, I have this extra piece, it was supposed to be attached'. I took
pictures on where it was supposed to go. I did get an email two or three weeks later
and they said you're disqualified. But they were really kind about it, they weren't jerks at
all, they were like 'hey, the judges really had a hard time with this but the rules are the rules'
and when I told friends and family about this, the majority of them were like oh my gosh why did
you do that, why did you report a missing piece! And I told them, I'm really proud of
the Colosseum certificate that I have and I like to show it to people and I like to
talk about it and people like to hear about it. But, I just couldn't justify receiving a
certificate and having people be excited and wanting to know about it and in the back of my
mind I would always say I didn't really deserve it. Will I be attempting it again? Yes! Anytime
soon? No, but definitely within the next year.
