Call made to support Highland cow Lego set
Wedding hopes for creator if design becomes a reality
THE driver of an off-duty bus has been charged after a crash in West Lothian which ripped the roof off the vehicle.
The 59-year-old driver hit a railway bridge on the B7010, near Fauldhouse rail station at about 5.55am yesterday. No injuries were reported and the road later re-opened.
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “Arrangements were made for the bus to be recovered and the road is open.
“A 59-year-old man has been charged and will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal.”
LA spokesperson for West Lothian Council said staff attended the low bridge to assist with the clean-up operation. Network Rail, who assessed the bridge for damage, confirmed that services operating at the station are running as normal.
A spokesperson for Lothian Buses, which operates the affected vehicle, said: “We can confirm that one of our Lothian Country vehicles was involved in an incident earlier this morning and we are fully assisting Police Scotland with their inquiries.”
EGO is just a few hundred votes away from considering creating a Highland cow Lego set – and its designer hopes to get it over the line in time for a very special milestone.
Tom Prest, a software engineer, built the Highland cow model over a year ago as a demonstration for a “build an animal week” at a school Lego club he ran in Milngavie.
His cow, named Hamish McBreige, features adjustable horns and uses a Lego croissant for the tip of the tail.
Prest told The National: “I had some plans for building a stag or something, and it wasn’t going very well. I decided to build a different kind of animal, and looked around our flat, where my fiancee has filled it with various Highland cow-themed things. And I was like, I should totally build a Highland cow!”
Prest’s fiancee has long been supportive of his Lego building, and encouraged him to buy his first Lego set when he rediscovered it around a decade ago.
He said building the Highland cow, something he’s never seen done before, came with some challenges.
“The sides, with the hairy effect, were the first thing I had in my mind when I decided to build it.
“But when I added a head it was too big for the body, and when I built a new body it was too big for the head.”
After finalising the design, Prest took the model to various Lego shows, including the Edinbrick festival in Edinburgh, where it was met with rave reviews.
Six months ago, he decided to add the design to Lego Ideas, a platform used by the toy company to find new designs. Prospective designs need 10,000 votes to be considered for conversion into a Lego set – and Prest’s sits at exactly 9400.
He has 573 days to gather the remaining 600 votes, but for him, there’s a personal target that brings that total much lower.
“We want to get to the 10,000 sooner because we’re getting married in two weeks, and I really want to get it before the wedding.
“I don’t always have the best confidence in the things I create, so even just to get 10,000 supporters would be amazing. The small percentage of revenue wouldn’t go amiss either, for a newly married couple.”
The Lego Ideas listing describes the design as “a great way to show your Scottish pride in Lego form”.
It adds: “The build itself is a perfect blend of accuracy and cuteness, with posable horns, a deceptively simple technique used for the fluffy coat, and even a croissant for the tip of the tail!”
Prest, who has lived in Scotland since 2011, has created two other Lego creations themed around the country, which he shared on his Instagram page.
One, created for Robert Burns’s birthday, shows Tam from the poet’s Tam o’ Shanter being pursued over the Brig o’ Doon by a witch. Another is a stylised Saltire built from Lego, showing a cloudy cross over a blue backdrop.
The cow’s name came from suggestions from supporters of the design on the Lego Ideas website – “Hamish” comes from its common use as a Scottish given name, and “McBreige” comes from the Gaelic breige, meaning brick.
Users on the Lego Ideas website have hailed the creation, with one commenter writing: “No I don’t care if he’s made of Lego. I will snuggle him if it’s the last thing I do.”
Another said: “How is this not already a thing? It must happen!”