World Tallest Lego Tower Record

While the world's stock markets go down in flames, allow us to divert your attention with this trifle: The record for tallest LEGO tower in the world has been broken! Hey, at least something is going up. The honor goes to hundreds of children in Vienna, building a monstrous tower of LEGO measuring 96.7 feet.

This enormous spire, built to commemorate 100 Years of Friends of Children, beats out the former tallest LEGO tower at Legoland Windsor in England by a slim margin — it's just over 7 inches higher. The new tower is so tall, the children assembled the structure in pieces before adults lifted each section to the pinnacle by a crane. Nice work, kiddies!

Worlds Tallest LEGO Tower at Legoland Windsor Theme Park

This monster was built in the Legoland Windsor theme park in the U.K. of 500,000 LEGO bricks, and stands just shy of 100 feet high. That eclipses the old record of 96.1 feet from August of last year by more than three feet, and has been submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records for authentication.

Notice the stabilizing guy wires, holding the enormous tower of plastic steady as it reaches to the sky. Good thing they had a crane to place the half-millionth piece atop the huge stack. Why all this falderal? Well, if you can believe it, this is the 50th anniversary of LEGO, a half-century ago shoving aside Erector Sets, coonskin caps and Hula Hoops to become one of fave diversions of ersatz builders the world over.