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Everything You Could Possibly Want to Know About This Tiger Stadium Replica I Built

Ten months and 3,185 pieces later. Ask me anything.

By Evan Saacks

It was a long offseason. How did you spend it? Don’t answer that. I’m only asking as a polite segue into telling you about how I built a 3,185-piece Tiger Stadium model!

A lot of people have asked me various questions about it, so I will attempt to answer them here.

FAST FACTS

  • These are not Legos. This is a company called Foco that specializes in building sets for sports fans. You can find the Tiger Stadium on their website here.
  • I have been building this on and off since October. I began immediately after the loss to Florida as a way to temper my seething rage. So the question of “How long did it take to build?” is difficult to answer. If I worked on it every day consecutively, I estimate it would’ve taken about a month.
  • In the building process I lost the sticker with the TIGER STADIUM lettering that goes on the west side. I was so high from finishing building to be too upset about it.
  • Yes, yes, I know the style of field goal post is incorrect. But as you can see, that is a Foco mistake and not me. @olmec26 pointed out on Twitter that it also does not have the 5-yard line markers. C’mon Foco... these parts should be easy compared to the rest.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: What was the hardest part of the build?

A: A lot of times you will have a piece that is half on top of one piece and half hanging off. Then you will be asked to snap a piece on the side that’s hanging off, which is difficult with no support underneath. Some sections don’t snap and fit together very naturally, which was frustrating.

Q: How small are the pieces?

A: MICROSCOPIC. The smallest pieces are so small that I don’t even think they’re a choking hazard because even a newborn baby could swallow it whole (please don’t test this theory with your newborn, Billy). Each page of the instructions lists which pieces you need for each step, and I spent more time digging around for the pieces I needed then I did actually putting them together.

Q: Is this best for adults or for children?

A: As someone who spent much of my childhood building Legos and K’nex, I have a hard time recommending anyone under the age of 12 try to build this. The instructions aren’t great and there are lots of pieces that could easily go missing. I do think this would be a cool project for a parent and child to work on together. At least I think so. My dad’s an engineer so this stuff always came natural to him and I guess I just assume all dads can build things easily.

Q: Did you add anything to it not in the instructions in an attempt to make it more accurate?

A: No but I considered pouring Bud Light on it and putting a Juul in the student section.

Q: Is your replica glued together?

A: No, and it doesn’t need to be. These pieces are snapped so securely that I can hold it upside down with one hand.

Q: What do you plan to do with your model?

A: This will go on a shelf/display in every apartment/house I live in for the rest of my life. After all the work I put into it, it better be on display at my funeral.

Feel free to comment with any questions I didn’t cover.