16 February 2012

The Rise and Fall of the Snow Miku Sculpture

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During the Sapporo Snow Festival (6th - 12th February) a Snow Miku snow sculpture was built based on this year's Nendoroid Snow Miku Fluffy Coat ver. figure. Naturally Hatsune Miku fans would be delighted to see it, especially in person. But tradegy struck as the scultpure collapsed on 7th (even injuring 1 person), but good news came as it was to be rebuilt on 10th. The not so good news was that the reborn Miku didn't look quite like as it should have been... ^^;

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Another image of the Snow Miku before the collapse.

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The collapsed Snow Miku with policemen at the scene. Image from @noriB4 on twitpic.

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The damage on the Snow Miku Was... Devastating. The top part collapsed and there was nothing left but rubbles of snow. The reason for the collapse was apparently due to the fact that the temperature had risen to 2C, causing the snow to melt slightly and the heavy head to fall.

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What's worse was that the sculpture collapsed on a passerby, a visitor in her 60s. She had a light injury on the waist, and had to be sent to hospital.


On 10th February it was confirmed that the scultpure would be rebuilt. Here shows a picture of Snow Miku being rebuilt.

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Within 9 hours or so a new Snow Miku sculpture is made, with extra snow at the back to hold the scultpure in place. But the face looks a bit different... With the slight misaligned eyes and the lack of eye brows, the new Snow Miku now gives a deadly stare of an "evil god" (邪神), just like the notorious "Sader" and the McDonald Sasuke.

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The people on 2ch even made a Shift_JIS art image out of it too.


Well, that concludes The Rise and Fall of the Snow Miku Sculpture. The collapse is quite widely reported; even some local Hong Kong newspapers mentioned it as well. :o I hope the lady who got injured by the collapse gets well soon.

Sources:
http://jin115.com/archives/51847024.html
http://jin115.com/archives/51847036.html
http://jin115.com/archives/51847713.html
http://jin115.com/archives/51848027.html

5 comments:

  1. the rebuild version looks creepy..

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  2. I've heard about the collapse, but this is my first time seeing the pictures. The second snow Miku looks so bad compared to the first, it's really obvious that they did it in a hurry. I'm wondering if they sprayed and mist on it after it was completed. That would've created a layer of ice, making it slightly stronger.

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  3. When Miku Attacks - RUNNNNnnnnnnn

    I heard about this and was stunned that it happened. You would of thought there was enough room around her in case it does fall.

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  4. hmm next thing you know they will release the evil god snow miku version nendo :P But its sad to see such a great work coming apart...very heartbreaking for the sculptors..

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  5. @ h4mster:
    Creepy and not pleasing to the eyes indeed ^^;

    @ Nopy:
    It's a pity how the second one seem so much in a rush that there is no passion in the remake. I haven't heard of the idea of spraying mist to create a thin ice layer before. This does sound like an interesting idea to strengthen the structure.

    @ bluedrakon:
    The local police might want to question Miku personally for this particular incident ^^;

    I do wonder how the collapse causes the injury as there is a cordon of tape to leave enough space between the snowman and the public walkway, but as someone does pose the nendoroids right on the base of the statue it may mean that people can actually get quite close to it. Looking at the 3rd picture of the collapsed statue shows how far the head actually rolls out to. Nevertheless I hope this won't happen again.

    @ chubbybots:
    Hahahaha I joked about that to some friends before, but I'd be scarred if they do make such thing in real life!

    It must be quite saddening for the sculptor(s) to know that the snowman work collapsed. Having to rush the reconstruction can cause less passion to be put into it, hence why it looks out of shape compared to the first one :\

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