Hippopotamus – kit from LEGO® bricks

Description

Everyone probably recognises hippos, but not everyone knows that the not-so-gentle giants were also formerly native to European waters. But that was millions of years ago. Nowadays, they are only to be found in Africa, but no longer at the Nile, where settlers once came across the first signs of this interesting species.

The name is rather misleading, since hippos are more closely related to whales, not horses (hippopotamus derives from the Greek for ‘river horse’). They cannot swim very well, though. Their favourite activity is to glide along the waterbed, which they effortlessly reach thanks to their body weight of up to 4.5 tonnes. While there, they like to take a nap. They surface every five minutes almost automatically in order to breathe. Usually, they only venture on land in the dark, where they eat mainly grass. But take care: they also like meat in an emergency.

Number of original LEGO® bricks: 150

Measurements of the model: 11.2 x 5.4 x 11.6 cm

Difficulty level: intermediate