- (man) I can't rebuild that.
- I'm actually tearing up.
It's about Lego,
but I'm tearing up.
- Eight years of your life.
- You don't get those hours
and days of building
these things back.
♪ (dramatic intro) ♪
- (man) Hey guys,
it's me, Republicattak.
- We know this.
- Oh, I saw this.
He got robbed, didn't he?
- (man) Probably
my last video.
- What?
- (man) I came back home
two hours ago
and found the car in the parking
being having the window destroyed.
- Oh no.
- (man) I found Lego pieces
all over the garden
and the terrace.
- Someone break in?
- His Lego collection was stolen.
- (man) Broken windows and doors
and finally, I saw also
destroyed Legos just
down the stairs.
- Damn.
- Have you ever been working
on a video and then
you lose everything?
That's what this is like.
- (man) And my creation,
which was here, gone.
Totally destroyed.
- Why would anyone do that?
- Someone just randomly
came to his house
and destroyed all his Legos?
- Dang, that's a lot of hard work
just destroyed.
- Was it a random burglar
or rival Lego gangs?
Are there Lego gangs?
- (man) [inaudible]
before departing for work,
because I can be gone...
- Why are you making me
react to this?
This has a happy ending, right?
- (man) And the same for
many of my sets.
All many UCS, too,
many new sets,
all including the
Millennium Falcon,
which I didn't have
the occasion to build yet.
- Really?
Oh no.
- He's so sad.
This is so sad.
- It's very sad.
It's something that you
can totally just relate to.
- (man) So, I'm just stopping
videos.
- Just gonna give up?
- (man) It's been...
- Oh my goodness.
Aw.
It's okay to cry.
Please don't bottle it.
- (man) Fourteen years
of collection.
- Fourteen years?
- Fourteen years of collection?
- (man) Without maybe with
a lot of money,
I can't rebuild that.
- I'm actually tearing up.
It's about Lego,
but I'm tearing up.
- (man) My bricks gone.
They took whole spots.
- It's extraordinarily sad.
It's awful.
- (man) So, I'm just stopping.
- No, he's giving up
on his dream.
- Poor guy.
- (man) I don't know
what I'm going to do,
but yeah, so it was
pretty great to have you
follow me [inaudible].
- It sucks.
It's the nostalgic thing
and then it's also
the business that you've built.
It's [bleep].
- (man) Inspire other people
doing also Legos.
I really enjoyed that.
- You're a talented architect.
- (man) I had some plans
for my creations.
It was an Imperial March.
- (both) Oh my gosh.
- (man) No.
Not what it was supposed to be,
but how it was.
- Aw, this is just sad.
- (man) With an AT-AT,
[inaudible].
- We're huge Star Wars fans.
This is really--
I'm wanting to cry.
- I feel really bad because
I can tell how passionate he is
about Legos and I have the same
passion--
I used to have the same passion
about Glee,
as dumb as it sounds.
- (man) I really enjoyed Legos
since a child.
I was six years old when
I got my first set,
was really a passion.
- He's still a little kid at heart.
- It seems like his whole life
has been about Legos
and this just completely
destroyed him
and I feel really bad.
- (man) It really was my passion.
In fact, it was a part of me
because when I walk
and I come back to weekend
just for relaxing.
- They came for Legos,
but they left with his heart.
- (man) For troubling
and what I'm thinking about
for leisure and trying to relax.
I'm thinking about my Lego
projects.
- Oh no.
He can't relax.
- (man) Gone.
So next week,
I have to go again.
- Ah.
This guy's going through
so much emotion right now.
- (man) And so that's the end
of this channel.
- No.
- (man) What's really strange
is that they personally come
for Legos.
I mean, no laptop been stolen,
no computers.
- Wait, they personally
came for Legos?
That's really [bleep] up.
- (man) There was a brand new
Mac computer.
They didn't stole it.
- Must have been people
watching his video.
- This is honestly something
a third grader would do.
- (man) So thank you
for following me
for all those eight years
and bye.
Wishing you the best
with your Legos
and just be careful,
because there are some
bastards out there
and so goodbye.
- Aw.
- That is so sad.
- I'm kinda tearing up.
- I'm tearing up.
- Eight years of your life.
What was it, like $18,000
or something that was
stolen?
- You don't get those hours
and days of building
these things back.
- If this was just pure
malicious intent,
that is incredibly disheartening,
incredibly sad.
- Some people think sometimes
some things are funny
to destroy or something.
Even if you don't care,
it can affect another person.
- (FBE) So this video came
from YouTuber Republicattak,
who's been on YouTube
for eight years.
- Whoo, okay.
- Wow, and every year he was--
he said eight years
he was building that.
- (FBE) He's been collecting Legos
since 2004 with the hopes
of turning this into a career,
however as he mentioned,
the majority of his collection
was stolen a few weeks ago.
- Dang, that is so awful.
- That's depressing.
Why are people so mean?
- (FBE) However, this video
went viral on Reddit
and actually lead to
a GoFundMe page being created
with the hopes of restoring
the $18,000 worth of property
that he lost.
- Wow.
- 18,000?
Now I can really, really
understand also why.
- It's cool that people 
jumped in to help.
That shows the power
of the internet
and how people can
get together.
- (FBE) As you'll see here,
he hoped to raise
$18,000 and here is the page.
- Aw.
In eleven days?
Wow.
- With a thousand
and they reached it.
They got 18.
- People watch people
to live vicariously through
someone else's passions
so that if their passion
gets destroyed, they obviously
wanna support in any way
that they can and it seems like
he's got a very engaged,
sweet audience that really
encouraged him.
- It's another one of those times
where the internet just
comes together and helps
this poor kid out,
but I feel like something
else needs to be done.
I feel like we need to find out
who this Lego bully is.
- (FBE) Once they reached
the $18,000 that they needed,
he immediately shut down
the campaign because he said
he didn't wanna take more
that what was needed.
- Oh wow.
Well damn.
He's a good guy.
He just wants to collect his Legos.
- The fact that it actually
happened though,
that someone broke into
his house.
That is so scary
'cause you know,
as YouTubers, that's our
biggest fear.
- This is one of my biggest
fears being a creator
is that someone will target me
and infiltrate my personal space
and take things away from me
that I hold of value.
- If there's any silver lining
to this, hopefully this tragedy
got him more people
watching his channel
when he rebuilds all the
Legos again.
I hope that happens.
- It's not just about the money too,
'cause it's gonna take all
the time and effort
to rebuild all that
and he was even making
things that aren't sets.
He was creating whole scenes
and stuff from Star Wars.
- (FBE) So Republicattak
is a relatively small
to mid-sized channel
who at the time of the robbery
had just over 4,000 subscribers.
- Oh wow, that's even crazier then.
- We all know what he's feeling.
We all can see just that
raw sadness.
Just having this big collection
just taken away.
- (FBE) How would it feel
if something like this happened
while your channel was around
that size?
- It sucks, 'cause you're beating
people when they're already
sort of not down,
but on their way up.
- Ooh, I'm a constantly
paranoid person.
I think I would be even more
scared to have more attention on me
for this sort of thing
that there might be a lot
of bad apples out there
that now see this as
a funny thing to take advantage of
rather than a real thing.
- It's more positive now,
because his story doesn't end,
'cause that's just messed up
for that to go unfixed,
but man, that's just
a traumatic event
in that dude's life
and it's obvious from his video
that it really rocked his world
and you can empathize with that
and I think that's why
people donated.
- When I first started
my first channel that got
hacked and deleted,
it was a channel called
Funky Fresh.
They figured out my password,
which was "funky"
and deleted all my videos
and uploaded some dance videos,
so I understand that even--
it might not seem like a lot,
but when it's all you have
and when you're beginning
to build something,
it's like, "Dude,"
I can see why he wanted
to just give up.
- There's good and bad
on the internet.
There's always gonna be
good and bad,
but if we just highlight
the good stories
and if we focus on that,
I think there's always hope
for better things.
- (FBE) Speaking of leaving
YouTube, there's been
so much discussed of late
about YouTuber burnout
and in addition to creators,
viewers are starting to understand
the reality of being reliant
on a platform and algorithms
and the grind that that is.
- I know all about that.
- I definitely think it's
a conversation that's being
discussed a lot more.
I have made a video about burnout
and I know that I get asked
about it.
- (FBE) So, we want you to tell
us honestly, has there ever
been a time where you have
thought about leaving YouTube?
- There's never been a time
where I wanted to leave YouTube,
but there's definitely been
a time where I felt
not motivated
or just like I'm personally
burning out on trying
to be creative,
'cause we've been doing this
for six years
and we post every single week
and we've never
missed a Tuesday.
- In the beginning,
when I wasn't big,
a lot of times I was like,
"Well, this isn't working.
I'd better quit," so I took maybe
four breaks.
- I'm not burnt out
because I take breaks.
I have a balance, you know?
Because I don't feel the need
to turn my camera on 24/7
and document everything.
When I started making
YouTube videos,
there wasn't even money in it,
you know?
And I was doing it for fun
and 'cause I wanted to just
make cool content
and share it with people.
As an established YouTuber,
you lose some of that
because you kind of get
into this mindset
of algorithms and views
and money, you know?
And it's difficult to really
remember why you started doing it.
- I had a huge mental breakdown
the beginning of this year
and I was not okay.
It's something I'm
so passionate about
and it's the one thing
that makes me happy
and it's also the one thing
that makes me the most
stressed and burnt out.
It's like weighing and balancing,
finding the balance for sure.
- I mean, it's the bread and butter.
You can't leave it
if you need a job.
That being said,
there are always points where
you're burnt out.
- It's super fun, the stuff we make
and we're super grateful
to be able to do it,
but it is still a job
and that's not a bad thing,
but that does require
a lot of effort and focus
and hard work.
- I'm currently on a hiatus
from making YouTube videos
for my own mental health.
There is no--
has never been a blueprint
for making YouTube videos
and there's no rulebook
or no psychological guidance
on how it can affect you
over time and we're all,
as much as we're exploring
and discovering these
new creative endeavors,
we're also exploring
and discovering the way
that they affect our emotional state
and so, it's really a matter
of checking in with yourself
and getting professional help
and not being afraid to do that.
- (FBE) So finally, there are
signs of encouragement
with the GoFundMe
that this creator might eventually
start making videos again
due to the massive support
he's received.
So, what do you wanna say
to him as he makes
his potential return?
- It actually reminds me
of my when I first
started my YouTube.
I started out with
pretty much nothing
and that's what I like about him
is he's just doing what
he loves and then sharing it.
- If you want to make
your potential return,
then do it,
but I do think that there's
gonna be a lot of trauma
around what happened to you
and so I really encourage
you to talk to a professional
or talk to someone about it.
- When I do stumble upon
a channel like this,
it is always very endearing.
It also is seeing how authentic
these people can be.
Keep on doing it, dude.
As long as you enjoy
making those videos
and it seems like you
really enjoy Legos,
I would say keep on living
your dream.
It sucks that it happened to you,
but there's a lot of people
who wanna see you succeed.
- Republicattak, please keep
making videos.
We love Legos
and we love Star Wars.
- Yes.
So, we would love to see
you build those Legos,
'cause I never imagined
buying it myself,
but seeing someone else make it
would be absolutely incredible
to watch,
so please, please continue
your channel
and do not give up.
- It sucks, what happened to you,
and I can imagine how
that makes you wanna just
stop and just give up.
Just don't give up, man.
I'm excited.
I'm gonna subscribe
and I can't wait to see
your next video.
- Hey, make sure you subscribe
to Lego man.
Seems like a sweet guy.
He loves Legos.
We all loved Legos at some point.
He probably has so many
scars on the bottom of his feet
from walking around
in that house with all
the Legos everywhere,
so subscribe and support--
let's support each other, all right?
- Thanks for watching this
episode of YouTubers React.
- Make sure to subscribe
to all the creators
in this episode.
Links in the description.
- Let us know in the comments
what we should react to next.
- Thanks for watching, bye.
- Hi guys, JC here,
producer here at FBE.
Make sure to check out
Republicattak.
All his links are down below
and right over here.
Support him like you support us.
Thanks guys, bye.
