Trolley Problems

"Downtown Train"

811 pieces  |  LEGO: 60423

Assembled by Andrew Deese, June 2025

Interaction Rating: 5 / 5 (interaction with the set is encouraged)

February 15, 2025

The day after Sarah and Hunter's third anniversary, they attended their friend Mike's birthday party. Mike's partner, Vanessa, had sneakily prepared a surprise game for Mike, which she'd asked Sarah and Hunter to help her with before the party. Her goal was to recreate one of Mike's favorite game shows on YouTube called Trolley Problems. The premise of the game is tied to the famous thought experiment called the trolley problem. Vanessa asked Sarah and Hunter to help with writing some of the dilemmas that would appear during the game. Once the scenarios had been written, Vanessa polled the good people on the RVA subreddit to have them vote for which of the two options for each scenario they'd choose.

During the game itself at Mike's birthday party, there were two teams of two during the first round, which used scenarios from the actual YouTube show. The object of the game was to correctly guess how the show's audience answered each dilemma. Hunter competed on one of the teams. One dilemma required the players to choose between letting all the fish in the world die or letting their first-grade teacher die. Hunter had to sacrifice his mother (who was also his first-grade teacher) in order to save all the fish in the world, and therefore, humanity (sorry, Kristy!). It turned out to be a needless sacrifice, as the majority of people polled on that question voted to save their first-grade teacher (which Hunter finds ridiculous, since no one would survive long without fish and the ensuing ecosystem collapse that would cause). During the game, there was also a physical challenge, and he had to eat 6 mini corn dogs in 30 seconds. He was the only person who could do it. Those who failed the challenge were sprayed with a water bottle for the rest of the night anytime they cursed (one friend was quite drenched by night's end). Hunter's team was victorious, and he won a little tin box of chocolates.

Mike and another friend played against each other in the second round using the dilemmas that Sarah and Hunter helped write. Here's an example scenario, which plays on the Richmond Water Crisis, a three-day loss of water in the city brought on by two inches of snow in January 2025:

They'd be remiss to leave out the amazing detail that while hosting this game show, Vanessa wore a train conductor's cap and blew a train whistle at the beginning of each round. Overall, the evening was a fun and creative way to celebrate Mike.