'Teletubbies' home morphs into butterfly

BOLTON, England, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A famous British soccer player has ditched plans to build a house modeled after one on the TV show "Teletubbies" for a mansion shaped like a butterfly.

Soccer legend Gary Neville, 36, gave up on his plan to build his "Teletubbies" home in favor of a futuristic design by the German firm Huf Haus, The Mirror reported.

Neville had fought an 18-month battle to build his Teletubbies house, which resembled the one built into a hillside in the hit ­children's TV program.

"The new place is totally­ different to his Teletubbies venture," said one neighbor of Neville's on the West Pennine moors. "People have called it the ­butterfly house because of its shape."

The new structure is made of glass, wood and other eco-friendly materials, with two roofs jutting out like wings.

"Apparently some of the new building will be underground like the Teletubbies project. No one knows why he had a change of heart as he spent a fortune pushing the plans through," the neighbor said.