At the risk of sounding anti-German, I can say that they (the dirty germans) do shinguard like this all the time. I work with these guys and they're notorious for making something that can only be fixed with their tools, and their "expertise". If anyone has ever worked on German cars they know what I'm talking about (having to buy 30 different screwdrivers to take off a body panel).
They call it "German Engineering"