With a laugh Hastings Lego enthusiast and builder Tim Stevens said the most challenging part of working with his two remarkable 1.8m long castle and battle-themed creations was not so much the construction.
“It’s getting them there in one piece,” he said.
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“There” is the Taradale High School venue for the inaugural Hawke’s Bay Brick Show 2017 – a Lego exhibition for all ages sponsored by Napier Toyworld which will feature about 30 remarkable and imaginative creations from local Lego aficionados as well as top builders from throughout the country.
“It is the first one to be staged here and it is going to something pretty special,” Mr Stevens said.
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The show has been organised by about 30 members of the Hawke’s Bay branch of Well-LUG (Wellington Lego User Group) which has branches in the greater Wellington region, Palmerston North, Wairarapa and now the Bay.
“We started the branch here about a year ago,” Mr Stevens said, adding that now being able to stage a national-scale show of the world’s most popular building brick would cement it in place – and likely attract more members.
Like most, he got the Lego bug when he was only 3 or 4 and like the creations he began to build, it grew from there.
“I remember standing in a store staring at all the sets on the wall and wishing I could have everything.”
He couldn’t, but has ended up with about “a thousand men and a couple of hundred horses” – he has always been drawn toward the battle themes and “castle stuff” with figures and horses.
“I’m not the best builder. Some of what people will see at the show is quite incredible.”
There will be everything from a giant train set, Minecraft and Lord of the Rings settings as well as what the club terms ‘MoC’s – my own creation.
“There is no limit to what can be built and there are going to be a lot of different things to see.”
As well as the displays the show will feature a Lego play area for kids to get creative in.
Lego, Mr Stevens said, was a good “hands-on” physical way for youngsters to get creative and learn design and build general motor skills in understanding art, shapes and construction.
And as he explained, it didn’t take a lot of four-by-two blocks (two attachment studs on one side and four on the other) to make something different.
As the Lego sites illustrate, if you have just two of them they can be arranged in 24 different ways.
But if you have six blocks you can arrange them 915 million different ways – yep, 915 million.
“No I haven’t worked that out myself,” Mr Stevens said with a laugh.
“I think they used a computer to come up with that.”
The Hawke’s Bay Brick Show 2017 will be open on Saturday and Sunday at Taradale High School between 9am and 5pm with a $2 admission, and kids under 3 free.