Lego fans celebrate in Te Puke

A myriad of Lego builds were on show at the Lego Fan Display held at Fairhaven School in Te Puke. Photos and video: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

Lego fans young and old descended on Fairhaven School in Te Puke on Saturday, where elaborate Lego creations and collections were displayed by the Hamilton Lego Users Group for the first time in the Bay of Plenty.

Te Puke's own Brick Kids Lego Club also exhibited their creations, while Auckland-based company Toyco was there selling Lego sets and books.

Teacher Marianne Wilson says money raised from the show will go towards buying a Lego set for every class in the school.

'Most teachers have brought in their own kids' Lego but we need more. It's great for maths and problem-solving, among other things.”

Te Puke's Brick Kids Lego Club was set up by 7-year-old Aiden Lints. Aiden lost the use of his lower legs after a serious car accident when he was just two years old. His love of Lego began during the long and tedious hours spent in hospital during his recovery.

Together with his mum, Monique Lints, they run the club at the Te Puke Library on Friday afternoons after school. The Lego was funded from grants and donations from the community and about 25 kids aged from three to 15 years from local schools come along each week to create Lego masterpieces.

Monique says the club is about fostering creativity in a supportive environment.

'Our motto is ‘be awesome' and the kids encourage each other to succeed.”

It's also a great motivation for good behaviour – kids who don't perform well at home or school during the week are stood down from the club for a week.

Paul Teesdale, president of HamLUG, with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Hamilton Lego User Group president Paul Teesdale says there are around 30 members in the club, ranging in ages from 18 to those in their 60s.

'We've been going for around 18 months now. We just enjoy promoting Lego to the public, especially kids. We previously did a show up in Hunua School up in Auckland in February, and following that we were asked if we wanted to do one here in Te Puke.”

HamLUG members also judged a student Lego building competition on the day.

'A select number of HamLUG members have gone through, looked at them all, and picked the most creative ones. A lot of them were sets, but we want to see people building from the imagination.”

Paul says he played with Lego as a child, but went through a bit of a ‘dark age' before getting back into it as an adult.

'I was a bit disappointed because I sold all my Lego when I was a teenager, and now I have kids who play with Lego,” he adds.

A reason as good as any to hold onto that box of plastic bricks in the garage.

Aiden Lints, 8, Dan Lints, 6, Hamish Paget, 8, Jayden Harris, 7, Oliver Brown, 7, Isla Brown, 5 - all from Te Puke's own Brick Kids Lego Club.

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