Thu, Oct 14, 2021 8:48 AM

Love of Lego to go on show

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Erin Bradnock - Local Democracy Reporter

Self-confessed “Lego nerd” Sam Currie is getting his build together for this year’s Top of the South Brick Show next month.

This year’s show is a fundraiser organised by the Nelson Brick Club to help fund Motueka High School’s coding and robot course.

A Nelson College science teacher by day, Sam Currie is one of about 15 Nelson Brick Club members who will be contributing to this year’s show.

Sam has been a part of the club, that has nearly 60 members in the region, for about four years but has had a lifelong love for Lego.

“I was completely mad on it as a kid,” says Sam.

After a stocktake a few months ago, Sam says he has accumulated more than 150 sets of Lego, meticulously organised in a dedicated space that his wife and three children have affectionately labelled as “the Lego room”.

“If a young Sam was in this room, he wouldn’t know what to make of it. He’d probably sit down and get into everything.”

He estimates his Lego collection to be worth about $15,000, with some of his sets now worth triple what they were bought for in the 1980s and 1990s.

One toy, a limited-edition UNICEF Lego van which was released in 1985, can now be sold for more than $2000 and that’s just for sets without the box.

For this year’s brick show Sam dreamed that his project, three years in the making, would be completed. The “mothership” build is to be an ode to the 1990s “M-Tron series” - the most beloved set from his childhood.

However, the project has seen many redesigns and Sam decided to add a motorised lift to the build.  So, it’s looking like the “mothership” will have to wait another year before seeing the light of day.

“It probably won’t be ready in time for the show.”

Instead, Sam is getting to work on his ‘plan b’, a series of motorised trains.

The sixth annual Top of the South Brick Show is on at the Motueka Memorial Hall on 13 & 14 November with a gold coin entry.

Nelson App is owned by Top South Media. a locally owned media company.