24 Dec 2018

The campaign for Lego to make a Kākāpō set

From Afternoons, 1:33 pm on 24 December 2018

Hayden Pickford's kākāpō Lego design has more than half the support it needs for the huge company to consider turning into a commercially available set. 

Hayden Pickford's lego Kakapo

Hayden Pickford's lego Kakapo Photo: Supplied/ Hayden Pickford

Pickford designed and built the Lego kākāpō - which is about 10cm high, 25cm long, has moveable wings and clawed feet - out of pieces from other sets.

"When I was a kid I was really into Lego like most kids are, so from about 3 to 12 I was constantly making things," he tells Afternoons' Jesse Mulligan. 

"I sort of stopped until I was about 25 but then I kind of got back into it again.

"I think from building quite a lot of the larger sets you get quite a few good techniques and you learn things from that - from there you just try your own things: does it work, does it not?"

Mini lego Kakapo

Mini lego Kakapo Photo: Supplied/ Hayden Pickford

Hayden - who has also built mini kākāpō, kea, kākāriki and pīwakawaka designs - submitted the kākāpō design to the Lego Ideas website.

If it achieves 10,000 supporters then Lego will review the design and it may become an official product to be sold worldwide. 

After 181 days, it's more than surpassed 5000 supporters, and has 600 days to get to 10,000.

"I think it would be a great way to sort of showcase our native fauna to the wold," Hayden says.

"A good way to hopefully get people interested - not just in kākāpō or New Zealand native species but endangered species in general." 

To learn more about kākāpō, check out RNZ's Kākāpō files podcast