Sorting 200k Lego pieces is bliss
It all started with a yellow Lego castle for his eighth birthday.
Now, Aucklander Colin Doyle has 200,000 pieces of the popular toy.
The Lego fanatic said he had no idea how much he had spent on his hobby but the stress relief was priceless.
‘‘The sound of sorting Lego bricks is better than a relaxation tape for me.’’
The 46-year-old said he had created many models over the years, but his pride and joy was a space-themed moon base that he had built over the past two years.
Some of the 4000 pieces used in the model were collector’s items from the 1960s.
He will display the moon base and other models at the Auckland Brick Show at the Trusts Arena in Auckland.
‘‘I think there are a few original Bennys in there too.’’
Benny was a spaceman minifigure released by Lego in 1984.
The nostalgia factor was one of his favourite things at the Auckland Brick Show, he said.
‘‘Many people who bring the children to the show come up to me and say: ‘that came out in my childhood’; or ‘wow, that’s a piece that came out in 1981’.’’
But that was not the only thing he liked about displaying his Lego creations at the show.
‘‘For three days I can be a kid with his castles and spaceships.’’
The avid collector had not forgotten his first Lego set.
The yellow castle was stored in his basement with thousands of other pieces.
Doyle is meticulous in the way he stores his Lego.
Hundreds of labelled boxes and containers line the walls of his hobby room.
‘‘If there is one thing I should have done, I should have bought shares in [plastic box manufacturer] Sistema.’’
Being a Lego fan is not Doyle’s only gig. He has a PHD from Stanford University in the United States.
He is also the technical manager at the Research Centre for Surface and Materials Science at Auckland University.
Doyle is responsible for the only XPS spectrometer in the country – a $1.4 million piece of analytical equipment that uses X-rays to identify the elements present in materials and to determine their chemical bonding environment.
The Auckland Brick Show is on October 21 to 23 at The Trusts Arena, Henderson.