A Christchurch man has been piecing together the history of every Lego figure released since 1975.

Christoph Bartneck, senior lecturer and director of postgraduate studies at Canterbury University's Human Interface Technology Laboratory, started cataloguing the Lego figures after doing research into the product.

"I've always had an interest in Lego. When I was very small, I told my parents I wanted to be a Lego inventor when I grew up, and I even worked for Lego in Denmark after I finished studying," he said.

He began his project in 2010 while living in the Netherlands and continued it after he moved to Christchurch in December that year.

The first catalogue contains nearly 4000 figurines released between 1975 and 2010. He has also compiled books on Star Wars and Harry Potter mini-figures, and a book on the 400 new figures released last year.

He contacted collectors from around Europe and New Zealand to ask if he could photograph their collections.

"It's impossible to get them all," he said. "Some of them you can't buy anywhere."

Bartneck has founded a Lego group in Christchurch which will hold an exhibition in July.

"Playing with Lego never stops being fun, but during one phase of your life you stop playing with it because it's uncool and you're supposed to go and do sport and have a girlfriend and drink beer. Lego fans call this the dark ages," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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