Lego club Lug South have got their hands on the official blueprints and are getting ready to make the toys to send to Southland and Dunedin hospitals.
Lego first released 600 of the hospital machinery replicas in 2018 but Lug South secretary Gavin Evans said the toys never made it to New Zealand.
At the time, Lego said the model was designed around the child’s perspective of the full-body scan, and to help build confidence, resilience and ultimately reduce anxiety.
Mr Evans said he was contacted by a playroom worker at Southland Hospital who asked if he knew or had the means to remake the toy.
He did and contacted a club overseas which made instructions for the build after Lego charged it with constructing the models in 2018.
Mr Evans then invited fellow South clubmates Lance Eder and Cory Varcoe to build the tiny MRIs.
The project was a full-circle moment for Mr Eder who was treated for leukaemia 40 years ago, when he was 7.
He never had an MRI, but before his radiation treatment he had X-rays done at Dunedin Hospital, where staff allowed him to X-ray his own Lego toy.
It was cool he was able to give back and help children going through the same thing, he said.
Mr Varcoe said he was charged with gathering and organising parts for the first five MRIs to go to the South.
The group plans to set their sights further afield and distribute the miniatures to children’s wards across the country.
