"Houston, I have a problem"

Anyone who is unfortunate enough to have known me for a substantial amount of time will know that I have a tendency to be fairly obsessive about odd things, and that on the back of this strange tendency I am a hunter and collector. And shamelessly so. Back when I was a student it was CD singles (always with the B-Sides), a few years later it was MP3's, at some stage I took an interest in peak oil and blogging, and now that I am a father twice over - it is Lego. Of all things...its bloody Lego.

This one is not entirely new, as a kid I was well hooked on Lego. I even (I admit with some chagrin) managed to con my local chapter of the cub-scouts into awarding me a hobby badge for my work in the medium of Lego, and made it my topic of choice for a monologue I had to deliver as part of a Grade 1 speech examination. Looking back the examiners must have been thinking "this skinny kid is frickin' weird."

About a year ago whilst passing time in the Bay of Plen-tay I chanced upon Saada's Lego from when she was a kid. One thing led to another and next thing I was in miniature shipyard mode churning out vessels of all shapes and sizes. Things subsided for a few months while we moved to Wellington until one fateful day when we took Liam to the Moore Wilson toy department and I wandered into the Lego section while he ran amok, when out of the blue some sales assistant approaches me with a stack of king size Lego boxes and in a knowing tone informs me - "these are going on sale for fifty bucks".

"Fifty bucks eh?"

Like offering a junkie a cheap first hit I didn't need to be asked twice. However as a married man I knew I did have to ask twice. "Fifty bucks...good price" I say to Saady. She agrees, but had the foresight to point out that the age rating is 8-12, Liam is 2 and I'm, well, 32. Undejected and undeterred in the face of logic I made the purchase. Obsession satisfied....for the moment.

A few more sets have crept into the cupboard since then, just stuff I've seen on special, but now things have taken a turn for the worse. I'm not much of a Trade Me fan - as a community its users mostly remind me that New Zealand is at its core a nation of grifters and garage sales so I keep my distance. But what did catch my eye on one of my rare rummages through it was someone selling this for $30, my very first set that I got for my seventh birthday - the 'Starfleet Voyager'. Thats it in the picture - I had to have it - it was like someone selling a portal to my childhood and selling it cheap. Even now it has some strange profound effect on me. Its in the mail as we speak (at least I hope it is), and I'm really curious to see what Liam and Ezekiel will make of it. Retro? Cool? Perhaps they'll think its stink...

But the problem is it can't end there, because my old mate from primary school (shall we call him "Sauley") got this one for his birthday - the big daddy ship with the buggy and the moon base - and much though I loved my 'Starfleet Voyager' I always suffered some serious spaceship envy when I was hanging out at his place.

So whats a man to do? I've seen a few of them selling on eBay. Do I feed the beast and buy, or hope the obsession subsides? I don't think I'm as far gone as this guy (there ain't no comin' back for him!), and I foresee plenty of years punctuated by rainy weekends with the kids ahead...