Vote for the kakapo Lego set

June 18, 2018 • 1:30 pm

Kakapos (Strigops habroptila), as you should know by now, are the world’s only flightless parrot, and as such—and being residents of once-predator-free New Zealand—are highly endangered, and have been moved to predator-free islands to try to keep the species going. They are also adorable, as well as being horny. Here is perhaps the most popular video of any parrot: Sirocco, the “spokesparrot” for kakapos.

As Heather Hastie points out in her latest post, there’s a campaign afoot to have Lego create a Kakapo Kit, which will produce moveable bird replicas that look like this:

and this:

I’m pretty sure that if Lego builds this thing, part of the proceeds will be used to save this wonderful bird. They need 10,000 votes to get Lego to put it up for serious consideration, and they already have 2209 votes with 600 days to go (see the proposal here).

You can join and register to vote simply by giving your name and a password, which you can do here. Let’s put the kakapo set over the top!

Heather called this to my attention, and I’m on board with her campaign. Remember, our votes helped get the new Monopoly set to adopt a cat token, and I’m hoping we can get Lego to make a kakapo set. Think of how much it will teach kids about nature and conservation!

17 thoughts on “Vote for the kakapo Lego set”

  3. This is a fabulous idea, and Heather’s own idea of this being a launch pad for a series of lego indigenous New Zealand birds is both a logical and an excellent extension 🙂

  4. A minor nit-pick: until the arrival of humans, New Zealand had no terrestrial mammals, but it was never “predator-free”. Its bird fauna included several species of raptors and owls, including the world’s largest known eagle:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haast%27s_eagle

    Unlike today, the kakapos in old New Zealand never had to worry about four-footed predators creeping through the undergrowth, but they would certainly have had to keep an eye out for danger overhead.

  6. Whatever happened to the LEGO HMS Beagle that we voted on a few years ago? I never found out if it got the votes or not.

  9. NZ was not predator free. The predators on land just happened to be birds and invertebrates, rather than mammals (even more correct if you count bats as birds).

    Consequently NZ birds like kakapo avoid aerial predators by freezing. This is not such a good strategy when dealing with introduced mustelids, rodents, dogs, and cats.

  13. More LEGO! Cool. A friend just bought a LEGO spindle (she does fabric arts) and there’s a LEGO art show at a museum here I want to get to …

  14. I did support the project, but I won’t get too excited.

    I supported the HMS Beagle and was disappointed when it was not approved. One problem with LEGO Ideas is that they never explain why some projects are approved and others rejected. We can speculate about the reasons, but it would be nice if LEGO told us. The HMS Beagle could have been modified to reduce the number of blocks required. The designer suggested fabric sails be used in the final product. I suspect LEGO rejected the project because it did not want to embrace Darwin and evolution.

    Very few of the projects I supported reached 10,000; of those that did most were not approved. Women of NASA did make it through the review process, but I was disappointed with the final product. I thought it did not do justice to the original design. I’m waiting to see how the Pop-Up Book will fare. It was the only 1 of 7 projects approved in the most recent review.

    I hope the Kakapo gets 10,000 votes and is approved. It is a beautiful design. I’ll buy a set if it does.

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