How a triple heart bypass when he was 41 got Albany’s Adam Webb into building a Lego city in his lounge room

When Adam Webb had a heart attack at the age of 41, it was life-changing and not just because of the triple bypass which followed.

Being unable to work, his doctor told him to take up a hobby. He was short of cash so he started going to op shops.

That was where he noticed piles of Lego for sale so he bought some, thinking he could sell it on.

However, he started tinkering and was soon hooked, preferring the large DUPLO bricks to the smaller, traditional pieces.

He now has a row of tower blocks, with blinking lights along an entire wall in his lounge room.

The DUPLO city was just the start of things, for his Lockyer unit has every style of Lego imaginable from vintage to the toy’s latest incarnations.

And while he’s definitely a hoarder, he’s a very neat one. Lego fills his kitchen cupboards, all his open shelving and the shed but anything that’s not on display is stacked away, organised meticulously in plastic boxes.

His collecting does not end with plastic bricks, for he can’t resist keys, Monopoly pieces, dice, or bicycle bits which he organises into artistic patterns, photographs and then disassembles.

He still suffers from ill-health and said he would like his collection eventually to go somewhere it might be enjoyed either by seniors or children.

“I don’t want it to end up in landfill — one of the reasons I bought it from the op shop in the first place was to avoid that,” he said.

“I just love creating things. Maybe I’m reliving a childhood or something, but I find it’s my therapy and it keeps my mind off other things.”