The Riversdale woman and her husband Bennie were some of the exhibitors at the Southland Brick Show in Gore at the weekend.
Mrs Botes said she started collecting Lego Elves about five years ago.
"I started to collect them because my husband is ... [interested in] Lego.
"It’s a good stress reliever for me as well."
She worked as a nanny and enjoyed building Lego with the children she worked with.
She chose Elves because they were bright and colourful.
The dragons were fun to build as well, she said.
In hindsight she started collecting them too late because the elves range had been discontinued and there were two sets she did not have, she said.
She was in her 40s when she started collecting Lego but she was a good example of why people were never too old to start, Mrs Botes said.
When the models were not on display she kept them in bubble wrap in plastic containers.
Event manager Gavin Evans said there were a variety of items on display including ones that people had made from a box set or had made up themselves — "all sorts of stuff that can really excite anybody".
One display was a model of a Stewart Island sawmill.
"It’s a really amazing brick-built rendition of something in real life."
There were many reasons why people liked Lego, he said.
"Some people like the calm of just following the instructions and building , other people like the creativity of creating a work of art."
For others Lego offered an engineering challenge.
"How do I make this work?
"I am limited by little plastic bricks to make something that will do something amazing."
There had been a very good response from the public.
"I’d say our numbers are very pleasing to make sure that the bank balance is right because all of this event is for charity."
