Lego set includes figure with Māori-inspired pounamu

The Roller Coaster set features a minifigure wearing a pounamu. Photo / Lego

A Lego Roller Coaster, part of its Creator collection, includes a figurine sporting a pounamu pendant.

The Lego creation is not your average Lego pack. The collectible item, for 16-year-olds and over, is a fully functional chain-lift model with an array of features and functions.

The 4120-piece set comes with 11 mini figures, including a cotton candy vendor, two ride attendants, two grandparents with their granddaughter and five riders. Eight of these mini figures feature reversible heads to display different emotions.

One of those figures is wearing a pounamu pendant around her neck.

Lego does not single out the Kiwi figure in the description of the set online, much less make mention of the Māori decoration around its neck.

Photo / Lego

In 2001, the Danish toy company was the focus of controversy surrounding ethnic appropriation, after Māori tribes challenged the company's right to use Polynesian names in a game called "Bionicle".

At the time, Lego admitted it had "borrowed" the names from Māori culture and pledged to draw up a code of conduct to regulate what it takes from different cultures and ethnicities.

At the time, Roma Hippolite of the Ngāti Koata Trust said: "We have been impressed by the willingness of Lego to recognise a hurt was inadvertently made and show that in their actions."