Tauranga Humpty Dumpty statue in Memorial Park restored with modern new look

Tauranga artists Sam Allen and Ally Drury took on the restoration project after Humpty Dumpty was vandalised late last year. Photo / NZME

Out with the stiff collar, stripey pants and clown shoes. In with jeans, a pounamu, sneakers and an Avengers-inspired accessory.

Tauranga's beloved Humpty Dumpty statue has had a $13,000 modern makeover after cruel vandalism prompted questions about who could put the squatting egg back together again.

Local freelance artists Sam Allen and Ally Drury took on the restoration project after the Memorial Park statue was vandalised in December.

Humpty Dumpty, which has delighted children at the park's playground since 1959, was left with no right arm, a damaged face and a hole in his head.

Tauranga's City Council's community services manager Gareth Wallis said at the time it looked like someone had "taken a sledgehammer" to the statue.

The council appealed for help from creative experts, with the Incubator Creative Hub offering to take on the job.

Over the past month, Allen and Drury have spent nearly 200 hours sculpting and painting Humpty.

The Humpty Dumpty statue in Tauranga's Memorial Park was vandalised in December. Photo / Tauranga City Council

Allen said the sculptural restoration was "new territory" for the pair and they were given "free rein" to reimagine Humpty how they wanted.

An important part of the project was making him look more modern, he said.

"We wanted to modernise him and put him into the 21st century instead of having him look out of place," said Allen.

Humpty is dressed in sneakers, jeans, a jacket with a pounamu around his neck. There is also a painting of Humpty surfing in Mount Maunganui on his back.

"We took inspiration from hip-hop culture with the shoes, a bit of pop culture with the Iron Man hand and the colours of the jacket are similar to the Bay of Plenty Steamers. It relates back to Tauranga," he said.

The pair painted for days under the blazing sun. Both grew up in Tauranga and had played at Memorial Park since childhood.

Humpty Dumpty at Memorial Park photographed in 2017. Photo / John Borren

"It's part of Tauranga, everybody has grown up with him. It is cool to be part of that history."

They agreed that it felt "a bit surreal" to have finished the project but were happy with the final outcome.

Drury said the majority of people who passed them at work seemed "very positive", with a few "not so stoked about the change".

A council spokesperson said the cost of the restoration was roughly $13,000. That figure factored in costs for "make-safe works" and safety fencing.

In December, Incubator Creative Hub director Simone Anderson said that as soon as the team saw poor Humpty's rotten dilemma, they knew they could hatch a plan to put him back together again.

"The Incubator Creative Hub has never had a challenge like this before. Given there's a good connection between eggs and incubators, we immediately knew we were up for the important responsibility to fix Humpty", Anderson said.