Apparently even death isn't the same in the 21st century.
Standing next to a Lego coffin - studs included - New Zealand design company Dying Art's Ross Hall says individuality and personal expression have increasingly become major features of the way people talk about funerals.
"The girl was terminally ill and all she could do was make Lego - and that's what she wanted to go out in," he says.
His company sells made-to-order coffins with everything from flowers to spaceships printed on them, but it's changing attitudes, not technology, that has brought the change, he says.
"For years we've been able to do a custom casket ... but now it's so much more acceptable - because we look at death as a celebration of life."
Mr Hall's a giant man wearing an attention-grabbing, bright pink Hawaiian shirt with purple flowers, who seems the polar opposite of what funeral industry workers are imaged as.
"We're doing one that's the USS Enterprise," he says with a wide smile.
Dying Art hosts one of the many cheery exhibits among 31 of companies at New Zealand's first funeral trade show in Auckland.
It's an event intended to bring companies from across the industry to show their changing wares.
And change is the operative word.
The Aotea Centre has been filled by companies providing everything from urns to software and coffins ranging for the very traditional to the eco-friendly and quirky.
Coffin-maker TenderRest's Mark Pattinson says in his 36 years in the industry - he started when he was 15 and grew up in a funeral home - people have opened up about a subject once considered off-limits.
"I can remember going to funeral arrangements and the casket just wasn't a thing that was discussed. But nowadays, with social media, and everyone talking about it, I think that's the difference," he says.
The coffins behind him look like something out of sci-fi: capsule-shaped, biodegradable cardboard, light and sleek.
"The younger folk are definitely having more input now and they're a lot more environmentally aware," he says.
Katrina Shanks, the chief executive of the Funeral Directors Association, which has organised the show, says the fact it is even happening is a sign discussion about funerals is becoming more common.
"It's something as Kiwis that we really don't do. Even though it may be a difficult conversation for many New Zealanders to have, we are maturing as a nation," she says.
The organisers hope to bring the show back in a couple years as a regular event, something that's happened over the ditch in recent years.
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