Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

She sees the flowers and she wants them painted black

The LEGO Botanicals sets have offered a steady source of bright colors and inspired plenty of builders to arrange their own bright bouquets. For Taylor (@bricksandchaos), whose builds explore “elegant unease,” flowers became a way to express feelings ranging from elation to anxiety. Her blooms don’t blossom – they writhe. Taylor’s monochrome flower series riffs on Botanicals designs using all black parts, supplemented with spines and tentacles that fuse beauty with seething unrest.

Taylor’s latest MOCs add red eyes to each flower and hand-like prongs at the end of the tendrils to chilling effect. Do these roses stop to smell the humans?

More of Taylor’s flower series follows

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Take a break from winter’s chill with this sunny summer palace in LEGO

LEGO castles, both official sets and fan creations, tend to focus on medieval fortresses, but most of the royal palaces still standing in Europe are built around gardens, not garrisons. Palaces like this one from Swedish builder Mikael Norling. While the builder doesn’t list a specific inspiration, the design, with the mix of light nougat and white, captures the aesthetics of 17th and 18th-century palaces inspired by the grandeur of Versailles. The Baroque touches use boomerangs, forks, ferns, flowers, and more to provide texture and detail.

Take a tour of the palace gardens after the break

Team Rocket, bricking off at the speed of light

There’s been plenty of chatter about which Pokémon will make the cut for the first waves of LEGO sets, but there hasn’t been enough talk about the true MVPs of the franchise: Team Rocket! Korean AFOL nunsseugae brings the trouble and makes it double with brick-built versions of James and Jess and their most dangerous Pokémon partners – Meowth and Wobbuffet. The builder has created dozens of Pokémon over the years, but this foray into villainous trainers is my favorite of nunsseugae’s creations so far. The hair and posing are perfect, and of course, James has his rose.

Of course, for all their bluster, James and Jessie aren’t truly wicked. Evil has a face in the Pokémon world, and nunsseugae has built that too!

Vicious TIE Viper is ready to SHMUP some Rebel scum

In these parts, NoVVember always has two Vs in celebration of the Vic Viper starfighter and the memory of builder who inspired the tradition. Builder WyndGekko shows that the tradition is also held in a galaxy far, far away with this fresh upgrade to her 2022 TIE Viper design. The ship bears all the necessary traits of a Vic Viper – the twin prings, single dorsal fin, and rear lateral wings – while also looking like a design that might have been heisted from the Seinar Test Facility, alongside the TIE Avenger. Viper traits aside, it’s one of the best custom TIEs I’ve ever seen, especially for the color-blocking on the struts and the subtle greebling.

Feeling nostalgic for NoVVember? Check out our extensive Vic Viper archives.

LEGO rings in 2026 with new Garden, Architecture, and Art sets

Today LEGO revealed three attractive new display sets for adult builders across a range of themes. LEGO Art 31218 Japanese Cherry Blossom Landscape doesn’t adapt a particular iconic work but rather evokes the style of ukiyo-e style in a lush and textured scene. LEGO Architecture 21064 Paris – City of Love takes iconic Parisian landmarks (some of which have appeared in brick before) and assembles them in a stylized shadowbox. Finally, and probably of most interest for readers of this site, LEGO Icons 11372 Autumn Cottage Garden is the third “Gardens of the World” set and combines a Tudor-style cottage (complete with a tiny gnome!) and fall foliage, including a new leaf mold and two new bird prints. We have two observations from this mix – first, an English autumn set in January? Second, LEGO is really blurring the line with these themes. As with the Fauna Collection and Restaurants of the World, traditional themes seem less important for these non-IP 18+ sets. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

LEGO Art 31218 Japanese Cherry Blossom Landscape| 1892 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026 | US $139.99 | CAN $179.99 | UK £99.99

Bring colour and nature into your home with this LEGO Art Japanese Cherry Blossom Landscape (31218) building set for adults. Inspired by the beauty of springtime in Japan and the country’s Ukiyo-e artists, this brick-built 3D Japanese wall art features Mount Fuji, a teahouse, a bridge, a waterfall, flying Japanese cranes, and cherry blossom, ‘Sango-Kaku’ maple and Japanese umbrella pine trees.

This colourful home office decor piece comes in a black lacquer shadow box frame and has 2 display options. It can be mounted on a wall with a hanger or freely stood on a flat surface.

The artwork’s waterfall flows beyond the frame so that on a wall it pours directly out, or can be adjusted to spill out onto a flat surface. This LEGO 3D wall art set offers a calm, immersive and mindful experience for adults as you build the set from LEGO bricks. A treat for yourself or a Japanese gift idea for women and men who are art lovers, this model includes instructions to guide you through a creative activity.

LEGO Architecture 21064 Paris – City of Love | 958 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026 | US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99

Embrace your fascination with Paris and its iconic landmarks with this collectable LEGO® Architecture Paris – City of Love (21064) home decor building set for women, men and adults aged 18 and over. Create a display piece that makes a stunning architectural gift idea for you or any history or travel lover. Explore the starry sky and cityscape as you build. Discover the details of the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre. Finish the set with the decorated ‘City of Love’ brick and the brick-built frame, then hang it on a wall or display it on a shelf in your home or office. As you create the framed wall decor artwork, enjoy enhanced building with the LEGO Builder app, zooming and rotating with 3D instructions while saving and tracking progress – all from within the app. This premium set will appeal to you or any creative adult who loves history, travel or Paris architecture, and it makes a great gift for LEGO building fans. Set contains 958 pieces.

LEGO Icons 11372 Autumn Cottage Garden | 1102 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026 |US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £99.99

Capture the essence of autumn with the LEGO® Icons Autumn Cottage Garden (11372) model building kit for adults. Craft a seasonal centrepiece bursting with autumn colours. Unwind as you build each intricate detail, then rearrange the trees, plants and cottagecore decor elements to create a vibrant display for the home or office. Inspired by storybook cottages, this addition to the Gardens of the World collection features birch, weeping willow, blue spruce and maple trees, plus seasonal flowers. Other highlights include a sundial, birdhouse, vegetable cart, a garden gnome and a stream with stepping stones. A cottage with a cosy kitchen and woodland creatures including robin and nuthatch birds, a squirrel, frog, and snail add the final touches to this model – a perfect gift for adult fans of creative home decor. Build smarter with the LEGO® Builder app – zoom, rotate in 3D, track your progress and follow step-by-step digital instructions. Contains 1,102 pieces.

Monster Mash collab is an NPU smash

Halloween may be in the past, but we’re still haunted by a collab of classic movie monsters reinterpreted in LEGO by top character builders.

Fresh off winning the 2025 Bio-Cup, Hlebo Bas gets back to the mad NPU science with this wild and inspired take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both the good doctor and his alter ego feature wonderfully expressive faces from a fun mix of parts. Just as impressive is the sinewy sense of movement that the builder excels at.

Another Bio-Cup alum, GiiKei, unearths this stunning Mummy. The delicate limbs wrapped everything from rubber bands to minifig helms to balloon panels looks phenomenal in the leonine pose, but the showstopping piece here is the buildable Rey face painted gold.

Click to see the rest of monster mash, if you dare

Villains unite – sinister figs of the LEGO multiverse [Minifig Monday]

What’s a hero without a good villain? Or, better yet, a whole rogue’s gallery of baddies in every flavor. This week on Minifig Monday, we celebrate custom LEGO creations of villains – both familiar faces from comics and original characters.

Llano (femmefromtheblock) gets things started with this hot take on Mr. Freeze. It’s just one of the builder’s growing ensemble of #dcllanoverse Bat characters. The pale blue and pearlescent works so well for Gotham’s coolest villain.

Redbirch Bricks is back with this “midi-fig” spin on Bane, from the infamous Knightfall arc. The villain’s minifig legs as arms perfectly sell his venom-fueled muscles as he breaks the Bat.

Click for more villains from the world of comics, Warhammer, and fantasy

One builder’s weekly exploration of shape and color with Monday mosaics

Since 2021, #MosaicsOnMonday has invited LEGO artists to share mosaic works of any shape and size in a community tradition that starts the week off with a joyful mix of bricks. One regular contributor who specializes in larger-format mosaics is Johanita Kirsten. Each of Jo’s works is an experiment in color and form, ranging from elegant patterns reminiscent of Moorish art to bold modern mosaics like this one, which uses only rectangular tiles in as many colors as possible.

Some of Jo’s mosaics incorporate botanical elements amongst the tiles, which is fitting as they sometimes resemble a garden seen from above with their quadrants and lanes.

Here you can see how two similar color palettes can yield strikingly different patterns – one using curves and textures, the other constrained to almost entirely flat lines.

Or here we see similar geometric patterns with different applications of color. Each weekly mosaic represents hours of work – both the creation and stripping off the elements to a clear baseplate, like sand art. Most LEGO MOCs are ephemeral, but with weekly mosaics, it becomes a ritual – one that builders like Jo share as a community.

If you’re curious about the origins of MosaicsOnMonday, we spoke with the founders of the initiative back in 2022.

Greg Scherrer’s inspired brick-built characters find big Muppet energy in LEGO

What if Jim Henson had worked with ABS plastic instead of felt when he started creating the Muppets? Maybe they’d look something like the incredible characters of Chicago-based LEGO builder Greg Scherrer. Each model shows an uncanny talent for bringing out personality in bricks, with a cartoonist’s playfulness in form and color and a puppeteer’s playfulness with motion. It makes sense seeing as Greg is a cartoonist and illustrator by trade. We reached out to the builder to learn a bit more about his process.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve gotten pretty into creating improvised brick-built characters. I try to stock up my parts collection with the kinds of pieces that inspire me, lots of bright colors and curved slopes. My approach to building characters is then fully improvised based on my parts inventory. I’ve never built digitally, and I rarely leave a build unfinished to wait on an order of something specific.

The fun of building characters for me is in the improvisation and problem-solving on-the-go. I’ll often start off with just wanting to try out a build idea for eyes, or a mouth that hinges for a potential working puppet. From there, I completely lose track of time and can spend hours figuring out what I’m building and making it work.

A cozy watch tower for fire spotting in microscale

When working life feels like a grind, I daydream about trading office life for a fire lookout tower in remote wilderness. Aside from the allure of having an amazing view and only birds and a ham radio for company, the setting has also inspired some great media, like the amazing Firewatch game and the Tower 4 narrative podcast. Danish builder Benjamin Anderledes also felt the pull of the lookout tower and created a microscale version in LEGO. Brown chain railing keeps the microfigure ranger safe as they take in the spectacular view of microscale trees.

From swans to spoonbills, these brick-built birds are a soaring achievement

Dutch AFOL William Van Beek didn’t set out with a focus on building birds – his MOCs had been grounded more in the architecture of the Netherlands. But as buildings became dioramas, birds became as essential as minifigs to bring the Dutch countryside to life.

This was especially true as William began a project to recreate the historic Efteling Park in LEGO, as the storybook theme park famously features a daily goose parade! Soon William had an army of geese with an adorable and expressive design made from roughly 15 parts, most prominently croissant wings. Friends and AFOLs were taking notice!

But as prominent as geese are in Dutch landscapes, they’re far from the only bird. Swans and pheasants joined the flock! Wings from the D&D Aarakocra Ranger work perfectly for soaring swans, and the pheasant modifies the goose build with a stubbier heads and buttery brown croissant wings.

AFOLs and birdwatchers, come this way for more fantastic fowl

Johnny Thunder returns to the Amazon and those ruins have never looked better

For those of us who grew up with LEGO playsets, there’s a charm to the mix of accessories, side builds, and play features that could turn a modest number of elements into endless possibilities. Clayton (sunroombricks) is one of a growing wave of builders who are leaning into retro aesthetics, and for this builder, Adventurers is the theme that continues to inspire. Clayton’s latest project is a remake of 5986 Amazon Ancient Ruins. All of the original play features are present, and then some. The build utilizes modern colors and elements while retaining classic LEGO design principles.

Here you can see a hobbled together version of the original set that Clayton dug up to introduce to his kids. That molded base plate brings back memories!

Read on for more pics of Clayton’s update to this Adventurers classic!