Tag Archives: Botanicals

A flower with the power to brighten your day

What do LEGO pterodactyl wings, a minfigure butterfly wing, and half an asteroid field have in common? Each of them have been beautifully repurposed to create a LEGO “butterfly flower” by the aptly named nicepartsusage. The aforementioned elements come together to create a model that’s lovelier than the sum of its parts.

The model’s genesis came from a desire to commemorate “You Day”—an unofficial self-care counterpoint to Mother’s Day for those who might struggle to find something to celebrate the latter holiday. No matter what you’re celebrating, however, there’s something about this bright, striking model that’s almost guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

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This LEGO plant eats flies like you for breakfast

Since LEGO launched their Botanical theme, we have seen a number of models inspired by the lineup of realistic-looking plants in LEGO form. This American Pitcher plant by moptoptrev is a well-done recreation of this predatory plant that lures insects into a deep bell-shape lined with sweet-smelling fluid that then traps the poor helpless bug. And if you have wings, flying won’t save you as the lid drops into place to seal your fate.

This builder brings the beautiful bugs

LEGO will be launching the The Insect Collection soon and, as a result, some of our favorite builders are a little buggier than usual. Take, for example, this lovely Orchid Mantis built by LEGO 7 that is adorned, like its namesake, in pink and white. The flowers come from 10311 Orchid set from last year.

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A mech for all seasons (actually just one)

Spring has sprung and we’re seeing vibrant colors outside suddenly. And also bunnies; lots and lots of bunnies. LEGO builder Tom Loftus is surely feeling Spring in the air as evidenced by this delightfully bright mech. It makes use of a plethora of purple pirate hats which come from the 10313 Wildflowers Bouquet set from the Botanical line. If you haven’t picked up any of these sets just yet I strongly advise that you do. It is probably my favorite line nowadays and this is coming from a guy who is totally gaga for cars and monsters and stuff. Amazing non-flowery things can be built using the parts from these sets. Give the Botanical archives a gander to see what I mean.

A-tisket, a-tasket, a flower-filled LEGO basket

One of my LEGO building goals that I’m perpetually chasing is the creation of natural forms like plants in the blocky medium. And picea74 really shows me how to do it with this darling basket of flowers. First focusing on the wicker container, the weave has the perfect alternation of curved slopes to evoke the dry rustling of reed and cane. I particularly like how the builder handled the corners, adding to the structural integrity of the work by breaking the pattern, but doing so in a manner that still feels basket-like. The organics in this vessel are quite impressive, with the blue and pink carnations acting as paragons of “floral architecture.” And the use of sprues from the old tri-leaf part add a glorious bit of vine-ery to the vessel’s contents.

Use LEGO flora to build LEGO fauna

I’ll just come out and say the LEGO Botanicals line is the best line to come out in recent history. Each is a refreshing and visually compelling break from the norm and that’s a flowery hill I’m willing to die on. I’ll even fight you freaks who think otherwise. Wow, that escalated fast! Anyway, Ian Hou probably knows what I mean as evidenced by this lovely owl. It repurposes several flowers from at least two copies of the new Wildflower Bouquet set. In the wings, I’m also seeing leaves from the Bird of Paradise set and I’d wager much of the brown tree branch comes from the Bonsai Tree from 2020. Not in the mood to get into fisticuffs over it? Yeah, neither am I. So instead let’s leisurely peruse through our Ian Hou archives to see the decidedly tranquil stuff he likes to build.

A lovely jewelry box for your lovely stuff

I’ll share a fun fact with you. Most of my LEGO collection is relegated to my LEGO room downstairs under the guise that– no one wants to see your Star Wars spaceships or whatever. However, some of the few LEGO sets that have made it to the main floor (you know, where nice civilized people hang out) are from the Botanical line. Famed builder Ian Hou has used parts from that botanical line to create this lovely ornate jewelry box. I’m in awe of the flowery filigree adorning this creation. While my LEGO room is admitttedly cluttered with paraphenelia too lowbrow for polite company, this box just might be fine enough to occupy one of the upper floor bedrooms (gasp!) in which no LEGO currently resides.

A LEGO Flytrap fit for Morticia Addams

Builder @brickybrick82 has created a perfectly creepy addition to LEGO’s burgeoning Botanical Collection: A flowering Dionaea muscipula or as it’s more commonly known, a Venus Flytrap. It’s a beautiful model with tons of NPU (nice parts usage). The tentacle like dinosaur tails make great leaves and the green clam shells as the hungry mouths are perfect. I was particularly impressed with the flower petals made from the darling of mid-nineties LEGO space sets – the 3 x 5 Solar / Deltoid with Clip. This menacing flora would be right at home in the Addams Family house, nestled in next to Thing’s box.

Beauty comes in all different shapes

One of the joys of building with LEGO is working with lots of shapes in order to create new ones. Clever builders will use parts with a particular origin and morph them into something with an entirely new purpose. Like shields for leaves or balloon panels for a vase base, or shoulder armor for petals. This expertly crafted render by _Regn takes it further by creating a particularly complex shape: a hyperboloid. Essentially, if you twist a cylinder at its center, you create an hourglass-shaped design. It makes for a gorgeous centerpiece!

Unfortunately, there are elements of this artwork that would likely be too difficult or impossible to build in real life. Those shields, for example, don’t come in green. And the connections would be very precarious. Still, it’s certainly beautiful to look at, and a superb bit of rendering!

If you’d like to see more flower-based creations, check out the exquisite new LEGO Botanical Collection and other custom flower builds in our archives. Oh, and if renders are your thing, we have plenty of those too!

These Irises were made for walkin’, and that’s just what they’ll do.

The walking iris is an interesting plant. When it reproduces, new plantlets form at the top of the flower stalks. This added weight causes the stalks to bend to the ground, where the new plants take root. Repeat that a few times, and you have a flower that “walks” around the garden. This exceptional botanical recreation by James Zhan captures the unique beauty of this plant, and adds in a swanky LEGO base to boot.

Seen close up, you can appreciate the building techniques that have gone into the flowers. There’s some very clever part usage including minifigure ski poles and crowns, as well as a 1×1 plate used as a tiny mosaic to give the petals a splash of color. I also like the varied joints in the greenery, allowing for some very organic curves.

Flowers have always been a popular theme for custom LEGO creations, and we’ve seen some great sets coming directly from LEGO recently, too. What sort of botanical build do you want to try?

From a sprig comes a delightful Bonsai Plum Tree

It’s not usually our thing to feature LEGO works in progress. But when ZiO Chao posted a sprig of plum blossom, we featured it. Who could blame us, really? The subject was expertly crafted and photographed with utmost care. The sprig alone was rather breathtaking, actually. So you can imagine our thrill to learn the sprig was a mere teaser for this entire Bonsai plum tree. The builder tells us that the plum blossom is one of the most beloved flowers in China and has been frequently depicted in Chinese art and poetry for centuries. They can bloom in the winter and have therefore come to symbolize perseverance and hope, as well as beauty and purity. In my opinion, the official Botanical Collection has been the best new idea LEGO has come up with in a while. They have been the inspiration for so many beautiful creations such as this.

Blossoming of the bonsai builds

The release of LEGO’s new botanical line which includes the beloved Bonsai Tree has inspired many lush and succulent spin offs, Marius Hermann’s brick-built sakura bonsai being a great example of the trend. Technically when I refer to “the trend”, I am actually referencing a competition currently being held by Brickset encouraging the building of bonsai plants.

Hermann’s blossom bonsai makes use of some very interesting LEGO elements for a tree build, the trunk includes clipped triangular signs, various blade, tail, and vine elements, rock elements, and even the minifigure snowshoe element all in a brown color scheme. These pieces combined perfectly recreate the undulating trunk of a bonsai tree. The blossoms also utilize a cornucopia of different 1×1 elements including white crowns and flowers as well as tiles, ice cream swirls, cherries, and flower pieces in light to bright pink. Some greenery is also included, this is accomplished using the Joker Collectible Minifigure hairpiece in light green. The potted portion of the model is brick-built using plates, tiles, and bricks in black on top of a brown base fashioned in the same way. Overall Hermann’s model is very detailed, more so than the set released by LEGO, additionally it seems to be larger. So far I have enjoyed seeing these competition entries and look forward to more models to come.