Tag Archives: Plants

Let’s sweeten the pot a little

If you’re a fan of the LEGO Botanicals collections, you’ll love this creation by Ralf Langer. Seven spectacular plants spring forth from pots that are every bit as elegant. There are great techniques everywhere you look, from the robot-arm wicker casings to sides made from layers of 1×2 rounded plate. If you look closely you can spot tank treads, Technic flex hoses, and even a few standard sloped bricks. Also noteworthy are the muted earth tones and olive-green foliage. These choices make the reds, bright greens, blues, and lavenders really stand out.  Altogether this is one of the most naturalistic-looking recreations I’ve seen in quite a while.

potted plants

Finally, take a look at that great wood-slat furniture. It makes me want to take a trip through our archives for more home furnishings. You might even spot some other builds from Ralf in there!

An botanical from eastern Asia that can’t be beat!

As someone who is constantly striving for natural shapes in my LEGO constructions, I’ve definitely taken notice of the techniques employed by James Zhan in their beautiful orchid plant. The simple yet elegant yellow and brown stripes on the flower’s petals are perfect here. And I’m in love with the use of this constraction armor part for the interior of the bloom. Following the lime stems down, we see some delicate leaf construction thanks to clips, bars, and curved slopes in green. Even further down, the cleisostoma paniculatum is held in a gorgeous black planter adorned with six large LEGO studs. I especially like the natural effect of the olive green roots partially covered by the “potting soil” made of 1×1 round plates.

Taiwan Cleisoma 台灣虎紋隔距蘭

And if you want to see more builders we’ve featured showing off their green thumbs, you can find them here.

As a fellow plant hoarder Poison Ivy will always be my favourite Batman villain

People who collect LEGO tend to collect other things. My boyfriend calls this hoarding. For me it is plants, mid century furniture, vases and pots. It is nice to see Abe Fortier manage to put all these elements into one amazing LEGO creation. We have a green house inspired by the Batman franchise. We get tall glass windows in a white building covered with lush foliage. Propagation stations on teak mid century design furniture and lots of pots and vases housing various plants and flowers. If you look closely enough you might even spot a sprouting Groot somewhere in this creation.

Ivy’s Greenhouse

Check Abe’s photostream for more LEGO Batman creations.

Who needs Romeo when your balcony looks out at an amazing propagation station

Big LEGO castles are the bomb, but small really detailed medieval scenes also tickle our fancy. This scene by Eli Willsea is a great example of a small castle setting packed with little details. We are treated to a lovely balcony scene featuring a young woman looking out over a room filled with greenery. There is a trellis for a climbing plant which happens to be two green snakes. The integration of the bar with 3 leaves into the wall to turn it into a climbing plant is lovely. The brown flex tubing intertwining between the leaves works amazingly well as a plant stem. I love how this continues over the wooden beams hanging over the balcony, giving it a patio feel.

Gloria's Garden

There are a lot of trans-clear tiles used to represent a propagation station. I absolutely adore the use of the Captain Marvel mohawk used to represent a box of presumably hay. The use of the Minions hair as table legs is stunning in its simplicity. The best feature of this creation has to be the use of the minifigure action pose bar with stud to make the railing of the balcony. So clever and visually appealing!

A Kylothian in the garden

Those with a green thumb are often on the lookout for new intruders in our garden beds, ready to weed deep to keep our leafy babies safe. LEGO builder Galerie d’Antha recently discovered this peculiar perennial popping up amongst the spring blooms. Its sweet smell seems to be attracting a crowd but that alien eye-stalk makes me think those spiders are marching to their doom. The builder filled this model with gold, creating a filigree-like plant that I imagine would wiggle and writhe in Lovecraftian ways. You might recognize the large, golden leaves in the center as the wings from the Snitch in the Hogwarts Icons set. The tentacle portions come from the Gargantos Showdown set but, combined with the gold eggshells and leaves, the whole thing kind of feels like a Kylothian from Men in Black 2. You know, that little alien from that little ship that turns into Serleena? Hopefully, this one isn’t as malicious though.

A dangerous addition to the LEGO Botanical Collection

It’s a cold winter here in the US, and as I look out the window I can only wish that the snows would be replaced with the warmth and sun suggested by this lovely botanical creation from Andreas Lenander. Oh, sure, this Piranha Plant from the words of Super Mario may be classified as an invasive species, but look at the great detailing and construction here! From the fun flower pot/pipe, to the organic-yet-spiky stem, to the “V for victory” mouth, there’s just a lot to love. Its enough to make you forget that this plant wants you, and everyone who looks like you, dead.

Chop chop!

Built as part of the Iron Forge completion, Andreas has gone one step beyond by also sharing a great video that shows just how this chompy friend was constructed!

You know, Andreas wasn’t the first LEGO builder to take inspiration from the worlds of Mario. Check out some other super Mario-related sets and creations in our archives!

This one will get you right in the feels

There’s something special about a family building LEGO together. Dave Kaleta and son, Elliot, collaborated on this slice-of-life diorama. It was a gift to Elliot’s grandmother, celebrating one of their favorite shared activities: watering the plants in her back yard together. The quality of the build is stunning, but the sentiment behind this is even more touching. But…since this is a LEGO-focused site, let’s take a moment to appreciate the offset between the tiles in the patio, the use of fences in the chairs, and the expressive characters. Even the watering can is a tiny bit of joy.

Oma's Backyard (2021)

If you like this collaboration between Dave and Elliot, you’ll be amazed at the work they did together on their Alphabet fleet.

Exploring the galaxy for fresh vegetation

I’m loving everything about this other-worldly scene by captainsmog! From the satisfyingly shaped spaceship that is reminiscent of the Rocket Boy LEGO Collectable Minifigure, to the cleverly crafted plants. The creative parts usage is rad and makes me want to go dig through my oddball parts. I particularly love the claw elements used to make the wavy red and orange… thingy? Genius!

Setting foot on planet Zaklonis

This builder is not a stranger to TBB. He built one of the first tensegrity builds we featured.

Metamorphosis Falcon

In the movie Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Millennium Falcon lands on a coast, somewhere on the planet Savareen. The view of the ocean behind the Falcon is a brief, peaceful rest stop for the weary yet indomitable ship. While its stay is temporary in the 2018 film, we now have new vision of the Millennium Falcon as a house. Lmcpicture‘s creation makes the most recognizable parts of the Millennium Falcon livable. The starboard side airlock serves as the entrance, which leads either to a bedroom or a back deck. The blue 1×4 tiles are visual references to the beaming blasts on the original ship’s rear drive units.

Millennium falcon house

Read on to see the interior of this tastefully appointed spaceship

When nature calls, build bricks

Plants are nature’s greatest display. The cathartic feeling of seeing a tiny jungle is alive in Dave Kaleta’s LEGO plant box. Using the new IKEA BYGGLEK, Dave fills the inside of the base with some loose brown bricks, representing the soil. The small garden is made of green studs, slope-shaped bricks, and leaf elements. The real life plants, accompanied in the photo, contrast the plastic counterpart.

LEGO x IKEA Countertop Planter

Dave’s 26x18x12cm BYGGLEK is a picturesque centerpiece mirroring the realism of indoor plants. The installation of a grow light gives some hope that these babies will sprout into trees. We’re just kidding. Notice the three button elements on the front of the BYGGLEK planter. They symbolize various power functions (left to right): bright light, water, and night mode (possibly a dimmer). This smart build puts the theme of sustainability at the forefront as we’ve seen in recent years from The LEGO Group, as they’ve rolled out plant-based elements (40320) in an effort to lower their carbon footprint. We’re digging this!

Maybe the Amazon will save itself

Brick built plants can help make bring a LEGO scene to life. And when the plants are the focus of a diorama, that scene is full of life, such as this collaboration between Emil Lidé and Bartu. This diorama shows four different sections of the amazon jungle that work together as one scene or as the same scene through time.

Amazon: Full Diorama

Through the series, these builders display a dried riverbed, which is overtaken by a fully grown jungle, then destroyed so someone can mine for gold before the jungle finally begins to retake the land. The vegetation throughout the build is fantastic, so much so that it is difficult to call out any one part! The colour choices are also on point, from the vibrant mixture of greens in the thriving jungle to the more drab dark tan and olive in the mining scene. Not to be overlooked is the subtle landscaping, from the smooth sides of the bricks making up the wet river bed to the slope made up of wedge plates showing how the miners have dug into the earth.

Ashes to ashes, plastic to plastic

LEGO has been doing their part to make their bricks more of a renewable resource in recent years. Builder Green Axles takes things a step further with Nature taketh, nature giveth, showing us a full cycle of plastic life. At first glance all you may see are the vibrant colors of undersea plant life. There are clever techniques and creative part usage everywhere you look. I like the yellow dinosaur tails topped with Technic Bushings, orange Bionicle shooter halves, and dark turquoise Technic ball sockets.

Look again and you’ll spot a more somber inclusion in the form of the skeletal remains of a diver. Their suit has rotted away, leaving only a collar and a bit of brown cloth. The use of tan Technic gears for the teeth provide a visual context to the bleached bones.

"Nature taketh, nature giveth"

It’s a somber scene, to be sure. But also a sign that life, uh, finds a way.