LEGO Designer Reveals His Secrets to Creating the Brand's Most Beautiful Sets
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This past Christmas, I bought a 3,000-piece LEGO set to put under my family’s tree. The bag I toted away from the Rockefeller Center flagship was so big, tourists spotted it from down the street and veered into my path to ask me directions to the store. Despite the box’s size and the very distinctive way the bricks rattled when it was shaken, I managed to sneak the package into my house and hide it before the recipient could catch wise.
The LEGO gift was not for my 9-year-old daughter — it was for my husband.
LEGO adults are nothing new, but there’s been a surge of them since the pandemic. The Toy Association reported that “kidults” were the biggest driver of growth in the industry in 2023. “Adults have been turning to play to destress and incorporate more fun into their daily lives since the onset of the pandemic,” its yearly wrap-up noted.
In that way, LEGO building for adults falls into the larger trend of the rise of cozy hobbies (sometimes called “grandma hobbies”): pursuits that help the hobbyists enter a “flow state” where they can unwind and just build. And research shows there are actually real mental-health benefits to taking one up. “The joy of cozy hobbies is that they naturally incorporate many ingredients,” says Emma Palmer-Cooper, a research psychologist in the UK. “You can enjoy them alone, or as part of a community. Whether you connect with others in person or online, the benefits remain the same: a greater sense of joy, engagement, purpose, accomplishment and shared connection support your wellbeing.”
“A lot of adults are in need of ways to switch off,” adds Alexandra Zamfir, the marketing lead of LEGO Botanicals. “Many of our adult consumers find that building with LEGO bricks is a great way to relax, get creative and feel a real sense of achievement when they finish a build.”
Wes Talbott, a senior design manager at LEGO and the creative force behind their gorgeous Flower Arrangement set, says the key to creating a great Botanical set is to have a mix of different building experiences in one box. “Take the hydrangea, for example,” he says. “It's got so many petals on it, so you have to build a lot of these little sub-builds. It's one of those things where you have to enter this Zen state and do all the repeated things, but then when it comes together, it's really worth it. But we don't want to go overboard with it. So we wouldn't put too many flowers like that into one set. So we mix those with something like the night rider camellia, for example, which is something like eight pieces that are nice and big that you plug in quickly.”
“So at the end of the day, designing a botanical set is actually very much like a florist,” Talbott says. (He should know — his aunt was florist!) “It's just picking a lot of flowers that have already been designed, and seeing which ones work well together and making the arrangement in that way. And then we’ll say, ‘Oh, we haven't really tackled this specific peony breed. Let's see if we can make one that looks like that.’”
What Talbott likes about the Botanical sets is that the builders can have that same flower-shop experience, too. “If you already have all these arrangements that you've bought before, and you have them in your vase,” he says, “then when you buy this another one, you can mix and match.” That’s almost a cozy hobby in and of itself — scratching the flower-arranging itch at the same time as the LEGO-building one.
And then there’s the display factor — another reason LEGO building has taken off. Social media has made it even easier for collectors of all types to show off their wares. “Fans of LEGO Botanicals have a natural predisposition to nature and home décor,” Zamfir says. “We see a lot of adults finding fun and unique ways to decorate their homes and gift their loved ones with LEGO Botanicals — flowers and plants that will surely stay fresh.”
So yes, my husband’s 3,000-piece creation, though not floral in nature, is on display in our apartment, along with about a dozen other smaller sets he’s built over the years. And it turns out, he’s right on trend.
Chrysanthemum
Flower Bouquet
Flower Arrangement
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