Demogorgons, Frogs, and Car Parts: Inside the Creation of LEGO Botanicals

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Before they were a hot TikTok trend, a popular way to chill after work, or the latest in-home decor, the LEGO® Botanical creations had a thriving success story inside the offices of the LEGO Group.

While the LEGO Botanical Collection launched in 2021, the popularity of these plastic plants and flowers was proved years before, thanks to two employees.

Like a lot of creators at the LEGO Group, LEGO Experience Design Manager Specialist Nico Vas loved to build fun little creations for his desk in his spare time at work. One of his favorites was a bonsai tree that he first created in 2014.

The little model was such a hit that others in the company started asking Vas to create them for their desks, and the LEGO bonsai began to take over.

Years later, in an entirely different department, one employee’s colorful and creative LEGO flowers started creating a similar sort of internal buzz at the company.

Astrid Christensen started at the LEGO Group as an apprentice at the ATE team, which assists employees with specific working requirements. Astrid first got involved with ATE because she has autism.

Shortly after joining the LEGO Group, her coworkers couldn’t help but notice that Astrid had a talent for making these amazing, colorful, lifelike flowers out of LEGO elements. The first bouquet she made was for her boss in 2019, and word soon spread about her creations.

“There was a photoshoot just before our family days here at the LEGO Group, and I was building flowers at that point,” Christensen said. “They zoomed in on every detail. When people saw the video for the family days, they reached out to my manager and our task team to ask if they could get some flowers.”

Soon, she was making bouquets for her coworkers’ birthdays and other special occasions. Eventually, Astrid’s work caught the eye of the Icons team, which was already playing around with the idea of turning that other LEGO Group in-house favorite into a set: The bonsai tree.

Those two ideas blossomed into what would become the LEGO Botanical Collection, but not before being redesigned for public recreation.

Today’s Botanical sets are striking in their ability to recreate real plants and flowers but also in how they’re doing that. It’s not simply a matter of using traditional bricks. The sets also making stunningly creative use of surprising elements from other sets.

The LEGO Bouquet, which was designed by Anderson Grubb and Christensen, uses car hoods and dinosaur wings. When Vas reworked the bonsai tree set, he used tiny plastic frogs to recreate the look of flower blossoms. And if you look closely at Michael Psiaki’s orchid design, you’ll spot the Demogorgon head from the Stranger Things set.

The design choices are a testament to just how creative the LEGO brick and elements are and the artists using them to create these popular sets.

The LEGO designers behind the seven different sets of the LEGO Botanical Collection continue to be surprised at just how popular this relatively new, adult-focused line is.

“We didn’t expect people would use them in their weddings,” said Grubb. “I’ve even seen people say that they gave it as a gift for funerals, for the loss of a loved one. They’ve used it in all kinds of celebrations, just in very personal ways.”