The LEGO Group has explained why the size and scale of two of the five bugs in 21342 The Insect Collection changed so drastically from José María’s original pitch.
Where the initial submission for 21342 The Insect Collection split its focus equally between a butterfly, beetle, honeybee, ladybug and mantis, the finished product concentrates first and foremost on just three of those: a Chinese Mantis, Blue Morpho Butterfly and Hercules Beetle. The other two are condensed to either a much smaller build (the honeybee) or a 1x1 tile (the ladybug).
That’s one of two major changes between the proposed concept and the final set – the other being the addition of brick-built habitats for the bugs – and for fans of the bee and ladybug in particular, one that might have irked. But as LEGO Ideas Design Manager Jordan Scott tells Brick Fanatics and other LEGO Fan Media, it was apparently a decision taken to push the possibilities of standard LEGO elements.
“When I first started with this and worked with José, I really wanted to try and make these as close to real life as possible,” Jordan explains. “I thought the scale of those insects is very interesting. We often see them blowing up in movies as massive creatures, or you see them as very small representations. I really wanted to challenge the bricks and the system to try and make them life-sized.
“There are some that are a little bit smaller, and some that are a little bit bigger. The Chinese Mantis is on the larger side, but when I researched the largest one ever recorded, it's pretty much that size, so it is within the realm of possibility. That meant the honeybee and the ladybug are obviously scaled appropriately as well. I really wanted to make them feel like you had them alive or you could go and see those insects in real scale.”
With the scale determined by those insects, the next logical step was to go bigger on the Blue Morpho Butterfly and Hercules Beetle (the ‘biggest and strongest beetle in the world’, as Jordan notes), focusing 21342 The Insect Collection primarily on three of the five bugs José originally pitched. The fan designer gave the LEGO Ideas team the green light to play around with the size and scope of the other two, which still required plenty of consideration from Jordan.
“With the bee, José's one was great and it looks really cool and detailed, but it's almost hornet-sized, if not bigger,” the designer adds. “I really wanted to make that a beautiful, delicate bee that was feeding on the flower with the butterfly. And then the ladybug, again, it's a very small insect. I looked into whether I could get legs coming out of it but it just made it really big.
“We actually looked at the French beret, we looked at printing on that to make it a little bit bigger and more rounded, but it's not a symmetrical piece. It looked weird where you can see underneath and then it just didn't work out, so a new decoration for the ladybug was a nice addition.”
21342 The Insect Collection is available now for LEGO Insiders, and will launch for everyone else on September 7. Check out our detailed review of the set here, and head to
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