Bug Fest: MOCs from kekenoji, Ikuse Ryouji, and Takamichi Irie

The last instalment of our Bug Fest crescendos with three more MOCs from three more inspirational builders. Kekenoji, Ikuse Ryouji, and Irie Takamichi, all have wildly different building styles and each approached this challenge in a different way.

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.

LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection
US$79.99/ £69.99/ 79.99€/ AU$124.99
1111 parts
4 September 2023
This article contains affiliate links, we may get a small commission if you purchase: Set 21342 on LEGO.com

Kekenoji's alternate build

With my copy of 21342 The Insect Collection, I made an alternate model only using the pieces in the set. 

I had wanted to create a robot with a feminine silhouette using elements like flowers and slender legs in it's design for a while. This set provided the perfect opportunity as it contained all the elements I needed. I started with the new Plant Plate, Round 1 x 2 with Leaf (3565) as it looked like a skirt.

The T-shaped bracket was useful to create the details on the chest.

The pink flower element was a good shape for creating sleeves and a jaw. I connected two of the white flower elements to make the rest of the arms. For the thighs, I used plenty of plates with holes and bar elements to create joints and to affix the 'skirt'.

Ryouji Ikuse's alternate build 

Ikuse also limited himself to only using the elements in the box for his contribution to Bug Fest.

We love the whimsical LEGO characters that populate Ikuse's Instagram and Flickr feeds and we instantly fell for this little cutie:

Would you believe this adorable little nymph-like character is an alternate model? 

Ikuse says he considered adding butterfly wings, but on his family's recommendation ended up opting for a cloak instead. 

Speaking of butterfly wings, Ikuse says that the new printed tile, used in the design of the Blue Morph were among the elements in the set that he found most inspiring.

 

Another of Ikuse's favourite parts from the set, the Black animal tail element (67361), is clevery re-imagined as a horn. 

The face on this cute little figure is incredibly well rendered for an alternate model. More creature parts, the barb/ claw/ tooth elements (53451) work wonderfully as eyes.

The new for 2023 leaf elements (3565) have proven themselves to be a big hit among our contributors and they make a great skirt on Ikuse's MOC. Ikuse has done a superb job of integrating them into the model with 1 x 1 Round Plate with Bar and larger barb/ horn/ tooth elements (11089), which appear frequently in the LEGO® DREAMZzz™theme which Eero looked at recently.

 Takamichi Irie's MOC

I've been a fan of LEGO since i was very young but I don't think I've ever seen a set that features such richly detailed creatures in LEGO bricks.

A set featuring birds (21301) was released under LEGO Ideas in 2015 but back then new parts and recoloured elements weren't used in LEGO Ideas sets, so the designers were limited in the ways they could create the creatures in that set.

Now, in The Insect Collection, a host of interesting elements (many are recolours) are used to create beautifully detailed and well-rendered bugs. Just like the recent Botanical Collection series, you'll find plenty of recolours in vivid blues and warm greens. I created the image above to show which elements I found most inspiring.

So, I decided to create something that would take advantage of the amazing selection of coloured elements in this set. I went for a theme that combines nature's vibrant colors, inspired by the charm of insects—Botanical × Fish. Although there aren't many new parts in this set, I aimed to keep things dense and well-structured, like the original.

READ MORE: See what Tary created by using the same parts as inspiration

If you're inspired, why not get hold of set 21342 on LEGO.com yourself?

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