Bug Fest using LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection: Introducing the elements

It's December and New Elementary is getting in the festive mood with a Parts Fest! 

We invited five incredibly talented builders, @kekenoji, @moko_bricks, @legomichiiiiii, @r194.lego, and @nobu_tary to inspire us with their LEGO creations using elements from LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection. With an inventory that ticked all the boxes for colourful and interesting elements, it seemed like the perfect set for a Parts Fest, or maybe this time it's a Bug Fest...

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection
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1111 parts
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Set 21342 on LEGO.com

We'll be publishing a new installment of the parts fest every Friday for the next three weeks, so make sure to come back and see what our contributors have cooked up.

For now, let's take a look at the elements our budding entomologists will be working with. 

Recolours

Just like our previous Parts Fest we called 'Flower Fest', which featured elements from the botanicals sets, there are no new moulds in The Insect Collection. There are, however, plenty of recoloured elements for our builders to play with. Let's take a look:

We'll start with some vivid greens:

• 4x Bar Holder with Hole and Bar Handle in Lime (6448749 | 23443)
• 8x Equipment Candle Stick in Lime (6448748 | 37762) 
• 1x Hinge Plate 1 x 12 with Angled Side Extensions and Tapered Ends, 7 Teeth in Lime (6346399 | 53031)
• 2x Weapon Sword Serrated in Lime (6448752 | 19858)
• 4x Weapon Pistol / Revolver in Sand Green (6451473 | 30132) 
• 8x Plant, Leaf 2 x 6 x 1 with 2 Studs in Bright Green (6433394 | 3565)

These elements will be useful for building all kinds of foliage: there are actual leaves in Bright Green of course, but I can imagine the swords working as tattered vegetation - perhaps storm damaged or insect nibbled! We've seen the large Hinge Plate used as a leaf in Botanical Collection sets before. The Candles and Bar holders could be useful for stems. The Pistol element has proven itself to be a handy angled bar which might come in useful to attach flowers on the ends of those stems. So in short, an attractive selection for green-fingered MOC builders! 

Next, some useful elements new in Black:

• 1x Animal / Creature Body Part, Tail / Claw / Horn / Branch  Large in Black (6448746 | 67361)
• 4x Plate Angled 3 x 3 with Heart Shape in Black (6448733 | 39613)
• 2x Slope Curved 3 x 2 with Stud Notch Left in Black (6390748 | 80177)
• 2x Slope Curved 3 x 2 with Stud Notch Right in Black(6390749 | 80178)

I'm yet to use the heart shaped plate in a MOC, but the new wedges which were released last year have come in very useful when building curvaceous surfaces. Black seems like a popular colourway for trees, especially when paired with some vibrant foliage so this it's great to see this element come in this colour.

Finally, some cool blues round off the recolour palette:

• 2x Dish 4 x 4 with 4 Studs in Bright Light Blue (6448739 | 65138)
• 2x Tile 3 x 3 Curved, Macaroni in Dark Azure (6451474 | 79393)
• 2x Croissant in White (6424036 | 3346) - note this is another new mould for the Croissant, it's very subtle but the original Croissant ends were rounded, then they became Flat bar ends.  We have seen it in other moulds but the first time for this variant.

New Prints

• 1x Food Egg with 1.5mm Hole with Dark Red/Reddish Brown Bee /Wasp Stripes print (6449708)
• 2x Technic Ball Joint with Dark Green Eye/Pupil print in Lime (6449711)
• 3x Tile Round 1 x 1 with Ladybug print in Red (6449709)
• 6x Tile 2 x 2 Curved, Macaroni with 3 White Dots, Bright Light Yellow Shapes print in Black (6449710)

We're treated to a few new prints to represent the colouring of the insects in the set. I'm getting some fruity vibes from both the Lime andBright Light Yellow element, I can see a green melon or maybe a grape and a pineapple in these pieces. 

If you think the ladybird print looks familiar, you wouldn't be wrong:

A very similar element already exists, Ladybird 1x1 Rounded Tile (6324417) is pictured on the right. It started appearing in sets back in 2021 and the print features a more cartoonish design to match the style of minifigs. It seems the graphic designers revisited the element to create a more 'realistic' or serious tone to complement the atmosphere of the models in this set. 

Rare Elements

In addition to to all those recoloured elements and new prints, there's a generous selection of rare elements on offer in The Insect Collection.  We usually classify rare elements as those that appear in 3 other sets or less.

The following appear in just one other set (at the time of writing):

 

• 2x Tile 4 x 4 Curved, Macaroni in Blue (6397956 | 27507)
• 1x Wedge Curved 8 x 3 x 2 Open Left in Bright Light Orange (6448743 | 41750)
• 1x Wedge Curved 8 x 3 x 2 Open Right in Bright Light Orange (6448740 | 41749)
• 13x Plate Special 2 x 3 with Rocks in Dark Tan (6401026 | 27261)
• 6x Tile Round 1 x 2 Half Circle in Medium Azure (6445337 | 1748)
• 1x Slope Curved 2 x 1 with Stud Notch Left in Medium Nougat (6454169 | 29120) 
• 1x Slope Curved 2 x 1 with Stud Notch Right in Medium Nougat (6454171 | 29119)
• 2x Tile Round 1 x 1 Half Circle in Sand Green (6423386 | 24246) 
• 2x in Tan Plate Special 1 x 2 with Pin Hole Underneath (6404639 | 18677) 
• 3x Wedge Curved 3 x 4 x 2/3 Cutout in Tan (6443063 | 11291) 
• 1x Minifig Neckwear Wings Fairy in Trans Clear (6448754 | 10183)
• 1x Bar 1L with Clip [Cut Edges and One Side Hole] [Full Clip] in Pearl Gold (6453281 | 3484)

These elements feature in 2 other sets:

• 2x Windscreen 8 x 6 x 2 Curved in Dark Green (6392976 | 41751) 
• 6x Plate Special 1 x 3 Rounded with 3 Open Studs in Dark Tan (6449564 | 77850)
• 6x Tile Special 2 x 3 Pentagonal in Medium Azure (6402641 | 22385) 
• 4x Plate Round Corner 4 x 4 in Nougat (6330411 | 30565) 
• 2x Slope Curved 4 x 1 Inverted in Nougat (6330417 | 13547) 
• 2x Technic Ball Jointin Reddish Brown (6361175 | 32474) 
• 1x Plate Special 1 x 2 with Pin Hole on Top in Sand Green (6425490 | 11458) 
• 2x Plate Special 1 x 2 with Pin Hole on Top in Tan (6443920 | 11458) 

And as a bonus, there's an interesting new element in the set that we have just taken a closer look at.

1x 3.2 Shaft w/ Cross Axle in Transparent /Trans Clear (6444527|4042) is included and if you haven't already, go and read our post all about this fun this new Curved Bar element.

Closing Thoughts

The Insect Collection is an excellent parts pack featuring loads of recolours and rare elements, plus the rest of the inventory includes elements of almost every colour across a diverse type of parts. It's truly the perfect set for a Parts Fest.

We can't wait to show you what the five builders have made from their copy of 21342 The Insect Collection. Come back next Friday when the inFESTation begins!

READ MORE: What are the new LEGO® parts for December 2023 and which sets contain the most?

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