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I fairly regularly browse Rebrickable.com for alternate building ideas for official LEGO sets or just for inspiration for my own custom projects. Sometimes I just look at the pictures and that’s enough to trigger my own ideas, other times I download full instructions to work with. Many of the instructions on Rebrickable are free or are offered for a small fee.

I recently ran across a series of alternate building ideas that I really liked by a LEGO fan from Hong Kong who goes by the name beewiks. They basically take official LEGO sets and turn them into 3-D-style pictures that fit in a picture frame.

I know many LEGO fans struggle with display space issues. They often have to resort to keeping sets in storage, rotating what they have on display, or even passing on sets they would really like simply because they don’t have the space.

I myself turned several of my favorite sets (particularly buildings) into almost flat backgrounds for my LEGO Modular Buildings. I like them so much, and I like to have them on display but I just don’t have the room to showcase them in their full form or the funds to turn them into regular Modulars.

And this is why I liked beewiks’ idea. They are also making full sets almost flat but with the addition of a picture frame. This way, you reduce the amount of space your LEGO sets take up while still being able to display key elements (and your favorite minifigs) from it. The 3-D style can even allow for retaining some functionality and play-features. And the picture frame gives them a nice finishing touch.

Some of the sets they worked with are the #21319 LEGO Ideas Central Perk, the #21316 LEGO Ideas Flintstones, the #10263 LEGO Winter Village Fire Station, the #75955 LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Express, the #31105 LEGO Creator Townhouse Toy Store, the #21302 LEGO Ideas Big Bang Theory, the #75953 LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Whomping Willow, the #60227 LEGO City Lunar Space Station, the #75978 LEGO Harry Potter: Diagon Alley, the #21324 LEGO Ideas Sesame Street, the #76108 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Sanctum Sanctorum and the # 10292 The Friends Apartments.

The suggested picture frames are from IKEA (recommended sizes and styles mentioned on the project pages), but you can use any other picture frame (or even make your own picture frame from any material including LEGO) as long as the sizes match.

These are relatively easy projects, but if you need instructions, they are available at Rebrickable.com. And once you get the hang of it, you can turn pretty much any LEGO set into a 3-D style picture and display them in much less space. They would also look neater than the cluttered shelves and tables many of us struggle with.

What do you think? How do you like this alternate version of displaying LEGO sets? Are you planning to give it a try? Which sets would you like to turn into a 3-D picture? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet Review

The first LEGO sets with pretty flowers were released under the LEGO Icons collection, and some of the smaller bouquets appeared under the LEGO Creator line and as seasonal sets. Starting this year, LEGO flowers get their own theme called the LEGO Botanical Collection.

From the start, the series included two types of flowers; those with their own brick-built vases/planters as well as loose flowers that you need to find a way to display on your own. The benefit of the full arrangements is that once they are built, they are ready to display and the flowers are secured to the vase and won’t move around.

For the loose flower sets, you will need to make your own arrangement. Because of their similar size to real flowers, regular flower vases work just fine, or you could attempt to build your own custom LEGO vase. You can now download instructions for custom brick-built vases on sites like Rebrickable.com, and I even found some off-brand brick-built vases compatible with these flowers on Amazon, (if you want to go this route, be sure to read the reviews as the quality may or may not be on par with LEGO).

The benefit of the loose flower bouquets is that you can customize your own arrangements any way you like, and there is also usually a bigger variety of interesting flowers than in the everything included sets. The first such bouquet was the #10280 LEGO Icons Flower Bouquet released in 2021 featuring roses, snapdragons, poppies, asters, daisies, and grasses. The second was the #10313 LEGO Wildflower Bouquet released in 2023 featuring cornflowers, lavender, Welsh poppies, cow parsley, leatherleaf ferns, gerbera daisies, larkspur, and lupins. Last year, we got the #10328 LEGO Bouquet of Roses, which was a little unusual as it only included red roses and white baby’s breath, but the roses came in three different shapes (full bloom, blooming, and bud), four of each.

And just a few days ago, LEGO released the #10342 LEGO Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet featuring daisies, cornflowers, eucalyptus, elderflowers, roses, ranunculus, cymbidium orchids, a waterlily dahlia, and a campanula. As usual with these sets, the length of the stems is adjustable, encouraging builders to arrange their own unique bouquets. For added customization, the flowers can be arranged with any of the previously released LEGO bouquet sets, to create a larger, unique floral display.

Just like the other sets in this collection, this latest addition is full of interesting parts, recolors, and clever building techniques. The use of the axe heads in lighter and darker orange for the buttercups is brilliant! And just like it was done for the #10343 LEGO Botanical Mini Orchid we reviewed earlier, recolored shields are used for the petals of the dahlia – another great technique! I really like the light-pink roses; they look so organic with those smooth petals and subtle colors! And the baby-blue cornflowers are very cute. Overall, there is so much to like here!

The set comes with six paper bags, so you can build the flowers simultaneously with family or friends. It’s still pretty rare to find the new paper bags in sets released in North America, so I’m glad they are making advancements in this regard. One downside of the paper bags is that you really have to make sure you get all parts out before tossing them as they aren’t clear and you can’t see the parts inside. Several times, I thought I emptied them, but then had to go back and look again when I was missing a part during the building process. And sure enough, they were still hiding in the bag! So don’t throw away the paper bags until you completely finish building!

The building instructions include a bit of information on each flower, which is a nice touch. Another nice touch is that the box has a little print that looks like a FROM/TO label, so you can fill out who is it from and who is it for if you intend to give it as a gift.

In the video below, JANGBRiCKS will show you the set in more detail, and also demonstrates how to arrange them in a lovely vase.

The LEGO Botanical series continues to impress with beautiful and creative sets that provide an engaging building experience and look lovely on display. I know numerous adults who got into the hobby later in life through the LEGO Botanical Collection. If you would like to see all the sets available right now, visit the LEGO Botanical section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Botanical sets? Do you have any of them already? Which do you like the best so far? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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