LEGO Ideas and CUUSOO

The Insect Collection

Three life-size bugs that turn brick-building into quiet, gorgeous natural history.

Brick Rated Score

4.5/5

Set 21342 · 2023

Pieces1,111

Minifigsn/a

Year2023

Set number21342

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The verdict

The mantis is what got me.

It swivels, it poses, it tilts its head like it's sizing you up, and it's honestly one of the best things LEGO has done at this size. Add a hefty Hercules beetle with wings that lift and a blue morpho butterfly that reads as delicate, and you've got a set that punches so far above its price it's almost silly. If you like nature, botanical builds, or just something calm and satisfying to make, this one's easy to love.

Best for: Nature lovers and botanical-set fans who want display presence without a huge price

The full review

What it is

Some LEGO® sets try to overwhelm you with size, and this one goes the other way. The Insect Collection is three life-size bugs, a blue morpho butterfly, a Chinese mantis, and a male Hercules beetle, each perched on its own little slice of habitat. It was the 50th set to come out of LEGO Ideas, and it feels like the program at its best: a fan's genuine obsession turned into something you can hold. There are no stickers anywhere, no minifigures, no filler. Just three creatures rendered with the kind of care that makes you look twice at a shelf.

The catch

What surprised me most is how satisfying it is to build three small things instead of one big one. You get four instruction booklets, so you can hand pieces of it to other people and build together, and each insect has its own personality on the workbench. The mantis is the showpiece for me. It's poseable in a way LEGO creatures usually aren't, with lime sword blades doing the serrated forelegs and printed round pieces for those swiveling compound eyes. The beetle is all heft and drama, with wing cases that lift to show a segmented abdomen and optional wings if you want it mid-launch. The butterfly is the quiet one, sitting on a branch beside a little buildable flower with a tiny honeybee hovering nearby.

Who it's for

The honest caveats are small ones. The butterfly can feel a touch flimsy next to its bulkier roommates, and I really wish LEGO had included printed tiles with the scientific names, the way older creature sets did. The octagonal bases are lovely but they take up room, so if you're tight on shelf space you may end up displaying the bugs on their own. And at roughly 80 dollars for 1,111 pieces, the value is so good it's almost a non-complaint. If you love nature, if you already collect the botanical sets, or you just want a calm, rewarding build with real presence when it's done, grab this one. If you live for giant technical builds and swooping engineering, it's smaller and gentler than that, so go in knowing it's a slow, pretty pleasure rather than a marathon. This set left as an official retail item at the end of 2025, so it's worth moving on if it's calling to you.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this feels like three short, distinct sessions rather than one long slog, which is exactly why it stays fun. The butterfly and its flower lean heavily on botanical techniques, with new leaf elements borrowed from the DreamZzz sets and a clever honeybee made from a bucket handle head, fairy wings, and a printed egg for the abdomen. The mantis is the standout to build, full of articulation and posing, and it genuinely feels alive by the end. The Hercules beetle is the meatiest section, with opening elytra, a segmented body, and a sweet Easter egg hiding underneath: little grubs built from LEGO croissant pieces tucked into the rotting log, visible only while you build.

For parts people, there's real treasure here. You get a first-time sand green recolor on the leg-tip revolve elements, fresh printed round bricks for the mantis eyes, and updated seven-spotted ladybug prints that look far more convincing than the old ones. Across the box that's 1,111 pieces in 31 colors with 313 unique part-and-color combinations, and no stickers to fuss with. At around 80 dollars that works out to roughly 7 cents a part, which for a set this full of useful recolors, printed elements, and small botanical pieces is one of the better deals LEGO Ideas has offered. This is a parts pile you'll happily raid later.

Fun facts

01It was the 50th official set released through the LEGO Ideas program.
02The original fan design by Spain's José María Pérez Suero (hachiroku24) featured five insects, and LEGO trimmed it to three for the final set.
03Tiny grubs built from LEGO croissant pieces are hidden under the beetle's rotting log, an Easter egg you only see while building.
04The whole set ships with zero stickers, with every detail like the mantis eyes and ladybugs done as proper printed elements instead.