Abandoning the Instructions: Exploring Alt Builds for Smaller LEGO Sets

Many times in the LEGO community, you see alternate builds of huge sets that abandon the official instructions to create something else amazing with the same parts. The large sizes provide a lot of opportunities for getting creative. Instructions even used to suggest alternate builds. Further, you can do even more when you add your own additional pieces like our mods to the A-Frame Cabin and Little Mermaid Clamshell. But what if you are limited to only what came in the set? And what if that set is small?

Two BrickNerd contributors volunteered to find out. LEGO provided 40647 Lotus Flowers and 40643 Jade Rabbit for them to play around with and these are the results. Are small sets able to have alternate builds? I’ll turn it over to Sam and Sean to answer that question.

Lotus Flowers - Samuel Pister (aka Pistash)

When the BrickNerd team was challenged to do something creative with two small sets, I immediately volunteered. At the time, we didn’t know what the set would be, only that it would be similar to the daffodils or sunflowers sets. I’m a MOCer, but I buy sets mainly to add their inventory to my stock for future projects. The LEGO Botanicals line (and also the smaller flower sets) have inventories full of pieces that I’ve diverted from their initial use for aesthetic purposes. It is one of the main reasons I own them all and why I was so excited to take on this challenge.

I couldn’t wait to see the set when I received the parcel. I opened the box from LEGO and saw the 40647 Lotus Flowers set. I had a very good first impression of it. These flowers are a perfect continuation of the previous sets of small flowers like the roses and sunflowers. They look almost like real flowers, although in my mind, lotus flowers are more like aquatic flowers, so I was surprised by the presence of such long stems. I suppose those allow the flowers to be integrated into bouquets.

I started by opening the box and discovering its inventory. The shadow of Claude Monet's Water Lilies began to creep into my mind, and I could already imagine these flowers under a very poetic bridge.

Onto the set’s contents! There are three bags. Bags 2 and 3 are identical except one flower will be pink and the other will be white. There are very few different elements (just 28 unique ones) and even fewer if you consider those that come in both pink and white. On the other hand, the repetition of certain items in the inventory is a positive point for AFOLs which will add the parts to their stocks.

Of course my eye went to the rare parts. My favorite one is 6420922 Wheel Cover 28 Spoke. I was also pleased to find four white Steering Wheels, though I already wished two were in white and two were in pink for the look of the finished flowers.

I will not go into details about building the set—this isn’t a review. But I do have to say that the construction process is quick and uses tried and tested techniques. The set follows steps that you’d expect like attaching the petals to the wheel like on 40460 Roses.

The most interesting aspects are 1) the centres of the flowers which use so few parts and 2) the use of inverted tiles to give the petals a smooth texture on both sides.

Now I had to take apart the set and build something else... The first idea that seemed obvious to me was to make a ballerina. The colours of the set and the shape of the petals reminded me of a dress.

As I worked on this creation, I quickly realised that the limited number of pieces was going to be the biggest obstacle to achieving a build close to what I had imagined. In the end, I settled on this version, which was aesthetically very different from what I would have liked to do, but it was impossible to refine any further without resorting to my personal stock.

For my second attempt, I went straight for realism. I started with the idea of using the four available steering wheels to make a vehicle. The clips and bars were very useful in creating the vehicle's structure. I also liked the possibility of connecting the axle connector part 6374076 directly to the middle of the studs, which is very robust.

I then moved on to more abstract creations, having fun with different connections and centralising my favourite piece of the set, the bright light yellow 6420922 Wheel Cover.

I ended my alternate building wanderings by imagining a very abstract but more aquatic version of lotus flowers. Everyone is free to make their own interpretations.

This challenge has been a lot of fun for me. I think I could have gone on with more projects and explored different possibilities, such as using all the green stems in one project. This challenge was also a little frustrating, not being able to polish the builds like I usually do.

I like challenges and constraints, and these are an integral part of the hobby. Sometimes the part you need doesn’t exist. Sometimes you wonder “Why isn’t this piece available in blue!?” But limitations lead to creativity. I’d repeat this experiment again, but with the stipulation that I can add a few of my own parts. What do you think of the alternate builds and some of the abstract creations?

As you ponder that, I am going to hand off this article to by fellow BrickNerd Sean.

Jade Rabbit - Sean Mayo

Accepting the BrickNerd challenge to build something with a small unknown set, I was initially introduced to this particular LEGO set by name only: “Jade Rabbit.” As an American Westerner, I thought: “I could have fun working with a green bunny.” Trans-dark green crystalline pieces are on the rarer side of my collection, so I was excited. Somewhere deep in my brain, I was hoping for a small green version of Ninjago’s Crystal King or at least parts I could siphon into making my own.

So when I saw the actual boxed set, I was confused… and had some thoughts. Why is the rabbit white? What’s with him stirring something in a bucket? Are those white slugs under a bonsai tree? At least the sun has some cool pieces. And that base is really thick…

It turns out I am totally uninformed, and/or LEGO is targeting a very specific audience. So I did a li, but I’ll summarize it for you. The set is based on a Chinese myth about a rabbit who was given immortality because of his self-sacrifice.

He lived on the moon, making immortality medicine with the goddess Chang’e. (Explains the bucket.) He did such a good job that ultimately he was turned snow white and brilliant like jade. (I didn’t even know jade could be white.) Now, the Jade or “Moon Rabbit” is celebrated in a festival where people eat mooncakes with an orange yolk at their center. (This also explains the round orange 2x2 tile on the inside of the set when it cracks open.)

Lastly, the big yellow circle I thought was the sun is actually the moon. Now, I’m hardly doing the depth of this storied tradition justice. I learned enough to know that there is more going on in this set than me simply saying, “Why isn’t the jade bunny green?”

Speaking of the rabbit, I wondered how he would come together as I had so few remaining parts by the time I got to bag two and was ready to build him. This was the highlight of building the set and was where I found the highest building skill.

Now lets dig into some of the pieces I found interesting. Feat your eyes on these elements!

After laying out all the cool parts, I was a combination of excited… and disappointed. While contemplating the spread, I showed the selection to a non-AFOL friend. He looked at the array of pieces, gleaning some of my distress and commented, “Humm, it looks… odd.” His pun was intended. So my short synopsis of the parts selection is this: there are some very cool pieces in unfortunate odd quantities, which is a bit annoying to me. (Especially being unable to complete the yellow tile circle!!! Couldn’t the designer have hidden one extra piece in the base somewhere!?) But regardless, the trans-light blue slopes are amazing!

With the pieces in hand, it was time to build alternate builds. It’s been said that any LEGO set can be alt built into a spaceship, so that is where I started. And threw in a sci-fi car for good measure.

The parts selection for this spaceship build made things a bit hard. The mostly symmetrical ideas that I had kept bumping into the odd part counts. But it was still fun to play around with. I hope it looks as swooshable as it felt to fly around.

Looking at the remaining parts, I knew I needed to use some of the other colors. I decided to try my hand at building a different style of tree compared to the set’s version. This was quite difficult given the parts selection. But building something asymmetrical and organic was far easier with the given parts.

Lastly, the two rabbits needed a 6x6 vignette. Nothing grand, but since most of the pieces in this set are white, I went for a small carrot field instead, using the foliage for something other than a tree. Don’t they look happy now to be out of their underground bunker?

My process of playing around with this set had a huge learning curve. Coming at it with zero knowledge of its Asian folklore disappointed me when no green rabbit arrived in the mail. After learning a bit about other people’s traditions, mythical stories, and fun festivals, I saw the comprehensiveness of the set in a new light. Now when I look at it, instead of a lack of trans-green parts, I see a lonely selfless rabbit making immortal medicine on a moon pie under a clouded yellow moon.

An Alternate Conclusion

To wrap things up, both of these sets are cool in opposite ways. The Lotus Flowers are more of a display piece and are great to add to that botanical collection. Their parts selection, however, is limited. I’m impressed with what Pistash was able to accomplish with them—especially since he only had eight fewer pieces than I did. I would have been hard-pressed to create anything but the flower it was intended to be. The Jade Rabbit, in comparison, has a variety of new and unusual parts and feels more like one of LEGO’s seasonal models. Ultimately, both sets were lots of fun to build while still challenging to work with. And we’ll definitely look forward to trying something similar in the future! I’ll pass you back to Samuel for some final thoughts.

When I saw the set Sean had received, I thought to myself… ah yes, that set is not easy… how's he going to do it? But I forgot this man has ancestral Iron Builder blood in him, and I should have guessed that he would come up with a magnificent spaceship. In the end, I think Sean and I had very similar reactions—a mixture of excitement and disillusionment. Based on the set names, I imagined a floral set full of flashy colours just as much as Sean imagined a trans-green rabbit. Though once we got past that stage of incredulity, the fun started with the discovery of cool pieces and exploring the possibilities of what you can build only using small sets.

DISCLAIMER: These sets were provided to BrickNerd by LEGO. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

Have you ever abandoned the instructions and built your own creation out of a set? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, John A., Lukas Kurth from StoneWars, and Wayne Tyler to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.