In December, 2025 I had the good fortune to visit LEGO Campus in Billund, Denmark. While there, I had the chance to talk with Theo Bonner – One of the Senior Designers working on LEGO’s Botanicals Theme. During the 45 minutes that we spoke, we covered a variety of topics including the challenges of flowerpots, new colours, storytelling the Botanicals consumer base, storytelling and the lack of Spinjitzu in Botanical sets.
Today, in the first of our four reviews of upcoming Botanical releases, we will take a look at the 11501 Tulip Bouquet, and in our interview extract, we talk about the challenges of recolouring certain elements, the new curved slope element and its connection to a space theme from around the turn of the century.
Interview with Senior Designer Theo Bonner Part 1
Introductions
The Rambling Brick: Theo, thanks so much for your time. Just to start, could I just ask you to explain your current role in the LEGO Group and how you’ve got to be here?
Theo Bonner: I am a senior model designer at the LEGO Group. The journey to where I ended up on Botanicals is a little convoluted. I was hired to work on Ninjago, and I did, I think, one year’s worth of development on Ninjago before I moved to LEGO Dreamzzz at its very, very early stages, doing a lot of concept work. I was with that for two or three years, just iterating and developing what that first lineup was going to look like.
Once the first launch was finished, I wanted to change. So I moved to Friends, after talking with Fenella, the creative lead. She’s lovely, and the team was doing really cool stuff, as they were working on their reboot. So while I was on Dreamzzz, I developed two sets for Friends. I loved that experience and moved over to Friends. During that time, I got the opportunity to work on a Botanical set, Tiny Plants, which was a passion project of mine, and that kind of sparked some love for Botanicals. Then I managed to swing a 50:50, role where I was doing a little bit of both, which ended up being closer to probably 70:30. I ended up finally switching fully to Botanicals a couple months ago.
Recolours
The Rambling Brick: So I’ve seen some interesting changes there over the last few years. You know, one of the things that really stood out in the early days of Botanicals was the crazy recolours and and neat part usage. I would love to know, what has been one of your favourite recolouring of traditional elements, either for one of your sets or for any other set in the line where you think, gee, I wish I’d thought of that.
Theo Bonner: I think the favourite one I’ve done was colour changing the banana to three different shades of orange. Yes, that one was very fun. And that one I’m particularly proud of. I think it’s the set with the most bananas in it. I think it probably holds that record.
But the I think overall, my favourite has to be Milan’s colour change of the bicorn pirate hat for the Wildflower bouquet, because it looks just like the flower. It’s one of those random pieces that you would not expect to show up in a botanical set, especially in that quantity.
And it was just like it was one of those things I didn’t quite realize what I was looking at, until I looked closer and had that moment of, “Oh, that’s the bicorn, that’s the admiral’s cap, I guess.”
The dark purple, and magenta, as well: I remember Milan saying that production was not particularly happy with him, because they only had one mould for that hat. It’s only ever used once in most of the sets it appears in. Suddenly the new botanical bouquet uses 30 of them. And they were like, “We don’t know how to produce enough.”
Yes, there’s a bit of a headache for those down the line from us, but they made it work.
Botanical Elements: they aren’t all ours!
The Rambling Brick: So one of the other things that we’ve seen evolving is the way that Botanical sets started off as that recoloring old elements, repurposing and just exploiting the shapes to bring us these organic forms. We’ve now started to see a few built-for-purpose elements. I’m thinking particularly of the leaves, the daisies, the tulips over the last 12 months. Have you found any of those elements offering a greater scope for exploration than others?
Theo Bonner: It’s a good question, because I think, people are very curious about like the botanical-like element strategy. And I think one thing to note is, many of those elements: We did not make them. Those were other projects, and we end up using them.
So a lot of what we look for, a lot of our development, and when we’re looking for new elements, for new flowers and things, we’re looking at what other projects are doing, and seeing if we can grab them. So in the case of that little mini petaled flower, that was a Lego Friends element developed for Lego Friends for sunflowers, and it just ended up being a great fit for us and the Botanical Garden. That [LEGO Ideas] Botanical Garden, gave us a lot of material to work with, with the tulip and peony.
I think the most visible botanical element we’ve made is that pointed leaf, which we use for petals and things. I think on the whole, our strategy is, as much as possible, to borrow from what other projects are doing. If they happen to be doing botanical elements, it makes sense for us to grab onto those. Also, if we’re going to make elements, I think the pointed leaf is a bit of a difficult element because it is so bespoke to what we’re doing. However, we were really starting to feel hemmed in by the elements we had, in terms of the breadth of different types of flowers and plants we could do. We really tried a lot of things to come up with a sort of pointed leaf-thing and find elements that did that for us, but we really couldn’t. So, we ended up going with that pointed leaf because it opened up so many opportunities for us as far as leaves, petals: tons of new flowers were able to be built, that we probably couldn’t find a way to do it in a way that felt to the quality that we want Botanicals to be. So we ended up making that petal piece.
I think now that we’ve seen how it affected the system, and … I don’t know if any other project/theme has been able to use that pointed leaf for something other than how we use it. I think that’s a bit of a shame. It’s a really useful element for us, and we’re going to continue to use it. I think our strategy going forward is probably to focus more on making elements that are more universal, more healthy for the system, less specific to us, and more “if we’re going to make an element, can we make one that other projects can use?”
So then you bring up the tulip element for us? That is an element that is [more geared towards the LEGO System and other Projects than the petal/leaf].
The Rambling Brick: And I should clarify at this point which tulip element are we talking I was referring to the new curved slope, as opposed to the little tulip flower.
Theo Bonner: The one I have here, yes.
The Rambling Brick: Now, looking at this, I am flashing back to [the windscreens on] the Life on Mars mechs.
Theo Bonner: That is really funny that you bring up that element design. So, originally, at very early stages, we were kind of going in a direction where we were making sort of a bespoke tulip element, and all of us were like, “We don’t want to go down that path.” The element designer, Matteo, he’s a huge LEGO fan from that era. That element specifically is the one he called out as like, “maybe we can do something like a modern equivalent of that,” and he was pulling from that element. It’s amazing that you picked up on that, because that was exactly what he was going for.
The Rambling Brick : I have it sitting on my bookshelf.
Theo Bonner: Okay, that makes sense. So, and a lot of this is because of Matteo’s use of clever geometry, we ended up making an element that we’ve already seen used in other projects. You’ll see that [coming up] soon. And I think that is a sign of success to us: if other people are using it, then we’re making an element that is not just a botanical element. On the whole though, we don’t make that many elements: we really try to avoid making new elements if possible. Because part of the fun of Botanicals is seeing what other people are doing, and then seeing how we can repurpose it for for a flower.
Come back soon for part two of this interview, where we talk about pots and the challenges of designing 18-plus sets for people who have never worked with LEGO Elements before…
A Closer Look at 11501 Tulip Bouquet
The Elements:
The key to the shape of the petals is a new 4x5x1/2/3 curved slope. These elements are present in red, yellow medium lilac and bright purple. We also have quarter-circle 2x2x2/3 curved slopes in these colours to complete the petal’s form. The petals on the orange tulips are represented using the leaf-petal element. The stems are long technic axles, with leaves in bright green – a combination of wedge slopes, surfboards and arches. The round Ninjago weapons holder with 3 rails and 3 holes is key to the flower’s symmetry, and appears 12 times – 3 in reddish brown and 9 in pearl-gold.
The Build
Apart from the spring yellowish-green bud and the wide-open orange flower, the tulips are centered on a core using the Ninjago weapons ring. The connecting clip is placed 3 modules in from the lower edge of the petal, allowing the point of rotation for the petal to bring the proximal edges in a little closer as the flowers open. This opening is gradual, bringing variations as we go – initially red and yellow, with the single leaf element separating the petals. As the purple petals open further, an ovoid shield is inserted into the mix, while the pink flower has the petals lengthened, and increased spacing using a minifigure surfboard. Finally, the orange flower is opened right up, using the petal -leaf element, and is ready to fall off its stem.
Rather than just repeating with each flower, the stems take on a life of their own, with varying lengths, curves and leaves.
While there are common factors in the construction of many of the flowers, rather than build them in order of age, the build is broken up between the different shapes: red, orange, yellow; then back to the bud, the lilac and finally the pink flower. I do appreciate the work that has gone into ensuring the building experience is kept interesting, if you are putting the set together on your own.
In conclusion
Again, the final result was very satisfying: the shapes were achieved reasonably simply, and the flowers are quite stable. It would be a great model to build with a friend, or on a date – although the app might be more enjoyable than using the paper instructions which bundle the red, yellow and orange flowers in one manual, and the buds, purple and pink in the other. The detail applied in the stamen is achieved in a variety of ways, and the build never got boring for me, working on my own. The new arch element looks like it will provide some interesting opportunities for creating organic curves, and I look forward to seeing it appear as a windscreen for a spaceship any day now (wishful thinking, not an insight into the unrevealed catalog)
The build order, as well as the variations in the leaves saves you from fearing “Build this x5” at anytime during the process, and works well to keep a solo builder from getting too bored.
The set looks great on display, bringing a vibrant burst of colour to the vase. The build provides novel parts and techniques for the experienced LEGO builder, and is not so challenging so as to intimidate the first time builder. If you are building this set with others, I recommend the LEGO Builder app to allow you to work together without fighting over the manual for the right colour.
I give this set 4.5 arbitrary Praise Units: it sets a high bar to start the wave, but the final result is impressive, and brings all of the appealing things to the mix that you expect from a Botanical Bouquet.
What do you think of this bouquet? leave you comments below.
11501 Tulip Bouquet has 576 Pieces and is aimed at adult builders. The set goes on sale on January 1 2026, and is priced at is priced at $AUD99.99 / $USD59.99 / 59.99 € / £54.99.
Come back soon, when we will continue our interview with Theo Bonner – we will discuss flower pots and the challenges of designing 18-plus sets for people that have never built a LEGO set before, before and taking a look at the 11504 Peace Lily.
My Reviews of the initial 4 releases from the Botanicals range in 2026, and my four part interview with Senior Designer, Theo Bonner, can be found here:
Special thanks to the Adult Engagement Team at the LEGO Group for facilitating this Interview.
Thanks to the LEGO Group for providing this set for review (all opinions are my own), and thanks to Theo Bonner for providing insights into the Botanicals process.
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!
