This Unexpectedly Versatile LEGO Piece Is Quickly Becoming An Icon
We all know the classic red LEGO brick, but there is another one becoming a fan favourite…
The red 4×2 LEGO brick is undoubtedly one of the most iconic shapes on the planet, and most definitely number one in LEGO’s arsenal of System pieces. It’s quite versatile. With a healthy dose of imagination and a few more of them, you can build more or less anything. There is one problem with it. Regardless of what colour LEGO paints it in, on its own it doesn’t do much, and dare I say, it’s even boring? 😮
Which is why I started wreaking my brain, thinking of a LEGO piece that’s unconventional, yet starts appearing everywhere, even in sets you’d never expect to see it, and used in ways you most certainly did not see coming! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, aliens and superheroes and last but not least, AFOLs, meet the… no, you haven’t guessed it… frog. 🐸 Yes, the frog. Ribbit, ribbit. That frog.
You did not see that coming, did ya? 🤣 I didn’t either, until I started looking literally around my house and realising I was surrounded by frogs. It is nothing short of inspiring to see in just how many ways LEGO found uses for its frog piece. The immediate use that I can actually think of, it’s not even as a frog, but cherry-blossoms. Pink frogs as cherry-blossoms. LEGO’s Bonsai Tree set has a total of 101 of them!
So, what happens when you paint the same frogs purple? They become gynostemiums. What’s that, you ask? It’s a core part of an Orchid, of course — says me, pretending like I know anything about flowers. I looked it up, but yes, LEGO used the purple frogs as part of the Orchid set as well.
The fun doesn’t end there. In The LEGO 90th Anniversary Lion Knight’s Castle it surfaces again, this time in brown, and no, it’s not meant to be a brown frog, but… poop. The shit kind. You didn’t see that coming either, did ya? But, tell me that’s not clever!
Of course, the ever so popular frog also appears as just that, a good ol’ frog, and if you’d like to own one, you’re more than welcome to it in the A-Frame House, a fantastic 2023 set, by the way, that I highly recommend. A great build, amazing details, brilliant play value. A true one of a kind.
Alright, so the frog can be used as a flower, part of a plant, poop and as a frog. Is that really that big a deal? Well, that alone is already a pretty big deal, as many older LEGO fans like to moan how newer LEGO pieces are not reusable and blah, blah, blah. So that claim is instantly refuted, but there’s more, there is a lot more, because the humble frog in all its shades and colours appears in 140 sets! An impressive number.
The grey frogs are used as gargoyles or as exhaust pipe on a tractor. The golden frog can also be seen as decoration and gargoyle on buildings, including Harry Potter sets. There’s also the white frog that I believe I saw before as resembling smoke. Another interesting one is the tan frog that’s used to brick-build together with a scorpion the horns of a Chinese dragon! If you look at the 45 sets where the green frog appears, you’ll quickly understand just how much LEGO loves their frog, and designers will find a fun excuse to drop them anywhere.
I must admit, I did not expect the frog to become one of my favourite LEGO pieces, but with a little imagination, its versatility is truly impressive.
Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility! For my less regular readers, I also write about random bits and writing.