The five most innovative LEGO building techniques in 2025

Across hundreds of sets released in 2025, the LEGO designers showcased their prowess more than ever, including in these five building techniques.

It's been a busy year for LEGO releases, and it can be easy to forget the techniques that go into the many sets we've all put together over the last 12 months. Rest assured, there have been some game-changing ones to analyse and use in our own models moving forward.

Many of the best LEGO building techniques from across 2025 can be found in more expensive models, as well as those aimed at an older audience, and here are five of the most innovative we've seen this year.

Stacked axe heads in 10342 Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet

LEGO Botanicals 10342 Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet started the year off in style for the plant-centric theme, using a mix of familiar and new techniques to depict more flowers in some of the most realistic LEGO builds seen across the portfolio. The ranunculus models have specifically caught our eye, though, for their exceedingly different use of a LEGO minifigure accessory.

They stack dozens of axe heads of varying colours on top of one another to create a stunning appearance for the LEGO flower, showing just how versatile even the most peculiar pieces can be when they receive a new paint job. Recolouring LEGO elements for new purposes is nothing new, but we've never seen axe heads used quite like this, and never at this quantity.

10342 Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet is available now for £54.99 / $59.99 / €59.99 with 749 pieces.

10350 Tudor Corner's slotted plates for wooden framing

This year's LEGO modular building has taken the community by storm, impressing fans whether they know classic British architecture or not. One of the standout parts of 10350 Tudor Corner has proven to be the angled plates that slot into the build to form the angled wooden beams, used to accentuate the look of the black and white section of the building.

Instructions for the set reveal that these plates sit loosely, but neatly slotted into the floor's structure to ensure that they achieve the right angle, but that they won't go anywhere as you move the set around. It's an innovative technique for this style of architecture, setting 10350 Tudor Corner from other LEGO set that use wooden framing.

"We had already, at The LEGO Group, designed a lot of half-timber walls for medieval buildings, and we wanted to add a novel technique with angled wooden beams," said designer François Zapf to New Elementary. "It was a challenge to design, but I can assure you, when you're building this, it's super satisfying. That's partly so it looks like it's difficult, but it's super satisfying to build."

You can pick up 10350 Tudor Corner now for £199.99 / $229.99 / €229.99 ahead of 2026's modular building, which will be released on January 1, 2026.

Different colours for lighting in LEGO Trevi Fountain and Balrog book nook

Two sets released in 2026 demonstrated a new building technique for using different-coloured elements to depict changes in lighting. This includes 21062 Trevi Fountain, which features nougat pieces towards the back of the build, instead of the white colour that the landmark actually uses.

"We wanted to create the general vibe of a visit on a warm, sunny day," shared designer Mary Wilson to New Elementary. "Within the piazza, there are buildings that surround this facade, painted with bright, warm, vibrant hues. The light gets captured in the piazza and reflects to give this overall warm sunshine over it."

"We really wanted to capture that, which led us to use a slightly more saturated colour than we normally use in the LEGO Architecture line. The light nougat really brings some more life into this model.

This tactic is innovative, but not exclusive to 21062 Trevi Fountain in 2025. 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook employs the same technique for some similarly warm lighting. The smaller LEGO The Lord of the Rings model depicts the mines of Moria in grey and shades of brown, reflecting the warm lighting from the fire that the Balrog emits.

Both sets show just how effective different hues can be in replicating lighting effects in LEGO sets, and it will be interesting to see where this technique is used in 2026 and beyond.

21062 Trevi Fountain is out now for £139.99 / $159.99 / €159.99, and 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook can be yours for £109.99 / $129.99 / €119.99

21358 Minifigure Vending Machine's coin-requiring mechanism

A personal favourite building technique from throughout 2025 can be found in LEGO Ideas 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine. The build for this feature-packed and fan-inspired model is mostly simple, save for the crank mechanism, which requires a coin to function.

A mechanism to turn the central column would have been good on its own, but this essential feature will not work without inserting one of the two provided coins into the uppermost slot. The instructions reveal that this mechanism works by having the coin slightly push an element out of the way, though I admittedly still struggle to fathom quite how this works after building the set earlier this year.

You can check out the feature in action in the following video, and pick up the 2025 LEGO Ideas model for £149.99 / $179.99 / €169.99 now.

Minecraft heads in LEGO Ideas 21362 Mineral Collection

Another LEGO Ideas set with a simple, but innovative building technique from 2025 would be 21362 Mineral Collection. This niche model is also one of the theme's most affordable this year, and it uses a game-inspired element to great effect.

The pyrite build integrates a few chrome gold LEGO Minecraft heads to continue the cuboid shape on a slightly smaller scale, improving the appearance of the build while offering Minecraft fans the opportunity to make the golden animal statue they've been waiting to create for years. Using Minecraft heads beyond the theme is nothing new, also seen with wolf heads in 10278 Police Station, but featuring them in this context makes the 21362 Mineral Collection technique innovative.

LEGO Ideas 21362 Mineral Collection is out now for £54.99 / $59.99 / €59.99.

Minifigure hats embedded into the LEGO Game Boy

Rounding out our selection of innovative techniques is 72046 Game Boy, with several parts of the build to choose from. We're opting to highlight the set's integration of minifigure hats in a non-minifigure context. The A and B buttons on the build make use of the Kufi piece in magenta, only otherwise seen in blue in the retired 76408 12 Grimmauld Place.

There has never been a use of minifigure accessories quite like this, even when hair has been used in green for foliage. Fitting this piece so seamlessly into the build makes 72046 Game Boy that much more unique, and this technique all the more innovative. It has us looking at minifigure hats with an all-new perspective as we end 2025.

72046 Game Boy is available to purchase now for £54.99 / $59.99 / €59.99.

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