LEGO Designs: Family Foraging Trip

Concept and Inspiration

This project was inspired by my love of Myconids (mushroom people) from Dungeons and Dragons lore and the idea of creating a cute, whimsical scene featuring them on a foraging trip. The concept grew from wanting to depict a Myconid family exploring a vibrant forest, collecting flowers and other forest treasures. It’s a small window into a lovely, fantastical world, designed to hopefully feel both charming and display-worthy.

Early Drafts

Initially, I envisioned a much larger Myconid as the centerpiece than what I ended up designing. Not purposefully larger, but as I continued to design him I realized my sense of scale for what I wanted my end result to be was skewed and needed adjustment. This larger figure had a big mushroom cap with other sorts of growth on it, but as I realized it would dominate any composition he would end up in and overshadow the forest setting I had in mind. I decided to ultimately shelve that idea for the time being, and scale down my concept. Additionally, designing functional feet for the large Myconid that could stand and sit on a tree stump like I wanted him to, proved challenging and I couldn't quite get it right. As a result, I shifted the focus to a smaller group of Myconids, which allowed the scene to feel tighter and more cohesive.

Here are some pictures of the unfinished , shelved draft. 

Meet the Family

Going away from the larger Myconid, I set out to design a family of smaller ones. I knew I wanted one that was larger as a sort of parental figure, and a bunch of smaller ones for children. The children I aimed to design as small as possible, without sacrificing too much detail, as well as giving them distinct looks and colors as well.

The parental figure I made sure to give a wider body and cap. Also I wanted that cap to be a little more exciting to so I tried to model it after the mushroom with a red cap and white spots, the Amanita muscaria, or Fly Amanita. I was only able to get the spots in the center of the cap, but I think it visually achieves the goal regardless. During the process of making this larger myconid, it visually started to look like a bit more dad-like, so I gave him bit more of a belly, which also corresponds to mushrooms with a rounding base, a backpack, which as a parent is mostly always necessary, and subtle grey patches around where his temples would be. I also went the Mario route, and gave him a mustache instead of a mouth, since it was easier to do, and also helps complete the image. 

Overall I really like his design and find him endearing. I considered giving him the tired half-open eyes, but I wanted him to more present in the scene, and maybe as a tired dad myself, I wanted some wish fulfillment of being more present in the moment.

Building the Scene

Having built several LEGO sets, such as the Tallneck set, that featured a custom base layer, I knew that is where I wanted to start with as well. This also allowed me to decide the size of the scene to fit the size of the new Myconids. It needed adjusting a few times, to be little longer, or a little wider, so that it eventually could fit all the objects intended for the scene properly. After adding the grass layer I marked out placements for where I wanted the Myconids to be, as well as the rocky outcropping and the tree stump to help map out the scene.

As I began to build out the different elements, I noticed that visually the scene needed something else to visually elevate and balance out the scene, which is where the tree came in. I shifted the stump forward in the scene to make space for a tree behind it, and then designed the tree to purposefully reach over the scene to tie it together a bit more. I also intended for it to be leaning since I didn't want any tree growth going away from the scene that could knock into something else on a potential shelf in real life. I also added a bunch of differently colored blossoms to the tree because I wanted a splash of color, and to help promote that sense of whimsy I was going for.

The finished scene has the parent myconid standing watch over the children as they are on a lovely foraging trip. One of them in the back is off picking a lone flower on a rocky outcropping, while the two others are more front facing, interacting with their surroundings. 

Reflections

This project taught me the importance of scale and balance in creating a cohesive scene. Scaling down from the original larger Myconid allowed me to focus on storytelling and create a more intimate, dynamic composition. Adding the tree late in the process was a valuable lesson in recognizing when a design needs something extra to feel complete.

If I were to revisit the larger Myconid concept, it would likely become a different project to give it the space and attention it deserves. For this scene, the focus on the Myconid family’s foraging trip captures the wholesome and whimsical atmosphere I aimed to achieve.

Thank you for exploring this project with me! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I had fun designing it.