We love theme months here at BrickNerd (you can check out our round-up of themes and building standards here). And if you’ve been poking around the community this August, you might have noticed a certain green envy among some builders as they dive into the cutest creature of them all...

It’s FROGust, a month dedicated to this author’s favorite animal! If you wanted to know more about frogs, please check out my previous article (which yes, needs some colour updates!).

He’s not a prince, he just found the crown and feels handsome in it!

But how did this theme month start? Why did it start? When did it start? What did it start? Let’s get froggie.

Croaked Into Existence

FROGust started last year when Maxx Davidson posted the build above on August 31st, 2024 (Billund time) and I quote:

“I’m willing #Frogust into existence! Small and late start this year, but keep an eye out next year 👀”

But if a tree frog falls in a forest and only one person builds for a theme month, does it really make it a theme month? Maybe, maybe not — but with one day left (and some clever time zone math), there was no way I was going to let Maxx down.

I whipped together the Frog Carrier, which became my Token Carrier for the year. If you know me, you know I love double-dipping builds—in this case, a theme month build meeting my token needs for the upcoming convention year.

I should admit, though dear reader, while I’m a fast builder, I’m not Maxx fast. The small token was already built, so scaling it up to a supersized version by August 31st (Toronto time) was only moderately insane.

And despite my best efforts, I couldn’t quite convince the community that FROGust had always been a thing and they had just been oblivious to the best theme month ever. But that is where things started to get serious.

The Origins of FROGust

So where did FROGust actually start? Well, Maxx was the first to openly decree it and build something to celebrate the theme. But there were others in the community that had also thought of it, most specifically Eann McCurdy who has been the lead writer for the Builder Improvement Initiative’s (BII) Conversational Piece series of articles here on BrickNerd.

Builders Improvement Initiative - Discord chat - join!

However, unlike some other LEGO theme months that have been started in the community and expanded beyond LEGO, FROGust was actually a thing prior to the community building cute green amphibians.

From my light research, FROGust started as a fitness challenge back around 2017, named after a series of exercises that made part of the “FrogMan’”exercise challenge that included the following:

Tadpoleman = 30 sections (15 out and back)
Polywogman = 40 sections (20 out and back)
Frogman = 50 sections (25 out and back)
Bullfrogman = 60 sections (30 out and back)

And here I thought LEGO made-up words and acronyms were baffling!

By 2020, artists had also adopted FROGust, treating it like Inktober, complete with daily prompts.

Why Frogs? Voices from the Pond

Why frogs? Dear reader: WHY NOT? While my love for frogs is well documented, I asked a few builders in the community to hear their reasonings why they build for FROGust.

I started with Maxx and he had some interesting things to say:

“Like most things I do, the pun came before anything else. Luckily, I’m also fascinated by the little guys and their variety of forms!”

I TOADally get it, they’re cute little guys and they have the best feet and fun proportions, but what do you find so fascinating about frogs?

”I love how so many frogs and toads have specifically adapted to different circumstances. Some are brightly colored and toxic, some have eggs they carry in their back, and one is even the smallest known vertebrate in the world! Between their natural variation and the plethora of representation in media, they have so many forms to inspire a build!”

Next I reached out to Aron Gerencsér who is more well known for Crabs and co-runs the #TimeForCrab theme month that wrapped up just in July. I actually sat down with both Maxx and Aron in March to plot FROGust and, like a couple for frogs on a lily pad, we got absolutely nothing done and just chit-chatted instead of getting down to frog bizniz. Whoops.

So for this article, I did follow up with Aron and asked why frogs and what makes them so fun and beloved?

"They are cute, varied, and underrated. Not usually thought of among typical cute animals by the average audience but they have immense biological diversity and are super super useful for ecosystems and also helping us not be overrun by flies and mosquitoes. Themed months are fun for the community and FROGust and Time For Crab have seemingly achieved broader casual reach than the more core AFOL-favored SHIPtembers and noVVembers.

What makes a good LEGO theme month? And why is it FROGust?

“Not a lot of investment needed, fun/open and welcoming community, cute subject matter, can go as small or big or simple or detailed as you want. It’s just wholesome putting together a little brick-built animal and being part of something bigger.”

Now, if that doesn’t make you want to build a cute little frog and get on the bandwagon, I don’t know what will!

Next, I asked our own resident BrickNerd artist in residence and mini builder extraordinaire Dan Ko, “Why frogs and why did you build for FROGust?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to even like frogs, but yet I do. I grew up with frogs—some were Haribo gummy frogs, some were from the swamp next to my parents’ house (we used to go to the swamp and try to catch some, no frogs were harmed!). Then there’s YOU, probably the heaviest influence on me loving frogs. There are also a few artists on Instagram that I follow, and they all love frogs and create amazing art with cute frogs that you should check out (India Rose Crawford, Guznag, and Dimitris Pantazis).

I then asked fellow Canadian and comedic character powerhouse moptoptrev: What’s up with Frogs? Why do you like building frogs and how did he end up building so many big ones?!

“For me, it was to participate in Maxx’s frog collab last year. I build mostly organic-themed builds, so frogs would be up my alley. But last year he posted about it fairly late in August and at that time I had family over visiting so it wasn’t possible for me to build anything for FROGust 2024.”

“So from that point on, I started brainstorming what I was going to build for FROGust 2025. My first ideas came from pop culture such as Gamabunta from Naruto and Hopadiah from Amphibia. The Ito Jakucha frog came to mind a little later, but was definitely something I wanted to build as it was VERY weird and quirky.”

“The tree frog was my last idea and came as I was researching different varieties of frog species, when I came across Suriman horned frog pictures. That’s when the idea of trees for horns came to be. The build process for all of them was pretty much in parallel, especially since Gamabunta was on and off while I was receiving my orders for him.”

Moving on to maybe a surprising Frogspert, who is mainly known for his amazing microscale builds, toltomeja is also very much into the puns much like Maxx, as evidenced by his FROGust build (and he has consistently made me laugh over the years in the New Hashima Discord-servers).

So what’s up with frogs?

"Frogs have many superpowers—they can breathe through their skin, and they can be cute and dangerous at the same time. They come in a lot of different colours and sizes, so everyone can find their perfect frog. But at the end of the day, it's not about the frogs. It's about the friends you make along the way!"

Excuse me, I think I have a fly in my throat… awwww. 🥲

The True Meaning of FROGust

Maybe that’s really the whole point of fan-driven LEGO theme months—the community that you build through a shared, wacky experience. Sure, it’s fun to build what’s hip and cool in the moment, but each time we build something and partake, we add to the whole.

We hop into something new and exciting. And we leap in with open arms and make a splash in the pond and ultimately make new friends and reconnect with old ones. Long live FROGust!

But August isn’t over yet! There’s still time to build and post frogs! Use the hashtag #FROGust and add them to our army of frogs in our Flickr Group.

Why haven’t you built a frog yet? What are you waiting for!? Let us know in the comments below.

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