With the great success of the LEGO Botanicals Collection, it’s obvious the line is here to stay for good. It’s a smart move, seeing as there are a bazillion plants out there to act as inspiration. The latest kit in the series, LEGO Icons Botanical Collection 10329 Tiny Plants, is certainly keen on checking a handful off the list. In this installment, nine miniaturized plant favorites find themselves immortalized in brick. Join us as we determine if LEGO did them justice. The 758-piece set is currently available for pre-order and will be widely released December 1st, retailing for US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Unboxing the parts and instructions
The box is of medium size and sports the usual Botanicals motif. Of note, these sets have developed a trend of being sharable. In this case, the kit is set up to be built by up to three people. The back of the box only shows various arrangements of the pots, but no additional features, or even pictures of the real plants.
Inside the box are 6 bags numbered 1-6 and 3 instruction booklets.
The instruction booklets themselves are small, however they do contain info about the plants, as well as nice little anecdotes about parts usage throughout.
The build
As previously mentioned, this kit could be split amongst three people if you wish. Each booklet features the instructions for three plants in three different sized pots, and they are grouped by type: tropical (bags 1-2), carnivorous (bags 3-4), and arid (bags 5-6). Additionally, each set of pots are near identical.
We’ll go ahead and follow the bag order, kicking us off with the tropical plants. Bag one contains the parts for the false shamrock (Oxalis triangularis) and the jade plant (Crassula ovata). The former consists of purple butterflies (a new color variant) and sits in a “terracotta” pot comprised of a large half-barrel element and a newer Technic “wheel” element. (To date, it has never actually been used as a wheel.) Both of these are new in dark orange.
The next size up in pots is a dense little guy, although the center is hollow. Once adorned with some hoods, slopes, and macaroni tiles (new in this color), it pulls off a good impression.
New dark green newsie hats comprise the fat leaves of the jade plant.
Bag two gives us our first large pot. This thing has a bit of an odd internal structure. We start with something that looks like random table-scrap.
Then we clip into place some walls and ribs. These segments come together at just the right spots to pull off the sloped dimensions of the pot.
The internal structure of the top portion doesn’t look quite as random as the bottom. However, it’s not obvious at first glance how this will turn into the rim of a pot. But once again, the right elements come in at the right angles to make the perfect rounded dimensions of the rim.
Some recolored bright green hilts and bars are stacked for the stems of our laceleaf (Anthurium andraeanum). Nestled alongside them is a little lady bug to help fend off the aphids.
The bright red flowers of this plant are created with the help of recolored clamshells.
After adding some leaves, we now have our first “large” tiny plant. This also completes the first trio.
Next we have the carnivorous plants, beginning with the tiny Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). This little guy utilizes the new fern elements as well as recolored cake icing. Unfortunately, the “mouth” of the plant can’t actually close.
Likewise, the red sundew (Drosera brevifolia) also uses some interesting parts. First, we have dark red brushes for the carnivorous part and bright pink epaulettes for the flower. Both of these are new colorings.
To round out the second batch, we have the yellow pitcher plant (Sarracenia flava). Like the others, this also uses fun parts in new colors, such as safari hats and broom ends to make up the “pitcher” portions of the plant. When I mentioned that the pots themselves are “near” identical, the only difference is the color of a couple elements inside them.
The first plant of our final group is the Britton’s liveforever (Dudleya brittonii). Here it is comprised of some lovely pastel colors – one of which, the light lavender teeth, is a new color variant. Interestingly, this didn’t capture any of the subtle green from the real plant. A bit of sand green would’ve been perfect.
The medium-sized pot in this series holds the eastern prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa). Speaking of sand green, this one is loaded with it, including a new variant of the 2×2 round tile with special printing. The majority of the plants really aren’t all that customizable, however, the way this plant is built allows for some variable positioning of the arms.
Our final plant of all is the pincushion cactus (Mammilaria crinita f. zeilmanniana). Like many of the others, the central core is dense, and there are lots of cloned chunks that comprise it. These chunks include domes recolored in lime. The overall placement of these elements gives it a nice, tight, globular structure.
And with that we have finished the builds!
The completed models
Two of the three tropical plants are characterized by unique parts in largish quantities. All three are very fast builds. They also each have a different color palette for some variety.
The carnivorous plants feature the most interesting parts usage overall. They, too, are fast builds, but took slightly longer than the first. (Apart from the pots, which were fast after having done them already with the first group.)
Finally, the arid plants also feature some color variety. Once again, this was a very fast build, but could arguably be the most complex. (It’s a tossup, though.) The printed elements are nice to have. It is noteworthy, however, that the prickly pear seems to be one of the most scaled-down versions of the bunch. It’s important to note that, overall, these are fairly scaled-down versions of the real plants. Or, at least, baby stages of development. Some are close enough while others are farther off. It’s interesting, because most Botanicals are roughly 1:1 scale. Nevertheless, it doesn’t change the look and appeal in general.
Conclusions and recommendations
All together we have 9 cute little plants perfect for a desktop or shelf. While previous plants in the line have been somewhat arrangeable individually, these ones instead are re-arrangeable as entire groupings. This adds dimension and variety to your existing Botanical collection, or subtlety to those looking for small, playful decorations. Another intriguing aspect of the kit is that it is the true epitome of sharable. Some “sharable” kits just break the set into chucks. Here, not only can the three groups be built at the same time by different people, they can also be displayed separately or even given as gifts to multiple people.
Personally, I find that these plants are adorable, contain nice parts usage, and include lots of new color variants. In that regard, the set checks off several boxes. However, I will say that I found the kit to be such a repetitive, fast, simple build that it was done in a flash and didn’t hold as much “wow” factor as is usually promised in an 18+ set – particularly the Botanicals. Actually, the most interesting part were the pots. While they were repetitive, how they’re made is clever and very cute. All that said, I do love these itty bitty pots and plants, and would highly recommend them to someone keen on getting recolors in quantity and variety, or any fan of plants and the Botanical line – especially someone just getting into the hobby.
While you’re here, feel free to take a look at our other reviews, as well as all things related to the Botanical Collection.
LEGO Icons Botanical Collection 10329 Tiny Plants contains 758 pieces, is currently available for pre-order, and will be widely release starting December 1st, retailing for US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
