Christmas is coming soon. Yes, yes, I know, we haven’t even had the autumn equinox, let alone Halloween. But in the world of retail, things are starting to ramp up. It’s no different at LEGO, who are releasing two festive additions to the Botanical Collection line. The more obviously festive of the two (in the Western world, anyway) is LEGO Icons 10340 Wreath, a 1,194-piece set that you can pre-order now for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99. Alternatively, it may also be available through third-party resellers such as Amazon or eBay. It will hit shelves from October 1st, but will you want to deck your halls with it come the holiday season? Read on to see what we make of it.
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.
The box and contents
The box displays the wreath in portrait on the front. The reverse showcases two different configurations of wreath: one in the traditional circular format, the other looking like a leafy, Christmas-y snake of garland.
Punching out the thumb tabs at the bottom, we pour out 9 paper bags…
…and the instruction booklet. As with many other botanical (and indeed 18+) sets, there are a couple of pages at the start to set the scene. Little wreathy factoids are sprinkled throughout the instructions, too.
The build
The build starts in rather unusual fashion, telling you to open four bags at once! The base of the wreath is split into four identical segments – one in each bag. We kick things off with a new re-colour almost immediately: each segment has one of these sand green hanger plates.
It’s a fairly conventional start, with plates layered on plates. Some reddish brown A-frames will give us the shape of the finished model, whether circular or s-shaped.
With the central portion covered up, we turn our attention to the extremeties, which will allow us to link each quarter-circle. The connection is achieved with clips and hinges. Each end is asymmetric, albeit similarly made.
When it comes to the top, we have a handful of Studs Not on Top (SNOT) assemblies to contend with. One has a Technic pin hole in the middle, while the other four make use of Mixel ball joints. It’s all locked in with a couple more A-frames and some tiles.
Then: rinse and repeat. Since each one has its own bag, it would be quite easy to build them simultaneously with friends or family. It did get a bit repetitive building them on my own!
At this juncture, we need to make a choice. The four portions can be attached in different orientations, and there are two separate sets of instructions depending on if you want to build the round or extended wreath. For the purposes of this review, we’ll focus on the round version.
The parts used are the same, but what the instructions don’t mention is whether you can swap between the two once they’re built. Bag five kicks off with some more SNOT assemblies to lock everything in, so there will be at least some disassembly required if you wish to do so.
The only other discernable difference appears to be the order in which the leaves are attached. They’re the next bits to go on: we start with the inside of the circle before throwing on the outermost ones.
There are a handful more re-colours here, some in vast quantities. The dark green plant stem is new, for instance, and there are a whopping 84 of them in this set!
They’re all used to replicate pine needles. This is another instance where more building bodies might have been useful; there are eight of these to build at this stage, each with six dark green and two regular green stems, making 64 stems that need to be attached to each other.
The following two bags see us cover up the top of the wreath. Everything attaches to the Mixel ball joints, and once again we’re building in batches – sets of four this time.
Bag six above covers the innermost ring of ball joints, seven (below) the outermost. All of the sub-assemblies are similar in principle, just with different leaf combinations.
There’s no denying it’s an effective look, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting a bit bored of making leaves by this point.
Thankfully, we move on to something a little different next. One of the more eye-catching parts in this set is a new print: three 6×6 transparent orange dishes with an orange segment pattern. Combined with a couple of round plates, they look astonishingly lifelike!
Next up is a trio of pinecones. These also make use of a new part: a flat cap appearing in dark brown for the first time. The construction is rather neat, too, with the hats, some teeth, and curved wedge slopes all assembled around a 3.18mm bar.
We haven’t quite built the last of the leaves, though – that’s what the last few parts in our penultimate bag are for. No ball joint this time; like the oranges and pinecones, these will connect to the main model by way of Technic pins.
When they are connected, it does take a fair bit of re-arrangement to a) get the pins attached, and b) re-set the foliage afterwards. I stuck to the letter of the instructions for their positions, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter what order they’re placed in. It is supposed to be customisable, after all.
Speaking of customisation, once we’ve built a few Technic-connector cinnamon sticks, our final act is to build three different colourways of berries that can adorn our wreath. There’s another glut of parts in new colours here: all the flowers, plus the reddish-orange and pale green ball joint. The dark blue ball joint is also making just its second appearance.
The finished model
Some of the Botanical Collection sets really pop with their colours (consider something like 10368 Chrysanthemum), but others are considerably more muted in their colour palette. LEGO Icons 10340 Wreath definitely falls into the latter category. As a result, it’s not as eye-catching as some of its fellow botanicals. That’s not to say it doesn’t look good though!
All the repetitive building pays off to create a nice, dense look to the foliage. The various pops of colour ensure that it’s not dull to look at, and they do give a small degree of customisation. The set material suggests having one colourway of berries, but there’s enough room to fit them all in. No doubt you could add custom elements easily, too – a bow, for instance.
Conclusion and recommendation
Given their close association with Christmas, it’s little surprise that LEGO have released a fair few wreaths over the years. This is one of the most parts-intensive, and as a result, undoubtedly the most detailed. It looks great, even if it lacks the visual interest of some of its more flowery counterparts. And if you’re after some dark green plant parts, this makes for a phenomenal parts pack, even at $100.
The sticking point for me is the build. Building it on my own, I found it to be repetitive at best, tedious and, frankly, not much fun at worst. This isn’t unusual in plant-based sets – that’s just the nature of things, if you’ll pardon the pun. But in other Botanical Collection entries, the repetition is at least offset by some interesting building techniques, which the wreath doesn’t have a great deal of. So solo builders might find better value in other Botanical sets. However, if you’re looking for a collaborative build for the festive season, LEGO Ideas 10340 Wreath would make an ideal candidate.
LEGO Icons Botanical Collection 10340 Wreath contains 1,194 pieces, retails for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99, and is available for pre-order now, with general availability starting from October 1st. You may also be able to find it on third-party resellers such as Amazon or eBay.
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.
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