Step Inside The Incredible LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden (21353)!

Introduction:

2024 saw some awesome LEGO Ideas sets released and the theme finished strongly with theLEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden (21353). The original idea was submitted by Valentina Bima and it looked similar to a modular building and the MOCs I’ve seen for the smaller Friends Botanical Gardens set. The instructions have a photo of a brick-built model of the original submission.

This Botanical Garden isn’t based off any real life versions but instead draws inspiration from them. The set has 3,792 pieces, which at the time of release made it the second largest LEGO Ideas set behind the Home Alone house. However, when the River Steamboat dropping in March it will be bumped down to number three.

The Build:

The build is over 28 bags and there are only five stickers, which always makes for a great building experience. The set is two baseplates wide and uses this space to great effect to pack in as much as possible. I particularly liked how the sand green colouring blends in well with the clear and white elements and then you have vibrancy of colours from the flowers and plants at the front. 

The set is effectively divided into three areas. The main atrium has the reception desk and the main gardens with two exotic trees (a date palm and a eucalyptus) in the middle that almost touch the ceiling, and there is a walkway to the top so people can see the tops of the trees. The left hand side is the arid garden and then the right hand side has a cramped café with some seating round the back. 

There are a couple of new elements that were produced for this set specially for the roof, and they are a 1×5 arch and a clear corner element for the roof. A couple of flower pieces have been introduced for the tulips and peonies. 

One thing I did appreciate is that to avoid the clear roof elements getting scratched, they were in separate bags to the other pieces. 

The instructions boost that there are 35 unique specimens of flowers, plants and trees with some animals scattered throughout the set. I really enjoyed building each of the plants as they have so much variety and parts usage to make them. With an upside down banana peel used that comes in green being used, which I thought was a clever usage of parts. 

One slight issue with the set is that whilst some of the walls to the left and right side can be removed to access the cramped spaces the main atrium itself can only be looked at from the top. If you want to look at the main atrium close up then you’d need to deconstruct it to look closely at all the amazing plants and flowers.

Minifigures:

There are 12 Minifigures included with this set, who are all unique to this set. The number of Minifigures helps to fill the set out and there is some good variety between them. 

There are 4 workers in the Botanical Gardens, 2 gardeners, a barista and the manager. The manager is based off the fan designer, Valentina Bima, which is fun nod. The Barista uses the same hat piece as Matt Hooper from the Jaws set.

The remaining 8 Minifigures are all visitors to the Botanical Gardens. One of the Minifigures is based off the Lead Designer, which is another great Easter Egg. We also get a boy and Mum, where the boy has picked one of the flowers and has a cross face as he’s been told off by his Mum. One funny thing is that there is actually a flower missing within the borders as the bot has picked it. 

We also get a visually impaired man who has a dual sided head.

The Price:

The set retails for £289.99 here in the UK, which is the same price as the Xmen Mansion and having built both, I would say the Botanical Garden is the better set. The price feels fair for what is one of the largest LEGO Ideas set. 

The Display:

The original fan design was a modular build to go in a city. With LEGO stopping fan designers submitting modular designs within the BrickLink program, they seem to be wanting to keep them to Modulars within the Icons/Creator Expert range. As a result if you add this to your city as a modular then you’ll need to adapt it and that will require a fair bit as there is a one stud gap on either end. Personally I plan to create a garden area in my city and will add this to it.

One final point to add is that this came with a tie-in gift with purchase, the Entrance Gate. Which to me doesn’t really work, firstly they don’t connect together as the Botanical Garden is built on a baseplate and the GWP is built on plates so there is a slight difference in height, there is no way to connect them without MOCing one. I am still deciding how, or even if, I’ll incorporate the GWP to my city. 

Overall this set looks impressive and has so many details to it, this is easily one of my favourite LEGO Ideas sets and 2024 sets. 

My scores are as follows:

• Display – 10
• Minifigures – 9.5
• Build – 10
• Price – 9.5
• Total – 9.7

Thank you for taking the time to read through my review – I’ve been Michael from @brick_shed – Please give me a follow and join me on my LEGO journey.