I’ve bought quite a few of these botanical sets over the years myself. Until this one I sorted them out straight away, not bother building. But this time I wanted to have a look myself what these sets are all about. Are they any fun to build?

So what do we get? We get 9 tiny plants in ‘terracotta’ pots. Instructions are divided in 3 booklets and 1-3 people can build these simultaneously. Every booklet has 3 pots, small/medium/large in size. Each time the pots of similar size are constructed with the same techniques. Only some small details like color choices (invisible from the outside) make a slight difference between them.

The full list of included plants:

• False Shamrock (Oxalis Triangularis)
• Jade Plant (Crassula Ovata)
• Laceleaf (Anthurium andraenum)
• Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)
• Red Sundew (Drosera brevifolia)
• Yellow Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia flava)
• Britton’s Liveforever (Dudleya brittonii)
• Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa)
• Pincushion Cactus (Mammilaria crinita f. zeilmanniana)

In total the set consists of 758 pieces, divided over 6 numbered bags. The Recommended Retail Price (RRP) is €/$49.99 or £44.99.

Part selection

So this might be my favourite criterium to judge a set. And I really can’t think of many better sets. There’s a lot of recoloured parts, parts in bulk quantities or rare parts included. In this picture you can see all newly recoloured or rare (included in 3 sets or less) parts. It’s quite an impressive amount! and quite universally usable as well.

Other than new and recoloured parts, bigger quantities are also what defines a great parts pack. Below is the list of parts with the biggest quantities in this set. Unsurprisingly it’s a lot of Dark Orange.

image taken from Bricklink

So I assume these pictures give a good glimpse this is a very valuable addition to any builders parts collection. There are a lot of options for terrain building, structure etc. Some these parts are also especially added to please MOC builders since they are used invisibly like the unprinted Sand Green round 2×2 tiles. This is of course a well known practice from set designers to help colleagues or themselves out for introducing new parts and it’s great we can benefit from that.

Building process

Where I’m thrilled about the part selection, I’m not really about the building techniques. My initial thought when the set was revealed, was that most parts were used for the pots and the plants almost seem an afterthought.

Sadly, I’m still of this opinion after having built the set. The False Shamrock only takes 6 building steps in the instructions, including the pot. The Pincushion Cactus with 34 building steps is the most advanced when judged in the amount of building steps. And with the repetition in the pots, most of this set wasn’t very interesting from a building perspective.

Comparing the 9 models to pictures of the real life versions of these plants, some of them could have been represented better by going bigger.

Maybe 5 slightly bigger plants with some more variation in sizes would have been a choice I would have preferred. That would however also make it less of a desirable parts pack so there’s just no pleasing me perhaps.

I did think the building techniques on the biggest pots were really clever and the way a round shape was achieved was very satisfying. Previously I had my doubt about the need for a 1×2 SNOT brick with a centered stud on the side (part 86876). It felt to me a technic brick with pin could achieve the same. In this set however it’s used in such a way that really shows the neccessity of having this part as well.

Display-ability

Despite my criticism on the comparison between the real life plants and this sets, it does look rather cute. And thankfully they won’t expire and look dreary if you forget to water them.

The NPU choices like hats and butterflies give them a compelling look and this set might be acceptable when displayed in the house for non-AFOL partners. I can totally see this set being just as popular as earlier botanical sets  and have a broad appeal to new to LEGO fans.

The Cost

Just the set itself, displaying the 9 plants in your home seems worth the RRP of €/$49.99 or £44.99 to me. It looks nice and compared to other botanical sets in the same price bracket there’s enough value for me.

A simple Price Per Part analysis will be quite positive with 758 pieces, with less than 7c PP. However, I tend to judge more on how useful parts are to me and my MOC’s. And like I tried to show in the parts section of this review, there’s a lot to appreciate and an extraordinary value in all the rare and new parts. Even though I ended up finding it for €38.99 at a local retailer, I was already considering buying it at the regular price. To be honest, I’m also considering picking up a second one.

So I’d say: this is a fair priced set, well worth the (RRP) cost. As always, be on the lookout for a better deal because it might save you a bit.

So what do you think of this set? Have you bought and built the set already? Or are you convinced after reading this review. Share your thoughts in the comments!

To be fair, I don’t think I should do a regular review, scoring pieces and building techniques out of 10 for this set. I quite like the set but it’s not great on these aspects. So I’d say an average score would be too low and this is an example for the total being better than the sum of its parts.

The set contains 152 pieces. The horse is the rarest piece in this set (included in 3 sets in total) and the newer flat lid for treasure chests is my first set getting it in. The ornamental carriage wheels can be interesting for some but they’ve been around for quite a while. Other than that there’s no bulk of pieces, or anything noteworthy among the rest.

The build process is fast and furious. There’s really not much to it and I was thinking to myself: ‘is this it?’. But you end up with a beautiful horse drawm carriage audiences of all ages can enjoy. It’s suitable for play for children and display for adults. And that’s a quality we don’t often see in sets. Most often one of the two is sacrificed for the other.

There are 3 minifigures included in the set, a driver and 2 passengers. The driver has a carrot for the horse and the passengers have scarves around their neck. So for me this seems to be extra on most GWP’s and makes up for the earlier mentioned shortcomings in pieces and building process.

So overall this is a great GWP to me. In the Christmas spirit I’d happily overlook some details and just enjoy the set as a whole. If you plan on spending this kind of money on LEGO in the near future I’d recommend doing so while this set is available, I’m not sure there will be a better promotion this month.

This set was of course designed by Chris McVeigh aka Powerpig who released 2 books on LEGO Christmas ornaments before becoming a LEGO designer. So we are in safe hands!

As usual, with opening a new set I hope to finally find my first paper bags. Unfortunately it’s still single use plastic I found in this one. Parts are divided over 3 bags without a number. With a piece count like this it’s not really an issue to find the needed parts, so no problem there.

Part selection

The set consists of 182 parts. There are no special or printed parts in this set, but the parts provided are just solid versatile parts. So an 8 out of 10 for me.

Build process

The baubles are rather elegant to build, the used slope parts make them fit together really nice. I don’t want to spoil your building pleasure so I won’t show exactly how it’s build. If you are not going to get the set with a purchase you can always check out the online building instructions. The building technique for all 3 is the same and before I had finished the first bauble I stopped using the booklet myself. In a bigger set the repetetive nature would become annoying, but with a set this size I could tolerate it quite well. It was just a nice and quick build and the pleasing colour scheme variations made it interesting enough. So for building process I’d also give an 8 out of 10. Nothing extra special, just solid.

The price

With a spending threshold of €70/$70/£65 it’s not crazy good value like some other GWP’s we had this year. But it’s certainly not bad either. With the current prices with inflation from the last 2 years taken into account, I’d say the threshold is just reasonable and fair. A 9 out of 10 for me.

Display-ability

These are rather nice to hang in your Christmas tree (if the branches are sturdy enough to hold them). These weigh a bit more so it probably won’t work for everybody. But if they do, they’re quite easy to clone so it should be possible to have a nicely decorated LEGO themed Christmas tree with this set (and a few extra).

If you are considering a LEGO purchase, I’d recommend picking this one up before the 14th of December or stock runs out.

So what do you think of this set? Have you also picked it up or plan to get it? Share your thoughts in the comments!