To judge a book by it’s cover, this one looks fancy from the outside. Presented in hardcover format with a black cover with hand drawn illustrations by Nina Pace. Also included (and carefully stored in an enveloppe on the inside of the back cover) is a collectible botanical print.

The illustrations are quite stunning. Each page dedicated to a flower shows the full (brick built) flower, some more detailed drawings and also some drawings for individual LEGO parts. The combination of these are really appealing. In this review you’ll find some pictures that give an impression of the way the book is illustrated. Other than these illustrations you’ll find full color pictures from sets and alternate builds for the bonsai tree.

In the almanac, 27 flowers/plants trees get these detailed double pages. The way this is done really reminds of a scientific field guide with several details on each bloom, like naming, height, flowering time etc. After this there is a nice blend describing both real life bloom and LEGO version. There are facts about part usages, the history of specific parts. So if you’re more interested in the LEGO side of things, there’s plenty to discover as well!

There are also various other topics discussed in the almanac. This ranges from the plants from plants initiative to tips on arranging your own bouquets or adjusting certain blooms to fit in your arrangements.

There are interviews with several designers included in the book, especially the one with Nicolaas Vás about the history of his Bonsai trees is very interesting. And of course the frogs get their moment in the spotlight as well. Other designers that were interviewed are Astrid Sundorf Christensen, Michael Psiaki, Milan Madge and Anderson Ward Grubb.

Despite the almanac being a mixed bouquet of topics, it’s still very coherent. The interviews are blended in over the course of the 112 pages. This way it’s interesting all the way through. And it certainly welcomes to keep coming back to the book to pick up on a few new facts every time.

When looking at the sets mentioned in the book, there are a couple missing. With the production time for a book like this and the relentless release schedule by LEGO it’s virtually impossible to stay up to date. And we can only assume that LEGO wasn’t willing to share details for upcoming sets with the publisher while the book was in production. It could have been nice to expand upon the existing plants and flowers with some extra designs not included in sets. Deviating from the set collection a bit more would have made the missing sets less obvious. However, it’s not a major issue and will always occur when publishing physical books.

The book has a very fair price at £14.99/$19.99. Prices may vary at different retailers however, since I’ve seen it advertised at Dutch retailer Bol for €13.97. This gives it a similar price to the smaller botanical sets. 

In conclusion, we think this field guide is a perfect gift for any fan of both flowers and LEGO, especially combination of both in the Botanical Collection. And of course treating yourself to this almanac is also part of that. The illustrations are beautiful to look at and the book is informative about both flowers and the LEGO botanical products.

The book is available from March 19th 2024. If you’re planning on buying it, be sure to support your local independent book store.

Disclaimer:

The Brick Post was provided with an advance review copy by publisher Chronicle Books. We thank them for sending us a copy. All views expressed however are our own. Receiving a free copy has not influenced the contents of this review. 

The LEGO Botanical Almanac will be published by next month by Chronicle Books and feature gorgeous illustrations of brick-built flowers, information about them and more, you’ll even find interviews with some of the LEGO Design Team who created them. Theres also an exclusive illustrated print inside, which would no doubt look amazing framed and hung on the wall.

The LEGO Botanical Almanac: A Field Guide to Brick-built Blooms will hit all good book stores 28th March in the UK and Europe. North American fans  can pre-order it from 18th March, be sure to use the code BOTANICAL during checkout to get 25% off (US only).

Check out the preview pages below, don’t forget to let us know what you think of the book via the comments section.

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!