As you may already know, the LEGO Icons Botanical Collection has become so popular that it is now its own theme! The latest addition in this line, LEGO Botanicals 10345 Flower Arrangement, is colorful and inviting. The set contains 1161 pieces and is currently available for US $109.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £94.99. You may also be able to find it from third party sellers such as Amazon and eBay. Join us as we embrace our inner florist, and see if it’s worth the price.
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
In this case, the box is nearly square, with a dark red accent strip featuring the new Botanicals theme logo. The set name also gets its own logo. On the back, we have a lifestyle picture of the arrangement with inset images, including an idea for combining it with another set to make it your own.
Inside the box are ten bags numbered 1-10, with #6 and #9 being quite small. The instruction manual is in its own paper bag, and there is an unnumbered polybag for one of the larger parts.
Like its predecessors, the small instruction booklet has several pages dedicated to information about the included flowers. It also talks about the ability to rearrange it any way you like and, elaborating on the box, add other sets to make it unique.
The build
Before we can build our flowers, we need our pedestal vase. The build is straightforward, however, if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the top is built upside-down. I like the clever use of clips and inkwell elements to make it more structurally stable.
To create a studs-up topper to attach our flowers, we need to swap the direction again. Here we use another clever arrangement of parts that utilizes bricks with multi-directional studs. This also allows us to add a decorative tan band around the vase. The gaps, however, are a bit off-putting. I think the 10369 Plum Blossom and 10368 Chrysanthemum, along with 10344 Lucky Bamboo and 10343 Mini Orchid, look much prettier.
The top of the vase is covered in green plates and slopes, with a pattern of plates-with-bars to help you discern where to put the components of the arrangement. Each one of the flowers has a stem comprised of Technic connectors that slot onto the bars. Additionally, there are more bars than flowers, allowing for loads of possibilities in terms of arrangement, including the aforementioned ability to add flowers from other sets (or your own).
Our first pair of flowers are Night Rider camellias. They use dark red windscreens and magenta radar dishes for the petals. The outer petals clip to two Technic bushings with 4 clips each, while the inner petals are attached to octagonal bar plates via clips and pneumatic T’s.
And as you can see, they slot on opposite sides of the vase. This general concept continues for the entire build.
Next up we have a pair of Itoh peonies. These utilize umbrellas and clamshells for the petals, as well as crowns for the stamens. A slightly different technique is used here, with the out petals attached via ratchet hinge elements and the inner petals clipped with both the aforementioned Technic clip element and 1×1 round plates with bar.
After the peonies come a pair of purple hydrangeas. These are made using three large Technic steering wheels each, as well as an epic quantity of butterflies attached to new single-studded clips. You have to pay a bit of attention to how the butterflies are oriented to achieve the shape, as some of the alternate. The end result is nice, but it is a bit tedious to put all those clips on the butterflies.
The larger flowers are broken up with some baby’s breath and greenery. It’s great to have some diversity in these items to give the arrangement a bit of depth.
Moving on, the next pair of flowers are Persian buttercups. A common technique in the Botanical line is interlacing thin mudguards, and that is done here as well. These flowers also use the new red-orange color, giving us some new elements in that palette.
Breaking up the larger flowers with some smaller bunches, we have a couple stems of hummingbird flower. These are fun because they are made with an element that originally started as ladybug wings. Here they are medium lavender and unprinted. Another new piece we get to use is the 3-bar tripod element in dark green. It has only shown up so far in this set, the Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet, and colored black in the Astronomer Kid from the Collectible Minifigure Series 27.
Our final pair of flowers are lilies, which aren’t particularly complicated, but are my favorite of the bunch. These utilize more Technic steering wheels, along with the the new leave elements recolored orange. The stamens are actually wand elements, recolored in lime.
The completed model
The final product does look pretty in a picture. Collectively the arrangement makes for a vibrant display piece. From some angles, it has slight gaps, but they’re hard to capture in a photo, and generally, it looks good. It’s really nice to have the ability to rearrange the flowers any way you want, as well as add your own or different ones from other sets. LEGO specifically markets this as something you could alter with the seasons, which I can see being popular with fans.
Conclusions and recommendations
Throughout the build process I bounced back and forth between opposite sides of how I felt about this model. On one hand, it can be a bit repetitive and boring for someone looking for a challenge, especially if you’ve built Botanical sets before and have seen some of these techniques. But for someone who wants something repetitive for a bit of semi-mindless relaxation, this is a great option. While I like the techniques used in the vase, it’s definitely not my favorite one that LEGO has produced – the gaps in the decorative band being the primary detractor for me. The price is a little hard to stomach too.
I did enjoy building it and think it’s nice for display. My family thinks it’s very pretty, and someone who is a big fan of the Botanical line will likely love this set. But otherwise, it’s tough for me to say it’s a must-buy.
LEGO Botanicals 10345 Flower Arrangement contains 1161 pieces and is currently available for US $109.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £94.99. You may also be able to find it from third party sellers such as Amazon and 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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