It’s a new year, and a new LEGO set. Though to be fair, this one arrived back in December, and I’m just getting to it now. But it’s still one of the more recent LEGO sets, and also quite a contrast to the last set I reviewed, the LEGO X-Mansion.
What Is the LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden?
LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden, set #21353, is a 3,792-piece set that comes with 12 Minifigures. When completed, the Botanical Garden is 9" high, 21" wide, and 10" deep. Even though it looks like right at home with other LEGO buildings like the Natural History Museum, unlike those it is not one of the modular building sets. The set retails for $329.99, and is available at LEGO stores or from the LEGO webstore.
The set comes with 29 bags of bricks, as well as 2 green baseplates and 4 bags of transparent pieces that will be used in construction of the building’s roof. There’s also a single instruction book, and 1 small sheet of stickers.
As this is a LEGO Ideas set, it was created by a LEGO fan as opposed to one of the regular LEGO designers. There are several pages in the instruction book covering the creation of the Botanical Garden:
LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden: The Minifigures
There are 12 Minifigures in the set, ranging from employees of the Botanical Garden to various visitors. As with all LEGO sets, the construction of the Minifigures are spread out throughout the construction.
LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden — Assembly
As opposed to a lot of similarly-sized LEGO sets that I’ve worked on, there are no stages to the assembly. You pretty much just start building from the ground up until the set is complete. Here’s a look at the assembly from start to finish:
There are a lot of great details throughout the build. The various plant exhibits are all based off of actual species of plants.
There’s a small cafe within the Botanical Garden with coffee and baked goods available.
A side door to the cafe leads out to a patio, where you can sit and enjoy your snack:
There’s even an area in the back where the groundskeeper has all of his tools and equipment.
Here’s a look at the completed Botanical Garden:
Putting It All Together
Once you’ve finished assembling the set, you can add the Minifigures as you see fit to breathe life into your creation!
LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden — Final Thoughts
As a LEGO Ideas set, the suggested age for The Botanical Garden is 18+. While teenagers could certainly assemble the set without difficulty, there are a LOT of small pieces because of the multitude of flowers and leaves both inside and outside of the building.
I found this to be a fairly enjoyable build. When you’re dealing with architectural forms, there’s an unavoidable amount of repetition in the assembly. However, this is counteracted by all of the different plants and details found both inside and outside the Botanical Garden. There are even headsets available at the ticket counter for a guided audio tour!
While the vast majority of the assembly went along without a hitch, I did have some frustration involving one particular segment: the spiral staircase. Getting it positioned just right took a fair amount of work, and as a word of advice, you have to pay very close attention to where exactly you attach the second-story balcony. Expect that you may have a little bit of difficulty with it at first, but in the end (especially after attaching the balcony) it should all come together for you.
So many parts of this build are quite lovely, from the flower gardens in the front of the building to the “glass” panels in the roof sections that help show off the atrium. You get an amazing sense of light and openness to the architecture, as opposed to the more traditional structure of the LEGO Natural History Museum. And all of the sections of the roof are easily removable, for access to the interior of the building.
If you’re looking for a visually striking architectural piece that will look lovely on your shelf, then the LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden is a great set to fit the bill. If you’re already invested in some of the modular building sets, never fear: while this one won’t attach to the other modular buildings, it will still visually fit in with your LEGO city. If you don’t mind working with all those little flower and leaf pieces (and can deal with that staircase) then the build is quite enjoyable, and the results are a wonder to behold.
For more information or to make a purchase, head to the LEGO webstore!
Click That Brick!
Click That Brick! is a look at LEGO building sets that appeal to the geek in all of us. I’ll be bringing you previews and reviews of various LEGO sets, such as the LEGO Icons The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr. So be sure to keep your eyeballs peeled for more great LEGO content here on GeekDad.
LEGO sent this set for evaluation but had no input into the review.
