It Smells Like Nothing…
But it sure as hell looks good!
Couldn’t have come up with a more cryptic title, could I? I call it an intriguing, mysterious title. And because you’ll love my story’s content, and because it comes with great pictures, you’ll decide it wasn’t clickbait after all. In fact, what will likely happen, is you’re heading to the nearest shop and getting what I got. And for that, I deserve… well… nothing, but thank you for reading, I truly appreciate your time and attention. 🙏
But that’s enough torture for one read. This is another — if you guessed, well done, you deserve a pat on the back — a story about a Lego set. A set that is closely related to another one I recently reviewed. So, if you’ve been reading my recent stuff, this is indeed another Botanical Collection set — this time the lovely Orchid, set number 10311. Hopefully, I’ll soon get my hands on the Succulents set as well, so stay tuned, aka, subscribe already, will ya? Please? 😁
Beauty’s in the stud of the brick
Did you think, the eye of the beholder? LOL. This is Lego. There is no ugly Lego. Come on, everybody knows that! And this particular set is another prime example of delicate beauty. Orchids are delicate flowers. Creating a Lego replica of a plant that inspired books, movies, music, painting, and romance for tens and hundreds of years is not an easy task. In fact, it’s a very difficult task. If you have real orchids, take a look at the photos further down the article and tell me, I’m wrong. You can’t!
Building this set is definitely on the easier side, and it took me under two hours. I know because I put the entire Helene Fischer Kesselhaus concert on, which is a bit over two hours, and she had about 4–5 songs left when I finished the build. For reference, here’s a clip from the concert, just so you see what I listen to sometimes when sticking bricks together for fun.
So, yeah, fairly easy to build. Partly, because there’s quite a bit of repetition going on, but also because with that repetition often comes predictability, so less glancing at the instruction manual. Compared to the Bonsai Tree, this only has four build stages and just a little over 600 pieces. Funnily, enough though, regardless of a much lesser piece count, the end result is much bigger than the Bonsai Tree, coming in at 40 cm tall and 34 cm at its widest point. I am no orchid expert, but that sounds like an average size a potted orchid could be. And on that note…
The pot. I am not the first reviewer to remark on the importance of the pot. While the flower bouquet is an equally amazing set if not even more so, the lack of a vase, makes it a much harder sell.
Having a pot makes the Orchid set a complete showpiece — one you build and display anywhere you like.
The same goes for the Bonsai Tree. Built it. Displayed it. I think Lego should stick to this approach. Loose flowers while intriguing from a build perspective and great to look at, their aesthetic value will largely depend on the vase you put them into if you even have one!
The attention to detail is quite impressive. From 3–4 meters away at first glance you might not even realize what you’re looking at, and if you’re even further, there’s no way in hell anyone can tell that’s not an actual orchid. Having also the three major stages of the blooming flowers makes it look even more alive. Funnily enough, this set also contains frogs that are now part of the flowers, but this time there are only six of them, and they’re cyan.
The resulting build, if you want to display it, is surprisingly stable for a Lego set that showcases something this delicate. The pot has a decent weight to it, and the stems are holding up very well by the two sticks, just like you’d do with an actual orchid. I placed mine on one of the bedside cabinets, and it looks perfect in the company of my bedside lamp and HomePod mini, AirPods Pro and iPad Air.
A bottomless treasure-trove of opportunities…
If Lego plays this well, and the way I would expect them to, this could get huge. They did something similar with BrickHeadz, and I know those little sets are popular as hell. Hmm… no, actually that’s a good simile, my religious upbringing can confirm that. Hell is more popular than heaven. But plants and flowers are even more popular than those two put together, which makes this a virtually inexhaustible source of ideas for Lego, and endless fun for many customers!
While I have very few real plants, these Lego alternatives sprinkled into the mix of real plants on a windowsill, for example, would look spectacular, like they actually belong. I said this before, but I’ll say it again: the Botanical Collection sets are a perfect unisex present for around or even under 50 bucks. I would be very surprised if anyone wouldn’t find these a joy to build and display, even if they never played with a Lego set before. I’ve seen this happen many times. People dismiss Lego as a fun activity for adults until they give it a go, and when they do, they’re shocked by how much fun they had!
Lego’s Orchid set is the perfect excuse to play with bricks without looking like a nerd when you display it.
Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, Lego fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer!