Bonsai

10373 Mini Bonsai: Is there a lot to learn from these tiny trees?

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Trees are large, making them less than ideal subjects for life-size LEGO® models. Bonsai, the Japanese art of cultivating trees to grow in a miniaturized form in limited space, offers an end product that may be better represented in a domestic brick-building studio.

Bonsai trees have been part of the Lego Botanical Collection since its earliest days, and we recently saw a Japanese red maple added to the collection. Set 10373 brings us a collection of three small bonsai trees: a ginko, a Japanese black pine and a wisteria. But will this be a beautiful decoration, or the start of something more interesting?

LEGO® Botanicals set 10373 Mini Bonsai Trees will be released on 1 August. It is priced in $AUD99.99 / €59.99 /£54.99 / $USD64.99 and has 709 pieces. Let’s take a closer look. [This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

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Create A LEGO® Vase For The Chance To Win The New LEGO® Botanical Collection

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The recently released LEGO® Botanical Collection has certainly got a lot of people excited about having a bunch of flowers on their shelf that won’t require water to to keep them looking fresh and colourful. But, One thing became apparent to me: Being able to arrange them in a vase is just as important.

There are so many ways in which flowers can be displayed, as my Mum’s collection of vases demonstrated the other day. But, when your flowers are going to live forever, you perhaps shouldn’t remove the valuable glassware from circulation permanently. And so I would like to launch my first competition for the year:

Build a vase, using LEGO bricks to suit LEGO Flowers: builds can be real or digital, and should suit the LEGO Flower Bouquet. You don’t need a copy of the set to enter. Digital entries should be rendered as .jpg or .png files.

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Building the Botanical Collection II: 10281 Bonsai Tree

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Earlier this week, we got our first official look at the new LEGO 18+ Botanical Collection. Having already taken a look at 10280 Flower Bouquet, today I would like to look at the 10281 Bonsai Tree: also released on January 1 2020, with 878 pieces, and priced at $AUD89.99/USD/GBP/Euro 49.99.

One thing I have appreciated about the 18+ sets over the last 12 months is that they have provided a little more focus on the designers than in times gone past. The set was designed by Nicolaas Vás. Nico has designed a number of Bonsai models in the past, but predominantly used aournd the various LEGO offices, as well as on the promotional material for the LEGO Ninjago Movie. The manual also offers a selection of ‘way out’ techniques that could be used to explore the design of a LEGO®Bonsai tree, with different trunnk and leaf structures, as well as completely different themes…

The build appears relatively simple and elegant at a distance, but will it promote an opportunity to enter a state of mind where it becomes the total focus? Read on, as I explore the set in this hands-on review.

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Let Creativity Bloom With New Botanical Builds From The LEGO Group

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We first saw images of the new Botanical Series a month or two ago, and today, the LEGO group officially announced the release of these sets on January 1 2020. The main sets in this series, are both priced at $49.99 GBP/Euro/USD and $89.99 AUD. Here is the official Press Release:

Today, the LEGO Group has revealed a new range of mindful models for the green-fingered. The decorative LEGO® Botanical Collection includes a stunning LEGO® Flower Bouquet to brighten the home, and a LEGO® Bonsai Tree for those looking to be more zen in the new year.

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