As Heartlake City continues to expand with new characters and locations, the latest LEGO® Friends sets continue to follow the adventures of the new gang of Friends. One of those new sets is the Botanical Garden. Forgive the plant pun, but let’s not beat about the bush, this is one of the best LEGO Friends set released. I would go as far as saying it’s one of the best LEGO sets ever released. But what makes it so impressive? Here’s a closer look at the LEGO Friends Botanical Gardens set.
Product Details
Set Name: Botanical Garden | Set Number: 43757 | Pieces: 1072 | Theme: Friends
RRP: £74.99/$79.99/84.99€ | Number of Bags: Bags x 7 + loose elements | Instructions: 1 x Paper booklets + Builder App | Stickers: Sheet x 1| Characters: Liann, Niko & Adi
Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & General Retail
Botanical Gardens can be found in many places, but they have a strong connection to Victorian England and the urge to provide areas to cultivate non-native species of plants, flowers and trees. With seeds and plants being returned to England from exotic, faraway places, special glasshouses were created to achieve the desired atmosphere to grow them. It’s those ornate Glasshouses which provide the main inspiration for this incredible set. Your journey to build one of the most amazing LEGO sets ever begins with a little education. The set is packed with some amazing little plants and flowers. These are detailed in the instructions, with images of the real-life inspiration featured at the beginning of the instructions along with various points throughout the build.
Although the focus of the set is a large glasshouse structure, it also features a little bit of the grounds surrounding it. Even this section of the set has some impressive detail. This begins with a small pond, which is built in two steps to give it some depth. So although the pond is covered with transparent ‘water’ tiles, these top a lower section which features a hidden frog and a couple of koi carp. Sitting on the pond is a few Nelumbo Nuciferas, the first of the real-world plants recreated with LEGO elements. It’s nice to see recoloured paint boards for lily pads from set 70620: NINJAGO City used again here. Towards the end of the build, this area is also home to a plum blossom tree. The area leading up to the main entrance is quite quaint, with various-sized round tiles making the perfect rustic walkway.
The structure of the glasshouse is largely constructed from various white elements, which border sand green window frames, and light nougat elements. But it also uses a lot of clear transparent elements including a couple of new pieces. One is a bow wall element, which sits over the larger section of the building and there are two larger quarter domes, which create the canopy of the glasshouse’s main atrium. The architecture of the structure blends perfectly and the colours used are very traditional, adding to the appeal of the set.
But the most endearing aspect of the set is the various plants it houses. Traditionally, glasshouses featured strange species of plants and there are several different plants and flowers growing inside this particular Botanical Garden. These take a leaf out of the LEGO Icons Botanical Collection sets by using various LEGO elements in interesting ways. An orange punk rocker mohawk doubles as a Bird of Paradise flower. Spiked minifigure shoulder armour plates become rafflesia plants. Recoloured saxophones perfectly recreate the carnivorous Nepenthes plants. Other plants include cactus created with recoloured eggs and pumpkins. There’s even a cute little bonsai, which uses recoloured feathery minifigure shoulder trim to capture the perfectly pruned foliage of the mini trees. Plus pink frogs are used to create an unnamed plant. These various plants are so well done and the use of unusual elements to create them is pure genius.
The focus of the set is most certainly its collection of plants but it also introduces two new creature elements. These include a recoloured duck now available in orangery brown and a recoloured butterfly to recreate the Menelaus blue morpho species. These joined the pale yellow, which have been previously used in a couple of past sets. I like the way they have been incorporated into the connection point of the atrium’s dome.
Finally, the set features three mini-doll characters. These include a main character Liann along with Niko & Adi. Apart from the two torsos used to create Liann and Adi, the rest of the elements have been used in various other sets. But let’s be honest, regardless of if the set featured mini-dolls or minifigures, they are sort of irrelevant against the rest of the set. But they are nice additions for younger builders to interact with.
Overall
I know LEGO Friends sets aren’t everyone’s thing but I urge you to check this set out. The Botanical Garden is truly outstanding. The details it features, the way in which elements are used, everything about it is near perfection. I love the way various plants have been recreated, especially those within the building and even the pond outside has been cleverly integrated into the build. My only minor criticism would be the use of stickers. Beyond that, it’s just an amazing LEGO set, which looks incredible. It’s instantly gone into my top five favourite LEGO sets of all time, sitting up there with the first NINJAGO City set and the Horizon Tallneck. I hope my review has portrayed how much I adore this set, but just to be clear it really is a special set and a must for any LEGO collection.
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7th June 2023
How easy would it be to buy two and build the whole building?
7th June 2023
I was wondering that when building the dome bit. It would take a little tweaking but I think it would be possible. I’m sure someone probably already done it