Review: 10369 Plum Blossom
Posted by Huw,
10369 Plum Blossom is one of two mid-priced botanical sets that will be sprouting onto shelves and LEGO.com on 1st August.
Like the chrysanthemum that we reviewed recently, the flower is also one of the 'Four Gentlemen' in Chinese art.
Summary
10369 Plum Blossom, 327 pieces.
£24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 | 7.6p/9.2c/9.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Another colourful and realistic additon to the botanical collection
- Life-sized
- No bananas
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Rather than being a model of a whole plant, it's a twig pruned from a Chinese plum tree, Prunus mime, which was in bloom at the time it was cut.
There are flowers in different stages of their lifecycle on the cutting, from tiny buds to fully open. The latter comprise four or five red 2x2 boat studs for petals, clipped to a steering wheel. Those with four such petals have claws behind to bridge the gaps between them. Light yellow 'spashes' (mini hat no. 17) in their centres represent the stigma perfectly.
The emerging buds make use of the peach piece (fruit no. 4) introduced earlier this year, nestled inside minifigure crowns, an element that has become ubiquitous in botanical sets recently.
The twig itself, formed largely with dark brown axle connectors, looks suitably organic and also well-balanced.
The sand blue and gold pot is constructed in the same way as, and is stylistically similar to, the one in 10368 Chrysanthemum. A handful of 1x1 round plates is provided to cover the top of the pot, which have a tendency to fall out and get lost on the floor as you move it about!
Unlike the crysanth's pot, you could display this one without the 'wooden' plinth underneath it should you wish, because the bottom is flatter.
Like the best and most convincing sets in the botanical collection, it's roughly life-sized, so it can be mistaken for the real thing from a distance.
Together the two sets make a wonderful display, so you'll probably end up buying both of them, and you will not be disappointed if you do so.
It seems highly likely that the other two of the 'Four Gentlemen' -- orchid and bamboo -- will be released in due course, particularly as the 'passion point' image on the boxes of these two shows all four.
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19 comments on this article
I do like this one. My only concern is placing it in a location where it wouldn't be bumped accidentally by me or a cat.
The annoying thing about the 'passion point' image on the box is that the plants are in the wrong order, it is supposed to start with the plum blossom.
Lovely set, very happy that they'll hopefully release the other two "gentlemen" as well.
My only criticism would be that the very top twig feels a bit too straight. The rest of it looks very organic and then it ends in a long, straight shape. Not a deal-breaker by any means, and easy enough to modify if it really bothers me but if I had to nit-pick, that'd be it.
Another stunner to go on the 'Can't be bothered to wait for a discount' wishlist! Really looking forward to the other two as well (for the pots as much as the plants). Will be interesting to see how interesting they manage to make the bamboo!
I don't get the final sentence... Wasn't the orchid already released? 10311
Assuming that last image does indicate they’re doing another orchid, I wonder how it will compare to 10311
"Minus: no bananas"
Thank you for the morning laugh Huw!
Yes, we have no bananas,
We have no bananas today.
I wonder if we'll get a totally new orchid with a matching pot, or if 10311 is sufficient for their plans.
@jnscoelho said:
"I don't get the final sentence... Wasn't the orchid already released? 10311 "
I suspect they'll release one to match these two. The old one is probably EOL soon.
As said on the Chrysanthemum review, I'll be getting this to go along with my other botanical sets. Love the design, even if the NPU isn't quite up to the standards of multi coloured bananas. And I agree with @Graysmith that the top twigs too straight, but as said easily modded.
Appreciate the comparison pic @Huw , though I'd have still liked a comparison with the earlier Orchid and Bonsai sets.
@Huw said:
" @jnscoelho said:
"I don't get the final sentence... Wasn't the orchid already released? 10311 "
I suspect they'll release one to match these two. The old one is probably EOL soon."
There's been two rose sets already anyway, so why not two orchid ones. Just make 'em a different colour.
It bothers me that some of the flowers have four petals, and some have five petals. As this is such a fundamental botanical property of the flower. I believe five petals is the correct?
It's a good set, but you'd have to line it up close to a wall otherwise that back would be exposed.
I currently have 3 green bananas.
No bananas? That's bananas!
Looking forward to the other two gentlemen, these two look superb!
Funny how a piece as specific as the King Pig Crown has actually been amazingly versatile. Here it is perfect for, well whatever that part of a flower is called.
I used it in transparent blue to represent water gushing out of a fire hydrant.
It has been used in black for smokestacks on river steamers (another perfect use for that piece)
Despite the 4/5 petal issue, I like this better than the brother-set the Chrysanthemum. For several reasons:
The quarter round pieces included here are generally more useful, and both kinds are available in 8x quantity, making them more useful for future MOC-ing.
While the bananas certainly are cool on the other set, I somehow dislike sets that use a large quantity of specialized pieces, as I think this is a bit un-LEGO-like. I understand there are different opinions of this of course, and others may see it the other way around. The plum flower set seems more true to the LEGO idea, in that it uses more "generic" pieces to achieve the desired shapes.
10368 used bananas, this one uses peaches (although not nearly as much), if an when they do the other two Gentlemen, what fruits will they use? Place your bets!