Review: 10359 Fountain Garden
Posted by Huw,
10359 Fountain Garden is the second in what LEGO has started calling the Gardens of the World collection.
Like the first entry in the series, 10315 Tranquil Garden, this one is easily reconfigurable to change its appearance, and you can even mix and match subassemblies between the two sets.
Summary
10359 Fountain Garden, 1,302 pieces.
£89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 | 6.9p/7.7c/7.7c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A very attractive display model that will appeal to discerning adult fans
- Modular and reconfigurable
- Beautiful printed tiles
- Recofigurability limited due to the shapes of the trees
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The style of the garden and the plants growing in it are Mediterranean: whitewashed walls, terracotta roof tiles, decorative mosaics on the pathways and around the fountains and pools, and lush green foliage in springtime bloom. It looks very beautiful and idyllic!
The plinth it sits on is 29x19cm, so a couple of cms smaller in both planes than the earlier set, although the garden itself is about the same size because the frame is narrower.
Four different printed tiles, inspired by Islamic zellij designs found in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, decorate the paths and around the fountain, and they look fantastic.
The trees and other fixtures slot into 2x2 holes in the base, and the four corner sections can be removed from the plinth, enabling the garden to be configured in a 'portrait' or 'landscape' format, as I will show below.
The water cascading out of the fountain is a work of genius: six 'mini shooters with shaft' are clamped in place between the 3x3 dish below and the 2x2 above them, which are threaded on a 3.2 shaft. It's quite fiddly to build because they are not actually attached to anything, so they need to be balanced in place while you fit the top dish, but once built it's all very secure and looks wonderfully dynamic.
The instruction manual helpfully points out the names of the plants: those on the pergolas are red hibiscus and pink bougainvillea.
The hedges are arguably the weakest part of the set but at this scale there wasn't really much more that could be done to add detail.
In the set's description, LEGO calls this small fountain a lavabo -- a device for washing hands, usually in a religious context -- which I don't think is quite the right term but, nevertheless, it's typical of fountains providing drinking water found in the region and here it can be displayed either way round should you prefer to have the geraniums and petunias instead of the fountain facing into the garden.
This is a French Marigold in a jardiniere, with a Spanish moon moth -- a new print on the butterfly piece -- gathering nectar from it.
The first of three trees provided is apparently a grapevine, with lime green cherries representing the fruit. However, its thick trunk and branches look more like those of an olive tree to me.
The two tall cypress trees are magnificent, making use of dark green Wolverine claws affixed in a trunk comprising 1x1 bricks with studs on all sides alternating at 45 degrees to give the evergreens a wonderful texture.
Rounding off the removable subassemblies is a small bench, a yellowhammer and an Iberian waterfrog.
Here's the garden in 'portrait' format with two of the corner assembles switched round, so the pergolas are on the short edge.
I've moved some of the trees and fittings around in the pictures below to show some alternative configurations. The size of the grapevine/olive tree restricts where it can be placed though: it fouls with the pergolas if you try and put it in one of the holes near them.
Although the bases are a similar size, this one definitely feels less substantial than 10315 Tranquil Garden, despite having a similar number of pieces.
Should you wish, you can plant the Oriental trees from the earlier set in your Mediterranean garden, and even supplant the decorative pagoda for a really hybrid look!
This is an attractive display model which encourages reconfiguration without the need to take it all apart. However, unlike 10315 Tranquil Garden, there are only really a couple of configurations that work: changing from portrait to landscape and maybe moving a few of the smaller subassemblies around.
Nevertheless, I think LEGO is onto something here: just like the Botanicals these gardens will appeal to a different type of customer, and I am sure this one will be very popular.
£89.99/$99.99 is a lot to ask for it, though, and I suspect most AFOLs will have other priorities when it comes to deciding where to spend that sort of money early in 2025. But, if you do buy it, you'll find a lot to like.
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25 comments on this article
@Huw The section describing the fountain seems to not switch colours when in dark mode so is black text on a black background and therefore is invisible
Great review though!
Nice, but not as enticing as 10315 but beautiful and nice prints nonetheless.
I really like how it looks like, it does really feel mediterranean and I really like the picture with both gardens in the review, they pair well. I wonder if there will be more iterations from other part of the world.
I think the grapevine is a bit a miss, and if it's going in the way of reconfiguring the garden it feels like it's a double miss ! Too bad cos the whole set is attractive, and this garden feeling less substantial does work with the theme I reckon.
LEGO finally found an opportunity to create an Iberian Waterfrog and they pulled the trigger!
Who else is excited about this??
It's very attractive, I like it, but I think the Japanese garden was better. I do like the improvements, that you can change the entire layout, with certain limitations.
On another note, can we have the new points system explained, as it would be helpful and it's not entirely clear if you have to spend over what you have and by how much or if you can just spend points on a set and if the calculation system is different now vouchers are not required.
Nice, detailed review!
The reindeer antlers in white look interesting.
@VictorvanSchagen said:
"Nice, detailed review!
The reindeer antlers in white look interesting."
Right, yes, I didn't mention those. Not sure what they are supposed to represent hanging off the grapevine, though.
1. I hope the prints make it to PAB at some point, MOCers are going to have a ton of fun making north African architecture with them.
2. Bit pricey but looks nice.
3. I would totally use this as a booknook for the right genre shelf.
Tomorrow all "mini shooters with shaft" sold out on PAB^^
Wonderfull part use on the fountain and cypress
It looks nice, and seems to accurately represent the type of garden you'd find in the Mediterranean, but I think, partly for that reason, it's just not as interesting as Tranquil Garden. Having been to the Japanese Garden at Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, MI, I got a spare copy of the Bonsai, and am considering picking up a spare of Tranquil, with the eventual plan of making a minifig-scale garden that can be slotted into one of our displays. I don't really have any interest in buying this one at all.
@VictorvanSchagen:
I didn't even notice those. I got a bunch of them in green from LUGBulk, just because that was likely to be our only shot at it. I'll have to think about the white ones, with the next round starting soon.
I agree in saying it's not as good as the Tranquil garden, but this is still a great set! I hope they make more gardens in this format in the future.
Thanks for the review.
Liking this one more and more each time I see it.
It would be nice to see how it looks with a few minifigs placed in it.
@Feroz said:
"It would be nice to see how it looks with a few minifigs placed in it. "
I put a samurai and a few ninjas from the 90s line in my Tranquil Garden. I think the BS team needs to do that with these, maybe some Roman figs from the CMF line?
@Huw said:
" @VictorvanSchagen said:
"Nice, detailed review!
The reindeer antlers in white look interesting."
Right, yes, I didn't mention those. Not sure what they are supposed to represent hanging off the grapevine, though."
Grape flowers (flower clusters) I suppose.
I thought this looked rather underwhelming the first time I saw it. After reading the review, my opinion of it has improved somewhat. I'm still not interested in buying it, though I'm sure there are lots of other people who are.
The price feels insane for what you get, but it has got plenty of nice pieces. At the inevitable large discount this will be very tempting.
As said by others, its not a patch on 10315. My main problem is that the set doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. The columns are either Greek or Roman, the tiles clearly have Islamic/Morrocan vibes influence, which the path layout feels formal Italian or French, while the plants are from all across the Mediterranean. You might argue that makes sense with it being a Mediterranean Garden, but each of those areas has its own particular style without touching on them all. The result of doing it the way they have means its trying to hard to have a wider appeal when just one well done theme would have been sufficient.
At first glance, I thought: "Woooot! Epic Banana trees! How they do that?!" Turns out they're Wolverine claw trees, still not bad. Not bad at all.
Wow, your photos/review make this set look SO much better than the images Lego have produced of it.
Looks very boring as a set. But do like the Wolverine trees, fountain and printed pieces.
@Nannig said:
"I really like how it looks like, it does really feel mediterranean and I really like the picture with both gardens in the review, they pair well. I wonder if there will be more iterations from other part of the world.
I think the grapevine is a bit a miss, and if it's going in the way of reconfiguring the garden it feels like it's a double miss ! Too bad cos the whole set is attractive, and this garden feeling less substantial does work with the theme I reckon."
Se siente Andaluz
I hate fact that Lego thinks printing can count THAT premium.
Also such set should have been just minifig set. Make it a propper garden, cut the unnecesary tray. Make it cheaper.
I like it, but I'm going to pass. It just looks a little bland next to 10315, which is thematically much more impressive and looks great flanked by my two 10281 Bonsai Trees.
I am so glad they expanded this concept to different regional gardens. I will definitely pick this up.
I love those printing tiles but it can't justify that price tag with unlicensed set.
Too many pieces went into base, but tt's LEGO we don't really need modules to easy rearrange such garden!
To make it decent set for 100€ I would expect olive tree and green bushes to be more complicated and some extra animal like cat and seagull for example