Review: 10343 Mini Orchid
Posted by Huw,
10343 Mini Orchid one of the two four gentlemen -- plants that are often depicted in Chinese art and gardens -- that'll be launched on January 1st, joining the pair that were released earlier this year.
They are all attractive on their own, but look even better when displayed together...
Summary
10343 Mini Orchid, 274 pieces.
£24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 | 9.1p/10.9c/10.9c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Life-sized and realistic, it will fool passers by into thinking it's a real plant
- It'll thrive in even the darkest LEGO room
- Looks wonderful on its own, but even better next to the other three in the set
- None
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The perennial herb stands in a nougat-coloured 'terracotta' pot which is different, but stylistically similar, to those the other three plants are potted in. Four leaves surround the stem made from Technic axle-joiners, which is held upright by a cane built using brown candlesticks.
Five flowers are in full bloom and others in various stages of development occupy the the end of the stalk.
It looks wonderful from the front but a bit messy from behind, where all the exposed Technic joints are visible.
The pot incorporates nifty stud-reversal and SNOT techniques to create its elegant shape.
The large pair of leaves utilise the shell pieces first used at the back of 10295 Porsche 911, while the smaller ones each use four of what I believe to be a new part, a 2x2 corner round piece. Both methods have resulted in very realistic-looking leaves.
The five light nougat flower heads are identical and a bit fiddly to construct. They are built around a gold 'Sonic ring' and utilise the new clip with stud piece that is causing much excitement in the community to hold two of the minifig shields in place.
The buds at the end of the shoot are eggs, new here in bright green, and lime green tulip heads which were introduced in 21353 The Botanical Garden.
It's life-sized and easily mistaken for the real thing. The leaves in particular look spot-on.
LEGO has delivered a wonderful collection of sets forming the four gentlemen, and I am hard-pressed to pick a favourite. I love the simplicity of the bamboo, the vibrant colour of the chrysanth, the gnarly shape of the plum blossom and the realism of the orchid.
They look great individually, and even better together, and I am sure anyone who buys one will want to buy them all. At £24.99 / $29.99 they are not exactly cheap although, when looking at the set as a whole, £100 doesn't seem too outrageous when compared to what you're expected to pay for licenced sets these days.
10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo will be released on January 1st and available at LEGO.com.
Here it is next to its maxi brethren, 10311 Orchid.
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18 comments on this article
This is great. The shields, the eggs, I love it.
So... no Demogorgons this time?
Love this set as much as I love 10311. Rather wish they'd all been released at the same time though.
See, I was happy enough deciding to only get the bamboo, but then you had to go and put all four next to each other…
Great.
Maybe I’ll pick the rest up on discount eventually!
Great review! I'm super glad to see a picture of them all together.
I ordered the Chrysanthemum and Plum Blossom this weekend on Amazon while they were 20% off, and I'm greatly looking forward to snagging the other two in January, then all four gentlemen can hang out in my office.
Maxi Brethren would be an awesome name for a metal band.
Yup, think I'll be getting the lot..
Definitely in the minority here but this is my least favorite of these Four Gentlemen sets. The building techniques are fantastic as always for Botanical sets, but I don't love the light nougat color in general and definitely prefer the white flowers of the original orchid set. I also don't like that the pot color and leaf color are the same/so similar here when they're different for the other plants.
If it looks unsightly from the back with the exposed Technic pins, perhaps that could be listed as a con...
All four gentlemen are excellent--and releasing them as matched pairs did space out the expenditure, so I'm not complaining!
When you view it next to the larger orchid, its easier to see the appeal of it. The pots a far better design, and the leaves look alot more realistic. However, how the flowers have been constructed this time around is worse with the shape of them, and the shade tone not making them look real. I do prefer the orange leaves for the center to the frogs, but the rest just doesn't work as well for me.
As for cons, theres alot more exposed technic parts in comparrison to 10311, and the choice of green parts for the end of the flower frond are the wrong shade too, and simply not the shape a real orchid would be. It goes much too straight.
"new clip with stud piece" ... I'll be looking forward to those.
This is probably my favourite Botanicals set ever. I love how it looks, and it's a great value too.
I can see that this is inline with this years Chrysanthemum and Plum Blossom but I think the original looks better. Bamboo and this will not work for me, no matter how good the base looks.
@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
"So... no Demogorgons this time?"
You beat me to it ;-)
While I like this better than the Bamboo I'm not happy at all with the color choice for the flowers. I agree with others that I do not care for the use of the light nougat color for this set. There are so many other interesting colors they could have used for this particular specimen. I will be getting both of these sets to go with the Chrysanthemum & Cherry Blossom I already own.
Weakest one of all four:
- green gradation looks very weird
- tan colour of flower is very pale here (it could be pink or purple as popular orchids)
- flower should be one brick deeper in pot (check photo from behiind)
The flowers don't look nearly as nice as the design in 10311 or its Disney sibling, 43237