Review: 11506 Rocking Plants
Posted by Huw,
10349 Happy Plants hit the sweet-spot last year, being part of one of LEGO's most popular themes, inexpensive, and very cute. It should come as no surprise, then, that a similar set, 11506 Rocking Plants, is on the way.
As well as having happy expressions again, this pair rock from side to side or back-to-front, but at the expense of compatibility.
Summary
11506 Rocking Plants, 253 pieces.
£17.99 / $22.99 / €19.99 | 7.1p, 9.1c, 7.9c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Like its predecessor, it's a delightful and charming set.
- Realistic, life-sized succulents.
- Not 100% compatible with Happy Plants without modification
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
LEGO has given the pots names this time: Lumi is the bright yellowish green one and Ellie the pink one. Like their predecessors, they are planted with succulents, delosperma cooperi (Cooper's ice plant), and echeveria elegans (Mexican snow ball), respectively.
The recently introduced 1x1 quarter-dome pieces look good as the plant's fleshy leaves, although in real life they are more of a pale green-blue colour. The flower heads look OK until compared with the real ones, when it becomes apparent that the crown piece should have been coral rather than green, to match the rest of the flower.
The quarter-domes are clipped to two of the old-style octagonal rings and the bright green flexible hose used for the stem is new in that colour.
Like the plants in last year's set, they are not affixed to the pot: the root ball just slots into a 2x2 hole.
To facilitate 'dancing' or rather, rocking from side-to-side, Ellie's bottom is rounded with inverted curved slopes (I never thought I'd be writing a sentence like that in a review of a LEGO set...)
The ice plant in Lumi looks lovely, especially the way it spills out over the sides.
A three-branch cross axle forms the cental stem of the plant, onto which three of the new 3x3 rings are attached. Green claws are used for the fleshy leaves.
There are a couple of boat studs on Lumi's bottom, causing her to rock from front-to-back.
Of course, the plants can be swapped between pots should you wish, or indeed with those in 10349 Happy Plants, as I show below.
I said at the start that the rocking functionality (if you can call it that) has been implemented at the expense of compatibility with the pots in 10349 Happy Plants. As they are, they can't all hold hands!
That can be fairly easily remedied, though, starting with removing the studs and curves from their bottoms.
Lumi's arms are one brick higher than the similarly shaped pot in last year's set, so they need to be moved down. No extra pieces are needed for this modification.
Ellie's modification is a bit more involved, requiring the replacement of the pink 1x2 Technic bricks into which her legs are attached with normal 1x2 bricks, and sourcing some 2x2 inverted tiles for her feet. Pink round ones do not exist yet, so I've used square ones, which I think look OK.
Once that's done, they can all be friends and hold hands!
I am sure this set will be as popular as the happy duo, and rightfully so. It's a bit of a shame that the pots are not 100% compatible, but as I've shown, that is easily remedied.
It'll be available at LEGO.com from May 1st.
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32 comments on this article
The hand holding is clearly an essential feature.
Personally I'm loving these 'Happy Pots' as a sub theme of the Botanicals range. Cute, relatively cheap, look great on display and you can easily switch the plant plugs between them. What more could you want?
Its nice that these can be easily modded if needs be, given the only 'flaw' is them not perfectly lining up with the others; but I think that being able to pose them on an angle adds to their appeal.
Love this new subtheme. Last year's set was adorable, and this one's just as cute — love the final picture of them all holding hands.
Great review, Huw!
How long do you think Lego can do this series before it stops working?
I'd say at least 4 sets of 2.
Love them. Maybe even more than Happy Plants. Botanical's position as a 'completist' theme maintained!
Wow, green one looks perfect! Small set, huge joy!
I will gift it massively :D
Plant in pink one stand out compared to others but it will be bestseller anyway.
About modification: Pink round plate 2x2 would be better for feet, it doesn't need inverted tile ;)
i'm okay with not being able to hold hands
definitely getting these to go with the others
Still cool! I might not be the biggest fan of botanicals,, I love the NPU but find them rather tedious to build. But the Happy Plants limited the tediousness and compensated whatever was still lift with pure cuteness, and these seem even better. 100% certain buy, and just like with the Happy Planst I won't even wait for a discount.
(I mean, it's just 20 bucks....)
@alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
"How long do you think Lego can do this series before it stops working?
I'd say at least 4 sets of 2."
Just wait until they find out they could turn these into an alternative for BrickHeadz, with all kinds of licensed figures as a plant pot....
(and I might actually buy them....)
@WizardOfOss said:
"Just wait until they find out they could turn these into an alternative for BrickHeadz, with all kinds of licensed figures as a plant pot...."
Heck, just look how many Groot variants there already are. Could easily turn him into more of these pots. Or how about various Super Mario ones with the Pirana Plant, Fire Flower and the power up mushrooms etc?
Wait, this is real? I assumed it was an April Fools joke...
@Huw, any info on that weird picture on the Smyths website?
https://image.smythstoys.com/zoom/254438_5.webp
Looks like a (rejected) prototype?
This will be a fantastic gift for my mother.
@WizardOfOss said:
" @Huw, any info on that weird picture on the Smyths website?
https://image.smythstoys.com/zoom/254438_5.webp
Looks like a (rejected) prototype?"
It's called a sketch model and sets go through several such prototype phases before being produced in the final form. Retailers sometimes get a preliminary image like that to know what product they will buy later on. Smyths just forgot to delete the old pic.
Someone get 71589 in here, because "More! MORE!!!!"
What about power function Happy Plants? We need to turn this up to eleven.
@Duq said:
"Wait, this is real? I assumed it was an April Fools joke..."
I totally did too!
@R0Sch said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @Huw, any info on that weird picture on the Smyths website?
https://image.smythstoys.com/zoom/254438_5.webp
Looks like a (rejected) prototype?"
It's called a sketch model and sets go through several such prototype phases before being produced in the final form. Retailers sometimes get a preliminary image like that to know what product they will buy later on. Smyths just forgot to delete the old pic."
Ah okay, makes sense. So not Lego's fault they still had this one.
Would be nice to recreate this design, though obviously good luck finding all the right pieces in the right colors...
@Mister_Jonny said:
"The hand holding is clearly an essential feature."
This is unintentionally awesome.
Also, they rock.
How best to mod them to \m/ \m/?
Can these be combined with Mechs? I'm liking the idea of a Stormtrooper or Batman charging into battle in a giant happy potted plant.
@Rimefang said:
"What about power function Happy Plants? We need to turn this up to eleven."
11 ! Okay then let's throw in a Smart Brick too :o)
Actually in this case a bit of nonsensical tinny babble would suit these characters.
That last picture was absolutely adorable. Love it.
More amazing the designers didnt just include extra instructions and pieces to do what the review has done. Did they think of this, or not allowed to do it?
After reviewing tiger pink flower parts I would have thought plant pot bottoms wouldn't even raise an eyebrow lol.
Great review, glad these where not an April Fools joke. Really looking forward to adding to the floral collection.
Perhaps the hand-holding takes some modification but looks like the plants themselves are interchangeable exactly as is going by that last photo, that’s nice to see. Can see some fun combos coming from that, especially if more of these adorable little guys get released
@bdc101 said:
" @Duq said:
"Wait, this is real? I assumed it was an April Fools joke..."
I totally did too!"
I don't see why someone would think that. It obviously builds (pun intended) off of 10349. Have people become so jaded that they think *anything* that happens on April First must be a joke? Do you people think that Artemis II was an April Fool's day prank, and that NASA just spent millions of dollars for a fake moon sgot?
@TheOtherMike said:
"Have people become so jaded that they think *anything* that happens on April First must be a joke? Do you people think that Artemis II was an April Fool's day prank, and that NASA just spent millions of dollars for a fake moon sgot?"
Of course it was an April fools. Everyone knows they're actually going to Rigel VII.
@GrizBe said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Have people become so jaded that they think *anything* that happens on April First must be a joke? Do you people think that Artemis II was an April Fool's day prank, and that NASA just spent millions of dollars for a fake moon sgot?"
Of course it was an April fools. Everyone knows they're actually going to Rigel VII."
I thought they were going to Farpoint Station.
@AustinPowers said:
" @GrizBe said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Have people become so jaded that they think *anything* that happens on April First must be a joke? Do you people think that Artemis II was an April Fool's day prank, and that NASA just spent millions of dollars for a fake moon sgot?"
Of course it was an April fools. Everyone knows they're actually going to Rigel VII."
I thought they were going to Farpoint Station. "
I thought they were going into town to get some power converters!
@TheOtherMike said:
" @bdc101 said:
" @Duq said:
"Wait, this is real? I assumed it was an April Fools joke..."
I totally did too!"
I don't see why someone would think that. It obviously builds (pun intended) off of 10349. Have people become so jaded that they think *anything* that happens on April First must be a joke? Do you people think that Artemis II was an April Fool's day prank, and that NASA just spent millions of dollars for a fake moon sgot?"
There is a significant amount of people that STILL think that about Apollo 11.
@sotwuser said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @bdc101 said:
" @Duq said:
"Wait, this is real? I assumed it was an April Fools joke..."
I totally did too!"
I don't see why someone would think that. It obviously builds (pun intended) off of 10349. Have people become so jaded that they think *anything* that happens on April First must be a joke? Do you people think that Artemis II was an April Fool's day prank, and that NASA just spent millions of dollars for a fake moon sgot?"
There is a significant amount of people that STILL think that about Apollo 11."
Don't remind me.
Wait a minute! Is this set the same price as the previous Happy Plants? And with 16% pieces MORE? How exactly are Brickset users supposed to complain about rising prices and us being ripped off by TLC time and time again?