Review: 11507 Olivia Rodrigo's Flower Bouquet
Posted by benbacardi,
Of the five recently announced Editions sets based on Olivia Rodrigo, one stands apart from the others by also being classified as a Botanicals set: 11507 Olivia Rodrigo's Flower Bouquet. With 400 pieces, it's not actually the smallest of the line, but definitely feels as such due to the flowers' nature.
Not only is this an unusual combination of two themes—both of which are given prominence on the box, although the style is primarily the white Editions look rather than the dark Botanicals—this also appears to be the first Botanicals set based on a licenced property. So, what makes this bouquet of flowers Olivia Rodrigo's?
Summary
11507 Olivia Rodrigo's Flower Bouquet, 400 pieces.
£39.99 / $49.99 / €44.99 | 10.0p, 12.5c, 11.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A stylish, purple-themed bouquet with subtle Olivia Rodrigo references, though the licence feels surprisingly understated.
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The set description claims 11 flowers, although I'm not sure how that number is reached: I can only count 10 floral and foliage elements, plus a pair of butterflies.
The first and largest uses purple guitar pieces as petals, a surprisingly effective nod to Olivia's music. I'm not actually sure exactly what type of flower this is meant to be, as LEGO only identify four of the varieties, and I don't think it's any of those. If I misidentify any of the others below, corrections are welcome!
The guitars are clipped in place by their necks around a dark green barrel, and the head sits at an angle on top of the light green stem. Getting the guitars spaced evenly and consistently positioned was very fiddly!
Two smaller flowers, which I believe are the African daisies, use lilac petals around a yellow centre, and the stems are constructed of a series of connected sticks rather than a single axle, which looks much more realistic. More detail is provided by a small bud further down the stem of each.
The two verbena stalks are very realistic, as I have a large amount of the plant around my own garden for comparison! Three clusters of six purple stars on pink stalks make up each head, and the long foliage-free stem matches how the real plant grows.
One pink stalk is left free for a small bee to sit atop the flower.
The purple rose is made of interlocking wheel arches surrounded by four large shell pieces—a similar method has been used before for some of the blooms in 10328 Bouquet of Roses, albeit never in purple. A small red thorn sits just beneath the base of the flower at the top of the thick stalk.
The black hellebore uses black heart tiles to form the flower's inner petals, which are another symbol associated with Olivia Rodrigo's iconography. Surrounding a yellow central core with a star and wolverine claws used as stamen, the overall impression is effective and makes for a unique flower.
The final flower is a tulip-like plant using the same shell pieces as the rose, in pink, surrounding another yellow star, this time on a large yellow wheel cover. Although I'm not sure what exact flower this is meant to represent, it's nonetheless effective in its simplicity.
Two of the stalks in the set are more foliage than floral. One is a simple set of leaves on a thick tan stem, and the other a striking red using cherries to provide detail—another Olivia Rodrigo motif. I like the two-tone stalk design.
Finally, two brick-built butterflies are included, yet another symbol associated with the singer. They're connected at an angle via transparent shafts to a black stem, designed to look as if they are fluttering around the flower bouquet.
As usual, no container is provided in the set for the bouquet, so I took a leaf out of Huw's book and printed a 12cm-high vase to display them. I found them pretty difficult to arrange to my satisfaction, but the end result is a pleasing bouquet with a strong purple theme—my filament choice was limited otherwise I would perhaps have chosen a purple vase too, but the pops of other colour from the foliage are welcome.
Putting aside the Olivia Rodrigo tie-in for a moment, the bouquet itself is a pleasing selection of flowers with a consistent colour scheme, pretty much in line with the rest of the Botanicals theme. The bee is a cute addition, and some of the more unusual choices for parts have led to some interesting designs.
Aside from the use of guitars, cherries, black hearts, and butterflies as symbols associated with Olivia Rodrigo, there isn't anything specific to this set that particularly warrants the licence. That said, it doesn't appear to have inflated the price beyond what it would be for a standard Botanicals set, so fans of the Botanical line looking to add new flowers to their displays can easily ignore the branding.
11507 Olivia Rodrigo's Flower Bouquet will be available at LEGO.com from August 1st for £39.99 / $49.99 / €44.99.
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23 comments on this article
I gotta say, some cool NPU. Possibly something to get for some elements to use in Mocs but that's about it for me.
Perhaps the Wolverine claws are an iconographic nod to her supposed feud with Taylor Swift.
One is a simple set of leaves on a thick tan stem
Looks like eucalyptus to me.
Oof. If this was a MOC by a fan, I'd be impressed. As an official set...kind of a mess of style and color.
BUT I will admit I'm definitely not the intended audience.
May get this on sale. Always a fan of Botanicals, but also am picturing a fun MOC for a Modular that is an over decorated building that would fit in any amusement park area.
Thankfully no more of a 'Botanical' set than 31172 or 31149 so, as pretty an ornament as it may be, I'll have no problem swerving this and the rest of the 'Olivia Rodrigo' fan stuff.
@Schmopiesdad said:
"Perhaps the Wolverine claws are an iconographic nod to her supposed feud with Taylor Swift."
well those definitely aren't 8532 Onua Mata's claws because it's not that deep :P
@brickwich said:
"I will admit I'm definitely not the intended audience."
we need more of this sentiment in this fandom. Still not over someone saying Bluey wouldn't sell because they've never met a fan of both Bluey and Lego. Sir, most of them can't read yet.
If it wasn't for the guitar flower, this would 100% be a Botanicals set. Heck, if it wasn't branded on the box, I'd have absolutely no clue that this was anything but one as nothing in it has any association with Olivia to me. Frankly it feels like an attempt to cash in on Botanicals popularity as its pretty much the only set from this subtheme that I'm even slightly interest in. Though, at its price, I'd wait for it to be on sale before getting it.
Great review, I hadn't noticed the heart and star pieces before. I think it's a good balance of looking like a bouquet, with subtle references to Olivia Rodrigo. It's also nice to see some npu here like the older botanicals, too many of the recent botanicals make leaves out of leaf pieces and flowers out of petal pieces. I'm just not seeing $50 here though.
The flowers seem generic enough to be a set for any musical artist, and the only way I'd know this was Olivia Rodrigo is by the box art.
Therefore, I welcome this as the very first Whitechapel set.
Clearly the flowers purple represents what happens when you blend the album covers for "The Valley" and "Kin," the purple guitars are all seven strings, and the large spiky flower is a reference to the song "The Saw Is The Law."
I think the fact that the LEGO portfolio has been oversaturated by endless adult-oriented display pieces at the blatant expense of universally-appealing playsets refers to the meaningless feelings of despair and nihilism from "Nothing Is Coming For Any Of Us."
Interesting to see why it's associated with the singer. As someone living under a rock and who avoids listening to radio music of any kind, it's nice to see that it does have significant elements to her, as I'm unfamiliar with them.
This makes me weep for the lack of a floral arrangement using JarJar Binks heads.
I know pricing conversation is tired, but I can't get over how the volume of stuff here feels very similar to 10347 Petite Sunny Bouquet, which is MSRP $30 USD, and yet this is $20 more. I can accept the licensing tax, and would maybe expect $40, but $50 is definitely a bridge too far.
Which is somewhat surprising, as I feel like the other Olivia Rodrigo sets are fairly priced.
I genuinely thought it was a Botanicals set when I spotted it on the LEGO Shop - until I saw the guitar flower, which definitely needs a few more "petals" to fill it out. It's a neat cross-pollination (sorry) of themes, though it's not for me as in my aging ignorance (and obviously not being in the target demographic) I am - or rather was, until googling - blissfully unaware of who Olivia Rodrigo is! And it does seem a little overpriced, though I guess that's the licence coming into play. The other sets in the line are all very well done, incidentally.
I like this, it is pretty. I will buy it .
I believe the Butterflies are considered the mystery 11th flower since they share a "stem".
A little surprised they didn't do any plants with a music note motif for the petals or leaves, seems like an obvious companion to the guitar petals (which may be an unintentional pun)
@Djhorn said:
"I know pricing conversation is tired, but I can't get over how the volume of stuff here feels very similar to 10347 Petite Sunny Bouquet, which is MSRP $30 USD, and yet this is $20 more. I can accept the licensing tax, and would maybe expect $40, but $50 is definitely a bridge too far.
Which is somewhat surprising, as I feel like the other Olivia Rodrigo sets are fairly priced. "
The pricing conversation is only tired to people who do not understand the concept of opportunity cost. The rest of us have to make choices with our limited resources and $20 extra for the name of a pop star on a set without explicitly clear characteristics of said pop star is certainly a choice. Your statements are perfectly reasonable.
@VaultDweller_197 said:
"I gotta say, some cool NPU. "
I know, right? I think I might actually be more impressed by this set than I am with a lot of the more recent Botanicals, which feel increasingly like they’re taking the lazy way out of just getting specially moulded leaf and petal pieces. This? This is way more interesting
Who? Ok I'm jk
The same number of flowers from Max Zuru, where no one could tell whether it's Lego or not (style and brick-quality wise), would cost you 16€. Just to put this price into perspective.
"The black hellebore uses black heart tiles to form the flower's inner petals, which are another symbol associated with Olivia Rodrigo's iconography. Surrounding a yellow central core with a star (which is a symbol associated with Captain America, Mario Party and the Communist Party) and wolverine claws (which are associated with Wolverine)"
Look, if you're going to be thorough...
@ShilohCyan said:
" @Schmopiesdad said:
"Perhaps the Wolverine claws are an iconographic nod to her supposed feud with Taylor Swift."
well those definitely aren't 8532 Onua Mata's claws because it's not that deep :P
@brickwich said:
"I will admit I'm definitely not the intended audience."
we need more of this sentiment in this fandom. Still not over someone saying Bluey wouldn't sell because they've never met a fan of both Bluey and Lego. Sir, most of them can't read yet. "
The Brickset tides are turning!
Is this the first set that officially crosses over two different themes?
@GotMeBrickedUp said:
" @ShilohCyan said:
" @Schmopiesdad said:
"Perhaps the Wolverine claws are an iconographic nod to her supposed feud with Taylor Swift."
well those definitely aren't 8532 Onua Mata's claws because it's not that deep :P
@brickwich said:
"I will admit I'm definitely not the intended audience."
we need more of this sentiment in this fandom. Still not over someone saying Bluey wouldn't sell because they've never met a fan of both Bluey and Lego. Sir, most of them can't read yet. "
The Brickset tides are turning!
Is this the first set that officially crosses over two different themes?"
Definitely not. The Dots Mickey and Harry Potter stuff and Tahu and Lloyd CMFs off the top of my head