Theme: Botanical Collection
No: 10289
Release Year: 2021
Cost: US $99.99 / DE €109.99 / UK £89.99 / AU $169.99
Pieces: 1173
One set that arrived at my door early this week was a complete surprise! 10289 Bird of Paradise is the next set in the stunning and unique Botanical Collection, and I reckon it’s a big step up from the last big botanicals set – 10280 Flower Bouquet. The set will be available from June 1st in Europe and the rest of the world, and August 1st in the Americas.
The Bird of Paradise (also known as a strelitzia) is a unique flower in real life, native to South Africa, with the colourful crested flower easily identifiable. My parents have one in their front yard, and it’s lovely. Something that not everyone may realise is that while it may look like the long green part is a beak, it’s actually a tail! A couple of years back this post was posted on Reddit, and it blew my mind.
Imagine the flower as a hovering or flying bird. The colourful bits are the wings. Pretty crazy. Anyway, on with the set.
The big difference with this set and where it literally stands on its own in the theme, is the brick built pot. It’s not hollow like you may expect, but pretty solid with plates and brackets. The crucial part is where the stalks connect. It’s two studs thick, using SNOT and Technic beams with pins. Thanks to the solidness of the pot, it’s heavy and provides some excellent stability to the set. The core of the pot has brackets on the outside of the octagon shape and is super strong. The top of the pot is built separately and connected to the top, with the Technic holes facing up. I also love that the designers took the time to create the internal lip of the pot with a smooth surface. It could have easily been a plate underside, but they took the time and I’m so happy.
A part that I’d not come across before was this – a 2×2, 2 plate thick brick with grille lines – it’s been seen before, albeit only this year, but was nice to see it for the first time in a set I’ve built.
Once the more tedious stalks are built, the slightly less tedious but still repetitive leaves are built and added, and this is where it starts to get good. Blow on the leaves, or give the pot a bit of a wiggle, and the leaves sway in just the right way that it looks like the real deal. To mix it up, there are also some smaller leaves in a lighter shade of green at the base – new shoots that are just coming up. The attention to detail here is great. It’s a shame the joins are in black and dark bluish grey, but without a recolour, that’s unavoidable.
Last to be added are the colourful bird shaped flowers. With red, orange, bright light yellow, white and purple (those purple foils are perfect). Add them on, pour in the “dirt” and the set is complete. This is easily the best in the Botanical Collection so far. I’m so excited to see what’s next – hopefully they include the pots!
A special thank you to LEGO for sending me a copy to review. All thoughts on this set are my own and are not influenced in any way, shape or form. The provision of sets for review does not guarantee a favourable review.
