Review: LEGO Icons Plum Blossom

LEGO Icons Botanical Plum Blossom 10369 New Release Review Brick Banter - 2024 July

LEGO Icons Plum Blossom planting a garden of medium priced botanicals

It’s been a while, but here is a snap review of one of the two botanical plants coming this August! Bright coloured, vase and all, how do these middle-price range botanicals hold up under scrutiny? In this review, we’re taking a look at the LEGO Icons Plum Blossom!

RRP AUD $49.99 – CA $39.99 – EUR €29.99 – UK £24.99 – USA $29.99
327 pieces
Available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores for pre-order now, releasing 1st August 2024.

LEGO Icons Plum Blossom – 10369

The Pot

The LEGO Icons Plum Blossom set gives us a sand blue base, which contrasts to the red flowers of the set. A subtle detail that I like about the vase is the subtle shaping right before the neck, making it feel more luxurious.

The pot is banded in a metallic gold, a colour becoming more commonplace in sets. The pot is also resting atop a small stand, using brown Unikitty tail elements as the feet and identical to LEGO Icons Chrysanthemum.

The Plant

The framework of the Plum Blossom is the dark brown network of stems that reach far out from the centre of the model. Not only does this take up more visual space and make it feel larger, but the height and twists make it feel more organic.

The flowers dotted across the stems are three different types. Buds, smaller budding flowers and the opened Plum Blossom. The small buds are all across the model, using simple grass stalk and flower elements across the build.

The smaller budding flowers use eggshells and the uncommon peach elements used in the Monkie Kid line, making this the cheapest set to find them in! This could have been implemented for something else, but I’m very glad to see them here.

The opened Plum Blossom is the largest flower on the stalk, and repeated five times instead of the one like the LEGO Icons Chrysanthemum. The flower is made of a complicated array of different interacting parts, and comes together really well, with a catch.

Despite the organic feel and shaping of the model, it has a clear weakness of needing to be viewed from one side. It’s not very photogenic from any angle other than direct on, which limits its display ability I’m afraid.

Verdict

The LEGO Icons Plum Blossom is definitely a set that prides itself being viewed from one angle. Moving past the ‘bad side’ of the model, there is an elegance to it from the colour palette and soft tones throughout that I just really like.

I mentioned in the LEGO Icons Chrysanthemum review, there are lots of botanical sets that start at $100+ AUD. There are also ones that are ~$20AUD and aren’t as refined as the higher price tag ones are. I think this is a good middle medium, and I’m keen to see more like it.

The price-tag might just be a sign of the times, and not truly comprehending how much LEGO has inflated over time. It seems like this should be $40, instead of the $50. Am I just stuck in my ways? Who knows.