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 1×1 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 2×2 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 3×3 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 1×2 Technic bricks into which her legs are attached with normal 1×2 bricks, and sourcing some 2×2 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.
