Review: 40725 Cherry Blossoms
Posted by Huw,
I think it's fair to say that the botanical collection is one of the most popular, attractive and innovative product lines at the moment, and one that is responsible for bringing many people into the hobby that would not have considered buying LEGO otherwise.
40725 Cherry Blossoms is this year's pocket-money priced set, which is both an attractive model when displayed on its own, or with others in the collection.
Summary
40725 Cherry Blossoms, 438 pieces.
£12.99 / $14.99 / €14.99 | 3.0p/3.4c/3.4c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Another beautiful addition to the botanical collection that won't break the bank
- A great 'plant parts pack'
- Highly detailed and wonderfully organic
- Intricate and slightly tedious build
The 438-piece set costs just £12.99/$14.99/€14.99, which equates to a price per piece of 3.0p/3.4c/3.4c but, as you can see, they are all tiny, the largest being the 2l Technic connectors used fo the stems and the 2x2 flower heads.
The two twigs are identical other than the colour of the flowers. Building them is intricate and, it has to be said, somewhat tedious given that one is a repeat of the other. You'll probably want to do what I did and split it over two sessions, or maybe get someone else to build the second one.
It is worth persevering, though, because the end result is a joy to behold!
The flower heads are made using minifig crowns which were originally designed for Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi in The LEGO Movie 2 sets. They have been put to good use across the botanical range since. They are new here in light purple, and there are 37 of each colour in the set, making it an ideal parts pack for creating your own flower designs.
A combination of hinges and the 'handle no. 1', new here in dark red, allow the flower heads to be positioned in an organic way. Half of the heads have green leaves underneath them and the overall effect is very attractive.
When displayed in a suitable vase (3D printed in this case) they look wonderful.
This is another excellent addition to the botanical range, and with its low price, you may well find yourself buying more than one, either to display more twigs, or to supplement your stock of pieces suitable for your own botanical builds.
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32 comments on this article
I’ve seen someone use these as trees in their city and they looked pretty good! I might have to grab a couple!
Still doesn’t look like 400 pieces to me, looks great though!
@someguy827 said:
"Still doesn’t look like 400 pieces to me, looks great though!
"
Well, check out the inventory and you'll understand why! 100 of those parts are just 1x1 flower plates, over 100 more are crown/eggshell and leaf pieces, and 80 are various Technic connnectors. There's a reason the price is so low compared to most other 400-piece sets!
Despite all that repetition, it's a beautiful build — and I'm sure even the repetition will be much less tedious if you have a friend or family member building alongside you!
I don't know. I guess this is overwhelmingly okay?
Wow, just $14.99? That's great. These are really cool!
The small Lego exclusive botanicals had been $12.99 per set -- with the exception of the $9.99 tulips -- and all but the tulips saw a January 1 price increase to $14.99. The tulips are currently on sale for $6.99 and have a listed "exit date" of July 2022 so perhaps those are finally retiring.
Just 23 different pieces in a 400+ piece set.....that just has to be a record!
Can't say I'm really sold on the design of this, but it seems like a pretty decent parts pack at that price. Well, if you happen to need some of those specific pieces that is, obviously.
(And hey, black 2M axles! Don't we all need those to replace the red ones from Technic sets?)
Naw, I'm happy with my Succulents
sooooo tedious though
One of my Walmarts has these, the tulips, and the lotuses. I thought they would remain store exclusives like the sunflowers etc. It's also possible my stores just never stocked them in the past, but I'm glad to see them on shelves now.
Squint or look from afar and these could be mistaken for the real thing.
Like the review mentioned, really organic looking, maybe the most organic botanical yet.
Love these. Got 3 packs on day 1, mainly because some of the smaller botanical sets seem to have a habit of selling out quickly and taking ages to be restocked!
It's a bit off that Lego has stolen God's Ideas submission though...
Could be a cool parts pack for defrogging the Bonsai 10281
This just makes me want the tulips. At least they do not look like the definition of insanity to build. Especially when you rebuild it.
@WizardOfOss said:
"(And hey, black 2M axles! Don't we all need those to replace the red ones from Technic sets?)"
Well spotted! Those look to be in a nice quantity too!
@sjr60 said:
"Love these. Got 3 packs on day 1, mainly because some of the smaller botanical sets seem to have a habit of selling out quickly and taking ages to be restocked!
It's a bit off that Lego has stolen God's Ideas submission though..."
LEGO can't steal what has been given to them. The T.O.S. agreement states any Idea you submit to LEGO belongs to LEGO, they can do whatever they want with it.
@tkatt said:
" @sjr60 said:
"Love these. Got 3 packs on day 1, mainly because some of the smaller botanical sets seem to have a habit of selling out quickly and taking ages to be restocked!
It's a bit off that Lego has stolen God's Ideas submission though..."
LEGO can't steal what has been given to them. The T.O.S. agreement states any Idea you submit to LEGO belongs to LEGO, they can do whatever they want with it."
So basically God made a deal with the Devil?
@WizardOfOss said:
"Just 23 different pieces in a 400+ piece set.....that just has to be a record!"
That would be an interesting metric to pull from the Brickset database. But in terms of the ratio of total levels to unique elements, I think it would be hard to top the 31203 World Map: 11,695 piece set with just 32 different elements.
@BrickTeller said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"Just 23 different pieces in a 400+ piece set.....that just has to be a record!"
That would be an interesting metric to pull from the Brickset database. But in terms of the ratio of total levels to unique elements, I think it would be hard to top the 31203 World Map: 11,695 piece set with just 32 different elements.
"
Update: I found 3 DOTS sets over 400 pieces which have <23 different elements. Actually not as many as I expected.
@BrickTeller said:
"That would be an interesting metric to pull from the Brickset database. But in terms of the ratio of total levels to unique elements, I think it would be hard to top the 31203 World Map: 11,695 piece set with just 32 different elements."
Good one! Especially when you consider that the 10 most common pieces of that set make up 95% of the total piece count.
But yeah, it will probably only be Art and Dots sets, which will always be rather repetitive by their very concept.
@WizardOfOss said:
" @tkatt said:
" @sjr60 said:
"Love these. Got 3 packs on day 1, mainly because some of the smaller botanical sets seem to have a habit of selling out quickly and taking ages to be restocked!
It's a bit off that Lego has stolen God's Ideas submission though..."
LEGO can't steal what has been given to them. The T.O.S. agreement states any Idea you submit to LEGO belongs to LEGO, they can do whatever they want with it."
So basically God made a deal with the Devil?"
Dammmmmmn!
@Aanchir said:
" @someguy827 said:
"Still doesn’t look like 400 pieces to me, looks great though!
"
Well, check out the inventory and you'll understand why! 100 of those parts are just 1x1 flower plates, over 100 more are crown/eggshell and leaf pieces, and 80 are various Technic connnectors. There's a reason the price is so low compared to most other 400-piece sets!
Despite all that repetition, it's a beautiful build — and I'm sure even the repetition will be much less tedious if you have a friend or family member building alongside you!"
That's kind of same effect Bionicle had but in reverse since those sets had low piece count but with larger bone pieces etc. But because of that figure could be very large and still be cheap which is why they were success.
Yeah have to somehow bring up Bionicle....
This is amazing set to build up trees :D
I wish the two twigs were not so unnaturally straight (a few bends here and there would have been better). Also, they are a tad thick in proportion to the flowers, but probably inevitable for stability.
@minhvo said:
"I wish the two twigs were not so unnaturally straight (a few bends here and there would have been better). Also, they are a tad thick in proportion to the flowers, but probably inevitable for stability."
The twig is likely to be hidden in a vase when they are displayed.
@Huw said:
" @minhvo said:
"I wish the two twigs were not so unnaturally straight (a few bends here and there would have been better). Also, they are a tad thick in proportion to the flowers, but probably inevitable for stability."
The twig is likely to be hidden in a vase when they are displayed."
....unless you only have glass vases. Like me ;-)
@minhvo said:
"I wish the two twigs were not so unnaturally straight (a few bends here and there would have been better). Also, they are a tad thick in proportion to the flowers, but probably inevitable for stability."
Yes, you're right. Luckily I bought 10 sets of the Banana Balance game when they were heavily discounted. They have a lot of narrow bend connectors.
I see the elusive paper bags are still a very rare occurrence. I would have thought they would have been in the new Modular Natural History Museum, which is the newest set I own. I've still not had a Lego set with paper bags.
I hope TLG has been working to improve the stick w/holder pieces. They seem to quickly lose their gripping power—as most irritatingly evidenced in my copy of the IDEAS Treehouse set.
This piece count would get you an entire fire station back in the day… 6571
Is no one going to mention the amazing 3D printed vase?
@mrzeon said:
"This piece count would get you an entire fire station back in the day… 6571 "
Or 1 fire station + 1 police station + 1 ambulance today (404 pieces)
60375 : Fire Station and Fire Engine
60370 : Police Station Chase
60403 : Emergency Ambulance
(4+ really does have even less piece count even compared to the 1997-2000 Town Junior)
Oh no!
Who is this for? The real thing is so much cheaper!