LEGO® Icons review + MOC: 10329 Tiny Plants

The Botanical Collection is growing! Coming 1 December 2023, LEGO® ICONS™10329 Tiny Plants is a selection of miniaturized carnivorous, tropical and desert plants, each in their own little pot. Join us as we weed out all the new recoloured elements (there are quite a few!) and take a look at these adorable tiny plants.

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
LEGO® ICONS™ 10329 Tiny Plants
US$49.99/ £44.99/ 49.99€/ AU$99.99
758 parts
1 December 2023
Please consider using our affiliate links, we may get a small commission if you purchase: Set 10329 on LEGO.com

Recolours

Rather than introducing new moulds, the Botanical Collection sets tend to take existing bricks and use them in interesting and unexpected ways. As such, Tiny Plants provides us with a plethora of interesting bricks in new colours.

Obviously, we get lots of greenery, and in many different shades. Most of these will no doubt be useful for builders wanting to create foliage for their own MOCs:

• 4x Dish 4 x 4 with 4 Studs in Lime (6468077 | 65138)
• 2x Plate Special Round 2 x 2 with Melting Drops on Sides in Lime (6468075 | 65700)
• 4x Equipment Broom End in Lime (6468391 | 90826)

• 8x Hat / Flat Cap, Old Style in Dark Green (6454462 | 2514)

• 12x Plate Special 1 x 1 Rounded with Handle in Yellowish Green (6468504 | 26047)
• 4x Hat / Pith Helmet in Yellowish Green (6468079 | 30172)

• 4x Weapon Hilt Symmetric in Bright Green ( | 66909)

And one element not only gets a recolour, but a new print too:

• 3x Tile Round 2 x 2 with Bottom Stud Holder in Sand Green (6468072 | 14769)
• 3x Tile Round 1 x 1 with new print Sand Green (6467694 | 1476pr)

We have 9 terracotta pots in which to place our plants, so there are plenty of elements recoloured in Dark Orange:

• 12x Tile 4 x 4 Curved, Macaroni in Dark Orange (6468069 | 27507)
• 12x Tile 3 x 3 Curved, Macaroni in Dark Orange (6468066 | 79393)

• 3x Barrel Half Large with Axle Hole in Dark Orange (6462459 | 64951)
• 3x Wheel 41 x 15 in Dark Orange (6462460 | 68327)

• 12x Brick Special 1 x 2 with 1 Center Stud on 1 Side in Dark Orange (6468067 | 86876)

• 12x Slope Curved 3 x 4 x 2/3 Triple Curved with 2 Sunk Studs in Dark Orange (6468071 | 93604)

There's a smattering of pink and purple hues:

• 6x Insect, Butterfly in Purple (6468346 | 80674)
• 3x Minifig Neckwear Epaulette in Bright Pink (6468345 | 2526)
• 4x Plate Special 1 x 1 with Tooth in Lavender (6468342 | 49668)

And finally a few miscellaneous recoloured elements:

• 8x Equipment Hairbrush Short Handle [10mm] in Dark Red (6468343 | 3852b)

• 10x Plant, Flower Stem with Bar and 6 Stems in Tan (6463564 | 19119)

• 36x Plate Special 2 x 2 x 2/3 with Two Studs On Side and Two Raised - Updated Version in Reddish Brown (6470170 | 4304)

That final element may look familiar but it's an updated version of 99206. Make sure to read tobymac's article on the big differences that arise from the small differences made to this useful SNOT brick. 

Rare elements

I will classify rare elements as those appearing in 3 sets or less. There are 10 elements in Tiny Plants which fit this category:

 In 1 set: 

• 1 x 15469 Plant, Leaves, Round 2 x 2 x 2/3 with + Axle Hole and 4 Leaf Extensions in Light Royal Blue/ Bright Light Blue (6420921 | 15469) also in 10313 Wildflower Bouquet 
• 12 x 79756 Brick Curved 1 x 4 x 2/3 Double Curved Top, No Studs in Dark Orange (6439724 | 79756) also in 10325 Alpine Lodge 
• 1 x 98138pr0374 Tile Round 1 x 1 with Ladybug print in Bright Red/ Red (6449709 | 104742) 21342 also in The Insect Collection 
• 1 x 68212 Hair Small Tuft in Flame Yellowish Orange/ Bright Light Orange (6456642 | 68212) also in 10315 Tranquil Garden 
• 4 x 30377 Arm Mechanical with 2 Clips [Battle Droid] in Bright Red/ Red (6370686 | 49754) also in 10315 Tranquil Garden 
• 2 x 3484 Bar 1L with Clip [Cut Edges and One Side Hole] [Full Clip] in Bright Red/ Red (6439048 | 3484) also in 10318 Concorde 

In 2 sets: 

• 1 x 4032a Plate Round 2 x 2 with Axle Hole Type 1 (+ Opening) in Dark Red (6448317 | 4032) 

In 3 sets: 

• 5 x 98138 Tile Round 1 x 1 in Earth Green/ Dark Green (6397157 | 35380) 
• 4 x 64847 Animal Body Part, Horn (Cattle) in Bright Red/ Red (6368619 | 67258) 
• 12 x 3484 Bar 1L with Clip [Cut Edges and One Side Hole] [Full Clip] in White (6439046 | 3484) 

The build

Up to this point, the botanical sets have provided us with brick-built replicas of iconic plants. In a twist, Tiny Plants takes 9 well known flora and miniaturizes them. There are 9 terracotta pots in which to put our miniaturized plants which range in size and complexity. 

The smallest and most simple ones uses just a few elements to create a delightfully tiny pot. It’s a great example of efficient parts usage. 

The medium pot is still quite simple, relying on a core of SNOT bricks to attach the rounded slope and wedge elements to create a nice cylinder. It’s nothing revolutionary but the result is very convincing, especially in that Dark Orange.

The techniques used in the largest pot are so good they may outshine the plants that go in them. Cones are amongst the hardest shapes to create in LEGO blocks but the designer of this set, Theo Bonner, has found an amazing solution. Minifig shields are used to angle the curved slope assemblies to create the sides of the pot. The newly recoloured 1x4 bricks are used to fill the gaps between them and everything comes together so satisfyingly. I’ll definitely keep this in my back pocket for my own MOCs! 

The rim cleverly uses a mixture of SNOT bricks and round plate with bar to create attachment points in 8 different directions. This will be another technique that I’ll bear in mind should I need a cylinder in my own models. 

As much as I love these techniques, by the time I reached the third pot in the instruction manual I was starting to notice the fatigue of repeating the same steps over again. Luckily, the set comes with three instruction booklets so you can build alongside two other builders in your own little plant party. 

We’re off to great start with the pots, but what to put in them? Each of the three instruction manuals includes the steps for three unique types of plant: flowering, cacti, and carnivorous.

 The Tropical Plants 

The false shamrock is the smallest of the tropical plants included in the Tiny Plants set. The purple leaves of the real pant might be easily mistaken for butterflies so the designer has used the perfect element to represent this little plant. Close up, it’s hard not to unsee the distinct butterfly shape, but from a distance the effect is quite convincing. The butterflies are all fixed to a Tan stalk. I never noticed the tiny hole on the underside of the butterfly element until now. 

The jade leaf is the medium plant in this category. There are no mind-blowing techniques at work here but the flat caps make wonderful leaves. The tile-in-clip combination seems to be a technique appearing in more and more official sets these days. This foliage technique would work well to represent an ornamental tree at minifigure scale and wouldn't look out of place among the flora of 10315 Tranquil Garden.

The largest and perhaps most impressive of the tropical plants is the lace leaf. Again, no game changing techniques here, but the use of the clam shell to represent the flowers single broad petal is quite clever. 

 The Cacti 

The smallest plant of the cacti, the Britton's Liveforever, is another simple build. The studs are inverted with nipples (You can just about see them in Bright Light Green in the image above) to take advantage of that shape of that light blue flower element. 

While I think the use of prints to represent the texture of the Eastern Prickly Pear, the medium cactus, is cheating, it is a nice-looking little model; from the front at least. Unfortunately, the aesthetics don’t continue to the back where the anti-studs are clearly visible. Boat studs rather than plates could improve the look of the model from this angle. 

 The largest Pincushion Cactus is the most engaging build of the three cacti models. 

The spherical shape is achieved first by SNOT bricks and brackets at the base, then clips and bars to provide the attachment points to fill up all the unsightly gaps. We find more nipples here to ensure the bars are at the correct angle here; very clever! 

 The Carnivorous Plants 

The venus fly trap is the smallest of the carnivorous plants to construct. The recoloured dripping icing element is a fun (albeit cartoonish) choice to represent the toothy maw of the plant. The parts choice is debatable, but I think the designer made a great choice with the colours here. 

The red sundew is a fine-looking plant, but like a few of the other models here, it’s more of an approximation than a replica of the real thing. The recoloured brushes are a good choice to represent the sticky tendrils of the plant and the use of pauldrons as petals, which appeared in 10314 Dried Flower Centerpiece, is a great LEGO flower technique that I’ll never get tired of seeing. 

The Yellow Pitcher Plant features more inventive parts use in the form of mops and hats to create the plant’s infamous pitfall trap. While not a 1:1 replica of the subject matter, it’s still recognizable as a pitcher plant. It’s another example of efficient building: using just a few parts to create something very recognizable.

Closing thoughts

Like the other sets of the Botanical Collection, Tiny Plants is a showcase of inventive parts usage. The parts inventory is colourful and varied and used in a number of surprising and interesting ways in the builds. Many of the elements, particularly the greenery, can be repurposed by builders for their own creations. So, in short, a great parts pack. 

The plants are mostly simple in their construction and the majority could be reversed engineered from the image of the box, but the result is very effective. They make lovely little decorations and are surprisingly convincing from a short distance. 

As cute as the finished plants are, it seems that the majority of the parts in the box (and indeed the time spent building) are devoted to the pots, which seemed a little odd, as I expected the emphasis to be on the plants themselves. The end result though is worth it as these are lovely little models.

  

For me, Tiny Plants doesn’t quite surpass the Succulents which remains one of my favourite botanical sets for its vibrant colour palette and varied building techniques. 

Speaking of which, the pots of the Tiny Plants provide a great alternative method to display them. 

The pots also a great base for your own MOC plants. Here's a peace lily. The newly recoloured weapon hilts came in very handy for the stems. 

Or perhaps the pieces will inspire something totally different...

 

Potted crab, anyone?

You can already pre-order LEGO® Icons 10329 Tiny Plants from LEGO.com in many countries, for US$49.99/ £44.99/ 49.99€/ AU$99.99. The set is available 1 December 2023. Please consider using our affiliate links, we may get a small commission if you purchase: Set 10329 on LEGO.com

READ MORE: LEGO® DREAMZzz™ review: 71459 Stable of Dream Creatures

Help New Elementary keep publishing articles like this. Become a Patron!

A huge thank you to all our patrons for your support, especially our 'Vibrant Coral' tier: London AFOLs, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Huw Millington, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Gerald Lasser, Baixo LMmodels, Sue Ann Barber and Trevor Clark, Markus Rollbühler, Elspeth De Montes, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Chuck Hagenbuch, Jf, Wayne R. Tyler, Daniel Church, Lukas Kurth (StoneWars) and Timo Luehnen! You folks are just the cutest little baby bows.

LEGO® Shop at Home
USA: FREE SHIPPING every day on orders over $35!
UK: Free delivery when you spend £50 or more at LEGO!
Australia: Discover the latest promotions and offers on LEGO.com

All text and images are © New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.