Botanicals

Bird of Paradise

The one Botanicals plant that actually towers over your desk and sways in a breeze.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 10289 · 2021

Pieces1,173

Minifigsn/a

Year2021

Set number10289

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The verdict

This one won me over slowly.

It's the tallest of the early Botanicals plants at over 18 inches, and the leaves are so light they genuinely sway when air moves through the room, which is the sort of tiny magic that makes you forgive a lot. The build itself leans repetitive and the pot eats up your first two bags, so if you want clever engineering surprises this isn't the plant for you. But if you want a big, sculptural green thing that looks alive in a corner, it earns its keep.

Best for: Plant lovers who want a tall, statement green sculpture rather than a fiddly puzzle

The full review

What it is

The Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia if you want to sound fancy, and it's native to South Africa) is one of the early stars of LEGO's Botanical Collection, and it's the one that finally gives you height. Where the Flower Bouquet and Bonsai sit politely on a shelf, this LEGO® set shoots up past 18 inches on its tallest leaf, so it reads as a real potted plant across a room. Chris McVeigh designed it, and the thing that got me is how honest the leaves look. Those big dark green Technic panels curl and splay exactly like the real waxy paddle leaves do, and because they're so light, the whole plant nods and sways if you walk past or crack a window. That little bit of movement is what tips it from decoration into something that feels alive.

The catch

Now I'll be straight with you about where it dips. The build is not thrilling. Your first two bags are almost entirely the octagonal pot, which is careful, hinge-based work but hardly a page-turner, and once you hit the foliage you're repeating the same leaf construction over and over. Reviewers clocked it at well under two hours, and a chunk of that is muscle memory rather than discovery. At the original $99.99 it was one of the pricier plants per genuine build minute, and if you came to LEGO botanicals for the satisfying engineering of something like the Bonsai, this one will feel a little thin in the middle. It's a plant you build once and then admire, not a set you'll rebuild for the joy of the process.

Who it's for

So who actually loves this thing? If you're a houseplant person, or you want a big green statement in a corner that never needs watering and never dies on you, grab it without hesitation. It's genuinely one of the best faux plants going, LEGO or otherwise, and the ability to bend the stems and reposition flowers means no two builds look quite the same. If you're chasing clever parts usage and satisfying construction above all, I'd point you at the Bonsai Tree or Tiny Plants first and let you come back to this one later. It's now retired (it left shelves at the end of 2023 and prices have climbed well past its original tag), so if the tall swaying silhouette is calling you, don't sit on it too long.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build splits cleanly into pot and plant. Bags 1 and 2 are all foundation: an octagon-based flowerpot built around a central column, with hinge plates and connectors doing quiet off-grid work so the eight sides sit at just the right angle. It's precise and a bit fussy, and there's a lot of black curved slope going on to round the pot out. From bag 3 onward it opens up as you build the stems, then the leaves, then the flowers, then a layer of 'soil' from bag 5 to cap it off. The leaf work is where the repetition lives, but it's also where the plant comes to life, and you get to choose your own leaf heights and angles as you go.

For parts people, this is a proper recolor treasure chest. The headline is 32 large Technic panels in dark green, making it the set with the most 5x7 panels ever and second only to MetalBeard's Sea Cow for 5x11 panels. Add 30 Sand Green Technic driving ring connectors, dark green pin connectors, and hinge cylinders in fresh greens, and you've got a haul that MOC builders raided for years. There are lovely oddities too: 8 hay bale bricks (new for 2021), 8 minifig rings (more than any other set, per the booklet itself), and lime Technic bricks that had only shown up in educational sets before. For 1,173 pieces at its old price, the value is really in those bulk recolored panels rather than the part count alone.

Fun facts

01The plant is a Strelitzia, native to South Africa, and its bright orange-and-blue flower is nicknamed the crane flower for its bird-like shape.
02The tallest leaf limb rises over 18 inches (46 cm), making it one of the tallest builds in the whole Botanical Collection, and the pot spans over 5 inches across.
03Because the leaves use such lightweight parts, the finished plant actually sways when it catches a breeze, just like the real thing.
04It holds the record for the most 5x7 Technic panels in any set and, per its own instruction booklet, more minifig rings than any other LEGO set.