Botanicals

Succulents

Nine tiny plant builds you can rearrange until your desk feels calm.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 10309 · 2022

Pieces771

Minifigsn/a

Year2022

Set number10309

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The verdict

This is nine little succulents, each on its own 8x8 base, and the clever part is that they snap together in any order you like.

I fell for the burro's tail first, all those dangling leaves made from yellowish green egg pieces. It is honestly one of the friendliest builds LEGO has put out, and it makes a lovely low-cost entry into the Botanical shelf. Just know the building is over quickly and the pots are plain, so if you want a showpiece the Orchid or the trees will satisfy you more.

Best for: Desk decorators and anyone who wants a plant that never needs watering

The full review

What it is

Succulents is exactly what the box promises, nine small potted plants you build one at a time and then arrange however you please. What surprised me is how much personality LEGO squeezed into each one. The burro's tail got me straight away, its trailing leaves are made from egg pieces in yellowish green that pivot and droop into a shape that actually looks alive. The moon cactus with its bright grafted top, the spiky aloe, the rosette echeverias in orange, lavender and red, each has its own trick, and none of them feel like filler. Building nine different things in one box keeps your hands and your brain busy in a way a single big model sometimes does not.

The catch

I want to be honest about the size of it, though, because this is where opinions split. For a set with 771 pieces, the building goes by fast. A lot of those pieces are small repeated leaves and studs, so you never get that satisfying sense of assembling something massive. The pots are the other soft spot. They are all roughly the same squat shape and height, which means the finished group sits low and even, without the drama the taller Botanical sets bring to a shelf. A few different pot heights would have given the whole arrangement more life. At the full 50 dollars it can feel like a lot for how quickly it comes together.

Who it's for

So who will love this. If you decorate a desk, a windowsill or an office and you want greenery that survives you, this is close to perfect, and it makes a warm, affordable gift for the succulent obsessed. It also pairs beautifully with the Orchid and the other Botanical sets if you are building a little corner of fake plants. If you live for long, engineering-heavy builds or you want one commanding centerpiece, I would point you toward the bigger flora sets instead. This one is charm over challenge, and it knows it.

The parts story

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

Building this is relaxed and repetitive in the best sense. Each succulent starts on an identical 8x8 plate and grows outward with lots of small leaf and plant elements clicked around a central core. You will place the same little pieces many times to form a rosette or a cluster of spines, so it has an almost meditative rhythm to it. Because the nine plants are separate builds, you can stop and start easily, and the instructions never get complicated. It is a genuinely good first LEGO experience for an adult who has not built in years.

The parts palette is the quiet star here. There is a generous pile of plant and leaf elements in greens, plus warm recolor moments in orange, lavender and deep red for the echeverias that make lovely fodder for anyone who builds their own flowers. The trick everyone points to is the burro's tail, which uses LEGO egg pieces in yellowish green as its plump dangling leaves, a genuinely smart bit of parts usage. At 771 pieces for around 50 dollars you are getting a strong count of small useful botanical parts, which is why so many builders buy this one partly to raid for custom plant projects.

Fun facts

01Every one of the nine succulents is built on an identical 8x8 base, so the whole set is modular and you can display the plants separately or joined in any order.
02The nine varieties are an orange echeveria, an aloe, hen and chicks, a lavender echeveria, a moon cactus, a ball cactus, a burro's tail, a sedum luteoviride and a red echeveria.
03The burro's tail uses LEGO egg elements in yellowish green to recreate its plump trailing leaves.
04At 771 pieces it packs over 100 more parts than its Botanical shelf-mate the 10311 Orchid, yet launched at the same 49.99 dollar price.