LEGO Botanicals 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo review

LEGO Botanicals 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo are the latest examples of the very best and most intelligent LEGO set design heading into 2025.

LEGO Botanicals continues to bloom heading into 2025, picking up right where it leaves 2024 as one of the LEGO Group’s most intelligent themes. Building on the realism and clever parts usage that make 10368 Chrysanthemum and 10369 Plum Blossom two of the best sets of 2024, LEGO Botanicals completes the collection of the Four Gentlemen at the start of 2025 in exactly the same fashion with 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo.

10343 Mini Orchid

Release: January 1, 2025 Price: £24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 Pieces: 274 Minifigures: 0 LEGO: Order now

10344 Lucky Bamboo

Release: January 1, 2025 Price: £24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 Pieces: 325 Minifigures: 0 LEGO: Order now

The Fab Four

There is a delightful simplicity of the concept behind these smaller LEGO Botanicals sets that provide almost bitesize LEGO experiences of the highest quality to then create the most beautiful, lifelike models that you can’t help but look at and enjoy time and again once complete.

While 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo aren’t the biggest sets – nor do they have to be – the designers have taken the opportunity to again weave into each set some intricate and truly unique techniques. The end result for each, just as it was with 10368 Chrysanthemum and 10369 Plum Blossom before, is a LEGO build like no other, with practically no bricks stacking on top of other bricks, but rather an exploration of all manner of interesting parts selection and usage to create the most realistic final effects.

And now there are four of them to collect and each is as intelligent and impressive as the next, as well as holding their own individual character and LEGO design too.

Realism over novelty

Just as with 10368 Chrysanthemum and 10369 Plum Blossom, 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo benefit from a keen understanding too of where LEGO Botanicals is at its best in LEGO design – with careful balance. Gone from these types of sets is the over-experimentation of unusual and unnecessary parts for the sake of it. Every piece that is used is primarily done so for the sole purpose of adding to the final effect, prioritising realism over novelty.

It’s a small change but one that means instead of all manner of interesting, recoloured parts thrown in, we get exactly what we need in each box here to the greater benefit of the final model. How does it make a difference? Instead of previously looking at a LEGO Botanicals set and perhaps seeing a mixture of green and bright-coloured LEGO parts where you can pick out hats, musical instruments or fruits dotted all over the place, every LEGO Botanicals set today delivers a final model that your eyes can’t help but accept as exactly what it intends to be.

Those with keener observational skills can begin to pick out some just-as-interesting parts used through each model – and it’s no different with 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo – as well as spot some very clever and unexpected techniques used. But, if you step back to take in the set as a whole then those parts and techniques merge as intended to leave you with impressive creations.

Intelligent by design

And that’s the difference for LEGO Botanicals now and why it ended 2024 so strongly and looks set to dominate the start of 2025 in the same way. Prioritising necessary use and accuracy, and understanding where parts usage and creative techniques can serve that, rather than interfere with it, is the path to achieving the realism on display in the likes of 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo.

These are delightful LEGO sets to take in and appreciate, excellently sized and cleverly coloured. They are also some of the best-priced sets for what they offer and make for a fine collection to build too. We can’t fault them.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

Our honest opinion: 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo are exemplary LEGO Botanicals sets that show exactly why this theme is one of the smartest and most effective around heading into 2025.