Comparing new LEGO August Botanicals to real-life plants
The LEGO Botanicals theme consistently does an impressive job of rendering real plants in LEGO, so here’s a closer comparison of two upcoming reveals.
LEGO Botanicals sets, whether under the Icons banner or as their very own theme, are known for their ingenious parts usage, using LEGO elements in new ways to accurately recreate real-life plants and flowers to stunning levels. With two more LEGO Botanicals on the way in August – 10372 Hibiscus and 10373 Mini Bonsai Trees – we’ve dug into the details of the newly revealed sets to see how well they compare to their real counterparts.
Zooming into the petals of 10372 Hibiscus, the delicate colours of the petals and protruding stigma have been artfully created, with a contrasting shade of pink used on the central dome to keep a distinction between it and the rest of the petals. The LEGO petals – made from seashells – look slightly smaller in proportion to the rest of the flower, when compared to the real thing, but that could easily be a quirk of individual flowers.
Looking at the rest of the plant and the stem in particular, the details in colour continue, with a different shade used between the stem and the leaves to keep that accurate contrast and depth of colour going. The leaves on the real plant generally look a little more jagged in shape than the smooth ones used on the LEGO version.
Moving on to 10373 Mini Bonsai Trees, there are three different plants included in this LEGO Botanicals set. The first is a ginkgo bonsai tree with yellow leaves. While the real-life plant pictured below has green leaves, the shape of the leaves is the same, as rendered with yellow LEGO butterflies in the set. The tapering wings mimics the shape of the leaves accurately, while the upturned branches keeps the real bonsai’s silhouette.
Instead of leaves, the black pine bonsai tree’s green needles is replicated with green versions of Wolverine’s claws, a savvy use that does a decent job at mimicking the needles. Arguably, the LEGO version is less bushy, with only three ‘needles’ per bunch, but, much like the petal size of 10372 Hibiscus, this could easily be down to the age and size of the individual plant.
The wisteria bonsai tree with its hanging lilac flowers is the most colourful of the trio. Looking at pictures of the real plant leaves the brick-built version begging for a Pick a Brick order of more studs to extend the flowers, but the shape is spot on already in 10373 Mini Bonsai Trees. The inclusion of layers of different-shaped flower studs communicates the fluffiness of the blossoms in a simple but effective way.
10373 Mini Bonsai Trees available to pre-order now on LEGO.com, while 10372 Hibiscus launches on August 1.
Featured image: Top Tropicals, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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