Upcoming LEGO Ideas sets have LEGO Friends twins – but perhaps not for long

The similarities between two LEGO Ideas and two LEGO Friends sets are clear, but will that impact their success on shelves?

The LEGO Ideas team has revealed two sets from the first review period of 2023 that will go on to become real LEGO Ideas sets: Nick Micheels’s Twilight: Cullen House and Valentina Bima’s The Botanical Garden. Both are impressive designs in their own right, but the first reaction from many of those in the LEGO community is that they look awfully similar to two LEGO Friends sets.

Indeed, 41757 Botanical Garden even has almost the exact same name as Valentina’s creation, while the modern style of the Cullen House is very reminiscent of 42639 Andrea’s Modern Mansion.

The comparisons are clear. While Valentina’s Botanical Garden is much bigger than 41757 Botanical Garden, the appeal of a larger dome is already confirmed, with many reviewers offering ways to create a similar structure out of two copies of the LEGO Friends set. The only real differences between the two transparent buildings are the scale and the often-alienating presence of minidolls in 41757 Botanical Garden. Remove those, however, and you have a lot of the same flowering features that you’d expect.

With 41757 Botanical Garden releasing on June 1, 2023, the first review stage of the year would have just started when the set came out. That means it’s possible that the LEGO Ideas team saw the widespread positive reaction to the impressive clear dome and colourful plants and seized the opportunity. Of course, that’s just speculation. Even if it didn’t influence the LEGO Ideas team’s decision, the demand for a detailed Botanical Garden set is certainly clear.

Those in the LEGO community are already picking up on the similarities between the two pairs of sets and, for many, it’s providing a barrier to buying one or the other.

“[41757 Botanical Garden] is very small,” commented one reddit user on the main discussion post for the LEGO Ideas result. “I wanted to get it but…I wanted a bigger one. This one…omg.”

As in the case of this commenter, many of those who want a large-scale Botanical Garden may well have already customised two or more copies of 41757 Botanical Garden, or will be happy to wait until the LEGO Ideas set is released.

Indeed, another redditor expressed their intention to do just that, writing: “The Botanical Garden is a huge surprise to me because of the Friends set and because it’s a modular, but I bet the final product will be gorgeous. I’ll wait it out for the LEGO Ideas version.”

However, it’s also worth noting that most LEGO Ideas sets take a year or so to get made. Take a look at 21345 Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera, which was revealed as an upcoming LEGO Ideas set back in October of 2022. It’s now set to release in January of 2024, just over a year later. If the Cullen House and the Botanical Garden both take a similar timeline, that would set them up for release at the end of 2024 or early 2025.

41757 Botanical Garden is set to retire at the end of 2024, while 42639 Andrea’s Modern Mansion is due to retire in 2025. That means there would likely be little or no real overlap between the two similar pairs of sets and so, while the four sets have a lot of parallels between them, they might not actually share shelf space in LEGO stores for very long.

That could result in enough demand for all four sets to succeed. It’s also worth noting that LEGO Ideas sets can change considerably from the initial design to the final product. Perhaps the professional designs will add enough tweaks and changes to make both Valentina and Nick’s sets stand out from their LEGO Friends counterparts even more.

What’s more, it’s not unusual for several versions of the same building to succeed as different LEGO sets. Just look at the plethora of LEGO castles, LEGO police stations, LEGO shops, and so on.

All in all, while it’s a strange coincidence to see two pairs of such similar sets, don’t discount any of them just yet. Perhaps there’s room enough in the LEGO system for all of these sets to thrive. Although some who want a brick-built botanical garden might be satisfied with the LEGO Friends version, there’s clearly an appetite for a larger, more detailed model, judging from the reactions on reddit – as well as some prepared to wait a couple of years for the perfect iteration.

Thank you for supporting the work that Brick Fanatics does by buying your LEGO sets using our affiliate links. Thank you!