September 30, 2025 • 31 mins
On this episode we discuss 2 LEGO Botanical plants that are festive and quite unique. We also share some interesting facts about their real life counterparts.
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Enjoying the show...give us a like and comment on all platforms. Help us make the LEGO world available to all!
Find us everywhere through LinkTree
Music: www.bensound.com
LEGO, the LEGO logo, the Minifigure, and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group of Companies. ©2025 The LEGO Group.
THE BRICKS KING PODCAST IS NOT ENDORSED BY THE LEGO GROUP OR AFFILIATED IN ANY WAY.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-bricks-king-podcast-lego--4920139/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Shut up and welcome to the Bricks King Podcast, where
I'm gonna being jury or about the Lego review those
(00:23):
amazing bricks of plastic and discuss what is new and
up becoming around the Lego world. Your men, if it
goes mauth where it's built on it, Welcome in everybody.
How are we doing today? Back with a new episode,
and today we are going to be talking about two
count two Lego botanical sets, smaller version, slightly taller version,
(00:47):
but two different sets. Nonetheless, they very in price, they
very in size, They vary in color to a certain degree,
build type, design type, all kinds of different things. Now,
both of these are currently available, one newer than the other,
about a year difference actually, but nevertheless, I have been
(01:08):
a giant lover of plants my entire life, probably when
I first started climbing trees at the age of I
don't know six, up until today, where I love, whether
they be plastic plants of the Lego variety, or they
adorn my garden, my backyard, my property, all kinds of
(01:28):
different things, or wherever I come across them. So today
we're going to talk about two different ones, and the
first one is going to be the chrysanthemum. Now this
released last summer. You're probably saying, why. Now, Well, I
was trying to figure out like some things to you know,
fill out spaces around my house and other other kinds
(01:50):
of things like that. So I elected to, you know,
find something smaller in size that I could really kind
of fit in a ma altitude of different places in
my home. So the chrysanthemum. I like the texture of it.
I like the color of it. Maybe a little too
much orange, but it's not the end of the world.
So I decided, you know what, let me take a peek,
(02:13):
let's see, you know, what it really looks like, what
the build looks like, and then find where I can
put it down the road. That wasn't the main issue.
So the set number for this is one zero, three
six eight, has two hundred and seventy eight pieces, and
it retails for thirty bucks here in the United States
and thirty euros as well. Now, the cool thing about
(02:36):
this is that it's while it is a plant, I
decided to go and take a step a little bit
further for you. Now. I don't know if you know this.
It is pronounced chrysanthemum. There is a book chrysanthemum about
a character. Well, of course it's about a character. It's
a children's book. It's a really good book. AnyWho, So I,
(02:57):
you know, I went down this rabbit hole of you know, know, chrysanthemum.
What does it look like or not? What does it
look like? What are some facts about it? And I
and I was kind of kind of really interested in this. Now,
doesn't matter where you are in the world, different things
have different meanings from culture to culture, country to country,
(03:18):
state to state, city to city, whatever. And here in
the United States they symbolize the chrysanthemum symbolizes joy, friendship,
and longevity, but also in Europe, parts of Europe and
Japan it signifies mourning and grief. Couldn't we not get
(03:38):
polar opposites on something, I mean for real? That is
that is that is completely unexpected. Now, as I mentioned,
it does change meaning obviously culture and location and everything.
But the color in it, the red, is to represent
deep passion, the white and h If you have a
(04:01):
white chrysanthemum, the loyalty and honesty, which I thought was
kind of neat. If you have a violet chrysanthemum, it's
meant to be for quick recovery. And I didn't know
this either. In Japan, a chrysanthemum is the the actual
flower of the nation, the national flower. It symbolizes the
sun as you know, the rising sun, as the Japanese
(04:24):
flag is. So I thought that was I thought that
was really, uh, really kind of fascinating to even think
that that was something you know that I don't know.
That's just kind of kind of bizarre to me. But anyway,
so last last little fact about this. I have I
have nine Yeah, we have nine dogs. We've got other
(04:47):
stuff as well, but it's good to know if you
have chrysanthemums laying around your house or you have them
growing on your property, they are they're poisonous to dogs, cats,
and horses of all things with you know, vomiting, diarrhea,
all that kind of thing. I didn't see anything that
says toxic meaning deadly, but obviously you know there it's
(05:10):
not good for them. That's the last thing you want
is your cat to be heaving, your dog to be
vomiting in the middle of the night, you know, because
it decided it was gonna chomp down on some chrysanthemums.
So Anyway, Uh, this set is not very tall. It's
only about a foot tall, and it's got a little
wooden base on it that's a built. This a nice
(05:31):
little build for it. The nice the nice part that
I love with this has to be the the tail that,
oh my goodness, from Unikitty. I was gonna say miss
Kitty for a minute, from Unicitty. So it is the
tail from Unicitty. But it comes in this brown color.
(05:51):
Here the vase itself I love because it is sand green.
Oh God, how can you not love this, I'm telling you.
And now it's got some gold golden accents around the
sides as well, so you do have that lacquered gold color. Beautiful,
(06:13):
beautiful color palette here for this. Now, this thing does
have four different flowers on it. It's got a main
central flower that is in different opening into different phases
or I guess different layers around it. You have another
flower that's just barely starting to open, and then you
have two that are just blossoms that are just very beginning.
(06:37):
And we use some orange cupcakes there, inverted cupcakes for
the inside of the blossom there. It has some foliage,
not anything wild and crazy. You have two big leaves,
and you have some smaller leaves to go around as well.
That's really more so. Yes, it's supposed to look like
a chrysanthemum, you know, maybe in a vase or something
(07:00):
like that. However it's more so here used to break
up the the technic structure, you know, for the stalks
and stuff like that of it. You've really gotta you've
really gotta work with that. It does have some black
that is showing because you know, we don't have these
technic parts in this green. I still don't understand why anyway,
(07:26):
has three different stalks, if you will stems. You have
your main flower, the one that is barely opening, and
then you have the other one that has your blossom.
Now the flower that is opening that is not fully
opened yet, but it is solely opening. They use orange
claw pieces here, and it's you know, two different layers
(07:50):
of them, one where it's kind of really kind of
more tightly closed up, and then some that are further open,
so you kind of get this nice inviting feel. The
only thing that the only thing that I'm not a
big fan about with this part's usage here is the
claws feel just a little bit too thick. I don't
(08:11):
know what else could be used here. You know, some
of the other claw or teeth pieces are going to
be too small, so you need something that has some size.
I just wish this was, you know, a few micrometers
thinner than what it is. It would just it would
just to me, it would just feel better. But you
know that's it's been a little harsh. Now on the
(08:33):
only very inside of this, we have your Flemish orangish
yellowish color, and that is your your actual flower there
on the inside. And then we use some of another
little piece down inside. We've seen them for like like
things that are in the bottom of the ocean of
(08:54):
different sets and stuff like that. It's meant to be
like underwater or some some kind of underwater what do
you want to call them? Foliage? I guess to a
certain degree, or maybe you know a little creature that's
on the bottom I want to say more not a
CNM and E maybe something like that. I don't know.
But then you have your big flower here. And the
(09:16):
great thing about this is if you like lego bananas,
you're gonna go bananas for this chrysanthemum. See what I
did there? Anyway, you have a multitude of different bananas.
Here a bunch of bananas. One of the layers actually
has I believe it's twenty of the same color. So
(09:37):
you have orange bananas, you have reddish orange bananas, and
then you have yellowish orange bananas. So the yellowish orange
are on the interior. Then you have your orange that
are the next level out, and then down underneath that
is you have the darker reddish orange bananas, which I
don't know if that's meant to signify just the color
(09:59):
or maybe it's and you know, maybe it's starting to
slowly wither and die as they look like they're falling down.
All of these are just clipped into place. I think
it's a different method of clips for the top and
the bottom in comparison to the middle layer. Now on
the very top and the very center, you have your blossom. Again,
(10:21):
it's the same kind of build up as the last
flower that we just talked about. So nothing, nothing crazy, wild, inventive.
It gets the point across, it gets the idea across.
It does what it's supposed to do, and really that's
all that matters if you really really get down to it.
It's just meant to look pretty. Now The great thing
(10:42):
about this is when you put it at a distance,
what do you see? You don't see the black because
that darker green, that evergreen color of the stems of
the leaves hide it. Now. That's if there's not a
whole bunch of light directly, you know, focused on it,
it hides it pretty good. Now when you flip it
(11:03):
around to the back, you see the hideous grossness of
the backside where it's naked. It's just you know, stick looking,
and you see the black. It just looks atrocious. But
this is meant to be focused in one spot. This
would be something great if you could get it into
like a corner, like a ninety degree corner or a
(11:25):
rounded corner, that would really excel. Well there. I don't
know if you want to put one of these in
like a ninety degree corner since the rounded base. I
don't I'm not an artsy person. I'm not a decorative person,
so I don't know if those things clash to me.
It feels like it would clash. But it's a cool
little flower design. You can remove the flower pot with
(11:47):
the entire flower assembly attached if you so choose. It's
just held in with four studs on the bottom for
that base, but there's really no reason to do so.
So that is just one of a few that Lego
has done over the last few cycles where they have
these price points pretty good, this one again being at
(12:10):
thirty bucks. You have a bunch of different flowers in
that size range where if you don't want something super big,
if you want to do something small, you want to
put it on an end table or something like that,
or you know, on your desk if you don't have
a whole lot of room. That really works well. Now score.
You know, I've thought about this, about getting back into
(12:32):
scoring and stuff like that. I think it's important. The
thing that really sells it is the color. The design
of that main flower is exquisite. The bananas, I mean,
what a great way to capture it with such a
such an iconic piece when it comes to animals in
the Lego Kingdom, they're used all the time, so I
(12:56):
think it's a perfect way of doing it. I do
like the other blossoms. I think they turned out pretty good. Again,
that thick clow piece and not the biggest fan of it,
but you know, if that and the black and the
naked backside of it If that's the most that I
have to complain about, fine, by all means fine. So AnyWho,
(13:17):
if I were gonna give it a score, I would say,
as far as color aesthetic, maybe eight and a half.
The things that are kind of glaring out there to me,
like I had mentioned, probably puts this more like an eight,
maybe just a hair smidgeon under an eight. I know
that sounds crude, and some of your goes, oh my god,
(13:38):
there should be no way. You know, what you think,
what I think, what Bob down the road thinks, gonna
be completely different. Everybody is going to have their own opinion.
That's just mine. You can do with it as you please.
Before we move on any further, I've got to take
a quick break. We'll be back in a moment, alrighty.
So moving along, We're go ahead and move on to
(14:01):
this next one. And this one actually released here earlier
in the summer a few months ago. And this that
I'm referring to is the Japanese Maple Tree. The Japanese
maple Tree. What do you know about the Japanese maple tree.
I can tell you a few things. I can tell
you that this bad boy gets to can get to
(14:24):
anywhere between ten meters or six to ten meters, so
that's you know, thirty three feet. That's pretty decent sized street.
These trees can live over one hundred years old. They're
very slow growth trees. So if you're planning on getting
one of these, and they do grow here in the
United States, they grow in zones five through eight, so
that's the southern part of the country. Hello, Texas, thank you.
(14:45):
I will. I don't know how well they actually grow
in this part of Texas, but I could always use
another tree anyway. With that in mind, they only grow
about a foot and maybe two a year if you're
too if you have a really good growth here, So
you gotta think about this. If this thing is reaching
(15:07):
let's just say it reaches thirty feet, you're talking now,
mind you. If you get one that's already a certain age,
your certain height, you've got some age on it already,
you gotta think it's gonna take a while. It's it
might there. The tree is gonna outlive you, hopefully if
you take care of it and it doesn't become infested
with bugs and viruses and it just happens. But anyway,
(15:31):
with that in mind, this tree should outlive you. It's
definitely gonna outlive me when I buy mine. I need one, Well,
I've got the one that i've got here next to me.
But that's not what I'm referring to. I'm not talking
about this this little cutting tree that we've got here anyhoe.
So that's kind of that's kind of fascinating to me.
(15:52):
Now I have not any any of you that I know.
We're doing tree talk. We have gone down a road
you've I'm I'm scratching my itch here. Maple trees. When
I was a kid grown up, my grandparents had dozens
of them, and when the season comes about and they
start dropping leaves and stuff like that, they start dropping
(16:14):
their seeds. And we used to call them helicopters because
they have a little tiny seed packet. And what it
does is it's got the little seed in there, but
it has this little almost like a part of a wing,
like a like a rounded airplane wing type deal, and
it just spins down to the ground. But the thing
is those things, when it gets windy, they blow everywhere.
(16:37):
So again the trees are propagating into different regions and
stuff like that, and before you know it, you've got
a maple tree that is in you know, Florida, that
made its way from Mississippi. I don't know, you know,
made it from Germany to Hungary. It's just craziness. But
one and one funny thing is what we used to
(16:59):
do is is when you get those things as they're green,
the little seed pod early in the season, while they're green,
what you can do is you can open up the
back end of it where the seed is and it's
got that milky white kind of glue. We called it
glue as kids. And what you can do is you
can stick it on your nose and make it like
you've got like a Pinocchio nose. So much fun. I
(17:21):
don't do that anymore. I don't have any maple trees
I have. Everything is mesquite, you know, the little devil
trees with all their barbs and stuff like that. Yeah,
I think a casia trees is what those are anyway.
So these trees, you've got this tree, it's a pretty tree.
(17:42):
The bright dark red is just gorgeous. Now, these the
main they have main focal trees. Some of these species.
There's a few different species of what they consider Japanese
maple trees. The main ones come from Japan and Korea
(18:02):
and China. Those are the main places where you're getting
these trees. That's where the breeds have begun. And believe
it or not, they didn't make their way to the
Western world until eighteen twenty, eighteen twenty. That's just absolutely wild.
So anyway, of course, you know another Japanese tree, which
(18:24):
is always you know, Japan's got some wild history just
with plants and stuff like that. It's just fascinating. Anyway,
let's get to the actual plastic tree that's sitting here
on my desk. So the one thing that you'll notice
is you have a very scaled down version of this tree.
(18:45):
It does come in a little uh basically a little display,
a planter display, if you will. The one thing that
I did not like after I built this and I
picked it up again. It's not meant to be carried
about and show all your friends like, look what I
got here. It's meant to stay in one position. The
tree is kind of heavy overall, and there is a
(19:07):
lot of tolerance with the pins that connect it down
to the base. Not a big deal, it is just
something that I noticed. So it does move about quite
a bit. It never broke loose or anything like that.
So that's not a concern that I have. But the
base of this thing was a very it was a
very unique build in the way that it was done
with a building on the sides kind of deal to
(19:30):
get the rounded edges and stuff. Really really nice little
design there. Down in the very base of this you
have a lot of the lime green slopes, different types
of slopes, and then you've got some just one by
one plates rounded plates here of green. And then you
(19:50):
have again those what I would consider like CNM and
E type pieces, a few of those scattered about. Now,
this tree does have three different colored leaves, same as
the bananas, well almost same as the bananas, but we
have orange, which is the lightest of them. We have
(20:11):
a reddish orange leaf, and then we have a red leaf.
Now those leaves also come with well, the two different
colors of red leaves come with a red three pronged
leaf as well that goes on top of the big, solid,
hard leaf. These pieces that I'm talking about, the other
(20:32):
piece of leaf that sticks on top. It looks like
it should be flexible. It's not really, but it's just
a little bit smaller, well, a lot bit smaller, and
it should just studded into place there on each of
those leaves. I don't know if it's meant to be
kind of like the seedling pods, I don't think so,
(20:53):
but either way, still nice. I guess we should start
at the bottom here. I guess I should have started
at the bottom down on the bottom. You have a
lot of griebling that is going on here, some rounded
type slope pieces what I consider macaroni noodles, the little
ninety degree elbows technic elbows that receive pins or axles.
(21:17):
I got those around the bottom down here, and then
as you move up the side, you've got some more
slopes and odds and ends. Not a whole lot of
studs coming up the side of this, just really at
the base, and that gives you your solid foundation. Now
you do branch off of there a few different locations.
The building of the leaf assemblies, the canopy assemblies, if
(21:44):
you will, are all the same. There's no variation, really
not complicated at all. The only variation is in some
of them you have different color, obviously, because you have
the different colored leaves with some of them that are
not completely the orange there, the reddish orange color, but
(22:05):
the assemblies. You either attach your leaves by studs or
you clip them into place, and then that entire assembly
then goes onto the branch where it is ball jointed in,
so you've got your I guess, if you're gonna call
it anything, your ball joint, and then the socket is
what is on the assembly with the leaves, so it's
(22:30):
pretty well done. Again, this tree is not meant to
be necessarily looked at from the back too much, just
because it doesn't look the prettiest. You can see some
of the technic on the backside, so there is a
way around that. You know, there are things that you
can do to insert into those pin holes and everything.
(22:52):
There are ways around it, but most people aren't gonna
I'm not even gonna go that far. And can you know,
have that consideration of like, I need to do this now.
I really really don't. It's not that big of a
deal to me. But the base, I shouldn't say the
base just on top of the base part of the tree.
(23:13):
The trunk of the tree. The upper trunk of the
tree can actually swivel about, so you can kind of
get some minor variation in the way that you move
the tree the top end of the tree. So we've
got a couple of different levels on here. You've got
four different levels of canopy, of branches, of leaves. It's
really sharp. It's about the same size height wise as
(23:36):
the chrysanthemum. Obviously, it's going to take up a bigger
space because you have a broader reaching branches with leaves
and stuff like that. So you have that bigger spread
it out. It's got to be out of the way.
You can't just tuck this up in a corner as
nicely as you can with the chrysanthemum, which is fine,
(23:57):
it's not a big deal. I totally forgot. We did
not talk about the set number and stuff. I don't
believe the Japanese maple tree one zero three four eight
is the set number. It has four hundred and seventy
four pieces and it retails for sixty bucks or sixty euros.
That's why I was saying, we're talking about two different
(24:20):
sizes of tree, or two different price points of tree.
You're getting two different builds. However, you're getting a lot
more parts with this. And here's here's the thing. A
lot of you're gonna say sixty bucks are you insane.
You're you're paying the sixty bucks because of the amount
of plastic that you're getting in comparison to the chrysanthemum.
(24:40):
The chrysanthemum is condensed. This has oodles of leaves, and
that's a lot of plastic and it is not cheap.
So that is what you're paying for obviously, you know,
two hundred something parts versus four hundred something parts. You know,
added an extra two hundred on top of that. Real easy.
(25:02):
But I think I think the price point is whatever.
What I think doesn't really matter. Lego's price point is
what their the Lego Group has set this at, is
what they're set it at. I would really be happy
if this were at like a forty nine ninety nine
price mark. I think a lot of people would justify
that even more so just because they feel like, hey,
(25:26):
it's not quite half a hundred. I can get this,
because you know, the forty nine is gonna mess with
your head. Well, some people says they're like, oh forty nine,
it's not fifty, Well it's gonna be Texas is gonna
be and end up being like fifty two bucks after taxes,
fifty three bucks something like that. I don't know, but
point being, I think it's a really fun build. It's
(25:49):
a colorful build. One thought that I did have about
this tree in particular, this build in particular, is what
if they had different another set of leaves, or maybe
not a complete different set. What if, you know, there
were different ways or different parts to be able to
(26:12):
put on here, Like I had mentioned that three pronged leaf.
What if we did something a little bit different. What
if there was a different contrast. Now I know it's
meant to be like a certain version of the tree.
I get that, but that would be kind of neat.
We've seen it where they have done replaceable. I think
it was the Plumb tree, was a cherry tree, Japanese
(26:35):
cherry tree. I can't remember what it was, but they
had different flowers for the different type of year, different
time of the season. We've seen that on a multitude
different trees. We saw it on the I think it
was the Lego ideas the tree House that was long ago.
This was like when I started the podcast long ago.
But I'm pretty sure they had different colored leaves to
(26:56):
be able to change things out for that as well.
So it is something to keep in mind. Maybe you're like,
you know what, I kind of want to decorate this
in my own way. Now you know what'd be really fun?
And I know we're getting off on a tangent here
again a tree like this and you have the base
of it, okay, now you know what parts need to
be in it order the parts okay, to build your
(27:18):
actual tree base. And then what would be really fun
is to get multicolored leaves and do it for like
Christmas or Halloween or you know here in the United
States the fourth of July for Independence Day. You know,
there's a bunch of different ways that you could really
do it, to jazz it up, to make it your
(27:40):
own and kind of do like a soft mock where
the framework is there for you, but you have the
opportunity to really kind of take your creative genius and
just kind of tack it onto the frame the way.
You don't have to do it from scratch. You know,
the canvas is there, they already have the lines drawn
(28:02):
for you. You just have to color it in. That's
essentially what you what you could do here for somebody
like myself that's not a big mock person that it's
not too bad of a not too bad of a thought.
I'll take that any day. But and then the other
thing that I was thinking about is, you know, we've
we've seen so many different transluc translucent, glittery pieces. I thought, man,
(28:27):
that'd be really cool to kind of dazzle it up
and you know, do it like that. But it's my
own silly goofiness behind me. But this set right here,
I think I think, like I said, fifty bucks would
probably sell it better. I don't hate it at sixty,
but I don't love it at sixty. Score wise, I
(28:49):
would say probably maybe eight and a half. I don't
like that it's a that it kind of rocks about
with the base. Not really much you can do there
unless you were to glue it. I know, I just
said that. I'm sorry, but there's not really much else
that you could do other than maybe gluing some pieces in.
But isn't it meant to move around and sway like
(29:12):
a real tree, you know, in the wind. But other
than that, not anything super glaring that sticks out. Obviously
some colored differences when you see the gray light the
light blueish gray that is sticking out from the ball joints,
which is fine, it's not the end of the world.
It's it's something minor, something uber ity bitty, insignificant to
(29:36):
most people. But if I had to pick something to nitpick,
those would be the two things. And then maybe just
maybe the price. Maybe some of you're gonna say, oh,
it should be like forty dollars. I wouldn't buy it
if it were thirty. I don't know why I just
did a country twang just then, but it was kind
of fun anyway. That is gonna wrap up the episode.
(29:56):
We got two plants, two different trees, well a flower,
a tree, a tree that can flower. I don't know,
you can seed, I guess, and hopefully you learn something
along the way I did. It is something I would
like to do moving forward, just in case you're like, oh,
it was kind of dumb, would get ready because they
don't care. Adding just some facts in here and there,
(30:19):
interesting little tidbits that I come across, you know, on
a set that I built, especially if it's you know
something about a plant or you know, I don't know anything.
Any Lego set, especially the ones that are rooted in
real life, is definitely something fun to add to it.
You can go to the office in mind and be like,
did you know that chrysanthemums are poisonous to dogs, cats,
(30:41):
and horses. That's right, not toxic, but poisonous. First off,
a person in your office or wherever you work or
whatever you do, is probably gonna look at you like
how much coffee have you had? And then they might
look at you like it's seven point fifty three. This
is too early for this. That would be me. That
(31:02):
would be me, the morning person in the night out.
It's just my midday anyway, all right, I gotta get
out of here. I hope you enjoyed the show. Let
me know what you think. Comment, what do they say? Comment, subscribe, share, whatever. No,
I'm kidding, but I hope you enjoyed it. I'm out
of here until we meet again. I'm your Minipeg ghost, Matt.
(31:23):
Let's built on it.
Shut up and welcome to the Bricks King Podcast, where
I'm gonna being jury or about the Lego review those
(00:23):
amazing bricks of plastic and discuss what is new and
up becoming around the Lego world. Your men, if it
goes mauth where it's built on it, Welcome in everybody.
How are we doing today? Back with a new episode,
and today we are going to be talking about two
count two Lego botanical sets, smaller version, slightly taller version,
(00:47):
but two different sets. Nonetheless, they very in price, they
very in size, They vary in color to a certain degree,
build type, design type, all kinds of different things. Now,
both of these are currently available, one newer than the other,
about a year difference actually, but nevertheless, I have been
(01:08):
a giant lover of plants my entire life, probably when
I first started climbing trees at the age of I
don't know six, up until today, where I love, whether
they be plastic plants of the Lego variety, or they
adorn my garden, my backyard, my property, all kinds of
(01:28):
different things, or wherever I come across them. So today
we're going to talk about two different ones, and the
first one is going to be the chrysanthemum. Now this
released last summer. You're probably saying, why. Now, Well, I
was trying to figure out like some things to you know,
fill out spaces around my house and other other kinds
(01:50):
of things like that. So I elected to, you know,
find something smaller in size that I could really kind
of fit in a ma altitude of different places in
my home. So the chrysanthemum. I like the texture of it.
I like the color of it. Maybe a little too
much orange, but it's not the end of the world.
So I decided, you know what, let me take a peek,
(02:13):
let's see, you know, what it really looks like, what
the build looks like, and then find where I can
put it down the road. That wasn't the main issue.
So the set number for this is one zero, three
six eight, has two hundred and seventy eight pieces, and
it retails for thirty bucks here in the United States
and thirty euros as well. Now, the cool thing about
(02:36):
this is that it's while it is a plant, I
decided to go and take a step a little bit
further for you. Now. I don't know if you know this.
It is pronounced chrysanthemum. There is a book chrysanthemum about
a character. Well, of course it's about a character. It's
a children's book. It's a really good book. AnyWho, So I,
(02:57):
you know, I went down this rabbit hole of you know, know, chrysanthemum.
What does it look like or not? What does it
look like? What are some facts about it? And I
and I was kind of kind of really interested in this. Now,
doesn't matter where you are in the world, different things
have different meanings from culture to culture, country to country,
(03:18):
state to state, city to city, whatever. And here in
the United States they symbolize the chrysanthemum symbolizes joy, friendship,
and longevity, but also in Europe, parts of Europe and
Japan it signifies mourning and grief. Couldn't we not get
(03:38):
polar opposites on something, I mean for real? That is
that is that is completely unexpected. Now, as I mentioned,
it does change meaning obviously culture and location and everything.
But the color in it, the red, is to represent
deep passion, the white and h If you have a
(04:01):
white chrysanthemum, the loyalty and honesty, which I thought was
kind of neat. If you have a violet chrysanthemum, it's
meant to be for quick recovery. And I didn't know
this either. In Japan, a chrysanthemum is the the actual
flower of the nation, the national flower. It symbolizes the
sun as you know, the rising sun, as the Japanese
(04:24):
flag is. So I thought that was I thought that
was really, uh, really kind of fascinating to even think
that that was something you know that I don't know.
That's just kind of kind of bizarre to me. But anyway,
so last last little fact about this. I have I
have nine Yeah, we have nine dogs. We've got other
(04:47):
stuff as well, but it's good to know if you
have chrysanthemums laying around your house or you have them
growing on your property, they are they're poisonous to dogs, cats,
and horses of all things with you know, vomiting, diarrhea,
all that kind of thing. I didn't see anything that
says toxic meaning deadly, but obviously you know there it's
(05:10):
not good for them. That's the last thing you want
is your cat to be heaving, your dog to be
vomiting in the middle of the night, you know, because
it decided it was gonna chomp down on some chrysanthemums.
So Anyway, Uh, this set is not very tall. It's
only about a foot tall, and it's got a little
wooden base on it that's a built. This a nice
(05:31):
little build for it. The nice the nice part that
I love with this has to be the the tail that,
oh my goodness, from Unikitty. I was gonna say miss
Kitty for a minute, from Unicitty. So it is the
tail from Unicitty. But it comes in this brown color.
(05:51):
Here the vase itself I love because it is sand green.
Oh God, how can you not love this, I'm telling you.
And now it's got some gold golden accents around the
sides as well, so you do have that lacquered gold color. Beautiful,
(06:13):
beautiful color palette here for this. Now, this thing does
have four different flowers on it. It's got a main
central flower that is in different opening into different phases
or I guess different layers around it. You have another
flower that's just barely starting to open, and then you
have two that are just blossoms that are just very beginning.
(06:37):
And we use some orange cupcakes there, inverted cupcakes for
the inside of the blossom there. It has some foliage,
not anything wild and crazy. You have two big leaves,
and you have some smaller leaves to go around as well.
That's really more so. Yes, it's supposed to look like
a chrysanthemum, you know, maybe in a vase or something
(07:00):
like that. However it's more so here used to break
up the the technic structure, you know, for the stalks
and stuff like that of it. You've really gotta you've
really gotta work with that. It does have some black
that is showing because you know, we don't have these
technic parts in this green. I still don't understand why anyway,
(07:26):
has three different stalks, if you will stems. You have
your main flower, the one that is barely opening, and
then you have the other one that has your blossom.
Now the flower that is opening that is not fully
opened yet, but it is solely opening. They use orange
claw pieces here, and it's you know, two different layers
(07:50):
of them, one where it's kind of really kind of
more tightly closed up, and then some that are further open,
so you kind of get this nice inviting feel. The
only thing that the only thing that I'm not a
big fan about with this part's usage here is the
claws feel just a little bit too thick. I don't
(08:11):
know what else could be used here. You know, some
of the other claw or teeth pieces are going to
be too small, so you need something that has some size.
I just wish this was, you know, a few micrometers
thinner than what it is. It would just it would
just to me, it would just feel better. But you
know that's it's been a little harsh. Now on the
(08:33):
only very inside of this, we have your Flemish orangish
yellowish color, and that is your your actual flower there
on the inside. And then we use some of another
little piece down inside. We've seen them for like like
things that are in the bottom of the ocean of
(08:54):
different sets and stuff like that. It's meant to be
like underwater or some some kind of underwater what do
you want to call them? Foliage? I guess to a
certain degree, or maybe you know a little creature that's
on the bottom I want to say more not a
CNM and E maybe something like that. I don't know.
But then you have your big flower here. And the
(09:16):
great thing about this is if you like lego bananas,
you're gonna go bananas for this chrysanthemum. See what I
did there? Anyway, you have a multitude of different bananas.
Here a bunch of bananas. One of the layers actually
has I believe it's twenty of the same color. So
(09:37):
you have orange bananas, you have reddish orange bananas, and
then you have yellowish orange bananas. So the yellowish orange
are on the interior. Then you have your orange that
are the next level out, and then down underneath that
is you have the darker reddish orange bananas, which I
don't know if that's meant to signify just the color
(09:59):
or maybe it's and you know, maybe it's starting to
slowly wither and die as they look like they're falling down.
All of these are just clipped into place. I think
it's a different method of clips for the top and
the bottom in comparison to the middle layer. Now on
the very top and the very center, you have your blossom. Again,
(10:21):
it's the same kind of build up as the last
flower that we just talked about. So nothing, nothing crazy, wild, inventive.
It gets the point across, it gets the idea across.
It does what it's supposed to do, and really that's
all that matters if you really really get down to it.
It's just meant to look pretty. Now The great thing
(10:42):
about this is when you put it at a distance,
what do you see? You don't see the black because
that darker green, that evergreen color of the stems of
the leaves hide it. Now. That's if there's not a
whole bunch of light directly, you know, focused on it,
it hides it pretty good. Now when you flip it
(11:03):
around to the back, you see the hideous grossness of
the backside where it's naked. It's just you know, stick looking,
and you see the black. It just looks atrocious. But
this is meant to be focused in one spot. This
would be something great if you could get it into
like a corner, like a ninety degree corner or a
(11:25):
rounded corner, that would really excel. Well there. I don't
know if you want to put one of these in
like a ninety degree corner since the rounded base. I
don't I'm not an artsy person. I'm not a decorative person,
so I don't know if those things clash to me.
It feels like it would clash. But it's a cool
little flower design. You can remove the flower pot with
(11:47):
the entire flower assembly attached if you so choose. It's
just held in with four studs on the bottom for
that base, but there's really no reason to do so.
So that is just one of a few that Lego
has done over the last few cycles where they have
these price points pretty good, this one again being at
(12:10):
thirty bucks. You have a bunch of different flowers in
that size range where if you don't want something super big,
if you want to do something small, you want to
put it on an end table or something like that,
or you know, on your desk if you don't have
a whole lot of room. That really works well. Now score.
You know, I've thought about this, about getting back into
(12:32):
scoring and stuff like that. I think it's important. The
thing that really sells it is the color. The design
of that main flower is exquisite. The bananas, I mean,
what a great way to capture it with such a
such an iconic piece when it comes to animals in
the Lego Kingdom, they're used all the time, so I
(12:56):
think it's a perfect way of doing it. I do
like the other blossoms. I think they turned out pretty good. Again,
that thick clow piece and not the biggest fan of it,
but you know, if that and the black and the
naked backside of it If that's the most that I
have to complain about, fine, by all means fine. So AnyWho,
(13:17):
if I were gonna give it a score, I would say,
as far as color aesthetic, maybe eight and a half.
The things that are kind of glaring out there to me,
like I had mentioned, probably puts this more like an eight,
maybe just a hair smidgeon under an eight. I know
that sounds crude, and some of your goes, oh my god,
(13:38):
there should be no way. You know, what you think,
what I think, what Bob down the road thinks, gonna
be completely different. Everybody is going to have their own opinion.
That's just mine. You can do with it as you please.
Before we move on any further, I've got to take
a quick break. We'll be back in a moment, alrighty.
So moving along, We're go ahead and move on to
(14:01):
this next one. And this one actually released here earlier
in the summer a few months ago. And this that
I'm referring to is the Japanese Maple Tree. The Japanese
maple Tree. What do you know about the Japanese maple tree.
I can tell you a few things. I can tell
you that this bad boy gets to can get to
(14:24):
anywhere between ten meters or six to ten meters, so
that's you know, thirty three feet. That's pretty decent sized street.
These trees can live over one hundred years old. They're
very slow growth trees. So if you're planning on getting
one of these, and they do grow here in the
United States, they grow in zones five through eight, so
that's the southern part of the country. Hello, Texas, thank you.
(14:45):
I will. I don't know how well they actually grow
in this part of Texas, but I could always use
another tree anyway. With that in mind, they only grow
about a foot and maybe two a year if you're
too if you have a really good growth here, So
you gotta think about this. If this thing is reaching
(15:07):
let's just say it reaches thirty feet, you're talking now,
mind you. If you get one that's already a certain age,
your certain height, you've got some age on it already,
you gotta think it's gonna take a while. It's it
might there. The tree is gonna outlive you, hopefully if
you take care of it and it doesn't become infested
with bugs and viruses and it just happens. But anyway,
(15:31):
with that in mind, this tree should outlive you. It's
definitely gonna outlive me when I buy mine. I need one, Well,
I've got the one that i've got here next to me.
But that's not what I'm referring to. I'm not talking
about this this little cutting tree that we've got here anyhoe.
So that's kind of that's kind of fascinating to me.
(15:52):
Now I have not any any of you that I know.
We're doing tree talk. We have gone down a road
you've I'm I'm scratching my itch here. Maple trees. When
I was a kid grown up, my grandparents had dozens
of them, and when the season comes about and they
start dropping leaves and stuff like that, they start dropping
(16:14):
their seeds. And we used to call them helicopters because
they have a little tiny seed packet. And what it
does is it's got the little seed in there, but
it has this little almost like a part of a wing,
like a like a rounded airplane wing type deal, and
it just spins down to the ground. But the thing
is those things, when it gets windy, they blow everywhere.
(16:37):
So again the trees are propagating into different regions and
stuff like that, and before you know it, you've got
a maple tree that is in you know, Florida, that
made its way from Mississippi. I don't know, you know,
made it from Germany to Hungary. It's just craziness. But
one and one funny thing is what we used to
(16:59):
do is is when you get those things as they're green,
the little seed pod early in the season, while they're green,
what you can do is you can open up the
back end of it where the seed is and it's
got that milky white kind of glue. We called it
glue as kids. And what you can do is you
can stick it on your nose and make it like
you've got like a Pinocchio nose. So much fun. I
(17:21):
don't do that anymore. I don't have any maple trees
I have. Everything is mesquite, you know, the little devil
trees with all their barbs and stuff like that. Yeah,
I think a casia trees is what those are anyway.
So these trees, you've got this tree, it's a pretty tree.
(17:42):
The bright dark red is just gorgeous. Now, these the
main they have main focal trees. Some of these species.
There's a few different species of what they consider Japanese
maple trees. The main ones come from Japan and Korea
(18:02):
and China. Those are the main places where you're getting
these trees. That's where the breeds have begun. And believe
it or not, they didn't make their way to the
Western world until eighteen twenty, eighteen twenty. That's just absolutely wild.
So anyway, of course, you know another Japanese tree, which
(18:24):
is always you know, Japan's got some wild history just
with plants and stuff like that. It's just fascinating. Anyway,
let's get to the actual plastic tree that's sitting here
on my desk. So the one thing that you'll notice
is you have a very scaled down version of this tree.
(18:45):
It does come in a little uh basically a little display,
a planter display, if you will. The one thing that
I did not like after I built this and I
picked it up again. It's not meant to be carried
about and show all your friends like, look what I
got here. It's meant to stay in one position. The
tree is kind of heavy overall, and there is a
(19:07):
lot of tolerance with the pins that connect it down
to the base. Not a big deal, it is just
something that I noticed. So it does move about quite
a bit. It never broke loose or anything like that.
So that's not a concern that I have. But the
base of this thing was a very it was a
very unique build in the way that it was done
with a building on the sides kind of deal to
(19:30):
get the rounded edges and stuff. Really really nice little
design there. Down in the very base of this you
have a lot of the lime green slopes, different types
of slopes, and then you've got some just one by
one plates rounded plates here of green. And then you
(19:50):
have again those what I would consider like CNM and
E type pieces, a few of those scattered about. Now,
this tree does have three different colored leaves, same as
the bananas, well almost same as the bananas, but we
have orange, which is the lightest of them. We have
(20:11):
a reddish orange leaf, and then we have a red leaf.
Now those leaves also come with well, the two different
colors of red leaves come with a red three pronged
leaf as well that goes on top of the big, solid,
hard leaf. These pieces that I'm talking about, the other
(20:32):
piece of leaf that sticks on top. It looks like
it should be flexible. It's not really, but it's just
a little bit smaller, well, a lot bit smaller, and
it should just studded into place there on each of
those leaves. I don't know if it's meant to be
kind of like the seedling pods, I don't think so,
(20:53):
but either way, still nice. I guess we should start
at the bottom here. I guess I should have started
at the bottom down on the bottom. You have a
lot of griebling that is going on here, some rounded
type slope pieces what I consider macaroni noodles, the little
ninety degree elbows technic elbows that receive pins or axles.
(21:17):
I got those around the bottom down here, and then
as you move up the side, you've got some more
slopes and odds and ends. Not a whole lot of
studs coming up the side of this, just really at
the base, and that gives you your solid foundation. Now
you do branch off of there a few different locations.
The building of the leaf assemblies, the canopy assemblies, if
(21:44):
you will, are all the same. There's no variation, really
not complicated at all. The only variation is in some
of them you have different color, obviously, because you have
the different colored leaves with some of them that are
not completely the orange there, the reddish orange color, but
(22:05):
the assemblies. You either attach your leaves by studs or
you clip them into place, and then that entire assembly
then goes onto the branch where it is ball jointed in,
so you've got your I guess, if you're gonna call
it anything, your ball joint, and then the socket is
what is on the assembly with the leaves, so it's
(22:30):
pretty well done. Again, this tree is not meant to
be necessarily looked at from the back too much, just
because it doesn't look the prettiest. You can see some
of the technic on the backside, so there is a
way around that. You know, there are things that you
can do to insert into those pin holes and everything.
(22:52):
There are ways around it, but most people aren't gonna
I'm not even gonna go that far. And can you know,
have that consideration of like, I need to do this now.
I really really don't. It's not that big of a
deal to me. But the base, I shouldn't say the
base just on top of the base part of the tree.
(23:13):
The trunk of the tree. The upper trunk of the
tree can actually swivel about, so you can kind of
get some minor variation in the way that you move
the tree the top end of the tree. So we've
got a couple of different levels on here. You've got
four different levels of canopy, of branches, of leaves. It's
really sharp. It's about the same size height wise as
(23:36):
the chrysanthemum. Obviously, it's going to take up a bigger
space because you have a broader reaching branches with leaves
and stuff like that. So you have that bigger spread
it out. It's got to be out of the way.
You can't just tuck this up in a corner as
nicely as you can with the chrysanthemum, which is fine,
(23:57):
it's not a big deal. I totally forgot. We did
not talk about the set number and stuff. I don't
believe the Japanese maple tree one zero three four eight
is the set number. It has four hundred and seventy
four pieces and it retails for sixty bucks or sixty euros.
That's why I was saying, we're talking about two different
(24:20):
sizes of tree, or two different price points of tree.
You're getting two different builds. However, you're getting a lot
more parts with this. And here's here's the thing. A
lot of you're gonna say sixty bucks are you insane.
You're you're paying the sixty bucks because of the amount
of plastic that you're getting in comparison to the chrysanthemum.
(24:40):
The chrysanthemum is condensed. This has oodles of leaves, and
that's a lot of plastic and it is not cheap.
So that is what you're paying for obviously, you know,
two hundred something parts versus four hundred something parts. You know,
added an extra two hundred on top of that. Real easy.
(25:02):
But I think I think the price point is whatever.
What I think doesn't really matter. Lego's price point is
what their the Lego Group has set this at, is
what they're set it at. I would really be happy
if this were at like a forty nine ninety nine
price mark. I think a lot of people would justify
that even more so just because they feel like, hey,
(25:26):
it's not quite half a hundred. I can get this,
because you know, the forty nine is gonna mess with
your head. Well, some people says they're like, oh forty nine,
it's not fifty, Well it's gonna be Texas is gonna
be and end up being like fifty two bucks after taxes,
fifty three bucks something like that. I don't know, but
point being, I think it's a really fun build. It's
(25:49):
a colorful build. One thought that I did have about
this tree in particular, this build in particular, is what
if they had different another set of leaves, or maybe
not a complete different set. What if, you know, there
were different ways or different parts to be able to
(26:12):
put on here, Like I had mentioned that three pronged leaf.
What if we did something a little bit different. What
if there was a different contrast. Now I know it's
meant to be like a certain version of the tree.
I get that, but that would be kind of neat.
We've seen it where they have done replaceable. I think
it was the Plumb tree, was a cherry tree, Japanese
(26:35):
cherry tree. I can't remember what it was, but they
had different flowers for the different type of year, different
time of the season. We've seen that on a multitude
different trees. We saw it on the I think it
was the Lego ideas the tree House that was long ago.
This was like when I started the podcast long ago.
But I'm pretty sure they had different colored leaves to
(26:56):
be able to change things out for that as well.
So it is something to keep in mind. Maybe you're like,
you know what, I kind of want to decorate this
in my own way. Now you know what'd be really fun?
And I know we're getting off on a tangent here
again a tree like this and you have the base
of it, okay, now you know what parts need to
be in it order the parts okay, to build your
(27:18):
actual tree base. And then what would be really fun
is to get multicolored leaves and do it for like
Christmas or Halloween or you know here in the United
States the fourth of July for Independence Day. You know,
there's a bunch of different ways that you could really
do it, to jazz it up, to make it your
(27:40):
own and kind of do like a soft mock where
the framework is there for you, but you have the
opportunity to really kind of take your creative genius and
just kind of tack it onto the frame the way.
You don't have to do it from scratch. You know,
the canvas is there, they already have the lines drawn
(28:02):
for you. You just have to color it in. That's
essentially what you what you could do here for somebody
like myself that's not a big mock person that it's
not too bad of a not too bad of a thought.
I'll take that any day. But and then the other
thing that I was thinking about is, you know, we've
we've seen so many different transluc translucent, glittery pieces. I thought, man,
(28:27):
that'd be really cool to kind of dazzle it up
and you know, do it like that. But it's my
own silly goofiness behind me. But this set right here,
I think I think, like I said, fifty bucks would
probably sell it better. I don't hate it at sixty,
but I don't love it at sixty. Score wise, I
(28:49):
would say probably maybe eight and a half. I don't
like that it's a that it kind of rocks about
with the base. Not really much you can do there
unless you were to glue it. I know, I just
said that. I'm sorry, but there's not really much else
that you could do other than maybe gluing some pieces in.
But isn't it meant to move around and sway like
(29:12):
a real tree, you know, in the wind. But other
than that, not anything super glaring that sticks out. Obviously
some colored differences when you see the gray light the
light blueish gray that is sticking out from the ball joints,
which is fine, it's not the end of the world.
It's it's something minor, something uber ity bitty, insignificant to
(29:36):
most people. But if I had to pick something to nitpick,
those would be the two things. And then maybe just
maybe the price. Maybe some of you're gonna say, oh,
it should be like forty dollars. I wouldn't buy it
if it were thirty. I don't know why I just
did a country twang just then, but it was kind
of fun anyway. That is gonna wrap up the episode.
(29:56):
We got two plants, two different trees, well a flower,
a tree, a tree that can flower. I don't know,
you can seed, I guess, and hopefully you learn something
along the way I did. It is something I would
like to do moving forward, just in case you're like, oh,
it was kind of dumb, would get ready because they
don't care. Adding just some facts in here and there,
(30:19):
interesting little tidbits that I come across, you know, on
a set that I built, especially if it's you know
something about a plant or you know, I don't know anything.
Any Lego set, especially the ones that are rooted in
real life, is definitely something fun to add to it.
You can go to the office in mind and be like,
did you know that chrysanthemums are poisonous to dogs, cats,
(30:41):
and horses. That's right, not toxic, but poisonous. First off,
a person in your office or wherever you work or
whatever you do, is probably gonna look at you like
how much coffee have you had? And then they might
look at you like it's seven point fifty three. This
is too early for this. That would be me. That
(31:02):
would be me, the morning person in the night out.
It's just my midday anyway, all right, I gotta get
out of here. I hope you enjoyed the show. Let
me know what you think. Comment, what do they say? Comment, subscribe, share, whatever. No,
I'm kidding, but I hope you enjoyed it. I'm out
of here until we meet again. I'm your Minipeg ghost, Matt.
(31:23):
Let's built on it.
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