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LEGO Bonsai Tree 10281

 


I was going to make dinner last night but realized I didn't have a large enough saucepan, so we decided to make an evening of it and go to the Irvine Spectrum Mall instead. After a lovely dinner at the Bristol Farms Newfound Market hot bar and dessert at Chocolate Bash, it was off to Target we went. In addition to picking up some other essentials like magnesium, Aleve, the Bodum Brazil French press, and a 10.5-qt stockpot, we of course swung by the toy section.

Normally I am the LEGO connoisseur of the family, as Shannon never has great interest in activities that involve following a lengthy set of instructions, but you should have seen the delight in his eyes when he found the Botanical Collection. Our Target had a bonsai tree, an orchid, and a bouquet of flowers in stock, but the LEGO website also sells a bird of paradise and a succulent kit. He was suddenly struck by visions of finally decorating our home with the plants I had wished for, but in a much lower-maintenance version than live plants, with much more quirk than the silk plants of his mother's choosing.

A few thoughts:

  • Pretty easy as far as adult LEGO sets go. Shannon hasn't actually ever followed instructions for a full LEGO kit before, and we both only made a couple of mistakes which were easily remedied. The shading of some of the brown pieces appeared two-toned in the book but were one-toned in real life; however, this was quickly cleared up once the pieces were counted out. The leaf configurations were not spelled out in the book, so put your more creative person on that job.
  • The whole project took us about 2 hours. Usually I budget 1 hour per 100 LEGO pieces or 1 hour per bag. Bonsai Tree clocks in at 878 pieces or 6 bags, but it goes faster because one of the bags is reserved for the "other" season's leaves.
  • Speaking of leaves, there is a green version and a pink version included in the box. The back of the instruction booklet also has some beautiful and some absurd variations (including a tree of LEGO people!) that are probably beyond our desire to create. The tree is emphasized as a living creation that you keep out and edit over time.
  • Quality control was as good as always with LEGO. We had a few extra pieces but nothing was missing.
  • The pink cherry blossoms in the kit are actually frogs.
  • The plant components are also plant-based. This is part of LEGO's goal of being completely sustainable by 2030.
  • LEGOs tend to be designed for one person, but here is how we made it a two-person activity: I started from the beginning of the kit with the booklet, completing the black base and tree trunk. Shannon used the LEGO Builder App for a digital instructional booklet and started with bag 6 (building the "wooden" base), then moved onto bag 4 (constructing the green leaves/branches). When I had completed the tree trunk, he poured in the "stones" (bag 3) and attached the branches he had made, and voila! Our project was ready for display.
  • As far as LEGOs go, it's pretty inexpensive for how nice it looks, coming out to $50.
LEGOs are by nature collectible, and with Shannon's blessing I ended up ordering the rest of the Botanical Collection. I went ahead and ordered the backordered ones online, but I actually found that the backordered ones were the ones that were available in Target, so if you are a get-it-now kind of person, you may prefer to look in store and see what you can find. 

How I felt after: inspired to keep decorating the house in LEGOs; excited to have Shannon on board; greedy for more.
Enjoyability: 😸😸😸😸😸
Cooperativity: 😸😸😸😸 (Made for 1, adaptable for 2)

Recommend? Highly, unless you don't like the aesthetic and/or building LEGOs.

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