LEGO Icons 10311 Orchid

The LEGO: Orchid is my absolute favourite set in the beautiful LEGO Botanical Collection, targeted towards adult builders. It’s big, it’s stunning and highly detailed! What’s not to love?

What’s In The Box?

Starting with the box itself, LEGO has opted to approach its design in a more serious and simplistic way, going for a black box that highlights the beauty of the sets in this collection.

Inside the box, you will find the instruction booklet, as usual, which in this set isn’t too thick at all, and in it you will find a bit of info about orchids and interesting little facts about the build throughout.

You are provided with 608 different pieces in four different numbered bags, as well as a pair of 32L free-floating Technic Axles, which will be used in the build as support sticks for the orchid plant. Inside bag #1 you’ll find a LOT more colour than you’d originally expect, but soon you’ll find out why, as these will be used as the structure of the pot. Bag #2 contains the outer pieces of the pot, bag #3 the green stems and leaves and bag #4 the beautifully designed orchid flowers.

The Build Experience

Starting with the flowerpot, you already know you’re in for a treat! I mean, how ingenious is this flowerpot structure?! Turns out, it’s borrowed from the large tower in the Hogwarts Castle Set! And it’s easy to see why, as this design allows for a twice as smooth cylinder shape than a regular octagonal plate. Once past admiring this structure (which can take a while, I found myself playing with it quite a lot!), I moved on to build the outside of the pot. Built of double-sloped bricks in sand blue, it gives a great geometric look to the pot, turning it into a lovely base to build our plant on.

Now up to the stems and the leaves. The central stem is built first and supported with the Technic Axles previously mentioned. A couple of tendrils are added giving the plant a great little detail. Next, a good number of Technic elements in dark green quickly build into a beautiful plant. You can pretty much go off book here and just play with the shoots as, just like the real plant, they can be built in pretty much any size and shape you’d like.

Finally, we reach the flowers. And they don’t disappoint. By far the most interesting part of the build for me, the flowers are intricate and surprisingly accurate and detailed (I should know, I’ve got like 9 real orchids in the house). My favourite detail though, is the small flower blooms. And not because of set, but the part itself. If you’re familiar with Stranger Things, you will quickly recognise their shape from a much different, and deadlier, “being”.

For the finishing touch, you’ll be adding a bunch of differently shaped pieces into the pot to give it a more organic look.

Final Thoughts

The LEGO: Orchid set is a statement piece worthy of any dignified LEGO collection. It truly amazed me how intricate and detail this set is. Looking from a far, you might even fool some people into thinking that this is a real orchid flower! It’s a really fun and chill build and it’s great that you can shape the plant in any way you’d like. Ultimately, a truly great LEGO set, both for fans or as a gift to your favourite plant lover (or killer… this one will always be in bloom!)