LEGO is having a bit of a flower phase at the moment with the larger more intricate botanical collection being accompanied by a range of smaller sets. 40646 Daffodils falls at that smaller, cheaper end of the spectrum. At 216 pieces for $20 it’s the kind of set you grab at the LEGO store on an impulse.
It’s cheap and cheerful but… it’s not without it’s issues.
If you look closely you will notice that my daffodils don’t exactly match the product picture. Why? Because in order to get it to work for display I had to do more work than I was expecting.
You see the issue is that the leaves are attached to an element with a technic pin hole, that is on a cross axle. That means that the leaves spin freely. This makes it really frustrating to try and arrange. The leaves will hit one of the other stems and stop, leaving your flower to spin around. The leaves are also quite large so if you have all 8 they just get in the way. Maybe I didn’t have the right vase but I have seen other people have the same issue.
In order to get my display looking like it does I did the following:
- Adjusted the position of the leaves on one flower so they sat higher
- Removed the leaves from the other flowers
- Used a rubber band to keep two of the flowers in position
- Used extra elements to vary the heights of the stems on the flowers
After all this I got something that I am happy with. I also have something that if I touch it things are going to move and it’s going to look wonky.
I am sure there are some people that have just chucked it in a vase and it’s looked great but that was not my experience at all.
Coming back to the build – it’s quite simple as all four of the flowers are built in the same way. The only difference is the petal colours (two yellow, two white). Those petals are created with minifigure shields arranged in a circle with the help of a part that was originally a weapon holder. I love the parts use in the botanical collection.
Overall these are simple flowers that you might need to tweak in order to display. Despite it’s flaws it’s $20 to add a splash of colour to your desk. I plan on taking this one to work to brighten up my workspace.
Buying
This set is currently exclusive to LEGO.com and LEGO Certified stores, but it appears to be coming soon to LEGO resellers.
LEGO.com – https://www.lego.com/en-au/product/daffodils-40646
AG Certified Stores – https://lego.bricksmegastore.com/products/lego-daffodils
If anybody is interested the vase that I have used is a cheap one from Kmart.
