Review: 11506 Rocking Plants from LEGO® Botanicals
Posted by
Tim Johnson
Happy days are here again – and this time, we're rockin'! LEGO® Botanicals' huge 2025 hit for young and old builders alike, 10349 Happy Plants, expands the family in 2026 with the succulent 11506 Rocking Plants. Obviously the cuteness factor remains sky high, but is this new set grounded in a healthy offering of new elements? The answer is a resounding yes. Let's rock!
We were given this product by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own. This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.
This time, the plants are both succulents: a delosperma (ice plant) with magenta flowers, which is common in southern Africa, and an echeveria (common in semi-desert areas of Mexico and central America); this one has sprouted a long stem and coral bud.
They also have names: the press release (but not the packaging) reveal that the delosperma is called Lumi, and the echeveria has been named Ellie. Now we need retrospective names for the Happy Plants! Any suggestions for the dracaena and the pilea (money plant)?
Recolours
There are no new moulds in the set, but out of the inventory's 253 parts, 56 are existing parts coming in another colour for the first time!
Naturally, the pots provide the most of these recolours. Starting, as the instructions do, with Ellie the Echeveria's pot:
4x Brick Curved 2 x 4 x 1 in Bright Pink (6613634 | 5842)
4x Technic Brick 1 x 2 [1 Pin Hole] in Bright Pink (6613291 | 3700)
2x Slope Curved 2 x 2 x 2/3 Inverted in Bright Pink (6613282 | 32803)
Now for Lumi the Delosperma's container:
4x Brick Curved 2 x 4 x 1 in Yellowish Green (6613637 | 5842)
3x Tile 2 x 6 in Yellowish Green (6613340 | 69729)
2x Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 1 with Curved Top in Yellowish Green (6613635 | 5841)
2x Technic Brick 1 x 2 [1 Pin Hole] in Yellowish Green (6613286 | 3700)
2x Brick Round 2 x 2 with Axle Hole in Yellowish Green (6613338 | 3941/6143/39223)
2x Brick Round 1 x 1 diameter Tube with 90 Degree Elbow (2 x 2 x 1) and Axle Holes (Crossholes) at each end in Yellowish Green (6613285 | 25214)
3x Plate 1 x 4 in Yellowish Green (6567020 | 3710)
I thought a basic piece like this getting a new colour was worthy of its own picture! Either that, or I forgot to include it in the first pic – who can say?
Now on to the plants themselves, starting with the flowers:
2x Cone 1 x 1 [Top Groove] in Coral (6613280 | 59900)
4x Plant, Sunflower 2 x 2 with 16 Petals in Magenta (6614071 | 6901)
This brings the total available colours of sunflower to nine.
Now let's head down to the greens, and this is a wonderful selection:
16x Brick Round Curved 1 x 1 x 1 Quarter Dome in Bright Green (6613589 | 5848)
1x Flexible Hose 8.5L with Tabless Ends (Fixed Ends same color as Tube) in Bright Green (6613590 | 73590c03a/72375)
2x Plate Special 2 x 2 with Bar Frame Octagonal in Green (6613633 | 30033, 75937)
3x Plate Special, 1 x 1 Stud with 3 x 3 Ring Around in Bright Green (6584843 | 7610)
It's great to get such a healthy quantity of the bright green 1x1 quarter domes in such a small set. This is the seventh colour of this 2025 mould.
LEGO® Space fans were thrilled in 1985 when the flexible hose element appeared, initially coming in black and trans-yellow, and white in LEGO® Town. Light grey and opaque yellow followed, and a thrilling trans-clear one appeared in one LEGO® BIONICLE® set in 2004. Life has been pretty straight for flexible hoses since then, so this bright green recolour is a surprising addition.
The octagonal bar is another beloved element with origins in LEGO Space, a mere 30 years ago. It quickly become a staple for the cores of structures in all manner of themes, and has clearly proved highly useful to LEGO Botanicals, having appeared in 14 of the sets so far. It is a little surprising it has taken until now to get a "proper" green one – previously, LEGO Botanicals sets relied on the existing sand green instead.
The 3x3 wheel is a thrilling new element, and previously on New Elementary, Tom took a thorough examination of LEGO part 7610. As you will see later in this review, it is used in a perfect way in this set.
Decorations
There are two printed pieces and no stickers in set 11506 Rocking Plants.
1x Tile 2 x 6 with print in Yellowish Green (6615224)
1x Tile 2 x 4 with Groove with print in Bright Pink (6615223)
As with 10349 Happy Plants, each plant has a fun expression printed on a large tile.
Rare pieces
You'll also find several elements that have only appeared in a couple of other sets so far.
4x Tile 1 x 2 with Groove in Yellowish Green (6566886 | 3069)
4x Brick Curved 2 x 2 x 1 Curved Top, Corner in Bright Pink (6583817 | 5846) – only introduced in 2025, this mould already comes in 13 colours
The model
A noticeable difference with the 2026 model is that more attention is paid to the plants this time.
Rocking Plants uses more pieces in the construction of the flowers, adding to the repetition (not necessarily a bad thing) but also introducing a much wider and more vibrant colour palette.
I think the echeveria is a lot of fun with its bulbous form and single stem, but I can't say I'm a fan of the awkward structure and leaf clusters of the delosperma.
The echeveria uses the two recoloured octagonal bars (30033, 75937) to hold two rings of eight of the recoloured 1x1 quarter domes (5848), which make a perfect LEGO representation of the juicy leaves of this succulent. I wanted to be able to rotate one of the octagonal bars though, so the leaves of the two rings alternated in position, but had to settle for pushing each leaf along to one end of its bar to create some difference.
Much as I dislike the look of the delosperma leaves, this is a highly satisfying use of the 3x3 ring (7610) and 10 claw pieces (3171). While clips can be attached all the way around the circular bar, there are 5 holes in the centre which allow even greater rotation of the clip. The designer has used this feature by placing the curved claw pieces with their 'finger' pointing outwards in these 5 positions, so they can be raised to a similar position as the other 5 claw pieces with the finger pointing inwards. It's a great effect – just not one I want to snuggle up to.
I spoke with the element's designer, Yoel Mazur about how this ring came to be.
There is another existing 3x3 round bar: the "Sonic ring" Plate Special 1x1 Stud with 3x3 Ring on Top (3917), which Yoel pointed out was used in set 10369 Plum Blossom in an interesting way.
Steps 1 and 2 use a clever, somewhat fiddly technique to achieve a central stud for the bloom that is surrounded by 5 petals. Many flowers have 5 petals, and the 3-module diameter ring is a good size to fit them. A new mould made sense.
In great collaboration with our engineer and element coach (a role responsible for guidance on LEGO® System such as grid placement of connectors, etc.), we agreed on 5 "holes" to fit clip connectors, to allow builders to easily space them evenly.
– Yoel Mazur, LEGO Design Master
On to the pots, and as you can see, they are based heavily upon the Happy Plants' pots. (That forehead tattoo on the blue pot was a fun addition to a Happy Plants make-and-take at Melbourne's Brickvention 20th anniversary dinner.)
The obvious changes are the inverted curved pieces that create the rocking motion, and the leg position on Ellie. But there is also a change to the pot's dimensions...
Both of the Rocking Plants pots are two plates shallower than the Happy Plants pots. At first I thought this must be because Happy Plants uses the old version of the 1x2 curved brick (6091/32807, shown in yellow above inset) which is one plate taller than the new version (5841). But no.
Happy Plants uses the new shorter version too, but with a plate added below. So the Happy Plants pots could have been shallow like the Rocking Plants pots are. Why weren't they changed?
My best guess is that the change of mould came after the design process was complete. Swapping out the old brick for the new one plus a plate would have likely been easier and cheaper than sending the model from wherever it was in the production chain all the way back to design.
Something that has not changed, however, is the design of the holes in the earth inside the pots.
This means you can not only swap the plants between the two Rocking Plants, you can also swap them with the Happy Plants.
Here are the plants in action – possibly more action than the designers intended.
Verdict
I like Happy Plants, and I like Rocking Plants. But which is better? There's only one way to find out... a heated debate.
Rocking Plants have slightly bigger, more detailed and much more colourful plants, but Happy Plants have a more harmonious and minimalist vibe.
Happy Plants are somehow more iconic and pure; Rocking Plants offer more absent-minded play on your desk. As you saw in the video, I already found some dumb things to do with them.
Ultimately: Why not both? If you loved the original, there's just as much to enjoy here – objectively more, in fact, with the added play. Is this the beginning of a new collection? Like LEGO® BrickHeadz™, will we be approaching 300 Happy Plants one day?
I remember the first time I saw 10349 Happy Plants, and a fellow LEGO blogger commented they would never pay that for something with the piece count of a Gift with Purchase. I was starstruck however, and it seems much of the LEGO-purchasing world were too.
Thankfully, 11506 Rocking Plants comes in at the same price of US$22.99/ £17.99/ 19.99€/ AU$29.99 (but no such good news for Canada where it is $5 more than Happy Plants, while Poland has dropped by zł3). It contains more parts too, thanks to the more complex foliage, bringing the price per piece down from US 10.6c to 9.1c/ GB 8.3p to 7.1p/ EU 9.2c to 7.9c/ AU 13.8c to 11.9c.
However, when it comes to weight, it is Happy Plants which remains heaviest – but only by 10 grams. This makes sense, despite the 36-piece difference in Rocking Plants' favour, given that Happy Plants' pots are 2 plates deeper than Rocking Plants'.
Totting up all the recolours, new prints and rare parts that I have listed in this article brings us to 103 noteworthy elements – a joy in a 253-piece set.
I don't find the delosperma attractive and pastel pink is not my favorite colour, so overall, I do prefer the visual appeal of Happy Plants. I suspect I will play with Rocking Plants more, however!
I'm very glad to have both and, although I received the Rocking Plants for free, I did buy my own Happy Plants at the time and suspect the same would be true of the Rocking Plants.
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It's also possible when they were designing the original Happy Plants that it was unclear how quickly (and comprehensively) the shorter curved-slope brick family would be replacing the older 4-plate high versions. Adding the extra plate allows for flexibility for future sets to use the older style (esp. if needing to avoid recolours due to limited frames). At the time this was futureproofing the ability to keep consistent dimensions.
However now it looks like the older 4-plate high sloped brick family will start to be faded out in favour of the new versions this was no longer an issue and the designer preferred a narrower profile/less bricks or was happy with the inconsistency. One could argue the studs on top of the standing/rocking pots is inconsistent with the sitting ones anyway!
Happy Plants on LEGO.com
It's also possible when they were designing the original Happy Plants that it was unclear how quickly (and comprehensively) the shorter curved-slope brick family would be replacing the older 4-plate high versions. Adding the extra plate allows for flexibility for future sets to use the older style (esp. if needing to avoid recolours due to limited frames). At the time this was futureproofing the ability to keep consistent dimensions.
ReplyDeleteHowever now it looks like the older 4-plate high sloped brick family will start to be faded out in favour of the new versions this was no longer an issue and the designer preferred a narrower profile/less bricks or was happy with the inconsistency. One could argue the studs on top of the standing/rocking pots is inconsistent with the sitting ones anyway!