The last big Lego set before Christmas is a massive Botanical Garden-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

The Botanical Garden is almost as big as the real thing (Lego)

A huge Kew Gardens style greenhouse has just been unveiled by Lego, with 12 minifigures and a lot of brick-built plants.

The Lego Ideas brand has been running for a long time now and involves fans designing Lego sets to show off on the official website, where others can vote on them, to put them in with a chance of being selected by Lego to turn into an official set.

Often these are licensed ideas, like the recent Jaws and Nightmare Before Christmas sets, but not always and this massive Victorian-style botanical garden set is both one of the largest and most ambitious so far.

It’s 51cm wide, 25cm long, and 22cm tall, with a whopping 12 different minifigures, and over 35 different species of plant – some of them using brand new Lego moulds to make them more realistic.

The whole model is made up of 3,792 pieces, so this is not something you’re going to make in just an afternoon, but it includes three atriums with removable roofs and walls, a spiral staircase, observation deck, and a café with outside seating.

The 12 minifigures include two gardeners and a barista, but there’s also a dog, a squirrel, a rabbit, four birds, and a beetle – so there’s plenty of animal life as well as just plants.

Have a spot coffee while you’re there (Lego)

The plant species include Coffea arabica, Japanese maple, Eucalyptus pauciflora, a date palm, and many peonies, with one of the atriums dedicated to arid plants like cacti.

The set was designed by Italian fan Valentina Bima, who says: ‘I’ve been a fan of Lego building since I was a child and wanted to create a design that combined my love for botanical gardens and my favourite element – all transparent elements.

‘The elements of this colour allow you to break down the external-internal border; the transparent elements allow you to build buildings, vehicles, spaceships or anything you can imagine with a pleasant and captivating external shape allowing you to see the internal details and the Lego Minifigures.’

It’s a big set and clearly intended as a major gift, as it costs £289.99 in the UK. You can buy it from Lego stores and the Lego website from November 4. Or if you’re a Lego Insider, which only requires a free sign-up here, you can get it from November 1.

If you’re a Lego Insider and you buy it between November 1st and 7th you’ll also get a free Botanicals Entrance Gate set, which isn’t available any other way and is designed to fit at the front of the model.

The whole set is also compatible with other modular buildings, like the Natural History Museum and Jazz Club, so you can connect it up with those as well, if you want.

It’ll take more than a Christmas morning to build this (Lego)

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