Today, let's dive into the awesome world of building with the JMBricklayer Sunflower Set 70004. What makes this set stand out is its botanical brilliance – a collection of flowers cleverly designed to be part of a picture frame, creating an incredibly lifelike 3D effect. Get ready for a unique building and reviewing experience! 🌻🧱
On the JMBricklayer blog, they did an excellent
write-up about the new Sunflower set. Please check it out if you like.
Here are the instructions as detailed on page 77 of the
manual.
Get it now and save an extra 15% on regularly priced building block sets using my code "itsnotlego15%".
* NAME: The Sunflowers
* SET #: 70004
* THEME: Home Decor / Botanicals
* COST: $79.99 USD
* BRICK COUNT: 1166 pieces
* MINIFIGURES: 0
* STICKERS: 0
* PRINTED PARTS: 1
* RELEASE DATE: November 2023
The JMBricklayer Sunflower building block set breaks down into three steps, as follows:
* STEP 1: The Picture Frame and Light Strip
* STEP 2: The Vase, Drawer and first batch of flowers
* STEP 3: The Final Bouquet
STEP 1: The Picture Frame and Light Strip
As we follow the first of three steps, the instruction booklet shows us
all of the coloured pieces that will be in use for this set.
The back of the picture frame is constructed from pale pinky white
coloured parts, something that is certainly unique to this set as I have
no other bricks in my collection that matches this colour.
If there are missing parts, I will definitely have to reach out to
JMBricklayer for replacements. Thankfully JMBricklayer provides
free part replacement so I should not have to worry. Knock on
wood, I have yet to encounter any missing pieces from any of my
JMBricklayer sets so far.
There are some nice dark green coloured parts in the set which you'll
never see. These are pretty rare, so if I had to build this set
again, I would replace them with some red or blue bricks instead and
keep the dark green bricks for my MOCs.
Pro tip: Make sure you have some fresh AAA batteries on hand for
the light kit to work. You will need three of them. I think
my batteries are already half dead, so they probably aren't as bright as
they are meant to be. Test that the light string (and your
batteries!) are working before you incorporate it into the set.
Here's a closer look at the battery pack. The hole you see
is the motion sensor. The really tiny on/off switch is
located on the side of the pack. You'll need one of those teeny,
tiny screwdrivers to open the door to the battery compartment.
The battery pack is my least favourite part of the Sunflower set
and I'll elaborate more about that in my final thoughts section of the
blog later.
The gold accented picture frame looks really sharp. I should add
that the finish and clutch of the bricks is excellent so far.
Another brick colour I don't have much of, is the very light green
bricks that make up the background behind the flowers.
Here's a picture showing the location of the battery pack inside the
picture frame. Also shown is the placement of the lighting.
Hiding the battery pack. We will look at how to remove it later,
should you need to replace the batteries.
FYI, the dimensions of the frame are: 10 inches wide by 12 inches high.
With that, Step 1 is complete and we can proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: The Vase , the Drawer and the Flowers
Here's the parts dump for step 2.
I got so enthralled with building the vase, drawer and flowers
that I completely forgot to take pictures of the vase standalone,
sorry!
The shelf for drawer is constructed in such a way that it
protrudes about 3 inches out from the frame. The drawer
itself is quite shallow and I'm not sure what could fit in
there. The cutout in the drawer allows the motion sensor
from the battery pack to detect movement.
A closeup of the front of the drawer with the printed tile
that reads "Sunflowers, Van Gogh Gardens"
Step 3: The Final Bouquet
Parts dump for Step 3.
Some interesting macaroni shaped brick parts I've never
encountered before.
Constructing the stand for the picture frame.
And here is the picture frame with the stand attached.
The upper two black slots are used to attach to the provided
hooks which you would nail or press into the wall.
Here's the aforementioned wall hooks and the leftover
spare parts. Yay, no missing pieces, yet again!
Pictured above are some of the floral designs in the
Sunflower bouquet.
Here's the completed JMBricklayer Sunflowers set.
I think it looks really amazing!
Final Thoughts
So first I will talk about the pros and then I'll
discuss the cons of this set.
I think this set is decently priced and has a good
number of pieces at just under 1200. As mentioned,
there are plenty of uniquely coloured and shaped pieces
that I believe are exclusive to this set. If I'm
wrong, please let me know.
The quality and clutch of the bricks is excellent making
the building very pleasurable and stress free. I tested
the motion sensing capability and the lighting comes on
for about five seconds before turning off again.
To bad there's no option for the light to stay on
continuously.
There's a good assortment of unique flowers that I'm
sure fans of Lego style botanical sets will love.
The 3D feature makes the flowers pop for sure.
Oh, and you don't have to follow the suggested
placement of the flowers. It's totally customizable for
one to rearrange the flowers as desired because that's
what I did.
Not really a pro or con but I don't really see much
value to the shelf and drawer. The drawer is too shallow
to be of any real use. Probably there to hide the
battery pack and it's mostly cosmetic.
My small nit is that the battery pack itself is a bit
cumbersome, takes up space in the frame, and is not so
accessible. You have to remove parts of the frame
to get at the pack, then unscrew the compartment door to
access the batteries and then reverse the process to put
it back together.
At a minimum, I'd like to see a smaller battery pack
supported and attached directly to the back of the frame
instead of inside. The battery compartment door
would be clip in type, not screwed. There should
be an option to use an external USB power source (for
when the frame is sitting on a desk).
My set rating: 4.5 out of 5 with half a
point deducted for the battery pack. Otherwise
it's a solid recommendation on my part.
Here's a couple of extra pics.
The Sunflower display is further enhanced by the
placement of some nice JMBricklayer succulent sets.
There you have it, overall a beautiful set for you
to display in your favourite space at home or
office. The motion sensing light gives it a
visual boost as well. You'll definitely want
to add the
JMBricklayer Sunflower set
to your Lego or Lego compatible botanical
collection.
Get it now and save an extra 15% on regularly priced building block sets using my code "itsnotlego15%".
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In addition, as for the online store,the website link https://www.jmbricklayer.com/product/sunflower-70004/?wpam_id=33, the coupon code VIPLEGS15 applies to all non-discounted products and offers a 15% discount. The code is valid until December 31, 2023.
Don't forget to check out some of the other Lego alternative brands here.
Hope you have found this review of the JMBricklayer
Sunflower set useful! See you next time, bye!