Nifeliz Succulents review: Two great Lego Botanical alternatives

The Lego Botanical collection has been one of my favorites since it first launched in 2021, but the slow drip of sets and high price tags have made it difficult to fill my home with unkillable plants.

Thankfully, Lego alternative brands have stepped in to fill the void. Two such sets are sold by a company called Nifeliz, but are they worth adding to your collection? Keep reading for my full Nifeliz Succulents review!

Affiliate disclosure: Articles on Tiny Workshops may contain affiliate links.

Note: Nifeliz sent both sets to Tiny Workshops for review.

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The two Nifeliz Succulents sets are interesting in that they are essentially collections of eight individual plants, each one self-contained in its own bag with a single page of instructions.

This makes them unique from the Lego Succulents set, which is designed to be displayed as a single, interlocking piece.

The individual bags also make them great for quick builds. Take a 15-minute break at your desk and you’ll end up with a gorgeous cactus to display! However, they’re not great for kids, with lots of small pieces.

If you’re not familiar with Nifeliz, you should know that the company doesn’t manufacture blocks on its own. It sources the kits from third parties, then boxes and sells them.

As such, there are other kits that are remarkably similar. However, I haven’t seen any that are identical, and since the company is focused on selling to Western markets, they’re not only cheap but also easy to find on Amazon.

Instructions and build

As mentioned above, the instructions for each plant are a single sheet in each individual bag.

The instructions themselves are good enough. They’re as good as Lego Botanical sets (which go above and beyond with details for each plant species), but they’re miles better than the Nanoblock Pokemon sets I’ve tested.

That said, I did encounter a few very minor issues. The paper the instructions were printed on wasn’t the highest quality, so similar colors are hard to tell apart. One plant has four shades of green, which led to a lot of backtracking.

Another issue was also related to similar pieces. Typically Lego will warn you if, say, there are two lengths of rods and you need to pick the shorter one.

These Nifeliz Succulents sets do not. Combined with the fact that the rods are a very tight fit and hard to remove, it can lead to some frustrating mistakes if you choose the wrong length.

In other words, take your time while and make sure there aren’t similar pieces in the bag.

Other sets (even other Nifeliz sets) typically have a full printed booklet with lists of pieces, etc. That said, these plants are less than 100 pieces each, so a booklet might be overkill.

Still, on the whole, the builds were a lot of fun. I loved that each set includes a variety of pots, so you aren’t repeating the same steps for each plant (I’m looking at you, Lego Succulents).

There’s also a lot of creative use of pieces, which is always good to see. Obviously there are a lot of big and small flowers, but there are also lots of SNOTs, gears, bars, bar holders, and technic pieces.

These lead to dynamic builds that are somewhat moveable, although their primary purpose is display, and not play.

Check out my two time-lapse build videos above to get a better idea of what the build process is like.

Brick quality

If you’ve ever worked with non-Lego bricks, you won’t find any surprises here. The pieces all fit together well (if a bit snug), although there are very minor imperfections that you don’t typically find with Lego.

For example, rounded 1x1s aren’t quite perfectly round, with a tiny chip where the piece was removed from the mold. It won’t have any effect on the final build, but it is noticeable on close inspection.

Additionally, pieces tend to stick to primary colors, so you don’t get the same rich greens you find in more expensive Lego Botanical sets. They still look great, but you can tell that they’re not quite as premium.

Although the Nifeliz Fresh Succulents set I reviewed was perfect, the Colorful Succulents did have a 1×1 quarter-round tile that wasn’t completely molded. There’s a small corner missing, although it still attached just fine.

Thankfully, Nifeliz customer service is excellent, and the company will ship replacements for damaged and missing pieces for free if you’re as unlucky as I was.

Details

Now for some glamour shots! First up is the Nifeliz Colorful Succulents set, which is actually my favorite of the two.

The first plant on the left was my favorite from either set, although it was also the most difficult to build, with similar colors and different-sized bars. Take care when assembling this one!

There’s a really nice variety of pots here, with the final cactus being my favorite.

Now for the Nifeliz Fresh Succulents set:

This set has more greens, but there’s still a nice mix of color. The cactus was probably my favorite build, with a simple design that looks great.

Overall this set was easier to assemble, and they look great when displayed on a desk or bookshelf.

Nifeliz Succulents review: Worth the buy?

Without a doubt, the two Nifeliz Succulents set are great additions to any collection. I love that they can be displayed on their own, making them a great gift for brick-building fans who are more concerned with aesthetics.

Of the two, I preferred the look of the Colorful Succulents set, although I did find it slightly more challenging to build.

If you’re trying to decide between these and the Lego Succulents set, it will come down to your budget. These sets retail for just $30 each, which is just over half the Lego set at $50.

Sure, the Lego set is more premium and includes one more plant, but the value is much better with the Nifeliz sets, and the price is much easier to stomach for a gift or an afternoon of brick-building fun.

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Have you bought the Nifeliz Succulents sets? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!