Review: 30417 Garden Flower and Butterfly

Friends wonderful line of polybags continues in 2022 with a potted Garden Flower and Butterfly as the 4th large scale object build.

This bloom gets a visit from a Butterfly, per instructions.


The petals are orange and flame yellowish orange. The orange clips allow the orange to be angled sideways. If you wanted all smooth bow sides to face up, you could use 1x1 plates with the clip 90-degrees of the stud.


The black 1x2x1 2/3 bricks with 8 knobs gives us the 360-degree core for attaching smooth parts.
You can also have a flower just starting to grow.


First build the Garden Flower first. It seems to be a Sunflower, which we had previously in 2018's Friendship Flower (30404).
The aqua curvy tiles around the rim of the pot makes it look like the highly glazed planters you find in real gardens. I also like the 1x1 round trans blue tiles as water droplets or morning dew.


Next we build the Butterfly, cleverly using a gray Technic rotor part. The heart plates are perfect! The black hinge plate's grooves appear as the insects antenna rolled up.


The polybag depiction has the Butterfly flying to the flower. New for 2022 is the absence of the Friends BFF heart with the 5 core mini-dolls on the upper right; just like set boxes. This is in attempt to sway more types of fans into realizing Friends is for everyone. It's sad though that a heart shape ever discouraged anyone.

When I showed the built flower and butterfly to someone, they asked if it is Creator or Friends. So, we know the designs are great!


All the pieces: I arrange parts this way when I'm going to re-build into alternate models. The mirror display of identical parts helps me imagine other things to build.


Parts come loose in the polybag; in past years polybags some parts were in an interior baggie.


We get some rare parts: 1x1 plate with shaft and hole (also called Inkwell) is rare in flame yellowish orange; Flame yellowish orange 2x2x2/3 bow 45-degree angle only 2 other sets; and the 1x1 heart tile in light pink is rare and first time for Friends in this polybag.

Spare parts are typical small, easy to lose pieces. I'm happy for any extra heart!


The 2-sided instruction sheet is folded with the cover art of the build showing as you pull it out of the polybag.


Fifteen easy to follow steps for 57 pieces. There is also an image of some other new 2022 sets.

~~~ My Re-builds/Alternate builds using only parts from this polybag:


My alternate build of a Bird. I love the flame yellowish orange 2x2x2/3 bow 45-degree angle pieces and it works good for a beak.


Of course, you know, I had to build a Helicopter since there's a Technic rotor pieces here! The Parabolic Ring is too big for a tail rotor, so pretend the angled part is a fenestrom type to provide counter thrust to the main.
Heart Helicopter flying into the garden!


Another alt-build is a Strawberry Jam Farm Stand. Love the heart plates in any size/color!


I experimented with other types of flowers using the parts in 30417 ... without using the dark azure slope bow bricks as petals for a Tulip like past polybag Chocolate Box & Flower 30411, there aren't many to build using the angled bricks. This could be a crocus or tulip.
I built the pot in a different direction, so it has feet, and a heart design on the side.


My last small tweaked alt-build is the flower fading, leaning front ways using a yellow clip -- which means one petal has fallen already.
So, that brings the end of my alt-builds for this review.


One last look at the overall build of this polybag. Such a cute Butterfly!


Summary:

Polybags in general are always a great way to build something when you don't have time to create a large MOC. This one provided me an enjoyable build and inspiration for alternate uses for the parts.

As I mentioned before, this can pass as a Creator polybag build and looks great as a desk decoration. This will make a nice Valentine's Day gift, as intended. They are popular, so get it when you see it in a store. It may eventually be a GWP because it's so universally appealing.

For now, it's a good start to 2022 for making your day brighter!


Past large scale flower polybags: Friendship Flower (30404) [2018], Tulips (30408) [2019], and Chocolate Box & Flower  (30411) [2020]


Disclaimer:
Photographs are property of FriendsBricks and are not directed by TLG in any fashion.

---