After the two smaller Wildlife Rescue sets, the last two are far more interesting, with more to build, more Minifigures and most importantly more animals. One of the larger LEGO® City Wildlife Rescue sets is Wildlife Rescue Operation. What’s interesting about this set is the use of new road plates, as well as including a group of animals, some of which are only found in this set. But how do all these elements combine and do they make for a good set? Here’s my review of the LEGO City Wildlife Rescue Operation set.
Product Description
This multi-model LEGO® City Wildlife Rescue Operation (60302) playset is packed with awesome features, including a cool winch helicopter, tracked vehicle, savanna setting with landslide function and a veterinary station. Just add the toy elephants, crocodiles, monkey and rescue team for endless hours of exciting animal-rescue fun.
A great build-and-play experience for kids aged 6 and up
You’ll find easy-to-follow building instructions for this LEGO City set in the box. Or you can download Instructions PLUS, part of the free LEGO Building Instructions app for smartphones and tablets. This interactive construction guide, with amazing zoom and rotate viewing tools, quickly turns kids into master builders!
- Set Name: Wildlife Rescue Operation
- Set Number: 60302
- Theme: City
- Pieces: 525
- Minifigures: Veterinarian, Pilot, Worker and Explorer
- Animals: elephant, calf and croc figures, 2 monkey figures
- RRP: £74.99/$89.99/89.99€
- Measurements: Helicopter measures over 4.5 in. (12 cm) high, 13.5 in. (35 cm) long and 12 in. (31 cm) wide
- Availability: LEGO.com, LEGO Stores & General Retail
In the last couple of years, the LEGO City sets have tried to offer something a little different to what we’ve been used to seeing. This is due to a couple of reasons. Firstly by set being split into sections, so they can be built by multiple people at same time. With each instruction booklet tied to each build. The other reason is the introduction of a new road plate system. First seen in City sets earlier this year, the new road plates replace the classic road baseplate. Although much smaller they offer a much more customisable option, which is evident by their inclusion.
The buildable elements are split into four distinct sections: a helicopter, an all-terrain vehicle, a pop-up research lab and a strip of scenery. Due to the numbered bags and individual instruction booklets, the set can be built in a number of ways. The smallest section of the build is actually my favourite part of the set, which is a pop-up field research lab. It’s not a complex build, which I think adds to the charm. It features a number of little details such as a microscope, egg incubator and even solar panels to power it all. The tent-like canopy looks great, it’s only marred by the use of a sticker instead of print for the Wildlife Rescue logo on one of the fins.
The strip of scenery is fairly minimal but I do like the use of the road plates. There is a blue and light brown plate combined with more traditional studded plates, which results in a sort of cross-section of habitat for the animals included in the set. So the blue is obviously water and features a small crocodile nest. The brown section represents the dusty plains of LEGO City and also features a tree. Not only is this a great home for the pair of monkeys, but it also includes a play feature that can topple the tree with the power of a Technic lever. The green plate is a little less prominent but does include a couple of classic bush elements. Making it the perfect spot for the elephants to find a tasty snack.
Although we are seeing more scenery featured in LEGO City sets, vehicles still play an important role in the theme. This set includes two vehicles in the form of a small tracked ATV and helicopter. Both of which could easily be the focus of standalone sets. The tracked ATV is a great little build, with enough space on its small flatbed back to transport a crate of supplies. It’s only let down by a chain connected to the front of the vehicle as it has nowhere to be placed so it just hangs there.
The helicopter is the most substantial part of the set. It’s also the most annoying. It features a working winch that hangs from the bottom of the aircraft. This is connected to a barrel element located inside the copter. Normally the string is fed through the barrel and knotted or looped to secure it in place. However, here you need to feed it into the barrel, then through the side of its holder. This is because a Technic axle is fed through the winch barrel. This method made a simple build step annoyingly tricky. Despite that, the rest of the copter is the standard affair, with a unique element and window piece used for its front section, in fact, there’s a couple of new and recoloured pieces used in the helicopter. These include a new hexagonal plate for the rotor blades. Inside the cargo hold, you even find a crate of bananas.
The Minifigures are really not the focus of these sets, but you’ll find four of them in the Wildlife Rescue Operation set. They include a vet, a helicopter pilot, plus two rescue workers. The pilot and rescue workers have a unique torso, which features the Wildlife Rescue logo. But it’s the vet, which is the most unique as we don’t often get many medical-themed Minifigures. Although the others are made up of pieces featured in other sets, each Minifigure is unique to this set.
As with all the Wildlife Rescue sets, their greatest appeal is certainly the animals they contain. This set includes five creatures and most are unique to this set. The crocodile is the most common as it has appeared elsewhere, but the one included in this set is newly featured in a brighter green. So although it’s not an exclusive mould, this version is only available in this set. It’s joined by an egg element, which features a cool bit of print detail. Shame you only get one.
There are two of the new Monkey elements included in the set, these are the same version as featured in the Wildlife Rescue polybag and the smallest of the playsets. This new mould isn’t as good as the original LEGO monkey, but any new LEGO animals are always welcomed. One even includes a wrist cast element.
The stars of the set and probably the main reason it has a highish price tag are a pair of new animal elements. You’ll find a female elephant, which is made up of three pieces, the body, the head and the truck, which is connected via a Technic pin. It also has a couple of tusks, which use small horn elements. Its calf is obviously much smaller and is made of a single piece, connections points include its feet, a single stud on its back and a gap in its truck to hold any bar element, such as a tasty plant.
One thing I will say about the animals is they could be hard to come by once these sets retire. It will be extremely unlikely we’ll ever see a zoo sub-theme and it will be a number of years before LEGO City revisits Wildlife Rescue. So if you want to add these various LEGO critters to your collection, don’t hang about picking them up.
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This set was requested by BricksFanz and provided by the LEGO Group for purposes of review. The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group. Providing access to this set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
