City

Wildlife Rescue Camp

A whole savanna of gorgeous animals, wrapped around a build that never quite decides what it is.

Brick Rated Score

3.6/5

Set 60307 · 2021

Pieces503

Minifigs6

Year2021

Set number60307

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The verdict

The animals are the reason to own this one, and they are genuinely lovely, the white lion with his brick-yellow mane got me instantly.

The camp itself is a looser, more scattered build than I hoped, more a pile of little play features than one satisfying model. Kids will adore the menagerie and the vehicles, and I think that is exactly who it is for. As an adult builder chasing a great sit-down afternoon, I would go in with clear eyes.

Best for: animal-mad kids aged six to ten who want a whole safari team in one box

The full review

What it is

Wildlife Rescue Camp is the big centerpiece of LEGO City's 2021 Wildlife Rescue subtheme, and it packs an awful lot into one box: a treehouse camp with a raised watchtower, a little mobile research lab, an ultralight plane, a rubber dinghy, a motorbike, six minifigures and a small zoo of animals. My first reaction was pure delight at the creatures. LEGO gave us a moulded adult elephant for the first time in nearly two decades, and a brand new lion with a proper mane, and seeing them all lined up on the table felt like a proper safari had wandered into the living room. If you or the child you are building with loves animals, this set understands you completely.

The catch

I want to be straight about the rest of it, though, because the animals do most of the heavy lifting. The camp is really a collection of small, loosely connected builds rather than one model with a heart. Several reviewers pointed out that it lacks the little narrative thread that usually makes a City set click into a play scenario, and I felt that too, you build a bit here and a bit there and never quite land on a single centerpiece. Then there is the price. At $99.99 for 503 pieces this is expensive, around 20 cents per part, which is steep for City, and the general feeling among reviewers was that it should have cost about $30 less. The build itself also goes quickly and stays simple, so an adult fan hoping for an involved afternoon may finish feeling a little underfed.

Who it's for

So who should reach for this one? Animal-loving kids, without hesitation. The sheer number of creatures, the vehicles that split off for separate play, and the six characters make it a wonderful open-ended playset for a six to ten year old, especially one who watches LEGO City Adventures and will recognize Sleet. Parts hunters and animal collectors also have a real reason to look, since this box is the cleanest way to grab the new lion and elephant moulds together. Who should skip it? Adult builders chasing a rich, clever construction, and anyone value-shopping by the piece, this set makes more sense bought on a discount than at full recommended price. Now that it has retired, that calculus has shifted again, which is worth keeping in mind.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this is a gentle, breezy job rather than a technical workout. The treehouse and watchtower go together quickly with sturdy, chunky construction aimed squarely at younger hands, and the vehicles (the ultralight especially) are the kind of quick, rewarding little builds that a child can finish mostly on their own. There is nothing here that will stump an experienced builder, which is both the charm and the limitation: it is relaxing, but you are done before you have really settled in.

The story is all in the animals. This set marks the first moulded LEGO lion with a mane outside of DUPLO, appearing here in white with a brick-yellow mane, alongside a matching new lion cub mould that shows up in both white and tawny. The elephant is the first buildable LEGO elephant in around eighteen years, now a streamlined single element, and it is a genuine showpiece. Add the lioness, the eagle and two monkeys and you have a remarkable animal haul for one City box. The minifigures are all exclusive to the set too, so between the creatures and the characters, the value that does exist here lives in the printed and moulded specialty parts far more than in the ordinary bricks.

Fun facts

01The white lion in this set is the first moulded LEGO lion with a mane to appear outside of the DUPLO line.
02Its elephant is the first buildable LEGO elephant in roughly eighteen years, redesigned as a single streamlined element.
03One minifigure is Westbrook W. Sleet, the nature documentarian character from the animated LEGO City Adventures TV series.
04Released in June 2021 and retired in December 2022, the set has risen around 20 percent above its original price on the used market since.