City

Wildlife Rescue Operation

A little savanna packed with animals and one surprisingly good brick-built helicopter.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 60302 · 2021

Pieces525

Minifigs4

Year2021

Set number60302

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The verdict

This was the big flagship of the 2021 Wildlife Rescue wave, and it is easily the most charming of the bunch.

You get a whole cast of animals, a proper brick-built helicopter, and a tracked landscape vehicle, all in one box. The landslide gimmick wears thin fast and a couple of the build steps are fiddlier than the 6+ label suggests, but for a City set at this size it delivers a lot of play. If you want animals over sirens, this is the City set to grab.

Best for: Animal-loving City fans and families who want a savanna playset with real creature variety

The full review

What it is

The elephant is what got me. She has a trunk that tilts and swings, a head that rotates, and she comes with a calf that is one solid little piece but still holds a bar in its trunk so it can carry a plant or a bit of fruit. That calf is exclusive to this set, and it is genuinely one of the sweetest small pieces LEGO put out that year. Around her you get a lion, two monkeys, a recolored crocodile with a new partially hatched egg, and a repainted snake, all spread across a savanna base with a rescue helicopter, a tracked landscape vehicle, and a small vet station. For a City set it feels unusually full of life, less about sirens and traffic and more about a scene you actually want to play inside.

The catch

I will be straight with you about where it dips. The headline play feature is a lever that drops a tree and a little rockslide, and it is fun for about four goes before it stops surprising anyone. The mechanism is not dramatic, and for a set built around a rescue it does not give you much of a crisis to rescue anyone from. The build itself also nudges past its 6+ rating in a couple of spots. Threading the winch string through the barrel and then out the side of its holder, with a Technic axle running through the same barrel, is genuinely awkward and got flagged by more than one reviewer. Stretching the rubber treads over the wheel rims is the kind of step that makes small hands (and some adult ones) grumble. And at 525 pieces for four minifigures, you are paying for animals more than people, which is fine if that is what you came for and slightly thin if it is not.

Who it's for

Get this if you love animals and want a City set that feels like a habitat rather than a police chase. Kids who like caring, rescuing and role-play will get far more out of it than the ones who want action features, and animal collectors will want it for the calf and the recolored croc alone. Skip it if you are chasing dramatic play functions or a big minifigure roster, because on both counts there are livelier City sets. At its original 89.99 dollars it was fair rather than generous, but it is a warm, characterful box that holds up better than most City playsets of its year.

The parts story

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

The build is a pleasant afternoon rather than a challenge, with the animals doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the wow factor. The helicopter is the real builder's treat here: instead of the usual big molded fuselage you get an almost fully brick-built body, cockpit canopy aside, complete with turbine detailing, a cargo bay and a functioning winch. It is the kind of small-scale engineering that reminds you City can sneak in some proper technique when it wants to. The tracked vehicle and vet station come together quickly, and the savanna base is more scenery than structure.

Piece-wise the stars are the molds. The lion and cub, the elephant and her exclusive calf, and the redesigned monkeys were all fresh for this 2021 wave, and the crocodile shows up in a new recolor alongside a brand new partially hatched egg element. The snake wears a new print on the mold that first appeared back in 2018. Beyond the creatures the parts are standard City fare, plenty of useful greens, tans and earth tones for anyone building their own landscapes, but nobody buys this for rare printed tiles. You buy it for the animal molds, and on that front it is one of the best-stocked City sets of its year.

Fun facts

01The elephant calf is exclusive to this set within the Wildlife Rescue wave, making 60302 the only box you could get it in.
02Almost the entire helicopter is brick-built, with only the cockpit canopy as a dedicated molded element, unusual for a City set aimed at ages 6 and up.
03The set retired in January 2022 after roughly 18 months on shelves, and its value has climbed above the original 89.99 dollar retail price.
04The crocodile appears in a new recolor here and comes paired with a brand new partially hatched egg piece introduced in this wave.