Set Review ➟ LEGO® 60307 CITY Wildlife Rescue Camp
60307 arrives in a box that is 1/3 larger than necessary to contain the parts and contains eight bags of parts, six of which are numbered. An additional bag holds four saddle-stitched instruction manuals and a small sticker sheet. The box displays an unexplained minifigure with arms in the air labeled “SLEET” for some reason or other. Do other boxes in this line have labels for other forms of precipitation? Rain? Snow? Very mysterious.
While boxed as one set, it could be viewed as a collection of four small scenarios. The first scenario is an ultralight and a guy on a motorcycle going to put out a small fire with a fire extinguisher. The second scenario is a rock outcropping serving as a cave for a lioness and cub. This is topped with a large tree which is home to an eagle’s nest. The third scenario is a veterinarian truck going to visit an elephant. The fourth is a treehouse-type research center headquarters or outpost which spans a stream. Four small instruction books correspond to the four scenarios.
There is not much in the way of hidden gimmicks or clever design in this set. The vehicular components of each scenario we have essentially seen many times before, here with customary cosmetic and minor build changes. Assembly is straightforward and simple. The most difficult part of the build is, for a youngster, accurately aligning the stickers onto the bricks. The 6+ age rating on this set is appropriate.
An official hand-eye coordination test for six-year-olds.
Scenario 1
I don’t know how a fire started in the rescue camp. I don’t know why it takes somebody on a motorcycle and a second somebody in an ultralight to attend to the situation. I wonder what happens if there isn’t enough retardant in the fire extinguisher to extinguish the fire. And I don’t know why the lions are hanging around if there’s a fire, a motorcycle, and an ultralight all at the same location.
Eh. Maybe I should put less rational though into these stories intended for six-year-olds. Ya think?
Scenario 2
We have a giant tree with no root system growing out of a rock. Oh, wait. This is a rescue camp, so this is a fake tree and a fake rock, so no problemo. I would pay money to see this (I’m assuming) Bateleur Eagle (it’s an African red faced eagle) lay the egg that is larger than the bird’s torso. But maybe that’s an ostrich egg the rescue camp put in the tree for the little eagle to hatch. The rescuers could have dropped that egg in there by ultralight.
There’s that less rational thought we were all looking for.
Scenario 3
Hey, let’s go tranquilize an African elephant (you can tell this is an African elephant by the ears) without the benefit of a tranquilizer gun. Everybody knows African elephants are just so docile you can drive right up to them in a big honkin’ truck, get out, and just stab ’em with a hypodermic. We also know that the truck driver has a broom to give the elephant a nice scrub and not otherwise clean up…because the truck driver would need a shovel for that.
The rescue truck is tricked out with all the latest high tech gear…and peanuts (’cause nothing satisfies the hunger of a seven-ton elephant like a bag of vending machine peanuts). But it is a wee bit cramped in there.
Scenario 4
We’re all aware of the vast budgets that wildlife rescue operations work under. Those, of course, allow for the Tony-Stark-level engineering required to create giant treehouse offices that brace streams which lie above ground height. That’s not a grammar mistake. The water level of the stream is higher than the adjacent ground level. This will not bother six-year-olds.
I would like to take a moment to note that water is not blue and for the most part tree bark is not brown. Water is clear and tree bark tends to be occasionally white but mostly various shades of gray. Lots of different grays. I’ve got a national forest literally in the back yard here, and I can’t find a single tree in there with brown bark. Also, it is a northern forest and not populated with baobab. If baobab are brown or brownish, they’re definitely not LEGO reddish brown. The phrase “don’t drink blue water” should rank up there with “don’t eat yellow snow”. And I do realize that we’re talking about a product where the representative color of people is primarily yellow. The moment is now over.
I had to wonder about the value of the set in terms of what one gets for one’s money. A similar set could be assembled from smaller offerings in LEGO’s fall 2021 catalog.
60300 Wildlife Rescue ATV $9.99 US, 74pc, $.135 per piece is roughly equivalent to scenario 1.
60267 Safari Off Roader $19.99 US, 168pc, $.119 per piece is roughly equivalent to scenario 3.
60301 Wildlife Rescue Off-Roader $49.99 US, 157pc, $.318 per piece is roughly equivalent to scenario 4.
Together these three total $79.97 US, and average out, as a group to .20 per piece. Compare that to the set being reviewed, 60307 Wildlife Rescue Camp, $99.99 US, 503pc, $.198 per piece.
The per piece cost skews a bit higher than average for a set, but there are a number of larger, more complicated pieces involved: the tree trunk panels, the elephant, and lions. There is definitely some price skew going on due to these larger pieces. This is pretty obvious when we look at 60301 with 157 pieces being 150% more expensive than 60267 with 168 pieces.
I’d have to say the value here is where you find it. If your kid hates the build and likes the play scenarios, then the lions and elephant are probably worth the investment. If your kid likes the building aspect of things, then the wildlife rescue camp falls very short.
Minifigures
The set includes six minifigures, only one of which has a dual-sided head. There are no unique prints on heads, torsos, or legs.The ultralight pilot wears the newer style helmet without chinstrap and newer visor with nose-cutout…amusing as minifigures tend not to have noses.
Animals
The set includes eight animals: male and female lions, two lion cubs, bateleur eagle, two monkeys, and an elephant. The male lion is dual molded, as are the monkeys and eagle. The monkeys, elephant, and cubs are new animal models; the others we have seen before in different color molds and paint schemes.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. The ideas expressed in this review are mine alone.
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