The LEGO Dr. Jane Goodall Tribute 40530 set will be available as a Gift with Purchase (GWP) to celebrate International Women’s Day 2022 for all qualifying purchases over $120 / €120 / £120 from March 3rd –15th 2022.

The sets were generously provided by LEGO for review on BrickCentral, but the opinions are my own.

First a few facts about Jane Goodall: “Dame Jane Morris Goodall formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 60-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, where she witnessed human-like behaviours amongst chimpanzees, including armed conflict. In April 2002, she was named a UN Messenger of Peace. Goodall is an honorary member of the World Future Council.” (Wikipedia)

Unlike last year, this year on International Women’s Day, a woman and her achievements from our time are celebrated. Last year, there was a set in honor of Amelia Earhart. Also this year the set stands on an oval black base with a name lid. The structure suggests a jungle and consists of three trees, a few colorful flowers, and a small stream.

Minifigure and Animals

The undisputed highlight is the three included chimpanzees. These are the same monkeys that came with Jungle Boy from CMF 7 and Zookeeper from CMF 5.

Jane Goodall comes with sand-colored light pants and a torso printed on both sides in sand green. She wears white hair with a ponytail and in her hand, she holds a binocular. Overall, the composition of the figure is well done and is very similar to the model.

The Set

I like the set itself very much and not only because the three monkeys. The trees consist of a relatively large number of leaf elements in two different shades of green and appear very dense. Thus, the trees look very nice on their own.

Because the floor is built of three layers of panels, and also here different colors were used, it looks very detailed. In addition, there are numerous small plants and flowers, which on the one hand underline the jungle atmosphere and on the other hand bring some color into the small set.

The small stream that meanders through the set is also a nice detail and completes the scenery. All in all, I find the set very beautiful. I like the attention to detail with which the set was designed and how everything fits together harmoniously.

Small Criticisms

Stickers are of course always a point of criticism, in this set there is only one, yet a print would of course have been super.

Another little thing that bothers me a bit is the small stream. This is laid out with 1×1 tiles in trans blue clear. On the right side, this looks excellent, but on the left side, four pieces are missing and the edges are not as nicely covered as on the right side. This is something that bothers me a bit personally.

Conclusion

I was convinced by the set. I like the small details and the coherent overall picture. In my opinion, it is a worthy little tribute to Jane Goodall and her work. In contrast to last year, I not only like the set much better, but also that this year a still-living woman was chosen to honor her achievements on International Women’s Day.

Since recently it has been noticed that the thresholds for GWPs have become higher and higher, it is positive to note here that in relation to the Amelia Earhart set from last year, the price has remained approximately the same.

The Amelia Earhart set is listed with 203 pieces for 20€, the threshold was 100€, which corresponds to 20% of the threshold value. The Jane Goodall set consists of about 273 pieces, if you set the same price per piece, you get about 20% of the threshold of 120€ too. Due to the complexity of the construction and the three animals, I consider the price reasonable. All in all, I give the set 9 out of 10 points.

Behind the Scenes

Finally, I’d like to invite you to a little peek behind the scenes and show you my setup for the pictures in this review. The setup in this case, as you can see in the picture below, was relatively simple.

I put the set on a small green plate as a base and built a small wall of leaves for the background. For lighting, I used a flash with a softbox to slightly brighten the set from the front. A second flash I placed in the back right at a shallow angle to simulate incident sunlight. I also set up two white reflector cardboards to brighten up the background a bit more. Lastly, I used a face mister to soften the light a bit and have some particles in the air.