In August, LEGO is launching a wave of LEGO City “Wildlife Rescue” sets.

As you can guess, animals will be in the spotlight in this new range, and that’s not to displease me. These sets are eagerly awaited since their announcement because we will be entitled to all new animal molds. I can honestly tell you that I was very impatient when they arrived.

Let’s take a closer look at all this with 3 of the 4 sets to be released on August 1st :

• 60301 : Wildlife Rescue Off-Roader
• 60302 : Wildlife Rescue Operation
• 60307 : Wildlife Rescue Camp

60301 Wildlife Rescue Off-Roader

We start with set 60301, a 4+ set of 157 pieces.

It includes 3 minifigures including the heroine Jessica Sharpe from the LEGO City Adventures TV series, a lion, a lion cub, and a snake. On the vehicle side, we find a 4×4 and a water scooter.

Price : $49.99 / €44,99 / £39.99

A simplistic set but is justified by its approach to the very young (4+). It has the merit of offering 3 new animals and 3 figurines and this is its strong point. In addition, the figurine of Jessica is really beautiful. Already released in 2020 in set 60264, the brand new torso caught my eye.

Personally, I found the 2 vehicles not really successful in this set and this is the only regret I could have but I think the asking price is justified.

A purchase that I recommend if you want to start investing in a collection of wild animal

Rating : 7/10

60302 Wildlife Rescue Operation

The next set is the most substantial. It’s composed of 525 pieces, including 4 minifigs, an elephant and its baby, 2 monkeys, and an alligator.

A helicopter equipped with a winch and a hold with an opening as well as a simple but particularly successful caterpillar truck complete the set.

The vet camp is really cool, although simplistic, and the patches of land and water that make up the landslide structure do the job of setting. Again sober, but relevant.

Price : $89.99 / €89,99 / £74.99

I couldn’t wait to open this set to discover the new animals launched by LEGO. We must admit that the mussels are particularly successful but a big disappointment to see that the elephant for example is not articulated.

The aligator is nothing new and monkeys have a hook instead of their right hand. Of course, they allow you to grab an object such as a banana or put on a bandage, but it’s not really realistic in addition to appearing very fragile. The baby elephant catches up with everything thanks to his lovely face.

In the end, the set is very complete with a reasonable price, but clearly from an animal point of view, it is not a set that I will recommend. It is absolutely necessary to rework these monkeys and articulate the elephant, at least to allow to hide the unsightly voids in its legs.

The vehicles are very successful on their side and I really enjoyed riding them.

RATING: 7/10

60307 Wildlife Rescue Camp

Finally, we end with the set 60307 which is my preference, without hesitation.

It’s composed of 503 pieces including 6 figurines, a white lion, 1 lioness and her 2 babies, an eagle, an elephant with long tusks, and a monkey. It doesn’t have any large vehicles but contains a boat, a motorcycle, an ultralight and a mobile research lab.

Price : $99.99 / €109,99 / £89.99

I am totally a fan of the watchtower and these binoculars from which Sleet, a character from the LEGO City Adventures TV series, can observe the animals.

The lion rock is very successful and this is the part that I like the most in the set because the rock effect is very realistic. The tree with the nest and the eagle at the top add a plus to the whole.

The unloading area is sketchy but like the rest of the set, the result is effective.

As for the vehicle, I love the ultralight with which I am already thinking of taking future photos. The idea is very well found. The mobile research lab is very large, maybe too much, but you need space to transport all this material!!

I recommend this set with my eyes closed. The animals are varied, and the decorations are substantial enough to amuse the children as well as to have fun even with photos.

RATING: 9/10

Behind the Scenes

For my BTS, I chose to tell you about my photo of the 60307 set since it is the one that I enjoy photographing the most and also since it is my favorite of the 3.

First of all, let’s talk about the hardware. I shot with a Nikon D3100 mounted on a Nikkor 35mm. This lens gives me the possibility of having a wider shot (compared to my 50mm) while keeping a good background blur.

Knowing that my scene offers several in-depth shots, I used the focus stacking technique which consists of stacking the same photo with different focus points using software. So I managed to extend my depth of field while obtaining a background blur sufficient to bring out the details of the set.

All the photos were taken with an ISO 100, f / 2.5 with a shutter speed of 1 / 60s. I preferred a more adequate and insightful natural light for a photo in the middle of nature. I waited until the end of the day to have a soft light.

I created a scene imitating water (you can see how it was made on the Discord server) in the center of my scene to bring color and brightness. The main part of the set, the camp with a footbridge over the river, was the central focus.

To bring the scene to life, I added a little garden soil and decoration from a railway diorama, used a wire to keep the eagle in the air, and inserted the different characters and animals.

I deliberately left my planter of mint in the background to add greenery and depth to my photo. Bringing a natural touch, I do not regret my choice.

So I took several shots focusing on each minifig in this case for the focus stacking.

For the last shot, I asked my husband to stand at the back of the stage with the ultralight at the end of a stick. By superimposing the shots afterward, I just had to erase it from the image with the eraser tool in my software.

To conclude, I found these sets particularly interesting, although they could be improved. My preference is for the camp but I am delighted to have all 3 without a doubt.