City has always been one of my least favorite themes from Lego, police and fire sets are mostly responsible for the theme’s uninspired and extremely repetitive nature. But there could be at least a couple of sets that stand out from the theme’s lackluster sets, a set to come out which deals with a specific setting that Lego hasn’t really touched in a long time, that setting is none other than... safari.

The Build

The Safari Off-Roader: What I like about this vehicle is that it’s not some tired police or fire vehicle, but a nice and rather unique looking one that doesn’t look like anything the theme’s come out with recently. So straight away you’d notice zebra stripes all over the off-roader which are nice and make the vehicle look unique, though they’re all stickered detail and some of the designs were identical and it got so annoying to apply all of them. The front has more zebra stripe stickers on the hood and a license plate which is the set number. The back has a ladder to climb to the roof, a large antenna and 2 other stickers for another license plate and safari logo. The interior can fit 3 figures in total, 1 for driver and 2 at the back, and the amount of space was surprisingly good. The roof can accommodate another figure which I like and it also has a sticker that says “Safari” on it. Overall, my only complaint with this build is that it has way too many stickers and it was a pain to apply them, other than that this is a pretty well executed vehicle. And having been on a Safari multiple times myself, I’m probably biased when it comes to this off-roader and most other Lego City vehicles, but I still genuinely think this a fresh idea for a city vehicle, and for that, it gets my praise.

The Minifigs

Female Safari Tourist: I presume this figure is the driver since the other one is clearly a photographer, and I like the exclusive torso print on this one. The legs are plain dark red and the torso is a dark green jacket with a red scarf and a tan shirt underneath and there’s some printing on the back as well, overall a really nice exclusive torso print. The face prints are getting more common at this point with a small smirk and winking expression. The hair/hat combo isn’t really difficult to obtain but it’s still a nice piece to get with the brown ponytail and red cap design. Finally, her accessories are a common red mug and a pair of binoculars. Overall, I’m happy with the inclusion of an exclusive torso, and I’m satisfied with how this figure came out.

Male Safari Tourist: I kinda like how determined to take an up-close picture of the lioness this guy is, he’d wear a tree costume to blend in! The legs are in plain brown which matches with the tree piece and his torso is a dark tan vest with lots of zippers and pouches and a dark azure shirt underneath, printing on the back of more zippers as well. The face is a pretty common one with a somewhat stern expression and a screaming face. The best part of the figure is the tree costume, where it’s a pretty rare piece that only other appeared in Mountain Police Headquarters just like the lioness piece in this set. The design has 4 studs at the top where you add some leaves there to make it look more natural or whatnot, and I really like how blended in this guy is that he even attracted a very nice looking blue and yellow parrot. Lego also included a tousled short brown hair piece for when he takes the costume off. Finally, his accessory is appropriately a camera. Overall, other than the tree costume piece, this figure is made up of some common parts, which aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s an overall “ok” figure if it wasn’t for the tree costume.

The Lioness: I tend to put animals in the minifig category, so I guess I’ll just put the lioness in this part of the review. This single animal piece is definitely the most interesting part of the set. From my understanding, this piece is an existing one that only other appeared in Mountain Police Headquarters as a mountain lion piece, so this version of the animal is in a different color, which makes it exclusive to this set, and given the setting of the set it’s clearly a lioness. In terms of articulation, you could move its hind legs backwards into a standing position and the head could move up and down as well. The front legs are in a really nice walking position which I like, and of course, the printing for the face is provided with bright orange eyes and a bright pink nose. Finally, there are 2 stud on top of the animal, which I guess you could make a figure ride it, why not? Overall, the lioness was a great animal to be included in this set and I love the fact that this hard to get piece is made available fairly cheaply.

Value For Money

I feel like the amount of stuff that’s included feels almost about right for the price. The off-roader definitely has a reasonable size, and the lioness piece probably boosts the price of the set as it’s a piece that’s more expensive to produce. I feel like most City sets are pretty overpriced, but this one’s somewhat of a reasonably priced one in my book. I’d say to wait for it to go on sale first though.

Overall Opinion

Boy, what a breath of fresh air for the theme. This set manages to be fresh, unique and fun, with some pretty darn good execution. My only complaint with the set though is the excessive use of stickers, it really was a shame that a couple of these pieces couldn’t have been printed, especially since some of the sticker designs were identical to one another and it can come off as pretty repetitive and annoying. But with that aside, everything else is awesome, the vehicle and minifigures came out great, and the inclusion of the rare Lioness piece in such a cheap set is truly remarkable and I gotta give props to Lego for the generous inclusion. So congratulations Lego City, you impressed me, I highly recommend this set and I’d give it an 8/10.

Previous version of safari off-road was one of my first set, so this set was clearly a must-have.

Model

Car is really simple. It is just a typical off-road car, nice, big and heavy. It has everything it should. There are big tyres, strong bumper at the front, lights at the roof. It even has a snorkel. Hood is designed fine. Nothing too fancy, but bumper with licence plate is a fine addition. Square lights are also nice. There is a side mirror, which looks poor to me, but adds some realism. It's a shame they didn't give us an opening door like in old sets, but it doesn't make a big difference in here. At the side there are some handles made with black candle sticks, which are great. Also, partly open window at the front is a great detail.

Near to the back there is a small dot which should mimic fuel cap. It is nice, but unnecessary. At the back there is a small ladder that is to allow minifigs to get on the roof. There are also some lights that are hardly visible, and an attaching point for a trailer. One missing thing in here is a spare tyre, which is often seen on a cars like this one. There is also a single long antenna, which is fine.

At the roof there is a small cage for a photographer to seat there. It fits with the colors, but looks quite unfinished. There is only one stud to attach a fig, which should allow him to turn around, but the space is too tight and it doesn't fulfil its destiny. It allows him to seat on weird angles though. At the front of the roof there is a big sticker with a nice looking tree and a lioness.

Inside the car there is enough space to fit two minifigs. One is a driver and has a simple steering wheel, and the second one may rest in something that was intended to be a sleeping seat probably. There is also some space to put all the equipment inside. And speaking which, it's a huge disappointment. In a set like this I expect to see something more than just a camera (which looks great), a pair of binoculars and a mug (why?). Lego could give us something more, for example a shovel or some tools.

I like the overall look of this car. What I don't like, is the amount of stickers. Every single zebra pattern is a sticker. There is none printed part in this set (except of minifigs). It is sad, that lego didn't decide to make a print on some of them, especially because there are four tiles with exactly the same sticker on.

In addition to the car we get a tree costume, which is funny thing, with a standard leaf piece and great parrot on it, and a lioness. This big cat is a great thing, one that makes this set even more worthy. She has moving head and rear legs. The print of her eyes is astonishing.

Minifigs

This pair of explorers looks great.

Woman has a great print on her torso, with brown jacket on a tan shirt. She also has a red scarf. It's a very detailed print, with many pockets and buttons. At the back there is only a couple of folds. She also has a perfect face print. On her face she has many freckles, great high eyebrows and fine eyelashes. She has a double-sided face, with a winking smirk on the other side, which is great to her as a photographer. On her head she's wearing a red cap with a pony tail, which is a relatively new part.

Man is dressed with a tactical vest, with huge amount of zippers, pockets, and other things. Underneath he has a light blue shirt. At the back there is also a big pocket. He as well has double-sided face, one calm and not really happy, and the other one frightened. On his head he had normal brown hair.

Parts

There is a handful of new and useful parts. Especially worthy are six white tile 2x3, unfortunately, every one is covered with a sticker. Also, tree trunk, parrot and lioness are great. Pair of black candles are available only in this set. There is a new windscreen and quit new roof part. Overall, even though there is only 160 bricks in here, most of them are really useful.

Summary

This set, as many other city ones is highly overpriced. It costs $20 for a generic car, a couple of minifigs and a big cat. But it is worth this price to be honest. I think it's mostly because of a nostalgia, but it is quite a good set. For younger kids it could be very fun to play with. So, I recommend this set.

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Hope it was helpful.

I purchased 5 sets from the January 2020 wave, and this was one of them, so already it's high up on my list of favourites. In fact, in my opinion, it is an almost perfect set. It's not from a repetitive fire or police sub-theme; it's a vehicle that has not been represented in Lego form in recent history; it looks fabulous alongside your other city vehicles. Let's look into the finer details:

Building experience

Although it offered nothing particularly special, the build for this model was relaxing and enjoyable. I can't point out any techniques used that caught my eye, but bear in mind that this set is made with children as the target demographic. However, with that being said, the use of stickers instead of printed pieces was a let down. Although these stickers are not particularly challenging when aligning, and have opaque backgrounds to prevent hairs or fingerprints showing, I could still see a young child without an older helper becoming frustrated with this matter, worsening the building experience slightly.

Completed model

When finished, this model looks fantastic. The zebra stripe details really do add to the safari feel. Other eye-catching details include the antenna round the back of the truck, the roof rack for holding supplies, the rugged wheels and mudguards, and the inclusion of a petrol cap. In my opinion, that is going above and beyond.

Other than the truck, however, we are given a specially moulded lioness, with fine printed details around the nose and mouth especially. This part looks the - well, part, and its inclusion is appreciated as it gives life to an otherwise potentially standalone, boring model. A parrot is also included, bringing up our animal total to 2. It is printed in blue and yellow, and although potentially less realistic, it still looks great.

Minifigures

This set contains two minifigures. Firstly, we get a female who works as a driver, photographer or potentially passenger. The accessories included in the set are binoculars, a camera and a mug, and any of these could belong to her. She comes with a duel moulded hair hat combo, a rugged looking jacket and neckerchief underneath, and dark red trousers which I have personally never come across before. It appears to come in about 50 sets, so not too common.

The male minifigure has a useful double-sided head, one face being serious and one face being scared. Maybe that lioness was getting a little too up close and personal? He also comes with common, dark brown hair and a vest full of printed pockets. He also comes with an optional tree costume to wear, supposedly so he can stay camouflaged and take up close photos of the animals. Both figures look the part, and are a welcome inclusion.

The 3 Ps

• Price - for £17.99, this model is priced at the same level as most similarly sized great vehicles from the city range. You get 168 pieces in this model, and the final result is not as chunky or large as some other £17.99 sets, so I would prefer this model at the 60150 price point of £14.99, but I think that it is probably the lioness mould that brings this set up in price, and without that piece the quality would come down in my opinion, so therefore the price is not an issue for me
• Playability - you get 2 minifigures, 2 animals, 3 accessories and a vehicle. There're tons of potential for play in this model!
• Parts - as mentioned earlier, there are 168 parts in this model, and I would estimate that at least 100 are completely bog standard parts I already have lying around. However, parts such as the 2x3 white tiles, candlesticks in black, 1x1 clear tiles and of course the minifigure and animal parts, bring this selection to an above average score in my opinion

Overall

What more can I say to convince you to get this set? I haven't given it a perfect rating, but don't let that deceive you; I have no real complaints about this model beyond the fact that it might be nice if it was cheaper (which, let's be honest, I could say about any set, or anything for that matter) and the build was a tad simple (it's for children! Not everything has to be a phenomenal modular building or functional Technic gearbox). Given that you can hand the cashier a £20 note for this great set and have enough change left over to buy yourself a snack whilst you build it, I can see no reason not to have this model in your possession!