Review: 41421 Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue
Posted by MeganL,This is the second year of LEGO's partnership with National Geographic to highlight endangered animals. I was quite charmed with the first of these sets, 41423 Tiger Hot Air Balloon Rescue. It appears that Emma was so inspired by her work saving the tigers that she's recruiting Stephanie to join her in 41421 Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue.
This is the smallest set of this subtheme, but previous years have shown that the smallest Friends sets are some of the best. Let's see what predicament the baby elephant has got into, and how the intrepid Friends can help.
Like many smaller sets, this comes in one of the thumb tab opened boxes - for those of you (like me) who like to keep the boxes, I find this irritating as it's difficult to open the boxes without totally destroying one end of the box. I usually use a knife to cut through the glue seals, and try to preserve the edges that way. No matter how you open the box, inside there are two numbered bags, and instruction booklet, a baby elephant all on its own, and a small sticker sheet with three stickers.
Minidolls and animals
It's a pleasant surprise that there are two minidolls in the set and a cute baby animal. As I mentioned Emma has recruited Stephanie for this work. Stephanie comes dressed for the job in a sleeveless vest with a patch pocket and a notch for sunglasses that's over a brightly printed shirt. Accents on the shirt and pockets match perfectly with the orange belt. There must have been a special at the store when Stephanie got her olive shorts and purple shoes (with orange laces and olive soles) - Mia is also seen in this subtheme wearing exactly the same thing! Emma is wearing the same outfit as in 41423 - so rescuing the baby tigers clearly didn't wear out her clothes. It's a shame that both Stephanie and Emma are wearing something covering those brightly printed shirts - they look much more exotic than most items the Friends have been wearing.
As I've talked about this accessory before but not pictured it, a pair of walkie talkies are included for the Friends to communicate during their rescue. Of course, it's adorned with a heart, but rather nice that it's a heart in the newish vibrant coral colour.
It wouldn't be a baby elephant rescue without a baby elephant, and this one is suitably adorable and fits perfectly in the Friends world. It's also a pale blue, so those who were hoping for a realistic coloured animal will be disappointed. It's still very cute, though.
The completed model
Stephanie and Emma cruise around the jungle in their jalopy - a pretty standard build, but it does fit two minidolls. Stickers are used to provide decoration for the hood. It's not surprising at all that a heart is included in the recurring graphic for this subtheme.
There's a storage compartment in the back. I'm not sure of the significance of "JLS 19" - initials of one of the designers, perhaps?
Behind the jeep there's an equipment trailer - sized just large enough for a baby elephant, I suspect. There's a feeding bottle handy, in case.
There's also a storage compartment here for collection of jungle plants, because of course the Friends are multi-tasking. An assortment of slots are available for necessary equipment, such as carrying a syringe on the outside of the vehicle.
So, on their adventure, Stephanie and Emma are cruising the jungle - and, oh no! They've found the baby elephant - but it's stuck in the mud!
To make things worse, a scary spider is coming down the tree! I don't know if elephants are afraid of spiders, but if there was a spider that size coming toward me, I'd want to get out of the mud, too.
Silly elephant - this whole thing could have been avoided if they'd just read the sign! Oh - but I'm guessing elephants don't read. Well, at least there's a shovel someone has thoughtfully placed close by to help with the rescue.
Of course, being very prepared, the Friends don't need a shovel - they'll just attach the handy winch that they have to their jeep, and pull the elephant to safety.
All's right in the world again as the Friends and baby elephant head back to the rescue base.
Overall thoughts
For the price (203 pieces, $19.99, 19.49€, £17.99), there's a lot here. Two minidolls are pretty rare for a set of this size, the elephant is unique to this set and quite cute, and there's a lot of story available. I'm hoping that every set in this subtheme has some kind of moving function. I was despairing with this set, but the instructional designer saved the sliding function for getting the elephant out of the mud until the very end of the instructions. My expectations will continue for the rest of the sets of this theme! There are quite a few pieces in this set that are new in 2020. An inventory can be found here.
I think this is a great little set, and when it comes time to gift recommendations at the end of year, I wouldn't be surprised to see this on the list.
Thanks to LEGO for providing a copy of this set for review. All opinions expressed are mine.
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20 comments on this article
Is that the first elephant in a set since the ones in the Adventurer’s sets almost 20 years ago? I think it looks adorable!
Two minidolls;
A supercute baby elephant;
A neat play feature;
Really effective jungle scenery;
A vehicle that fits two figs side-by-side!!
What's not to like?
Thanks for the review, Megan!
What a cute little set! The visual storytelling with the quicksand/mud pit is wonderfully effective (and I love that you worked it into the review as well).
Finally, a new Elephant in a LEGO set and that is not mud but quicksand.
That is definitely a miniature Duplo elephant.
Sweet. And a decent RRP on a Friends set - a welcome rarity these days.
I've found that on those boxes with the thumb tabs, the end *opposite* usually has less glue, so is easier to cut through with a sharp penknife, without destroying the cardboard.
umm the compact crawler crane 42097 is back at lego .co.uk!! yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The set isn’t for me but full marks for the review. I enjoyed the story you told in rescuing the elephant!
That was a fun review to read! Thanks, it looks like a great little set!
I’ve never bought a Friends set, but i like this one a lot! I love elephants and the story told by this set is so nice :) I’m going to buy it. Thanks for the review Megan ;)
My daughter wanted to get this, but put it back on the shelve. Sadly, the only thing she carded about was the baby elephant, and that figure is not worth $25, even in her 7 years old mind.
The car is yet another friends car which we got dozens of before, nothing special. The "tree" is a simple side build that would be set aside few days after building it.
It's a nice starter set for new comers, but it makes more sense to just order the elephant on BL later on.
You know, as an adult, I've found that quicksand is much less of a problem, in my daily life, than I thought it was going to be as a kid. Go figure.
I was amused by all the spider comments.
Definitely a worthwhile read
I find it funny how well designed all Friends sets are compared to City ones.
Hope you will Review Lama Rescue! Is da best set of this line!
Can we now have an elephant bigfig in a city jungle theme. Even a brick built one would be cool. Include a baby elephant as well if you like.
Better still bring back LOTR sets and do an Oliphant :)
@natro220 said:
"Is that the first elephant in a set since the ones in the Adventurer’s sets almost 20 years ago? I think it looks adorable!"
Now let's petition for a minifig scale adult african elephant for some awesome Hannibal mocs!
@waterytowers said:
" Can we now have an elephant bigfig in a city jungle theme. Even a brick built one would be cool. Include a baby elephant as well if you like.
Better still bring back LOTR sets and do an Oliphant :)"
Check out Jungle set 41424 for mummy and baby elephant, but for the price they could have included other jungle animals, so may be better waiting for a more zoo like set. The larger jeep in 41421 is also far better looking and more suitable for the larger friends figures than the mini-fig jeep in 41424, which is more about the tree houses.
To me it seems like the Friends theme are quite well-priced compared to other themes...
Recolor this set white for the city theme and it will end up priced $25.
Recolor this set light grey for Star Wars and it will end up priced $30.
Love the review! Very fun to read. I will definitely try to get a hold of this one.