Review: LEGO 60346 Barn & Farm Animals

May 28, 2022 | 5

Being in Australia sometimes has it perks, as I was able to get my hands on 60346 Barn & Farm Animals early from my local Big W.

The Summer LEGO City 2022 sets head to the farm after a really long hiatus (the last proper City 7637 Farm set was in 2009!), this time in a Juniors/4+ setup, and plenty of farm animals, both old and new to add to your collection.

I’m a big fan of LEGO Animals, especially farm animals, so despite the 4+ rating, this is actually one of my most anticipated sets from the Summer 2022 City wave, so I’m stoked to share this review to help you decide whether this “farm animal battle pack” is worth picking up!

60346 Barn & Farm Animals will be released globally on 1 June 2022!

60346 Barn & Farm Animals Set Details

Name: Barn & Farm Animals
Set Number: 60346
Pieces: 230
Price: US$69.99 / AU$79.99 / £44.99 – Buy from LEGO.com [US] [AUS] [UK]
Exclusive to: N/A
Theme: LEGO City / Farm
LEGO Designer: TBD
Release Date: 1 June 2022

Like the rest of the new 2HY (second half) 2022 sets, we get the yucky-looking standardised white manuals. To illustrate just how bad these are, my 5 year old daughter (who helped me build the set) asked me whether this was fake LEGO.

It was in that very moment that I knew 100% that LEGO had messed up.

She builds a LOT of LEGO (naturally being my daughter), and so this was an incredibly jarring experience for her.

Like any 4+ set, there are zero stickers, which is always nice! During the build, these large panels stood out to me, and apart from being kid-friendly, I liked how useful these are and the unique profiles/colours.

I believe these 2 are new elements as well, so this should be another drawcard for element enthusiasts.

The set comes with 4 minifigures, which is a decent number for a set of this size, ensuring that there’s plenty of playable characters for kids.

You get a young boy, farmhand, Peach, a new named character from the LEGO City Adventurers animated series, and a sheep shearer with an overgrown beard!

The 3 adult minifigures are decked out in the new LEGO City Farm uniforms, which have green aprons featuring the City Farm logo, and there’s an orange and white shirt variant.

Here’s a look at the back printing, and the Sheep Shearer’s face underneath his Caveman hair.

Both the farmhand and sheep shearer also have dual-sided faces.

On to the highlight of the set, the farm animals! There’s a whopping eight animals included, which makes this the ultimate LEGO farm animal starter kit – you get a cow, and her calf, a woolly sheep, a lamb, a pig, 2 piglets, and even a squirrel.

Here’s the cow and her calf, which are 2 exciting farm animals. The LEGO Cow was last seen way back in 2014 (in the Sea Cow and Cargo Train) and are one of the rarer and more expensive LEGO Farm animals, although nowhere as notorious as the infamous Goat.

The cow makes a return in what I believe is Medium Nougat, which is a brand new colour, so Cow Fans are in luck here. The calf is also a great addition, in tan, but has a very plain-printed face, so it kinda looks like a dog or lion cub from the front.

Here’s a comparison with the dark reddish brown, and white with black spots variants – the new Medium Nougat colour great addition to the LEGO bovine family!

Up next is a delightful herd of pigs, with a pink adult pig, and 2 utterly adorable piglets.

The pink pig isn’t exactly new, having last shown up in 2020’s Attack of the Burrow and Pirates of Barracuda Bay, but the Piglets are a wonderful new addition.

Here’s how they look from behind, and yes they have cute little curly tails too.

The pigs come with their own little patch of mud (a brown 4×4 plate), and as you can see above, the pigs are small enough that you can orientate them diagonally, across the studs, which I think is really cool, as if you have plenty of them, you’ll be able to arrange them in interesting formations.

I hope Pick a Brick opens up again, because I will literally buy a bagful of these adorable piglets.

And here’s a comparison with some other pigs. There’s one more spotted pig variant that I couldn’t access for this shot.

And last but certainly not least is the brand new Woolly Sheep and Lamb. These two are just utterly adorable, and a fine addition to any LEGO Farm.

The Lamb is completely new but the Sheep was released last year in 10775 Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck’s Farm, except that it has an awesome new woolly accessory.

The new LEGO Lamb is great, and I love how expressive it looks – not bad for a tiny animal, and here’s a comparison with the Friends Lamb/Sheep.

To give transform the sheep into a fluffier version, LEGO have produced this new woolly coat, which just snaps over the sheep, with an anti-stud beneath it to “lock it” into place.

it’s an ingenious upgrade to the already brilliant LEGO Sheep, and as you can see, really makes it stand out. I told you I was obsessed with LEGO Farm animals.

I sure hope these become available to purchase on Pick a Brick (whenever it reopens), as I absolutely need to upgrade my flock of sheep.

Thanks to the versatile design of the wool, you can sort of attach it to all sorts of 1 stud-wide animals. Unfortunately, the doesn’t quite fit because of its butt..

But it fits on the calf perfectly!

And Goats.

And Dogs. Here’s a Sheep Dog, lol.

And even Golden Retrievers 🙂

Unfortunately dachshunds are too short! As you can tell, I had way too much fun playing around with the woolly coat – and to be completely frank, this piece and the piglets were the main reason I picked this set up.

So yeah, this is an exceptional farm animal starter pack – great for those without any farm animals, or to beef up their farms!

My only complaint is that there are no chickens, and of course Goats, but I’m resigned to the fact that LEGO has given up on Goats.

On to the builds – again, I have to remind you that this is a 4+ set, that is targeted at younger children who are transitioning from Duplo to LEGO, which means large, simple and easy to build models, so don’t expect Creator Expert-level build techniques here.

Here’s a look at the Tractor, which has a loader bucket in the front, simple cage for the driver and a large wagon that you can load up with farm animals, or supplies.

It’s a very basic but effective model, and I like the blue and lime green colour scheme.

Here’s a look at a simple green house, which has 3 pumpkins and carrots growing in a patch of soil on the inside. I like that you get 3 pumpkins, which are relatively rare LEGO fruits, and there’s also a butterfly resting on the roof.

The trans-clear elements are always nice to add to any parts collection, but on its own, the greenhouse is exactly as described. I also like that you get the new-ish Watering Can element, which debuted last year in the perpetually-sold out (but on backorder) 43202 The Madrigal House.

Adorably, there’s also a washing station, where after frolicking in the mid, the farmhand can clean the pig in a bucket, with a nozzle to spray the pigs clean.

And you can even scrub the pigs, via a mini car wash bristle brush. Adorable, and this adds so much playability to the set.

And here’s the completed barn, which is the centre-piece of the build. It’s quite large, which is nice, and has the standard white and red colour scheme, and 2 large red barn doors that can swing open.

Apologies for the lifted wall, I didn’t notice that until I began editing the photos.

4+ sets always surprise me with what actually gets printed, and we get a printed 2 x 6 tile with the LEGO City farm logo on the front.

The red barn doors swing open to reveal a cavernous interior – inside we can see the young farmboy helping clean up bits of poop that the piglets have generously left behind.

You get 3 poop pieces, which is a lot of fun. Remember, this is a fun, so you can probably reuse them for fertiliser.

It’s a tight squeeze, but you can get all the animals inside the barn!

Here’s the barn from the back.

The barn roofs can also be lifted upwards to better access the upper levels. There is a very basic bed on one side of the room.

And on the other end, a squirrel has made a home on a bale of hay – or it could be a very big block of cheese. Anyway, the young farm boy is trying to whack the squirrel with his broom.

What I liked:

• Instant farm animal starter pack
• Plenty of stuff to play with – minifigures, animals, and farm objects
• Surprisingly educational, and can be used to teach kids about farm animals
• Barn is big
• Woolly Sheep, and all the new animals

What I didn’t like: 

• Feels quite expensive, but the US got shafted by price
• No chickens

FINAL THOUGHTS:

For a set primarily aimed at kids 3 or 4 years and up, this is a lot of fun, and despite the high retail price, you actually get quite a lot of bang for your buck.

That you get 8 animals in the one set, of which the lamb, calf, piglets are brand new moulds, and the woolly sheep, and new medium nougat cow are brand new re-colours kinda makes up for the set’s expensive pricetag.

For LEGO animal fans, it’s pretty good value as you get so many coveted farm animals in one, and if you look on Bricklink where cows are US$20-30, it does soften the blow to your wallet slightly.

Add in 4 minifigures, and plenty of other farm things like the tractor, greenhouse and large barn, it’s actually decent value, unless you’re in the US, where for some reason, LEGO decided to charge US$69.99 for it.

In Australia, the RRP is only AU$79.99, and with regular 20% or more sales, it brings down the price to really decent levels. For example, I got my set for AU$55 (approx US$40) during a Big W 20% off sale, and for that price, I could not be happier with what I paid for.

For younger kids, you’ll probably get a lot of play and interactivity out of this set. I do like that the manuals have 4 booklets, allowing families with multiple kids to share and build this set collaboratively, and with so much stuff included in the set, there’s a lot of play value contained here.

This is a really great City 4+ set, and I would easily recommend it, especially if you can get it on sale. For fans of LEGO animals like myself, this set is a no-brainer, and you’ll be very happy with all the new farmyard animals.

Rating and score: 4/5 ★★★★✰

Build [3] – It’s a 4+ set, so it’s very basic, but I liked the “build together” aspect
Real Value [3] – On sale, this becomes a great set. I do think RRP is relatively high, but you do get your money’s worth. Unless you’re in the US.
Innovation [4] – I love seeing so many cool new elements, and animal moulds included
Coolness [4] – It’s about time we got a proper Farm set.
Keepability [4] – With so many great animals, this one’s a keeper for sure.

60346 Barn & Farm Animals will be available from LEGO.com, and most toy stores from 1 June 2022 onwards.

What do you think of 60346 Barn & Farm Animals, and the animals included? Will you pick this set up?

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