This was one of the first sets I got at the beginning of the year. Honestly, I mostly got it for the pieces, but it has a solid build as well. Farming has been a Lego subtheme for a long time; I think even some of the pre-plastic Lego toys were tractors. (There was even an article about that recently.) Although it’s not quite as prevalent as Police or Firefighters, it’s a fun theme to revisit. (And better to have more farmers than a Lego City Police State.)

You get three characters; the farmer, his daughter, and a bunny. Both figs reuse generic overall torsos, but it’s fitting here so I’ll allow it. The bunny is also fairly uncommon, and this is one of the cheapest sets it’s in. Plus, you get some carrots, an apple, and a pumpkin, so some neat food items. In terms of actual pieces, this set had a few new ones that caught my eye, particularly the 2x2x2 brick element with ridges on the side. The ridges match with the standard modified brick, but they’re on all four sides so it would work well in corners, and the 2 plate height allows for some new versatility. You get four of these pieces in black (used in the tractor’s interior) and four in tan (to represent hay) so that’s a good supply of a new element in a fairly affordable set. There also the new technic brick element, which I’m sure will have its uses. It’s mostly remarkable here because this is the first set it appeared in. The big back tires are also rare, only appearing in a large technic set. I guess the new 2x6x1 bracket in black was also rare, and the bucket element appears to be exclusive too. Like I said, a bunch of fun pieces, especially for a City set.

The tractor itself is a satisfying build. The back area has some blue detailing in the interior, but the outside shell is predominantly red. The front loader has a simple but effective mechanism to scoop up stuff. There’s even a trailer hitch on the back to hook up more stuff. And the shaping makes it quite distinctive with a good flow using the curved slopes and arches.

It’s a fun little set. I got it for the parts but still haven’t taken it apart yet, heh. Worthwhile for a City vehicle. And I have a few more photos of it over on Instagram.

It's nice that Lego have released a farm set, with this nicely updated tractor that has lots of play features and scope for expansion.

The build is nice, a bit of a challenge at the lower end of the intended age range, with a number of fiddly parts and some Technic bits, but manageable with a little assistance. The instructions do simplify the whole process a little: the model is fully symmetric and so left and right can be built simultaneously but the instructions start on one side then move to the other. My daughter picked up on the symmetry and was quite happy building both sides together, thus skipping quite a number of the later steps.

The parts are nicely optimised for young builders: each element is only in one colour, and effort has been put into avoiding confusing similarities which is nice for the intended age range. I eventually swapped out some transparent 1x2 plates for solid colours as I have better use for those than buried inside a small model. The wheels and tyres make for a really nice scale, but a little care is required to ensure that the tyres are oriented correctly as they are directional.

The overall model looks a lot more like modern tractors than previous Lego tractors: we live surrounded by farms and see real farm machinery just like this on a daily basis, which adds a nice touch of realism.

For play value, this has a lot going for it. There is obviously the main tractor, the farmer and his daughter plus the nice accessories: cute bunny, various fruits & veggies plus the straw bales. The digger scoop works nicely, with a useful stop just above floor level which actually prevents it sticking into the floor when driving it along.

The scoop could quite easily be removed (some modification to the attachment point would make it even easier), plus there are 3 additional attachment points: an 85943 Technic brick on the front which will accept a variety of connectors for front attachments, a Technic pin hole at the back and a ball socket at the back for trailers. I hope Lego release some polybag tools and accessories for this one.

An additional play factor is introduced if you own the Farmer CMF. That figure is an older farmer than the one that comes with this tractor, so you can have 3 generations at play, plus the extra pig.

Overall, then, this is a nice set. It's reasonable value at full price (plus a decent basket filler at Lego.com) but can often be had a bit cheaper.