Random set of the day: Alpha Team Aquatic Mech
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 4789 Alpha Team Aquatic Mech, released during 2002. It's one of 17 Alpha Team sets produced that year. It contains 162 pieces and 1 minifig.
It's owned by 672 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $64.30, or eBay.
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34 comments on this article
Get away from her you FISH!
Eh, if Ripley had that saw, that fight would have ended a lot faster. And then everyone would have died when acid-blood sprayed everywhere and ate through the hull.
Much as I loved Alpha Team: Mission Deep Sea (because I've always loved underwater themes and sets in general), but I never had any desire to get this one. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool-looking model, but I just can't take an underwater mech seriously. There's a reason bipedal locomotion is limted to land animals.
Ooh! Black fish thing (Is it a sawfish?). Might have to get one of those.
are those Galidor limbs?
You can always tell the sets that were made in 2002
@Rabrickzel said:
"are those Galidor limbs?"
No, but they're closely related. The joints are based on Galidor limbs, but the rest is unique to Mission Deep Sea.
@Miyakan said:
"Ooh! Black fish thing (Is it a sawfish?). Might have to get one of those."
That is nice! Didn't know it came in black.
Hey, stop coating the saw fish with oil! It breaks the Marine Mammals Protection Act!
I actually tracked down a copy of this set, a couple of years ago.
I really like it. I enjoy Lego's underwater themes, generally. The Alpha Team underwater stuff was, OTOH, pretty subpar -- except for Ogel's subs and monsters. Those things were cool as hell.
But I still thought this aquatic mech was pretty amazing.
The large pieces, the presence of so much fluro-green, this set really typifies Lego in the early 00s.
For years this set was the mysterious AT Mission Deep Sea set that I only found out about online. It always intrigued me as it's quite a historic turning point for a mech.
And a few years ago I finally found one for sale over here! For years there had been none. It even came with the box!
Great set. It's interesting in that it uses the shuffle legs design pioneered with the Walking 6882 Astro Grappler but that wasn't really used for mechs until some from Robo-Force (2151 Robo Raider, 2152 Robo Raptor).
I believe the AT Aquatic mech was the last time this was used for a mech as Life on Mars introduced click hinges to leg design, which replaced the shuffling or wheeled systems for a short while before ratchet joints became the standard. So, shuffling design was on its last leg with this set.
But on the other hand, this set was the first mech to use ratchet joints, as they were new for that year. It predates Exo-Force and even Designer with 4508 Titan XP. So, the arms were a huge first. And having that compact a movement system on them is quite handy!
Besides that, it's just a fun set. The shuffling legs are dynamic but very stable and the arms are long but just the right thickness. To my surprise the build itself was also quite solid and well done.
It even comes with a rare brown hairpiece for Dash and it comes with a sawfish mutated by Ogel's orbs (a black recolor exclusive to this set!). There's even storage on the legs!
Oh, and the ROV form of TeeVee is there as well, which is extra nice!
So one step forward and one last stand in one set.
Oh, and the lower legs are mech bodies from 4790 AT Robot Diver and the command sub. Just some NPU.
While I didn't have any Alpha Team sets, I remember the theme fondly. The last wave in 2004 seemed really cool, and I liked playing the games on Lego website back in the day.
I’m just imagining everyone else zooming to the final battle with Ogel in their variety of high-powered, propellor driving super-subs…and then this guy stuck about three miles back, slowly trying to catch up with his limited, lumbering movement. For extra irony, the guy driving it is called Dash!
2002 was the year that I started studying S-at-H catalogs and memorizing every set... and then I was confused when I went to Toys-R-Us and saw a set that wasn't in the catalogs. It wasn't until I discovered Brickset in 2008 that I was able to confirm that this set really existed and I didn't just imagine it.
It was pretty unusual at the time to have non-catalog sets that were larger than polybag-size, but Mission Deep Sea had two of them, the other being 4788.
"I can drive that Alpha Team Aquatic Mech. I have a Class 2 rating."
This set has parts I had never seen before
The saturation/hue on this image makes the yellow look like keetorange, and - man, that really works. I didn't think keetorange and trans-neon green would go together so well, but here we are. I hope we'll see that combination again in future sets.
MAYBE IT'S TIME TO BRING BACK THE TRANS-NEONS, LEGO. LOOK AT HOW NICE THAT LOOKS. I AM WILLING TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY FOR THAT, LEGO.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Hey, stop coating the saw fish with oil! It breaks the Marine Mammals Protection Act!"
Sawnose saw sharks aren't mammals, though
@Ridgeheart said:
"MAYBE IT'S TIME TO BRING BACK THE TRANS-NEONS, LEGO. LOOK AT HOW NICE THAT LOOKS. I AM WILLING TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY FOR THAT, LEGO."
As am I. The people have spoken, Lego!
I've got a bunch of specialised pieces from at least one of these Mission Deep Sea sets, but I'm not sure which one.
Did Alpha team made a game?
@BaconKing said:
"Did Alpha team made a game?"
Yes, they did a PC one in the year 2000: https://brickset.com/sets/5714-1 and here on Gameboy Color: https://brickset.com/sets/5725-1/LEGO-Alpha-Team
Anyone know what the Mission was?
Alpha Team was the best. The sets were always so fun and always had unique features. Alpha Team and Orient Expedition were the GOAT.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Hey, stop coating the saw fish with oil! It breaks the Marine Mammals Protection Act!"
Hey, if chain saws can get oil, why can't fish saws? It seems unfair!
I've heard some people say Alpha Team Deep Sea is what started the juniorization of Lego, but I'll always remember those sets fondly regardless
@AcePilotHarryKane said:
"I've heard some people say Alpha Team Deep Sea is what started the juniorization of Lego, but I'll always remember those sets fondly regardless "
I’m curious how they came to that conclusion, considering MDS came out the year after Jack Stone.
@PurpleDave said:
" @AcePilotHarryKane said:
"I've heard some people say Alpha Team Deep Sea is what started the juniorization of Lego, but I'll always remember those sets fondly regardless "
I’m curious how they came to that conclusion, considering MDS came out the year after Jack Stone."
The Town theme of the mid-to-late 1990's would like to have a conversation with those people.
I had a chance to get this set once. Like others have mentioned, it was never in the shop @ home catalogues; but it just randomly one day turned up in the small local toy shop in their reduced price display, away from the rest of their Lego stock. I'd never seen the set before, in the shop or otherwise, and I definitely toyed over the idea of getting it for a while... but in the end I decided not to. My main interest in Alpha Team was collecting the minifigures of all the team members, rather than in the vehicles themselves; and I already had Dash from 6773, so I couldn't quite convince myself that the purchase was worthwhile, even if the set looked cool.
If it had been piloted by an agent I hadn't had at the time, though - either Cam, Radia or Crunch - I'm fairly certain I would have bought it right then and there. Such were my priorities at the time, I guess!
-
@MeisterDad said:
"Anyone know what the Mission was?"
The villain Ogel was using his new variety of mind control orbs to mutate and control sea life as part of his latest scheme for wold domination, and the mission was essentially to stop him from doing that thing ^^
@MeisterDad said:
"Anyone know what the Mission was?"
Do you mean the mission number? I know Agents did that, like 8633 was Mission 4, and 8634 was Mission 5. I don’t think Alpha Team ever did that. They basically just had the nonspecific launch “mission”, and the Mission Deep Sea/Mission Deep Freeze subthemes.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @AcePilotHarryKane said:
"I've heard some people say Alpha Team Deep Sea is what started the juniorization of Lego, but I'll always remember those sets fondly regardless "
I’m curious how they came to that conclusion, considering MDS came out the year after Jack Stone."
The Town theme of the mid-to-late 1990's would like to have a conversation with those people."
I'll always think of Mission Deep Sea when I think juniorisation, but not as the START of that: it was juniorisation's peak, er, nadir. Maybe not even objectively: it's just the theme that I remember being the SUPREME amount of discounted in 2003 and 2004, with the result that I have most of the sets--though not this one--because they were so affordable.
31090: Underwater Robot was pretty good too, or 31115: Space Mining Mech if you want a sawblade, both sets did not come with a minifig but would fit one.
Blacktron sawfish.
Inverse Blacktron 1 Mech.
SO much Blacktron.
@ElephantKnight: I don't always agree with you re: Blacktron, but when you're right, you're right.