Review: LEGO Atlantis 8060-1 Typhoon Turbo Sub

Last of the reviews for today, and it’s certainly not the least of them. This one is the LEGO Atlantis 8060-1 Typhoon. Along with the others (8058 – Guardian of the Deep, 8056 – Monster Crab Clash), it’s got a date of 2010 on the box, and I bought it at a Toys R US on November 14, 2009. You can find a size comparison of all three here.

This thing was not only made to swoosh, once you start looking at the pieces, you start thinking about potential future MOCs. With the cockpit and motors/props (including a small steering prop on the tail), the sky..err the sea is the limit. Underwater podracers, aircraft, other submersibles – I’d love to combine two of these sets and see what I could come up with. There was a game published back in 2000 called Crimson Skies (MobyGames.com link) that dealt with an alternate reality set in the 1930s. Given the red pieces on the Typhoon Turbo Sub as well as the motors, you could easily come up with a turbofan-driven aircraft reminiscent of that setting.

Then there is the Shark man minifig – you can also find him in the 8057 Wreck Raider. According to lego.wikia.com, this is different from the only other shark-headed minifig, the Viktor Krum optional shark head in the Harry Potter themed 4762 (Rescue from the Merpeople). I know a lot of people have talked about the Cthulhu-looking Octopus coming out in 8061 (Gateway of the Squid), but this will probably be my favorite minifig to come out of this series.

By the Numbers:
Set: Atlantis 8060 Typhoon Turbo Sub (from the Atlantis theme)
Type: Vehicle set in Atlantis Series
# of Pieces: 197
# of Extra pieces: 8 (see photo below)
# of Minifigs and what kind: 2 – Human diver with fins, helmet/air tanks, Shark man with trident
Stickers? Of course, but actually kept to a minimum.
Price: $24.99 USD at Official LEGO Shop, also at Amazon.com (price may vary)

LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Completed

Remember: click on the photos to see larger images at flickr (Full LEGO Atlantis 8060-1 gallery at flickr)

Box Art:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Box Front

LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Box Back

LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Box Close-up

LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Box Side

The Minifigs:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Minifigs
The Parts:

Set Instructions/parts bags/stickers:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Manual, Stickers, Parts Bags

Parts:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Parts 1

LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Parts 2

LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Parts 3

Some photos of the sub-assemblies:

This is the basis for the mechanism that reverses the motors (rather violently)
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Sub-assembly 1

Tail rotor/prop – this spins and it flips around.
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Sub-assembly 2

View of the cockpit:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - sub-assembly 3

Starting to come together:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - sub-assembly 4

Don’t point this at your eye:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Sub-assembly 5

Robot arm – housed under the motor shroud/assembly:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Sub-assembly 6

Just about finished:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Sub-Assembly 7

Extra pieces:
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Extra Pieces

Completed: Motors are reversed – non-flick missile fires forward, robot arm is on top.
LEGO 8060 Atlantis - Typhoon Turbo Sub - Reversed

Thoughts – Pricing, Design, and Build:
The price is good – definitely worth it. The build quality is excellent. The design is really cool except for one thing – the motor (or engine) reversal mechanism:

It’s pretty violent. It’s not even rubber band driven, it’s just got a lot of resistance, and it’s not exactly easy to do slowly. The first time I did it, I flung the tip off of one of the flick missiles. You had better make sure nothing is loose when you go to reverse the motors, because it will fling any loose pieces as hard or harder than the non-flick missile.

With that said, I really like the design. I’ve been pondering how to combine two of them with some kind of platform for more divers. It may not be as big as the 8057 Neptune Carrier, but it has a certain style about it.

Thoughts – Parts and/or stickers:
The stickers are kept to a minimum – you could ignore them if you wanted to, and if you plan on using this as a basis for MOCs, you may very well want to. The extra parts are actually very useful. As for the parts over all, they are great – it would be easy to use every part in other sets/MOCs. I really like the red coloring. Later today I’ll run a comparison of the parts list against Peeron.com and see if there is anything new. You could build this without the reversal mechanism and probably save quite a few technic parts, as well as make a more interesting body.

Thoughts – Minifigs:
I explained my thoughts on the diver in the 8056 review, and I explained my thoughts on the Shark man minifig at the start of this review. I almost wish there would have been another minifig, but it would have been hard to work him into the theme of the set – if you just looked at the box art, specifically the flashing lights, it appears that the diver is some kind of underwater law enforcement officer chasing down Shark man.

Thoughts – Swoosh factor, playability and integration with other sets: About as good as it gets as far as swooshing and playability. Whoever designed it obviously had that partially in mind. As far as integration with the other sets, it’ll be great with the other Atlantis vehicles. It’s very distinctive looking, and you instantly know that it has something to do with underwater travel. Add some extra pieces in the shape of a wing, however, and well….

Conclusion:
This is probably my favorite set to have come out in the under $50 range in quite a while. I did miss the ’90s and a part of this decade, but I’ve been following LEGO sets even when I wasn’t collecting or building them, and this is definitely something that will appeal to a lot of AFOLs. To me it captures the spirit of some of the other sets from years past. I also think we’ll be seeing a lot of interesting MOCs come out of this set. It’s easily worth $24.99. It will be interesting to see how it stands up to the other Atlantis sets, specifically 8075 Neptune Carrier.