Review: 8968 River Heist

[Natman8000]

Alert! Lego city's bank has just been robbed! Now its up to Agent Fuse to save the day. But wait, there's a Tusken here! Do you think he will be here to save us? No, I think hes here to review some Legos. Thank God!

Name: 8968 River Heist

Pieces: 203

Theme: Agents 2.0

Minifigs: 3

Price: $19.99 at the Lego store

Availability: Later 2009, at select stores now.

Brickset, Bricklink, S@H

S@H quote

Recover the stolen safe by water!

Attention, Agent Fuse! Dr. Inferno's henchmen Dollar Bill and Dyna-Mite have just robbed the City bank and are getting away with their ill-gotten loot aboard their Super Airboat. Your Mission: to recapture the safe using your Agent Waterjet with firing flick missiles -- but watch out for the airboat's explosive devices! 3 minifigures included: Agent Fuse, Dollar Bill and Dyna-Mite! Agent Waterjet is equipped with 2 flick fire missiles! Super Airboat propeller spins when the boat moves! Super Airboat measures 6 inches (15.2cm) long by 4 inches (10.2cm) wide!

Box-

The box art for this set is very exciting, and bright. It certainly caught my eye when I saw it in the store, and I wanted to pick it up immediately. The logo for the Agents theme didn't change much, but now there is a 2.0 next to it.

Intructions-

The cover, same as the box art.

Random page. The instruction are easy to follow, not too many problems with telling black and bley apart. The build took about 7 minutes.

The Minifigs-

A great way to start of a review of a set, is the show the minifigs. In this set, there are three excellent minifigs. Dyna-Mite, Dollar Bill, and Agent Fuse. By far, Dollar Bill is one of my favorite minifigs that I have ever gotten. Right now these figs are going for about 7 dollars on Bricklink, so it shows how many people want them.

The Baddies-

Check out his sweet diamond monicle- I really love the money sticking out of his pocket.

Their backs, nicely printed, like most figs in the 2009 range, the dollar sign is cute, and the bomb is very well placed.

The sweet hair pieces that are both new to those colors. Unfortunately, the red one is a bit low quality, it almost seems like a pre-production part!

The good guy-

This is Agent Fuses fourth time in a set. He is pretty standard, but nicely detailed. He has no back print.

With the new armor piece. I'm a bit disappointed with the fact that the front is printed, it could be so useful in other places.

His back, showing his scared face. No teeth?

The accessories-

This set comes with a decent amount of them, notice the gold gun and dynamite part. Its a shame that the set didn't come with a gun for Fuse. It would have been great if the gold gun which before seemed like Gold tooth's trademark was chrome, so Dollar Bill could have his own awesome gun.

The safe-

As an addition to this set, there is the target of the Baddies- the safe. It can hold three dollar bills, not exactly very much if you ask me. Its built nicely, it didn't break when I dropped it.

Yup, still pretty cramped.

The Speedboat-

As usual, there always needs to be mini ship to accompany the main set. In this set, there is a speed boat, which is not that impressive. I like the aqua, but there is no silver following the Agents color scheme. It is pretty poorly built, and suffers from flick-fire missiles.

Fuse in his boat. He can stand or sit, and if there weren't handlebars I would be very angry.

The Super hovercraft-

This is the main attraction in this set, It think it looks looks great in orange. Unfortunately, this part is a bit too small for my liking. The box art makes it look quite bigger than it really is. Unlike some, I think the lime highlights are fine, as is the rest of the color. The front is really empty, I think they should have kept the harpoon from the preliminary image.

Front-

Side-

Back-

I think the way they made the rotor is almost genius, I never saw anything like that in a set. It is really well built in the back, where the gears turn the propeller.

The only slightly complicated part of the set.

More views-

The control panel, thank goodness its printed. It would be cool if we had a new print, that one is seen a lot.

Bottom- I've wonder about the blue tiles, and I think they are either cheaper, or to blend in with water.

Overall set-

Here is the overall set, I think it is really good altogether. Solid, fun, and easy to play with. You wont get bored with them, unless you don't like flick-fire missiles. Well if you don't, just take them off, it's that easy.

Ratings-

Parts- Some fun and useful parts included, but some are very dull and common. The accessories included are excellent, but there could have been some more.

Minifigs- Great selection, two unique figs, and one common. Dollar Bill is a creative excuse to give a pimp fig, and Dyna-Mite is pretty plain other wise. The red bob-cut almost looks like a pre-production part.

Build- A nice but slightly repetitive build throughout. Some places things are just slapped on, and look like they did not put that much effort into.

Price- For $20, it is a fair price. 203 parts is acceptable, but I think that it could have included some thing else, like a little bit more for the hovercraft. If there was a land platform as well, I'd be sold.

Overall- 8/10

This set is fun. There are so many possibilities to do with it, and ways to mod it. I would recomend this to most, but only if you are buying this for a 'for fun' set. Besides the cool figs and parts, things are pretty shallow. So watch out, this set is making a splash into stores near you!

One day Dollar Bill and Dyna-mite were coasting down the river with their loot, pursued by Fuse-

'Ha ha, we'll make it free in no time!'

Until they saw a certain figure in front of them-

'Wha! Who is that?'

'You know who I am..,'

A minute later-

'Ouch, I don't like money that much!'

I hope you enjoyed the review!

Edited June 26, 2009 by WhiteFang
Indexed

[Spyder]

Great review Natman! I love the figs in this set. My favorite is Dollar Bill, is hair and his suit is the best. Ya know what would be really cool? If you were to put a tusken head on him. Then he could be the business tusken's assistant.

I was just waiting for you to review this set, because I saw all these pics in your Brickshelf, so I knew sooner or later, the review was coming. I agree with you about the emptiness of the hovercraft- the only reason I would buy this set is for the minifigs.

[Faramir]

Nice review! I think I'll probably pick this one up, but it's definitely not on the top of my list. I'm still not a huge fan of the Agents' new armor either... the part around the neck looks way too thick, and raises the head much too much.

Thanks again!

[cole]

This set could have been way better. The spinning fan is definitly realy cool and I think if they just added some peices along the sides and some more seats or a mounted weapon It would be a cool set. "Dollar bill" is well done, but the red hair looks ugly and cheap. I'd give it 3/5. Thanks for reveiwing.

[Batbrick]

Thanks for the review, I can't wait for this set. I'll be very glad to have another Fuse hair and Dyna-Mite is a very cool fig. But it's Dollar Bill who takes the cake for me, easily one of my favourite figs of the year, though I don't much care for the dollar sign on his back, I might give him a cape.

The set itself is still quite good, the dollar bills are always welcome for me as I only have four so far, and the gold gun, toxic containers and armour piece is fantastic. Still, this set will definitely need modding. Thanks again.

Batbrick Away!

[samthelegoman1]

Thanks for the review, I was thinking about buying this!

[Apache]

Nice Review, real nice. Getting this set Friday.