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6353 Coastal Cutter
Name: Coastal Cutter
Theme: Town/Nautica
Year: 1991
Pieces: 175
Minifigs: 2
Price: USD$19.00
Box (picture taken from peeron.com)
THE REVIEW:
This is my first set review outside the LEGO Pirate world. My other reviews have all been of classic Pirate sets.
Lagoon Lock-Up Rock Island Refuge Skull's Eye Schooner
This Coastal Cutter was one of my last sets before I entered my dark age. As a result, it is in quite good condition which should make for some nice pictures of the set and its functions.
THE MANUAL:
The front of the manual has a marine-like design with the yellow rope acting as picture frames. It is simple yet effective.
Random page
As you can see, the manual is quite easy to follow, with seperate building steps, as seen on this page.
THE INTERESTING PIECES:
I like stickers, and have never understood the whole DSS problem :) - I, for one, love to place the stickers as accurate as possible, so this set was perfect for satisfying my needs to place stickers on numerous bricks.
The windows on this cutter are pretty cool, and have a great blue colour to them. I like those more than the non-coloured transparent windows in other sets.
I like the design of the small motor for the motor boat.
THE MINIFIGS:
You get two police officers with this set. One for each of the boats.
Both of them have a life jacket, while one has a white police hat, and the other sails around with his hair blowing in the wind :)
Take a look at their police uniform. It's not as detailed as the current police uniform, as you can see to the right.
Also, the two minifigs in this set has the classic face. The newer police officer looks tougher. I guess he must have faced a lot more trouble in Legotown in his years of service, compared to his 1991 colleague.
THE BOATS:
Motor boat:
Great little boat, with clever a design
Cutter:
I am in love with this design, and I think that the design makes this boat fit in with today's LEGO sets. It does not look like it's from 1991 at all.
Front:
Front, cockpit
Side:
Back:
THE COCKPIT:
Great design no doubt. Look at all the details in such a small space! The white tile with the print is really great, as is the black phone.
THE CRANE:
In order to pull the small motor boat on board the cutter, you'll need to use this wheel on the side of the cutter. It's situated just below the cockpit, and it is one of the greatest simple things I have ever seen in a LEGO set.
When you turn the wheel, it pulls back a red crane with a hook. This hook will grab onto the device on the motor boat's front "hood".
A few TECHNIC pieces and a rubber band are used in order to make this work.
Almost there...
Ahh - we're ready to sail back to our headquarters
THE DESIGN:
As mentioned earlier, the design is what I love most about this set. I really do feel that this set could be sold today, and no body would notice that it was designed back in 1991!!!
The colour scheme is flawless all around. All colours work well together, and the windows, lights, alarms, etc etc all go great together, making this set one of LEGOs very best in this category of sets.
These other boats from years close to 1991 are also pretty timeless in their design:
6483 from 1994 (although this actually looks a bit chunky)
6596 from 1995
6679 from 1991
VERDICT:
Design:
10/10 - Flawless. The design is contemporary, the function of the crane is perfectly done, and the colours are great.
Playability:
8/10 - Two minifigs (both police officers) are not "enough" - maybe a minifig in need of help, or a robber on the run instead of one of the police officers. The crane and the fact that there are two boats in one set, makes up for this.
Parts/Build:
8/10 - There are some great parts in this set: the "wings" with stickers. The red crane, and the cool windows to name a few things. The building process is easy, yet interesting: You get to build two boats, and you're challenged a bit when you get to the part with assembling and making the crane work.
Price:
10/10 - I think that a set like this, with two minifigs, two boats, a crane, 175 bricks and the sheer quality of the design/colour scheme makes this set worth every penny.
This concludes my first non-Pirate review. I hope you enjoyed it :)
Edited by Lorentzen, 16 September 2009 - 08:05 PM.
I love the mechanism with the wheel.
It's a really beautiful ship. The hull is only six studs wide, but the ship looks quite large, not just a regular patrol boat. Maybe the best ship with a six-wide hull ever released. I've spend a lot of time playing with this one, and I still have regret to have lost the stickers. 
