Review: 8633 Agents#4: Speedboat Rescue

[starstreak]

This review will be on the 8633 Agents: Speedboat Rescue.

Quote from Lego.com-

Agent Trace has been captured by Dr. Inferno’s henchman Break Jaw…and he’s about to feed her to his laser-guided cyborg sharks! As a LEGO Agent, it’s your mission to save Trace with the help of your gadget-loaded super-spy speedboat. Detach the mini-sub and take Break Jaw by surprise!

To quote Dr. Evil when receiving a present from his son "Are those fri&%in' sharks with fri&%in' laser beams attached to their fri&%in' heads?" That's right, you too can become Dr. Evil as Lego give you two Sharks with Lasers and missiles attached to them!

Set Name: 8633 Speedboat Rescue

Theme: Agents

Released: 2008

Pieces: 340

Price: $40.99 (I paid $47.99)/27.87pounds

Here are some quicklinks Bricklink, Brickset, and Lego S@H.

Wanna see some pictures? Let's start with the normal box arts and manuals!

Box Art

Front of the box. The picture is the same as the manual. Do not try this at home though, as there are holes in the boat and won't float like some other water sets.

Back of the box. I like the layout. It does show all the different things this set can do. Your actual use will vary.

The Manuals

The two manuals. I think they could've done it with one, but I'm guessing they wanted to keep this set easy to follow. Some pages only had one thing to connect.

The parts bags

You can see the sharks. Ouch! The jaws are detached. A few pieces are loose.

Sticker sheet

Nothing special. All stickers are pretty easy to put on, except the cockpit sticker. It has skinny ends so if you put it on wrong, it'll be hard to peel off to redo. Here's something I didn't notice. There is a silver star and the number 4 on the sheet. When you buy the big set like the Command Center, you get a ID card that you can put the stars and numbers on it as your own personal set counter. Neat. Too bad I gave my card away to my son.

Spare parts

I found it interesting there was a spare antenna. Sweet. Keep in mind that spare parts are random and may not include the same things as mine.

The build

"Augh! Don't eat me! Just shoot me with the fr&%ken lasers!"

The figures and Shark is the first part. I never thought sharks would be fun, but... the jaws can be clicked open or closed so it can be left open if you wanted to. Who wouldn't want sharks with lasers.

The Subpod

The subpod. Really simple design. Nothing special on the inside.

Finished. The green sticker on the front window is what I was talking about. Make sure you have it where you want it before applying it. Mine is like 1mm off to one side. You can't tell unless you're looking right at the front. Drives me bonkers but it's ok.

The buoy

A simple process. As you can see, the buoy is hollow in the middle. It stores the hidden jetski, and trust me, it puts the mini in miniboat. They used just enough parts to hold it together and that's it. Make sure you don't put that orange piece at the back of the mini boat all the way back. It should be one stud in. If you don't, you won't be able to close the cover for the buoy to hid the miniboat. The chain on the tower is height adjustable. You'll need to raise it a notch from level or the agent will be drowning. Muhahaha!

On to the Agents Speedboat

I could never figure out why Lego uses out-of-place colors. The green you can't see once the Speedboat is built, and the red, is just barley visible.

I like the dual hull design. Looks like I built the front, but it's really the rear of the boat.

Here you see the front and back half joined. If you look at the front hull, you can see holes in the floor. So this boat won't float. Not to mention, the stickers aren't water proof. You can see the engine in the middle and that grey flap in the middle covers the storage area when you push it down. The sticker on it is a engine. I guess its supposed to be a engine but for playability, you can keep stuff under it.

Here is the other engine cover. I didn't put it on yet. You can see how it can swivel down to cover the compartment are. The other side I have raised still.

Completed. It has a "flick-fire" harpoon/cable. A net launcher on the other side with a "flick-fire" missile next to it. See finished photos for more comments.

Finished Photos

Rear photo. Here you can see the loading dock for the subpod. Pretty slick, the sides glide the pod right up to a little claw that holds on the front of the subpod. If you push on the center engine on the boat, it'll push the pod off the claw.

Front view. Here you can see (if you click on the picture for a larger view) on each of the twin hulls the words "Net storage" and "Spare harpoon". Since you can't open the hull, they made the storage under the engine flaps.

Here is a closeup behind the harpoon launcher. The engine cover is open. You can see the line for the harpoon inside. The wheel...Not sure what the use is. It folds out wards so when you shoot the line, it'll fly. When you close the wheel, it can "hold" the line, but there's no grooves for the line to stay under the wheel when you rotate the knob.

Closeup of the net launcher side. Here you can see the engine cover open and a storage area. Good place to put the net. The little red piece in the net launcher is what you hit to spit out the net. About the net launcher, it doesn't hold the net neatly. You really have to stuff it in there.

Here you can see the subpod coming in for a docking.

Close up of the front. Looks very long from this view. and you can see the air scoop for the center engine.

The whole set

A quick save for Agent Trace

"Muhaha, you're too late! You'll drown Agent Trace!" said B.Jaw.

"No! I'll save you!" said the Agent Chase in the subboat.

Boom! The hidden door to B.Jaw's hidden jetski flies open and Agent Trace lands on it! "Noooo!!" Yells B.Jaw.

"I'm an Agent! I meant for B.Jaw to tie me up. I stole his plans and I just needed a way to escape," said Agent Trace to Agent Chase. -The End.

Features

There are a few features found on this set. Most I described above. But as a recap, you do have:

Includes Agent Trace, Agent Chase and Break Jaw minifigures, plus 2 sharks! Flick-fire missiles attached to one of the sharks. A net shooter. A subpod that docks to the speedboat. A flickfire harpoon and you can use the line as a zip line. There's a minifig zip line device. The engine compartments open on the speedboat. There's a hidden jetski in the buoy.

Final thoughts

The set as a whole isn't bad. I like the design of the dual hull design and how the subpod attaches to the back. For kids, it would have been neat to make it water suitable. But with holes in the boat, that's a no go.

My rating:

(When comparing to other Agent sets available at the time of the review 4/12/09)

Playability: 4 out of 5. It is playable. I love the sharks and the design on the boat. Moving it on smooth carpet, it doesn't snag so since you can't put it in water, that's not bad.

Design: 4 out of 5. This ranks just behind the Agent Command Center. Which I also have. And ahead of all the rest of the sets.

Build experience: 3 out of 5. Easy to build. Nothing complicated and all parts was easy to join. Only not so good stuffs was the window sticker and how the net launcher doesn't hold the net well.

Overall: 4 out of 5. At 340 pieces, and paying close to $48 for it, it was a bit much. But now's the time to get it. As of today, you can get it on Lego.com for $29.99 on clearance. Bummer I bought it 5 days ago at $47.99.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

All photos are click able for larger picture sizes! You can see all photos including some not used here: 8633 Speedboat Rescue pictures

Edited April 20, 2009 by starstreak

[Big Supie]

Nice review and great pictures.

Offtopic:

Which camera did you use for taking this pics?

[starstreak]

Nice review and great pictures.

Offtopic:

Which camera did you use for taking this pics?

Thanks! I'm happy you liked it. You can always see more pictures of other Lego stuff I have on my flickr site. Just click on my link below.

A couple. I think, and don't quote me on this, but I was using either my Canon 40D or my Canon SD870 IS. I think it was the SD870 IS for this review. Btw, it's not always how good the camera is that makes the picture. I noticed alot of times, it was easier to shoot with the SD870 IS than my DSLR.

[prateek]

good review i like the set too. the only problem for me is how agent trace can see out of the window infront of that huge missile

[def]

Since Agents were pretty much unavailable in Japan, I only got my first set last December on my trip to Canada, and I have to say, it's a fun, well-designed series. This is an interesting set, thanks for the comprehensive review... But no poll?

[Big Cam]

I'm glad this review got nbumped becasue I've always wondered where the new bigger sharks came from. (I obviously didn't care enough to look the up, but I digress)

Good review, pics are what I'm used to fro you, great quality showing all the goods.

I must say the playability of this set looks to be a 10/10.

[samurai-turtle]

I will add my $0.02. I mostly got this set (on clearance) for the sharks and Agent Trace, the bad guy was a nice addition too.

[squidman85]

I very like this set,and all 2009 agents sets,but i never saw them in stores.

[lightningtiger]

Great review 'Starstreak' - thanks for doing it.

I didn't realise that the cockpit detaches from this COOL set - dam I should have got one when on clearance in Kmart last year.

Excellent design with a harpoon gun too - SWEET !

Again thanks and I'm a conformist! !

[CMP]

Lol...BJaw.

[WhiteFang]

Lol...BJaw.

You revived a review, by writing a very unusual comment? Kindly explain the above, what does it meant, because it appears spam to me..