REVIEW: 60066 Swamp Police Starter Set

[WhiteFang]

Hello everyone,

I have been doing some random reviews lately, in the beginning of year 2015. Oh well, I have been buying some small to medium sized sets in retail stores lately, not only making sure that I can qualify for the free gift. At the same time, I am also want to sample some of the new sets that have been released so far since January 2015 which I hope to bring and share some of my thoughts with the Eurobricks Community.

In this case, this reviewed set is part of the City Starter series. It begun in 2013 through the release of the 60023: LEGO City Starter Set. This year, we are seeing distinct City sub-themes, like the Swamp Police, Fire Service and Construction. This is also the first time where a similar concepts of battlepack is being introduced in LEGO City with the range of four minifigures to build a quick scene in the City layout. The price is much affordable and inexpensive than some of the licensed equivalent. Without further ado, let me bring you the highlights of this small starter set.

Name: 60666 Swamp Police Starter Set

Theme: LEGO System / City / Swamp Police

Year: 2015

Pieces: 78

Minifigs: 4 minifigures

Price: USD $9.99, GBP 8.99, EURO 9.99, SGD $18.90

Resources: Brickset, BrickLink

Join the LEGO® City swamp police in a high-speed boat chase!

Help! The crooks are making an escape aboard a raft loaded with stolen goods and must be stopped! Board the high-speed swamp boat, start the engines and give chase! But keep an eye out for the hungry alligator lurking in the swamp! Includes 4 minifigures with assorted accessories: 2 police officers and 2 crooks.

• Includes 4 minifigures with assorted accessories: 2 police officers and 2 crooks

• Features a boat, raft, alligator and a hideout

• Accessories include a walkie-talkie, binoculars, spider, 2 paddles, snake, shovel, handcuffs, torch and 2 banknotes

• Power up the awesome swamp boat

• Join the high-speed boat chase!

• Swamp boat measures over 1” (5cm) high, 3” (8cm) long and 1” (4cm) wide

An original box image of the 60066 Swamp Police Starter Set

Back view of the original box image of the 60066 Swamp Police Starter Set

The beginning of the new LEGO Swamp Police 2015

This set is similar to a battlepack and it is a starter set which it allows the builders to have a head start in their minifigure assortment of the same theme. This set is created to expand and complement the new LEGO City 2015 Swamp Police Theme. This set is all about cops and robbers but instead of happening in the bustling city. It has went to the swamp settings where these criminals will hide their loot deep in the swamp and it is up to the specialised police department in the swamp division to clean up the mess. To be honest, I bought this set because I wanted to have a good feel of how good this theme is as LEGO City Police is kind of an evergreen sub-theme and we had seen many variants of police divisions made available in LEGO City.

The content of the sealed box

The sealed box comes with two mint packages and an instruction manual to guide the user to build up the set. After the building is completed, these are the remaining spare parts. Once the packets are opened, I will poured and mixed all of the elements together. There are also some of the useful elements made available in this small set. The minifigures accessories such as the bag, 100 dollar printed bills, spade, new-walkie-talkie design, handcuffs, spade and oars, which are very welcoming parts to pass it to the minifigures configuration. The red spider and snake is also equally welcoming as well.

The full range of the minifigures in this Starter Set

These are some of the main reasons on why I choose to get this starter set. You get a total of four minifigures which include two crooks and two police officers. The crooks are nothing too spectacular even though I could see that the designers are trying hard to make it a little different from the usual prison wear, but still look the same to me. On the other hand, the police officers consist of one male and female which worn different khaki police uniform. I am very pleased to see a female police officer in this set instead of just the boring looking male police officers. All four minifigures have back printing and the torso for the female police officer is excellent as the vest show the 'Police' wordings clearly.

The completed built of the high-speed swamp boat

This swamp boat design is very nicely done. Well, if the polybag design can be as good as this, I supposed it will probably be snapped up pretty fast. This high-speed swamp boat also include a printed Police tile and it make good use of the parts very well which enable the police officer to keep his binoculars and walkie-talkie safely while on the move.

Going off fo my usual patrol routine

The completed built of the boat raft

I don't know what to say after I have built this boat raft. It is just a mesh-up of some wooden bricks to form a very basic raft. I am not very fond of this design and it seems very random built to me. Oh well, it did achieve the purpose of building a getaway raft which probably get caught eventually, since it only depends on the paddling oars.

Where am I heading to? Ah yes, my hideout

The completed built of the hideout

The hideout is very easy to build. Well, it will take an imaginative mind to imagine that this hideout is in a deep swampy settings and that will require lots of landscaping for the setting up of this diorama. With the newly designed alligator, red spider and red snake, it does attempt to give others that this hideout is being managed by these dangerous creatures. I supposed the risk of these dangerous creatures is worth it in order to keep the loot safely.

Ahhhh!!! Where did that alligator come from?

How can I outrun you?

The fun actions that you can put together in this Starter set

To conclude, this set is a nice initiative where you are kind of able to army build police officers and crooks altogether at a much lower pricing. The accessories given in this limited amount of bricks is also equally decent. The pricing is also quite affordable even though I prefer to buy it during sales. I supposed this set will only attract those who are keen to build a bigger Swamp Police Team, but if you love this theme, the amount of sets released in the LEGO Swamp Police will probably be alot of minifigures for you. Instead, I think it is much suitable for people like myself who doesn't want to collect all of it and yet wanted to see how this Swamp Police theme will look like. Oh well, perhaps in actual fact, it was just a convenient excuse for me to just snap this set, all for the love of the newly designed alligator.

Summary review

Playability: 7/10 (You could put a simple cops and robbers settings but with lots of imagination involved.)

Design: 7/10 (Good design of the high-speed swamp boat, but the rest of it is pretty average.)

Price: 7/10 (Price is reasonable as compared to other similar licensed battlepacks or equivalent in general.)

Overall: 7/10 (Nice set in general and I could definitely recommend you to get it if you are into this theme.)

I gave it a "4" based on my Review Score Card. What about yours?

I hope every one of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine. Comments and Criticisms are strongly welcomed.

Pictures can be found in My Flickr.

[Graham Gidman]

I might get this for just that beard...

[talos]

I had to laugh at that beard on the crook minifig too.. Visions of Lego gone "Deliverance" Haha..

Nice review, lots of closeups gives a good idea of what is included.

[SMC]

I love these starter sets and paying £9 for the gator is much better than how much you had to pay for the two bears in the last couple of years. Will be buying all the starter sets just to add to my town line up.

[lightningtiger]

Oh, dam it.......someone said "Deliverance" before me......seriously he does look a little like Burt ?

Thanks 'Fangy' for the review......I wasn't going to consider any of the swamp cop sets.....but this one, the figures might be handy and that's the only good thing about it - four minifigs for a low price !

I forgot to add there a croc too.......best value set of the new starters.

Brick On Review On 'Fangy' !

[WhiteFang]

Thanks guys for your thoughtful comments.

I love these starter sets and paying £9 for the gator is much better than how much you had to pay for the two bears in the last couple of years. Will be buying all the starter sets just to add to my town line up.

I certainly agreed with you. I wanted the bear as well which only appears in the Forest Police, but it is only made available at pretty expensive set and I didn't want to spend too much on those, just to get the bear. It was a pity indeed.

I forgot to add there a croc too.......best value set of the new starters.

Yes yes! That is the main reason, as in why I chosen this starter set over the others.

[alex54]

I have bought this set yesterday and I notice that the head of the policeman has brown bear en the box and instruction but come in black in real. Nothing really bad, because I already have this head in brown, so it's always welcome to have some diversity in colors.

It seems that it's a little mistake from LEGO.

By the way, it's a nice little set if you want some bad guys and an alligator without spending so much money!

[Lordofdragonss]

Good review, but I think you should focus on new croc/aligator some more. There are many interesting new titbits about this guy.

[legofanatic12]

This set is much interesting because they include a female swamp officer and a bearded male crook.

Too bad, they don't include the new female crook in this set instead they just put the same male crook with bag on his back from the Swamp ATV set.

The new female crook is included in 4 Swamp Police sets that is worth more than $19.99.

Edited March 7, 2015 by legofanatic12

[AFOLguy1970]

The value seems good. You get 4 minifigs, a creature, and other parts for $10. It certainly is a cheap way to get a few minifigs and an alligator. The two crooks remind me of Zeb and Zeke from the original Scooby Doo series where they had a mystery to solve in the swamp.

[Japanbuilder]

Late to the party, but better late than never.

I am putting together the entire series still (2 sets to go) and I got two of these. For someone like myself who liked the design aspect of this series this set is a must.

It really helps boost your population for the swamp and gives you figures you can use in the very empty police vehicles (the station alone come with 4 vehicles and 2 of them are two seaters). I would have liked different hair pieces for the sets though as after just a few sets your swamp theme will be populated by triplets and quintuplets all in the same line of work too!