ZO6

Zombie clowns - for when regular clowns are not creepy enough? Some lovely photography! These new minifigures will really open up the possibilities for different mocs and of course opportunities to take pics of them.

The new house definitely looks like a perfect addition to ANY town/city layout. Nice to see that it appears to be built on a 16x32 baseplate. I love the amount of details that are present - both inside and out.

I stopped into my local TRU today to see if the new Toy Story sets were in stock and I was pleased to find they were. They seem to be the same price as listed on the Canadian S@H. Not a bad sale that's on either, but unfortunately most sets that I want to pick up don't apply. Also, disappointingly, the $79.99 marked down to $69.99 is only for four of the sets (Neptune Carrier Sub, Technic Log Loader, ARC-170, Wind Turbine Transport), not all of them.

The Aquanauts must harvest the all-important hydrolator crystals to power their deep sea base - the Neptune Discovery Lab, as well as their subs, or risk being annihilated by the fearsome Aquasharks. What will be the outcome? I've waited fifteen years to get this set. Now that I have a MISB copy, what do I think of it? Info Set # - 6195 Name - Neptune Discovery Lab Theme/Subtheme - Aquazone/Aquanauts Year - 1995 Piece Count - 495 Minifigures - 4 Price - MSRP $89 US Links Brickset, Peeron, Bricklink, Brickshelf Box The front of the box shows the Aquanauts hard at work in their base. This is set against a lovely deep sea background. At the top right we can see the Aquanauts logo: The back of the box features a handful of alternate models. Since this is a large-ish set, some of the alternate models are quite elaborate: By lifting the front flap of the box, we can see close-ups of some of the different parts of the base. We are also presented with a story to set the mood - "Explore the ocean depths as you, the LEGO MANIAC, team up with the Aquanauts in search of the precious Hydrolator crystal that provides oxygen for the underwater world. But be on the lookout for Aquasharks! They will stop at nothing to take all the Hydrolator crystals for themselves!" Below this flap are some clear plastic windows to allow you to see some of the contents of the set. Some interesting parts are displayed in a plastic tray at the center: Instructions The front of the instruction manual features the same picture as seen on the box, however the additional info is missing: The back of the manual features some close-up pics of various set functions. At the top right is a little tab that would have been cut off and sent in as part of a LEGO Magazine subscription request: Here is a random page within the manual. There are no piece call-outs, so you'll have to pay close attention to where parts are added during each step. There are several sub-models that are put together during the course of the entire build. Colour differentiation is perfect: Pieces The majority of the pieces are found within these 9 bags: These are some of the other parts that were loose within the box: There is also two large raise baseplates. Though this style of baseplate does appear in other sets, this is the only one to feature this underwater pattern: Here are the contents of four of the bags. These are the large and medium sized parts: This is the contents of another four of the bags. These are mostly the smaller parts: The last bag contains some of the largest parts, including the door frame arches that the trans-blue doors will eventually be attached to: Remember the plastic display tray that was shown off in the box? Here is a close up of its contents: Onto the parts of interest. The set includes a large number of trans-blue windshields, canopies, and panels of different sizes. The large trans-blue hinged doors are exclusive to this set. There is a large quantity of the yellow octagonal bricks, which come in 5 varieties here. There is one yellow corner panel wall piece that is only found in this set and Eldorado Fortress. The large yellow octagonal cockpit is a rare piece, and can only be found in yellow here. The crane bucket assembly has not been used much in modern times, and this is the only set that the piece appears in a colour other than yellow: There are not stickers in this set, instead we get these lovely printed parts. A number of these can only be found within the Aquazone theme. Note: There should be two of the yellow computer slopes here but I had not discovered the second one when I took this picture: Here are some of the accessories. We get lots of good old fashioned chrome harpoons and knives, 3 chrome crystals, a working compass, and 3 magnets: Minifigures We are provided with four Aquanauts to populate the base. They all feature lovely printed torsos, complete with the Aquanauts logo on their chests. The head with the headband print can only be found in around 8 sets, while the head with the green sunglasses is exclusive to the Aquanauts subtheme. There is no printing at the rear, so all the minifigures look like clones : Here is the team with some of their gear on. There are two types of visors - the trans-blue ones, and the black ones. There are enough flippers for the four minifigures, though I've only given them to two of figs at the moment. At the back, their equipment features clips that accessories such as knives of harpoons can be attached to. It would be easy to overlook these guys when compared to say the flashy new figures in the Atlantis theme, but upon closer inspection the Aquanauts are actually nicely detailed and suit the subtheme perfectly: As far as sea creatures go, there is one black octopus. This guy is quite compatible with other LEGO parts: The Build We start things out by assembling the sub. The base of the sub is designed to fit nicely on a landing pad that will be constructed later on. Note the trans-orange headlight brick, this will be used in one of the play features: The sub is built up some more. A cockpit complete with a computer is added, and arms are attached. The 3x3 black slopes are used to create a storage area for crystals that can later easily be access by the crane bucket (the rear two slopes are actually in the wrong place here and need to be place back one more stud): The arms received attachments in the form of a pincher hand, and magnet. A hinged hatch is placed over the storage area at the rear of the stub, and some accessories are clipped into place: With the front canopy, hinged panels mid-ship, propeller and compass, and other details added, the sub is now complete: Here are some extra views of the sub. It is not the biggest vehicle in the theme, but considering it is just a support vessel for the base, the sub is pretty well designed. With only one propeller, the sub seems underpowered, however one could imagine that the octagonal pontoon bricks are water jets to help with propulsion: Construction of the base structure can now begin. We place the two base-plates side by side and add some supports at the rear. The long slopes at the center of the image will later be part of a play feature: We rotate the base around and build up the main structure a bit more. The interior of the base is equipped with a computer, and the modified 1x2 plates with handles will be used for attaching flippers to. Some black plates are clipped onto the bottom of the yellow gate and block the slopes mentioned with the previous pic. As part of a play feature, crystals will eventually make their way down into the hole where the slopes are. When the yellow gate is raised, the crystals will come sliding out: At the left of the image is the beginning of the landing pad for the sub. At the top right is support for the soon-to-be-added conveyor belt: Here is a close up of the conveyor belt sub-model. The chain is driven by rotating the round 2x2 brick at the rear: The conveyor belt is now in place. We can also see tiles angled to create a chute to guide crystals that fall off the belt down to holding area mentioned earlier. At the opposite end is a small area to place a crystal box that can also be filled using the conveyor belt: At the front of the base a small fueling station is added. This will be used as another play feature (more on this later): Supports for a small secondary control tower are put in place (bottom right). We can also see that the main base structure has been built up more, and a hatch has recently been placed: The base is really taking shape now. Looking at the left of the picture, the landing pad for the sub is now complete. The large arched door frames are put in place, as is the octagonal cockpit piece that makes up much of the control tower: This is how the base currently looks from the back. We can see the knob that is used to operate the conveyor belt, a second hatch leading into the main structure, and above that a little control station: The large trans-blue panels have just been added. I quite like that the designers of the set made the effort to make the base somewhat water tight. Just up from where the flippers are attached, we have a better view of the control station that is perhaps used to operate the conveyor belt or the soon-to-be-added crane: Around at the front of the base, the lovely large trans-blue doors are added. Above theses, a turntable for the crane is placed: Here is a close up of the sub model for part of the crane. When the octagonal cones are rotated, the boom of the crane is raised or lowered: The extension on the boom is added, and is finished off with the bucket. The bucket features a spring that makes it snap shut after it is opened and has picked up its load: With the crane finished, trans-blue octagonal canopy added to the control tower, and some coral placed, the base is now complete. The two baseplates take up a fair amount of real estate, and though none of structures are incredibly large, it still feels like the space has been well used. As you can see, the main structure only takes up the rear/middle portion of the base, however the supporting landing pad, control tower, or fueling station give the set a complete look: Leftover pieces. Nothing terribly exciting: Play Features Here is a video of the crane and conveyor belt feature: First the rear of the sub must be opened. The crane can be used to grab the crystals from the storage area and then drop them on the conveyor belt. Operating the belt in one direction drops the crystal into a container which can then be sent off for use elsewhere. Have the conveyor belt operate in the opposite direction and the crystal gets sent into the base to have its powers extracted and then disposed of down the chute. Open the doors and raise the gate to let the used crystal tumble out. At the front/center of the base is the fueling station. The octagonal trans-blue canopy is hinged allowing the placement of a crystal box. Attached to this is a hose and nozzle. Remember the trans-orange headlight brick on the sub? Power from the crystal contained in the trans-orange box can be transferred through the hose and into the sub via that headlight brick: The cockpit on the sub can be opened revealing the controls and allowing the placement of a minifgure: Climb the ladder and open the canopy to gain access to the control tower. Inside is a computer tile, clips for accessories, and plenty of room for a minifigure: The large front doors on the base are on hinges, allowing you to swing them open and get inside the structure: Around at the side of the main structure is a hatch. Use the control panel to open the hatch and get inside the base or go out to the sub: At the back of the base is another hatch which can be opened or closed: Complete Set Here we have all of the contents of the set displayed together. The sub is resting on its landing pad, and the Aquanauts are hard at work collecting crystals. The set has a very strong presence and looks incredible: Final Thoughts Pricing and Value: Unfortunately, many form their opinion of whether a set is good value or not based solely on the price to parts ratio, and at $89 US for 495 pieces this set would seem horrible. Luckily this set has some incredible parts, and the finished product is truly magnificent. I was incredibly lucky and managed to get a MISB copy of this set off of Bricklink for $90 US +S&H. This means that thanks to the current strength of the Canadian dollar, I paid less for this set than I would have fifteen years ago! However, Neptune Discovery Lab is a set that I would have gladly paid much more for - it's that good. Design/Build: This is a magnificent looking set. As mentioned earlier, it has a very strong presence - this is due to its sheer size, very cool design, and eye catching colour scheme. The set works perfectly as an underwater base, but it wouldn't seem out of place in a Space theme either. This is not a bad thing at all, it's simply a testament to the high tech look of the set. The abundance of trans-blue looks fantastic against the large amount of yellow with supporting black. The trans-orange details finish things off perfectly to create the beautiful colour scheme. The sub is sturdy and perfect for swooshing. It is nicely detailed, though I could have perhaps used a couple more props (again, one could imagine that some of the other parts are in fact jets). Construction of the base is a lot of fun as you adds parts here and there to build up the various structures. It's especially neat to see some of the play functions such as the conveyor belt come together. Pieces: Included are 495 fantastic pieces. Of these, the large trans-blue doors, baseplates, and crane bucket stand out the most. There are no stickers in the set, instead you get a wide variety of ever loved printed parts. There is a very large quantity of those yellow octagonal pontoon like bricks, but there is also plenty of more common parts such around round 1x1 bricks, and 1x2 bricks etc. The overall selection is incredibly varied and provides great MOC potential. Playability: It took me longer than anticipated to write this review because I found myself constantly playing with the set. The set provides endless fun thanks to both simple features such as opening hatches, or to more complex functions such as the working crane and conveyor belt. The sub is great for swooshing around and features a magnet arm for picking up those crystal container boxes. Verdict: I've wanted this set for fifteen years, and even though I thought I knew everything there was to know about the set, there will still so much new to discover and I was ultimately still blown away. Though this may have been the first underwater base to have been made by TLC, it may very well still be the best. 6195 Neptune Discovery Lab has everything going for it - the set looks brilliant on display, and there is an unbelievable amount of playability to be had. As always, comments and questions are more than welcome. Cheers!

What a beautiful creation! The amount of detail and polish here is amazing.

CP5670 has the problem of oxygen sensitive pieces documented here, and there is some discussion about using the peroxide here.

Thanks for this very detailed review. I've always liked liked this set a lot, and was very happy when I got around to buying it for Christmas back in 1996(?). I found the set had excellent playability, and the front of the ship always reminded me of the enterprise from Star Trek Voyager. It's too bad the model never held together very well for you, this was never a problem for me. I used to run around the house as fast as I could, swooshing the ship everywhere and the only damage ever done was breaking off the yellow antennas from time to time. The pet peeve for me with this set (and it's not really to do with the set design, but instead parts quality) is that a handful of the white pieces have yellowed quite a lot due to exposure to air. I've been extremely careful to store this big white ship out of sunlight, but some of the pieces have completely yellowed - even the sides that would have received no light at all.

Thanks for this great review of an absolutely wonderful set! I can still remember perfectly well picking up this set soon after it was released. After seeing the set featured in the recent LEGO Magazine, I headed out to the local TRU where they happened to have all the Adventurers sets on display. All the sets looked brilliant, but Sphinx Secret Surprise really caught my eye. In my opinion, this is one of those perfect sets. You get a magnificent mid sized base which is packed full of functions, and a whole range of supporting elements such as the car, camp, and tons of accessories. To this day I can still never resist taking the set off the shelf to play around with.

Thanks for this little review! I remember often disassembling Pohatu and Onua to be able to build the Fikou spider. Even though it is quite small and simple, there is still a certain charm to it.

Thanks for the review! I find this set oddly appealing. Even being aware of it's flaws, they don't make me like this set any less. I love that in a set this size you get three incredible minifigures, and horse, some accessories, and a cute little cart. I really can't wait to pick up this little beauty of a set.

Thanks again for the feedback everyone! I'll have my review of a MISB 6195 Neptune Discovery Lab up in the near future. Lots of the sets that I have been reviewing I've owned since the year they were originally released. The sets have seen better days, but for the most part they are in fairly good condition. For the past ten years I've been especially careful about the well-being of my LEGO collection. Whenever I do a review of a set, I always take it apart and wash every piece. I like to post lots of in-build pictures, so it's nice to be working with clean and shiny parts. I had decided that for the first half of this year I would concentrate one picking up sets that I still very much desired, and that is why I've done a handful of MISB reviews as well.

I love the wagon that you've made. Converting the original, more military themed Covered Wagon into a civilian wagon is a great thing to do. If the Western theme is ever revisited by TLC it would be wonderful to see more civilian type sets. There is a lot of detail in this creation, you've really thrown in everything, including the kitchen sink I'm just about done picking up all the Adventurers sets off of Bricklink that I had missed (and still wanted), and the Western theme is my next priority. Seeing these Western mocs is always a pleasure.

Wonderful creation you've got here! Just a week ago I broke down and picked up the Temple of Doom set as I wanted to complete my IJ collection - it reminded me how much I love seeing mine mocs. I really like the detail that you've packed in while keeping everything relatively compact. The captions that you've added are quite humorous as well.

"Now hold still while I properly aim this catapult..." Though I do have my fair share of complaints about the new theme, I can't help but have a craving to collect all the sets. Knight's Showdown looks to have some fantastic minifigs, and a nice little variety of accessories. Thanks a bunch for this review!

Thanks for this wonderful review! I find many modern sets to be "sterile". Some may be quite detailed, and have loads of those ever popular cheese slopes, but many lack that good old fashioned bricky feel. I realize that this set has a handful of larger parts, but I don't find it to be cheating in this case. Overall I think Forbidden Island has a nice organic feel. As you mentioned, the piece count for this set is relatively low, however each piece is used to it's maximum potential to create a fantastic looking final product. The 2009 Shipwreck Hideout has significantly more pieces, but in my opinion doesn't do as good of job of recreating a small island hideout.

I find the Islanders to be very appealing. I think what jumps out the most obviously is the bright colour scheme. I think that the reds, greens, blues, and yellows really pop against the grays and blacks. I'm a sucker for buildings and sets on baseplates and this theme delivers. I find the primitive looking structures very appropriate, and love all the details and nooks and crannies that are packed in. The minifigures are eye catching and very detailed as well. These guys are usually equipped with lots of accessories which is always a positive thing. I find the sets in the Islander theme work well on their own or integrated with other Pirate kits. As I often mention, playability is still a big factor for me, and this theme is great for messing around with and creating adventures.

All the MOCs that you've done look absolutely fantastic - they are incredibly detailed! The mods that you've done to 4506 and 7628 are great as well.

I think these are supposed to be "coming in August", but you may be able to find them at the end of June or sometime in July.

I'm not sure if I got this in 1990 or 1991, but in any case, it was my first Castle set - 6059 Knight's Stronghold

Though a rechargeable battery box would be a wonderful inclusion in these sets, I just don't see it becoming a reality. I fear it would be left out as to not drive up costs any further. I honestly see these coming with a battery box for a handful of AA batteries. I don't mind too much either way, sure a rechargeable battery box would be more convenient, but I've got literally dozens of rechargeable AA and AAA batteries anyways. Shouldn't be terribly long until we find out these details for the sets.

I know our LEGO towns are stuffed with vehicles of different sizes, but I still can't help but be excited for this set. Transport trucks exist everywhere in the real world, and I would love to add a lovely one like this to my LEGO city. I think this will also complement the new cargo train nicely.

Some of my thoughts... -Years ago, a great many of the boxes featured opening flaps. Opening these flaps revealed parts in plastic display trays, alternate views of the set, and often little stories related to the set or theme. The only way these elaborate boxes could be experienced was with them in your hands. Seeing a picture of a current box online is not the same at all. -It is not uncommon for us to find leaked images of sets 6 or so months in advance of their actual release date. For me, by the time I've pored over these images for months on end as they become larger and of higher quality, I've lost much of the excitement towards these products. When the set becomes available, it's already old news and I'm already looking at whatever else might be on the horizon. Before all these resources became available for us online, the only way we could find out about new sets was to walk into a store to see what was stocked, or by buying one of the latest sets and browsing the mini catalogs that were included. I admit I used to buy many sets that weren't particularly high on my priority list just because they were new and I desperately wanted the newest catalog. -Another one of my biggest regrets (and guiltiest pleasures) is seeing all the functions, details, and contents of a set in advanced.. Over the course of time in which pictures are leaked, for each batch it becomes easier and easier to spot and learn everything there is to know about a set. By the time you can buy the set, you know everything about it and there are not longer any surprises. I'm a sucker for play features, and there was nothing I enjoyed more than building a set and discovering all of it's functions as I progressed. Sure the boxes often showed off some of these features, but many were still left to be discovered by the builder. Same goes for finding a new piece that you had never seen before in the set that you just opened, and knowing what new parts were going to be in sets months prior to their availability. I love the internet, Eurobricks, and other sites that allow me to catch up on the latest and greatest in the LEGO world, but this hobby will never be the same for me with these resources.

That mount is used in the alternate model.

Ugh, up at 3am to watch the race (the only replay was at 5am for some reason, so I figured I'd watch it live), but it was one heck of a battle - against both nature and machine! Wow, what a lot of pit stops! Considering the starting gird, I did not expect things to finish the way they did. Despite a bit of questionable driving here and there, I'm happy with a 2nd place finish for Hamilton and a 4th place finish for Alonso. Good to see Renault have quite a solid race as well. Overall a great race

Thanks for the review Prateek! IMO, your review serves the old saying "you can't judge a book by it's cover" quite well. I would have overlooked this set due to the images on the packaging, but when it is built it looks considerably better. I also think it looks more attractive with the stickers left off, as you have it.