With Pharaoh’s Quest out of the way, now I can concentrate on catching up on all those great Lego Atlantis sets that I’ve missed out on. Today, we’re taking a look at one of the little guys. The Wreck Raider is another one of the zillion little one-man submersables that populate this line. Whether on their own or part of a bigger set, there’s been a lot of them. Does it have what it takes to stand out of the pack? Let’s see.
The Wreck Raider weighs in at just 64 pieces and comes in a standard Atlantis themed box. Inside, you get an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and two unnumbered baggies of bricks. The 64 pieces include the Wreck Raider vehicle, two minifigs and a Treasure Key. There are a lot of really tiny pieces in this one, but it didn’t take me very long to get it sorted out and built.
The minifigs include a diver and a Shark Warrior. I’ve come a long way since I first started building the Atlantis sets and wasn’t all that thrilled with the fish figures. Now I’m really digging them and the Shark Warrior is one of my favorites. He comes with a trident. As for the diver, I forgot his name and, and let’s face it, if you’ve seen one of the Atlantis divers you’ve seen them all. This one has a green tinted visor on his diving mask and green flippers. He’s a great figure, but these guys are getting more than a little redundant for me now.
The Raider itself is easily my favorite of all the small one-man subs in this line, but then it’s also a lot beefier than Atlantis’ other efforts. Unlike the Ocean Speeder set that is about the same brick count and also includes two minifigs, this set doesn’t come with the extra scenery pieces, so instead all of those bricks got invested in the vehicle itself and it shows. The design is both cool looking and functional, with two pivoting propellers on the back and a pair of flick missiles on the front. I would have liked if this sub had an actual seat instead of just a pair of handlebars to hold onto, but I’m getting to the point where I probably have enough Atlantis themed bricks to make that happen if I want to customize this baby. Either way, this is an awesome little no-nonsense sub that’s ready to raid some wrecks.
This little Wreck Raider set is a great example of how to do one of these little sets right. You get a great vehicle, a couple of minifigs and an artifact for them to fight over. Maybe it’s a little unfair to Mr. Shark Warrior that he’s got to contend with a missile-firing submarine, but my point is that there’s still plenty of play value here in such a tiny little set.
FigureFan Zero 