This set was in one of my first bulk buys, probably back in 2017. I bought that particular bin because it had 7994 in it and I still have both!

Oh yeah, I wants this one as a kid. Such a nice little playset, and that squid guardian figure is neat.

Great set! Awesome Squid Warrior minifig! ?? Surprising he can be bought for under $10!
I owned this until recently - I sold it along with the big Temple set with Poseidon (amazing fig!) to free up some money and space.
Great theme!

Since one of my kids was very fond of anything related to the deep sea I've bought most of the Atlantis sets at some point, including this. They've had a lot of fun with them too, although the torso of one of those squid warriors has just disintegrated, just like some of those stairs and hinges from 8078 Portal of Atlantis :-(
His brother liked dinosaurs more so I got him most of the old Dino range, let's just say that for the same price I could have gotten a lot more of those Atlantis sets ;-)

@lemish34 said:
"Great set! Awesome Squid Warrior minifig! ?? Surprising he can be bought for under $10!
I owned this until recently - I sold it along with the big Temple set with Poseidon (amazing fig!) to free up some money and space.
Great theme!"

At least here in the UK, the squid warrior was available in a cheap activity book. I imagine that helped keep the price down, even after all this time.

The barracuda guy was also a fun minifigure and the mouth print torso is useful for building other monsters.

I was just recently having a look at the list of sets designed by Raphael Pretesacque. So many childhood-defining sets in there, and this one is certainly no exception

The trap door never made sense to me as a kid playing with this set. No gravity to fall into it in water, after all. So, I put in a huge amount snakes in it and played that there was a current that sucked the divers down into it.

@gatorbug6 said:
"The trap door never made sense to me as a kid playing with this set. No gravity to fall into it in water, after all. So, I put in a huge amount snakes in it and played that there was a current that sucked the divers down into it."

As @Miyakan said, the structure was originally on dry land.

SUch simple yet amazing set!

@MeisterDad said:
"This set was in one of my first bulk buys, probably back in 2017. I bought that particular bin because it had 7994 in it and I still have both!"

I had a bulk box last fall (for $100 total) that included this set, the largest set of the wave 8078 , plus 8075 , 8060 , 8076 , 7978 , and 8079 all with the minifigs.

Needless to say, it was a great pick up. These sets span time. This set includes fun play features like the gates, the treasure and trapdoor, the squid prison, and the teeth-spinning, detachable squid.

If you want a Lego giant, black squid for your HP set-up, you could do much worse.

As I have mentioned before, Atlantis was the theme that got me out of my first Dark Age, love all the sets!

@StyleCounselor said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"This set was in one of my first bulk buys, probably back in 2017. I bought that particular bin because it had 7994 in it and I still have both!"

I had a bulk box last fall (for $100 total) that included this set, the largest set of the wave 8078 , plus 8075 , 8060 , 8076 , 7978 , and 8079 all with the minifigs.

Needless to say, it was a great pick up. These sets span time. This set includes fun play features like the gates, the treasure and trapdoor, the squid prison, and the teeth-spinning, detachable squid.

If you want a Lego giant, black squid for your HP set-up, you could do much worse. "

Edit: the only bad part of these sets was the rare reliance on dark red pieces.

The only fig I've ever had crack apart in the torso is, https://brickset.com/minifigs/atl007/atlantis-squid-warrior

I have this and the mini-figure of the day!

Oh goodness, this set was from back when I thought I was too girly to actually own something like this, but looking back, I really wanted it deep down. Atlantis was such a good theme.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"Why would you need to bother opening the gate when you can just swim around it!"

If playing Sierra adventure games has taught me anything, it's that there's an invisible barrier that prevents you from going past the gate unless you're going through the gate. And to do that, you have to complete a series of quests, exchanging one object for another, until you finally manage to obtain the key.

"What's Sierra?""

Cue memories of a young me stumbling across the Leisure Suit Larry box at Babbage’s in our local mall….

Ah, Atlantis. At the time I found it a bit tacky and simple, what with the Power Miners esque heavy focus on vehicles (almost always single seaters) without much interior. This set however and the later structures got my attention. But my urge was sated with the 7985 City of Atlantis set, so I never quite could pull the trigger on this one. As for vehicles, the 8060 Typhoon Turbo Sub and the 8080 Undersea Explorer are my only large ones and they're about as good as the theme gets in that department I believe.

A few years ago I became nostalgic for the theme, and I re-acquired the ones I sold off at some point (thank goodness I didn't have to do that for the City of Atlantis, which I kept around!). But even then, I didn't really feel like expanding what I had. Even now, I think this set looks neat but it just lacks that extra bit of special-ness I'd want from an underwater ruin like this.

Even though this might be one of the closest sets we've ever gotten to a lovecraft themed set. Outside of the majority of Hidden Side. Come to think of it, that theme sated my want for such a theme already too...

Maybe I'd get this one one day. But I'd rather get the HS sub set first too. And to be honest I'm currently more into Aquazone and Divers anyway. Now those were some subs and underwater landscapes! And for 2000s underwater themes Aqua Raiders has Atlantis beat too IMHO...

So ehm... Lots of competition to this one I guess.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"Why would you need to bother opening the gate when you can just swim around it!"

You clearly didn't see Obi-Wan. They totally, totally explain it. This set needs more Stormtroopers.

Have this one! And I desperately want a tattoo of the baddie in this set. The Atlantis Squid Warrior: ATL007

I was just kind of getting back into LEGO at this time, so I randomly found this on clearance back in the day, so figured I'd buy it, because I was buying way too much...

Neat set, but immediately got parted out.

One of those sets I didn’t realize I own until finding it somewhere in our house.

I loved this set so much when I was a kid! Atlantis was a great theme.

I like the opening door mechanism something out of Indy! Maybe you have to go through the gate so as not to upset the Squid (those tentacles are classified as weapons) and play hopscotch to prevent the treasure (or yourself) disappearing!

The squid in 7775 is just better in every way.

@AverageChimaEnjoyer said:
" @slosha69 said:
"That is an awesome set! Bring Atlantis back please!"

I think it would've been cool - if it hadn't died in 2015 - is for Legends of Chima to have had an underwater wave, with animal submarines and new aquatic Tribes!
And it would definitely have had heavy Atlantis influence, of course."

This sounds like it could have been a dream come true to be honest. But at least we get Chima and underwater sort of matched together by Ninjago, although it's not the same

I have this set. The structure and human minifigs I use for parts, but the Squid Lord, giant squid/kraken and white octopus made it into my display collection where they remain: https://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/AmperZand/Fantasy/sea_lord_1.jpg

@AverageChimaEnjoyer said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"Are they implying that cephalopods have bones?"

Or it's an albino octopus that they've eternally enslaved to use as a prison for the unfortunate..."
I believe that in universe, the white octopus is a living creature. The lance piece connecting it to the main structure is a prop to keep the octopus in a floating position. It doesn't have any in-universe meaning. The box art and, if memory serves, marketing material at the time of the set's release depict the octopus as a free creature.