Review: 76997 Tails’ Adventure Boat
Posted by SetToBuild,
The first of the summer wave of Sonic sets is aptly summer-themed, and features a new pod-launcher mechanism integrated into the hull of Tails’ pleasure boat, which simultaneously pulls Sonic parasailing behind. You hadn’t heard of the Sea Fox II? Neither had I! Let’s take a look after the break…
Summary
76997 Tails' Adventure Boat, 393 pieces.
£49.99 / $54.99 / €54.99 | 12.7p/14.0c/14.0c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Expensive for a non-canonical playset with no exceptional features.
- Many printed elements
- Integrated action feature
- Slightly contrived boat concept
- Very expensive
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
Sonic appears unchanged from the previous form in the 2023 wave, with a specialised head and dual-moulded legs with detailed printing for the boots. I haven’t always been a fan of head moulds, but these are well-executed.
Sonic’s torso printing could be better—LEGO still needs to improve the consistency of opacity for pale prints on dark backgrounds. It’s particularly noticeable as his arms are moulded in light nougat, and his stomach is clearly intended to be the same colour, but isn’t.
Tails is very similar to the 2023 form which introduced his iconic twin-tailed piece moulded in soft plastic, but he now sports a new winking facial expression. One day I hope to see a Tails figure who can actually spin his tails for his signature move.
The lack of opacity on his torso is apparent, but not as jarring as Sonic’s. It’s also disappointing that the medium-height legs weren’t used to allow a running pose—although Tails is shorter than Sonic, it’s only by 20cm, at least in the original material.
The Tocky, a small turtle-like animal, was introduced in last year’s Sonic wave and uses a reprint and recolour of the LEGO Friends baby turtle mould. As is typical, this poor small animal is sought after by Dr. Eggman to use as a living battery power source for his evil Badnik robot minions.
The pink piranha-like Jaws is this set’s enemy. On the box graphic, it’s labelled Jawz—LEGO appears to have confused this with the similarly-named Jawz, which is a long, narrow blue shark Badnik. True to the Sonic universe, the Badniks always have space to store a captured animal, but it’s usually contained within. Seeing the animal riding on the back of the enemy gave me a chuckle.
The form is fairly recognisable but isn’t as strong as prior Badnik designs. I don’t quite understand the decision to include medium-sized articulated left and right fins rather than small fixed top and bottom fins. A rotating propeller might have been a nice touch.
The Completed Model
The set consists of a fairly substantial pleasure boat build and a mid-sized piece of landscape. The Sea Fox II seems to be a LEGO invention—I couldn’t find any references to a vessel larger than Tails’ original single-occupant nuclear-powered submarine, the Sea Fox.
This set features an abnormal amount of excellent printed elements and not a single sticker! Highlights are the yellow Winamp-looking 1x2 tile and a wonderfully nostalgic throwback to Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine for some onboard entertainment. Tails can’t be gaming on an empty stomach, so there are plenty of snacks to fuel up: a slice of orange, a biscuit and some Chaos Cola.
As has been pointed out before, windscreen pieces are still badly scratched more often than not these days.
Sonic waterskiing is a little unexpected, not least because canonically he can’t swim (fun fact—this is because his creator thought incorrectly that hedgehogs couldn’t swim). It’s a good thing he’s got a life jacket on! As demonstrated in the action feature, characters can run on water, so the skis are slightly superfluous…
The landscape build offers an arch to run through, with three rings on top and a shield item box. This ring element is no longer particularly rare following its introduction last year, having now appeared in several Sonic sets as well as others like 43252 Moana’s Flowerpot. The palm tree has a pleasing silhouette, and sits beside a small rest area.
Huw discussed these ‘speed sphere’ pods in detail in this article when they were introduced last year. It’s a shame that the pod holds the figure around their neck rather than their waist, which makes it feel more like a medieval torture device than a protective whirl of speedy movement.
The pod sits securely in its position until needed. To deploy it, press down on either lever towards the bow of the boat. The intention is to launch the pod through the arch, but this is harder than it looks!
The mechanism opens the boat’s prow, giving it a sleek catamaran-style look, and launches the pod forwards. The story here is slightly confusing: the boat’s pilot, Tails, gets into the pod and runs off across the water’s surface? Poor Sonic is hopefully not still parasailing at this point!
The Jaws doesn’t come with the transparent stand that flying enemies do in other sets. This is an understandable omission due to the height difference next to a boat, but means it’s left to slightly awkwardly swim along the ground, and can’t be dramatically knocked over by the pod.
The set has a satisfying collection of printed 1x1s as spares. Plus, the extra eye provides a good expression for more Badniks or a bored Cyclops!
Conclusion
The minifigures carry this theme, with well-designed renditions of recognisable characters. The overall price of £50 is high for a set with only two minifigures though, especially as they aren’t new characters. Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from the theme. The price per piece could perhaps be chalked up to the specialised moulded parts and printed elements.
It’s nice to see the pod launcher cleverly integrated into a larger build. However, the fundamental play features of the set are quite similar to 76990 Sonic's Speed Sphere Challenge which is half the price. It seems that the parts required to achieve this have pushed up the price beyond what’s reasonable, especially since the boat itself is not a recognisable vehicle from the Sonic universe.
I’d certainly hope for a discount before considering it. Will you be buying this set, or for the seafaring eight-year-old Sonic fan in your life?
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12 comments on this article
I think this boat may at least be inspired by the Canyon Cruise stage in Sonic the Fighters, which happens to be Tails' home stage in that game. A pretty deep cut as far as the games are concerned.
@ToxicAtom said:
"I think this boat may at least be inspired by the Canyon Cruise stage in Sonic the Fighters, which happens to be Tails' home stage in that game. A pretty deep cut as far as the games are concerned."
A stretch, but at least it's evidence of another boat in the series! I just thought they were gutsy to claim that this is the Sea Fox II!
Just by the eye test, I don't think $55 is really that outrageous. Especially for printed parts and a Speed Sphere recolor!
I was wholly disinterested in this set until I saw that Mean Bean / Puyo Puyo print.
I do like the updated Tails face print; the previous graphic design and positioning was too "furry" for my liking. It does continue to be a little weird to see the 'Modern' character designs with eyelid-less winks, though. There's precedent for it in the 'Classic" designs, but the wink face print variants thus far have been exclusive to 'Modern' style minifigures. Hmm.
@Alia_of_AGL said:
"I was wholly disinterested in this set until I saw that Mean Bean / Puyo Puyo print."
I had no idea that print was in there. I cheered when I opened the bag! LOL
This is a cute set, though it is odd to get a non-canonical boat when thanks to Sonic Racing Transformed there are a good half-dozen character-themed boats from an actual game to choose from. Though I suppose those couldn't have had a fun Speed Sphere integration, so...
Absolutely the biggest disappointment here is that Sonic is still just as bug-eyed in this set as he was in 2023. I had hoped that with Sonic being absent from the January wave, and with both Shadow and Super Sonic getting flawless eye prints, that LEGO would've fixed that particular issue, but alas.
I agree that it's odd to have Tails dash out of the boat with nobody left to pilot it, it does feel like the set is missing a third minifigure to fill that role. I think Big would've fit the theming of this set perfectly, but being more realistic this would've been a good way to get a new face print for Amy or Rouge. As-is, the value here does feel worse than other Sonic sets from this year, at least to me.
I really like the design of the boat, and the fact that they're all printed pieces actually makes me want the set even more.
You're much more lenient on these sets than I am lol. The Badniks designs seem to get worse each time—which is no mean feat—although should the boat be based (as I also concluded, largely due to a lack of competition) on Sonic the Fighters then I think that's such a bizarre deep cut it deserves to be applauded. It's actually my favourite Sonic game.
Since I picked up the Lego City sailboat set recently I can’t really justify this, although I respect the play features added to the boat itself.
Really reminds me of 41433 Party Boat , a lot of similar colors as well.
@Rabrickzel said:
""Tails’ pleasure boat"
whoa what?!"
LOL Yep! I learned that boats used for recreation are called that here in the UK. "Whatever you say, Google!"
@TeriXeri said:
"Really reminds me of 41433 Party Boat , a lot of similar colors as well."
Whoa!!! It's very similar! Good eye!