Random set of the day: Alpha Team Navigator and ROV
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 4792 Alpha Team Navigator and ROV, released during 2002. It's one of 17 Alpha Team sets produced that year. It contains 111 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$10/£7.99.
It's owned by 2,455 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $48.00, or eBay.
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32 comments on this article
Crazy how many specialised pieces there are on this set.
I own this, but I have absolutely no idea what happened to my instructions. I literally only have the outer most pages; just the front and back. The rest of the pages are just gone. I was always good about keeping the instructions to my sets, I kept them neat and tidy, but for whatever reason, this one lost all the important bits.
"Mum, can we have Nintendo R.O.B?"
"But we already have Nintendo R.O.B at home!"
Nintendo R.O.B at home:
anyway, didnt realise you needed downforce under the sea...
For the Sea Claw 8, they decided less claw is better claw. They were wrong.
Weird. I just got this set in the mail today.
@Worrissey said:
""Mum, can we have Nintendo R.O.B?"
"But we already have Nintendo R.O.B at home!"
Nintendo R.O.B at home:
anyway, didnt realise you needed downforce under the sea..."
Downforce specifically? No. But it could also represent a control surface. Subs frequently have something akin to pectoral fins and flukes, which can be used to control pitch the same way control surfaces on an airplane do.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Crazy how many specialised pieces there are on this set."
Even crazier that I don't think any of them were made for this set specifically. The designers got creative. At first glance it doesn't look like it has a bunch of specialised parts.
I picked up a bunch of these Alpha Team sets on clearance. I really liked how creative they were. But I guess this one was more popular, because I never saw it and didn’t get it.
Cool set. I was in my gray ages back in early 2000's. Star Wars was the big thing, so I got into that.
@Miyakan said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"Crazy how many specialised pieces there are on this set."
Even crazier that I don't think any of them were made for this set specifically. The designers got creative. At first glance it doesn't look like it has a bunch of specialised parts."
They had to get rid of Jack Stone parts somehow.
I wanted to get this one, but I just couldn't look past the fact that it was a submarine with gigantic gaping holes in the sides of the cockpit.
Like, I'm not a submarine engineer, but that seems problematic.
The highlight of the Alpha Team underwater lines were Ogel's mutant cybernetic sea monsters. They were cool. The subs belonging to the heroes? Not so much.
Except for the mecha. That thing was dope.
Despite showing its age (as mentioned above, Mission Deep Sea sets have a bunch of specialized elements found primarily in Jack Stone), this is a fun little sub and probably the best shaped one from this series. The print on the ROV appeared only in one other set, making it quite rare. Back then as a kid, it was a standout set for me due to its clever shaping and, decades later, it ended up being my first purchase from Alpha Team. Damn I love that winscreen print.
You reckon they were called Alpha Team because they were getting all the prototypes and were basically doing the alpha testing? It’s Beta Team who get the properly sealed submarines
Tee Vee (the R.O.V.) can clip in the back. And it has the stuff needed to suit up Cam for a dive if needed. And it comes with her (now dark red) hairpiece, which is quite cool. The other Mission Deep Sea sets did that as well so they all still had an alternate hair or hat piece.
Like all Mission Deep Sea sets it also came with a comic in the instructions that showcased the set and at least one of its alt builds.
Overall a fun set, albeit a specialised build and a sub with open sides. I'll chalk it up to willing 'sub'spension of disbelief.
It looks how Aquanauts phase 2 should have looked like.
@Miyakan said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"Crazy how many specialised pieces there are on this set."
Even crazier that I don't think any of them were made for this set specifically. The designers got creative. At first glance it doesn't look like it has a bunch of specialised parts."
Interestingly enough, looks can be deceiving. Because when you look at the inventory on Bricklink or Rebrickable, of the 49 different part types in this set, only four or five are actually specialized pieces that are a bit rarer. The rest is standard fare. But it certainly doesn't seem like that on the finished set.
What I wonder is why it says here that the set contains 111 pieces and 1 minifig, when going by the instructions it's 89 pieces, and that already includes the pieces that make up the minifig. Yes, the set included three spare parts, but even with these included you don't get anywhere near 111.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Crazy how many specialised pieces there are on this set."
You could give them credit though for actually being designed for something entirely different (unless you refer to the prints). Both the spoiler and the large grille parts were actually meant for cars in Jack Stone (and TLG loved to reuse them everywhere in 2002, it seems).
The flexible yellow rubber piece on the "smaller sub" (it's actually supposed to be a character) originated in RES-Q to allow helicopters grab on to stretchers. It also saw use as bridle for the Kaadu in Star Wars.
The small sub as mentioned is actually Tee Vee - the Alpha Team's robot (so by Bricklink's standards this should be a "minifigure"?). Tee Vee is noticable for looking very different each time he appeared - originally he was a TV screen with legs underneath (thus his name I guess) in both the videogame and the original wave, than he turned into this sub for Mission Deep Sea and later he gained a more humaoid form for the final theme Mission Deep Freeze. He even has his name printed on the slope in this set! Oh, and he can be clipped on to the large gap in the back of the main ship.
Cam (or "Cosma" as she was called earlier) here might be the first minifigure with a dark red head accessory/hair. It looks quite nice with that almost fully dark blue minifig. Unfortunately Cam breaks the color scheme of Alpha Team minifigs, as she should have one arm in red to match the color coding of the other members (red being Cam's color designation; in the video game she was the "motor expert").
Oddly though there were 3 sets at once in this same box size/price range as this set in Mission Deep Sea for 2002 - Ogel's Mutant Killer Whale and Mutant Squid were equally sized. Also 2 versions of this box exist (not counting regional variants): The original dark grey one with "submarine plating" and a plain blue one for the 2003 re-release (when Lego tried for a brief moment to fit all minifig themes under the same brand, like the did with "Legoland" or "System").
had and loved this as a kid, the parts use is inspired. Those elements are brilliant play and build starters for kids, the design team really knew what they were doing.
I'd forgotten the M:DS had a Tee Vee version.
Re: the comments that this sub isn't fully enclosed, "wets subs" are actually a thing, even if uncommon. The canopy still has a purpose, for streamlining or to protect the diver from the "wind resistance" of going through water that's much more dense than air. Though I wouldn't suggest piloting one without one's airtank on.
@Zordboy:
Weird that the orca with robot arms makes more sense than the tin can that can sink on demand.
I would also assume that the gaps were left there on purpose, given how difficult opening the cockpit would be if the curved bricks would be turned 180 degree.
It seems odd that they made this cockpit shell so fitting to the wedge slopes, but never considered how to open it in such a constellation.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Crazy how many specialised pieces there are on this set."
As if modern Lego sets are any better
Another old familiar face! The third and last Mission Deep Sea set I owned (after the smaller two hero sets), I remember buying this one from Legoland Windsor in 2005, on my family's annual trip there as my birthday treat. On the one hand, I'm not sure why I didn't get something that was more recent at the time... then again, I suppose even back then I had a stronger connection to certain themes, and I liked Alpha Team a lot for its characters specifically. Plus, seeing a set around that I'd had my eye on for a few years, and thought I'd otherwise have missed my chance to get, was always exciting. Add to that, Cam was my favourite of the Alpha Team (another in my childhood "always favouring the engineer characters" streak!), so perhaps it was a more obvious choice for me than it first seems...
Or at least, her original design from 6774 was my favourite. While all the AT members had their 2001 outfits updated into wetsuits for MDS, for most of them this just consisted of the torso design being printed on dark blue instead of black, sometimes with a few minor tweaks, a different leg print that was shared by the whole team in different colours, and for some of them a new face print that, while having some differences to the original (e.g. giving Flex hair), was still recognisable as the same character...
Not Cam. Her outfit got a complete overhaul with next to nothing in common with her original design, she got coloured eyes instead of the standard black dots and did away with her glasses, AND got her hair darkened from the bright red it had been originally. While I was pleased to have a version of the character, I never got attached to this design of her like I did her original; and I'm definitely happier with the classic version of her who I bricklinked most of the pieces for a year or so back ^^
@Atuin said:
"I would also assume that the gaps were left there on purpose, given how difficult opening the cockpit would be if the curved bricks would be turned 180 degree.
It seems odd that they made this cockpit shell so fitting to the wedge slopes, but never considered how to open it in such a constellation."
There are four stud notches on the front “corners”. It also has enough slop in the click hinge that you can hook a fingernail under the forward side edge.
Sigh...miss those arms...don't get me wrong; I do like the advancements TLG has made in 'elbows', 'knee', and the like (basically 'bendy parts':)), there was just something fun in these parts...:)
@PurpleDave said:
" @Atuin said:
"I would also assume that the gaps were left there on purpose, given how difficult opening the cockpit would be if the curved bricks would be turned 180 degree.
It seems odd that they made this cockpit shell so fitting to the wedge slopes, but never considered how to open it in such a constellation."
There are four stud notches on the front “corners”. It also has enough slop in the click hinge that you can hook a fingernail under the forward side edge."
Works well if it does actually use a click hinge on the back (or the back is exposed enough like on the Nitro Pulverizer).
For models without any of those it becomes problematic (not dramatically, but still somewhat annoying).
I dont think keeping her scuba gear outside the cockpit is a hood idea.
@Atuin said:
"Works well if it does actually use a click hinge on the back (or the back is exposed enough like on the Nitro Pulverizer).
For models without any of those it becomes problematic (not dramatically, but still somewhat annoying)."
I haven’t done anything with those in years, but I did build a 6-wide monorail that used those top and bottom at both ends, with a layer of plates and the 1x6 curved slope and inverse curved slope filling the gaps on the side. No hinges, top was connected with eight studs (2x2 at the nose, and 1x2 in each rear corner), and I don’t remember it being a challenge to crack the cockpit open. Granted, I wasn’t a kid at the time, so it’s not like I was scrambling to put minifigs in and take them back out every hour, plus I had hands with adult size and strength, so I may have felt very different if I had those as a kid.
Really cool set.
At the time of its release I was totally away from Lego. Just turned 17 at that time and Lego wasn‘t on my mind. But that where still the good times of unique Lego IPs. Nice One :)
This was my first Alpha Team: Mission Deep See set! Lots of play value with the detachable Tee-Vee and click hinge arms.
This is the set that made me realize LEGO was going through rough times.
Like, yeah, the juniorization of Town started in 1997... and Pirates had no new sets in 1998, or Castle, and Space came to its conclusion with Insectoids in 1999... but I loved Adventurers, and Ninja, and Knights Kingdom, and Star Wars, and Rockraiders--even 2001 had some good Star Wars and the first run of Alpha Team.
But 2002? Mission Deep Sea felt like a huge drop-off from Alpha Team's first year: figs, colour-scheme, set design... it was the first theme I didn't buy LEGO's hype on at all.
And then they sat in stores for years--I only bought one (4790) in 2002, but the spent a lot of time in discount-land, so I ended up getting most of the wave--either because *I* was lured by the deep discount ($30 for 4795? Sign me up!) or because my mom thought discounted LEGO was the best kind to feed the LEGO-devouring monsters she'd created.
I did get this one--a Christmas present in 2003, I think. I didn't have much first year Alpha Team, so this has been the "real" Cam for me ever since.