Review: 60095 Deep Sea Exploration Vessel
Posted by FlagsNZ,
Last year, I put together a special display of the LEGO City - Deep Sea Explorers sets which was shown at the Auckland Brick Show.
The City theme has been awarded 2015's Best Theme category in Dr Dave Watford's Gimme Awards 2015 where he made special mention that one of the better City sets of 2015 was 60095 Deep Sea Exploration Vessel. Many Brickset members commented on various aspects of the Deep Sea Explorers sub theme in the Brickset Awards.
I have posted reviews of my 60090 Deep Sea Scooter, 60091 Deep Sea Starter Set, 60092 Deep Sea Submarine and 60093 Deep Sea Helicopter sets in my User Reviews page.
Read on as I conclude my reviews for this theme by looking at the 60095 Deep Sea Exploration Vessel.
See whether this set is worthy of a special mention for the City sets of 2015.
Box and Contents
The set comes in a large box for a City themed set. The image on the front shows the vessel Explorer-6 on the sea surface with a diver in a shark cage being investigated by a shiver of sharks. There are three divers, operating three submersibles, checking out a deep sea wreck. A deep sea diver is working away on the wreck.
There is a note on the front of the box which reveals that the vessel and rubber boat really float.
The rear of the box has smaller images showing many of the play features of this set. There is so much play versatility because the set has a great range of vehicles, minifigures, sea creatures and a ship wreck.
The set is divided into four instruction books. Books 1 and 2 are smaller than the other two books; they make the smaller components of the set.
Book 1 makes the remote operated vessel (ROV) and a scoober scooter along with the four sharks and two scuba divers.
Book 2 makes the submersible and the shark cage.
Book 3 makes the Deep Sea Explorer Vessel Explorer-6.
Book 4 makes the deep sea wreck.
There is a moderately large sticker sheet. On this occasion I have applied a selection of stickers to this set as my five Deep Sea Explorers sets were used as a display stand at the Auckland Brick Show.
I don't normally apply stickers to my sets.
The vessel's racing stripe, name and bow number have been applied as well as the diver-down flag.
The parts come in eight numbered bags. Bags 1 and 2 are for books 1 and 2. Bags 3, 4, 5 and 6 make the deep sea vessel. Bags 7 and 8 make the wreck.
There are also the following parts loose in the box:
- the assembled blue hull,
- one 16M medium stone grey chain,
- twelve 6M dark stone grey chains,
- an 8x16 dark stone grey plate,
- two sand yellow 16x16 plates,
- a mountain top in dark stone grey,
- a mountain bottom in dark stone grey, and
- four black ship's bow sections.
Parts that are unique to this set or theme are:
- the assembled blue hull,
the two yellow plates with frame used on the shark cage,- the two crane arms in dark stone grey, and
- the clear cockpit dome.
The assembled hull appears in red is 60109 Fire Boat released this year. The red variant does not appear in the parts database.
Minifigures
There are seven minifigures in the set.
There are four scuba divers; two male and two female divers. One diver carries a remote control for the ROV while another diver has a camera.
The scuba diver has a distinctive dry-suit that has a torso print that includes pressure gauges, regulator, air hoses and diver's weights. The torso, legs and red fins are new in the Deep Sea Explorers theme. The torso and legs are printed with a red and black dry suit.
Only two of the divers come with fins.
There is a deep sea diver, the boat's skipper and a crew member.
The deep sea diver is wearing a special suit designed to protect him from any hazardous environment. He has dive weights and buckles on his suit and he operates a gas cutting torch. The orange dive suit is new for the Deep Sea Explorers theme.
The skipper is wearing a blue jacket over a brown turtle necked jersey. The blue jacket has an anchor badge on the left lapel. He has a blue officer's cap. This is the first time that this torso appeared but it has been seen this year in 60119 Ferry set.
The crew member is wearing a brick red turtle neck jumper underneath an orange vest. He has a small radio in the vest pocket. As it gets quite cold at sea, he is wearing a brick red beanie. The torso is unique to the Deep Sea Explorers theme while the beanie is in a new colour.
The rear of the torsos continues the prints:
- The diver has a special dry-suit watertight zipper, air hoses and more divers' weights.
- The crew member has a Deep Sea Explorers logo is printed on the back of his vest.
- The skipper's blue jacket print continues on the back of the torso.
- The deep sea diver has weights and a buckle printed on his back.
Sea Creatures
The deep waters that surround LEGO City are infested with a variety of shark species. There is:
- a white shark,
- a small tooth sawshark, and
- two grey reef sharks.
All shark species are facing population stress. White sharks have been protected in NZ since 2007.
The set has an Octopus in New Dark Red. This is a relatively rare creature and has only be seen in three sets; two in the Deep Sea Explorers theme and in 6240 Kraken Attackin from 2007.
The build
The build starts by making the small ROV. This robotic submersible is controlled by the scuba diver holding a remote control. The ROV has a small robotic arm, camera and lighting.
The next stage is building a scuba scooter. The scooter has a crow bar and hammer clipped on the sides.
Book 2 starts by building the submersible. This is vehicle is not pressurised so it must be limited to a shallow operating depth.
The twin motors pivot and the submersible has two medium length robotic arms.
The shark cage contains the scuba diving photographer. He has some cuts and bruises on his face so maybe getting up close to shark shivers can be quite a risky occupation.
Book 3 makes the Deep Sea Exploration Vessel Explorer-6. There is a bunk space under deck for two crew members.
There are two beds with bedside tables, lamps, a hot drink and a newspaper.
As this vessel floats, it is likely that it will be played with in a pool or the bath. There is a small hole right forward of the bow so any water that gets inside the hull can be easily drained out.
While the blue hull comes built with the dark stone grey deck attached, these two parts are not glued together. They are held together by clips that easily detach so the blue hull and grey deck could be separated and gently cleaned.
The wheelhouse is made like a modular building. The deck house can easily be detached to reveal the bunk space below.
There is a ship's wheel, radar navigation equipment and engine telegraph on the front console. To the rear are controls for working the aft deck and crane.
A pair of binoculars is stowed by the wheelhouse door. Man overboard life rings are available on each bridge wing.
The build continues with the bridge top or monkey island. Up here can be found the navigation lights, satellite dome, radar scanner, radio aerial and twin funnels.
Next is the A Frame crane which is built with the crane's foundation, winch, and controls. The crane extends over the vessel's moon pool. (Technically a moon pool is a sheltered opening in the hull and not exposed to the elements as in this vessel.)
The crane raises and lowers the shark cage.
The completed vessel with orange RHIB stowed on the fore deck and the wheelhouse in place.
Book 4 makes the deep sea wreck. The round 1x1 orange tile holds up the wreck's accommodation block. This is connected to the golden stairs with a Technic axle.
The wreck has a very asymmetrical build. This is what you would expect for a ship that has been rusting away on the sea bed for a while. There are two chests in the hold full of bullion.
There are wrecks on the sea bed with enormous amounts of treasure.
The accommodation block is added along with crane arms in dark stone grey that make up the wreck's foremast. Foliage completes the scenery.
The accommodation block is held up when the golden stairs are in; pulling the stairs out makes the accommodation collapse into the cargo hold.
The completed model
There is a striking resemblance between Explorer-6 and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute research vessel Tioga. Have a look through their 25 slide presentation for this vessel.
Here is our skipper at the helm of Explorer-6.
When the vessel is on station, the skipper can operate the A Frame crane.
This lowers the shark cage down.
Since there are divers in the water, it is important to signal to other vessels to keep clear. The diver-down flag is displayed on a dan buoy.
The set comes with three distinctly different submersibles.
The scoober scooter can be operated by one diver and is a different design to the scooter found in 60090 Deep Sea Scuba Scooter.
The smallest vessel is the ROV which is controlled by a diver using his remote.
Finally there is a non-pressurised submersible which can bring divers down and use the robotic arms to take stuff up to the surface.
The Deep Sea Diver is working on the wreck cutting up and removing parts of the hull.
Our brave dive photographer is filming the shiver of sharks for a documentary.
Explorer-6 has a racing stripe on each bow. Many research institutes and coast guard agencies have their own distinctive racing stripe for brand identity and the Deep Sea Explorers are no different.
The Deep Sea Explorers logo is made up of three parts; the most striking feature is the anchor with a foul hawse. In most nautical badges, the foul hawse is either a rope or a chain; in the Deep Sea Explorers badge the foul hawse is a red octopus tentacle.
A fouled anchor was the personal seal of Lord Howard of Effingham, who was Lord High Admiral at the time of the Armada.
Underneath the fouled anchor is the four points of a mariners compass. This is used in many logos of organisations.
Finally there is a view through a submersible porthole.
These three parts together make the badge of the Deep Sea Explorers.
Navigation Safety
LEGO prides itself on maintaining the highest ethical standards. It is a shame that there are some technical flaws in the navigation safety of this vessel.
The vessel has port (red) and starboard (green) navigation lights on their respective bridge wings. Technically, these lights should have been at the extremity of the vessel but this is a minor point. There shouldn't be a second set of side lights on the main mast.
The masthead (white) light must be on the centre line and not offset as shown here. The masthead light could have been positioned at the top of the mast instead of the aerial.
A vessel engaged in underwater operations is Restricted in Her Ability to Manoeuvre (RAM).
RAM vessels must display a black ball-diamond-ball signal by day and red-white-red signal lights at night in a vertical line.
The vessel's fog whistle points every way other than in the mandatory forward direction.
As the crew member will likely be used to drive the orange RHIB, there should have been a life jacket available for him to wear.
I feel that it is important that small power boat operators wear life jackets while they are in these boats: it is very easy to be knocked off the boat as it rolls and pitches about in a seaway.
Carriage and wearing personal floatation devices are covered by local regulations and the company's safe management systems. I am sure that Deep Sea Explorers would have made wearing PFDs in their RHIBs a standard practice.
A slim buoyancy vest was developed by LEGO in 2010 and it has been used in 35 sets since then. Unfortunately it is not included in this set.
I used the older life jacket that has been used in LEGO sets since 1990.
I thought this was important to have the crew member correctly attired as the display could have been seen by the 18,000 people who attended the Auckland Brick Show.
The set comes with a white flag which has a red and white diver-down sticker applied to both sides create the diver-down signal flag.
This signal is predominantly used in USA; quite a few other countries use International Code Flag Alpha instead. I think it would have been better to include two white flag pieces and have both sticker options available.
There should have been an International Code Flag Alpha displayed from Explorer-6 as well.
A quick search in Brickset using the word diver reveals that LEGO used to make sets with both the red and white diver-down flag and International Code Flag Alpha. It is a shame that this practise was not used in this set: had LEGO done so, the set could appeal to a more international customer base.
These are all small flaws, and really only noticeable at a technical level. This could have been an opportunity for LEGO to creatively build some of these features into their sets and educate the next generation of youngsters in the principles of safety in the workplace.
Overall opinion
Despite the very minor points mentioned above about flaws in the navigation safety, I really like this set.
When this set is viewed alongside RV Tioga, there are some remarkable similarities compared with the real world version. There is a great variety of vehicles that can be used for Deep Sea Exploration.
I like it that both surface vessels float in water. I do not know whether that would affect the long term adhesion of the stickers.
There is a great selection of minifigures but only two of the seven are female.
The main purpose for the vehicles in this set is oceanographic research, more emphasis could have been given to research tasks rather than treasure hunting by including some crabs, fish, lobsters, or starfish in the diorama.
The wreck has some real play features and I like the fact that there is an element of danger by having the wreck collapsible.
This set is still available from shop.LEGO.com: USA | UK | Canada | Germany | France
My Deep Sea Explorers display
Christine and I had a kiosk at the Auckland Brick Show where we sold Blocks magazines and subscriptions.
Blocks issue 12 focused on a nautical theme and included some historical articles looking at LEGO's undersea sets. This issue also included my article for 10241 Maersk Line Triple-E container ship.
It was easy to sell the magazines as we had a visual link between our display and the magazine on sale. Christine and I sold the most Blocks subscriptions outside of the UK at this show so we can confidently call ourselves Blocks International Sales Team for 2015.
The income from our sales was used to buy the base to a 1980s arcade game that Christine won at a Pixels movie pop up kiosk. Christine won one of the smaller table top machines by getting the high score for classic Donkey Kong and we bought the neon cube that the unit sits on.
30 likes
29 comments on this article
Great review, thank you David.
It's a shame that attention to detail has marred the set slightly: it would have cost LEGO nothing but some research to ensure the vessel met maritime standards.
Perhaps the company needs a maritime consultant!
An excellent, detailed review. "Exploration" themes seem the most interesting in entire City catalogue. This one and Arctic are definitely some of the best so far.
Very enjoyable! I picked this up half price a couple of months ago, and cracked it open last night.
Did you know that you had one of the "grey clamp 1x2" pieces on the side of the boat the wrong way round though?
Great review: very educational as well! I couldn't help but click through some of your very informative links. Not too sure this vessel looks all that much like the Tioga. To me, it looks like it's more inspired by a Damen Research Vessel. It looks pretty good anyhow: I especially like the bunks, although that area could be built up a little more: space is at a premium in most ships! Also, I dislike the fixed A-frame, which would have been handier if it was moveable, with some more deck area left free to place the various submersibles and the shark cage. Personally, given the size of the hull, I'd probably have moved up the bridge further forward as well to create some more deck area at the rear end. And it's a shame the shipwreck isn't more easily modable into a functioning ship.
Congrats with your sales efforts for Blocks as well!
I never knew that a red flag with the white stripe meant "diver down"
Suddenly the meaning of that Van Halen album cover becomes clear
This site is so educational
I love how the section about safety standards, correct lighting and flags is almost as long as the enitre review. Would love to see you do a review about the new prison set.
Bit too much technical guff for my tastes. It's a children's toy. But a decent review. Would have liked to have seen the front of the orange diver torso.
Yeah a lot of technical stuff. But I'm surprised the set even used a real diver down flag pattern at all! :) Plus being Lego... Mods can be made to increase accuracy.
Admittedly a very minor niggle, but the Yellow Plate With Frame 4X4 you mention as being unique to this set was actually also used in the old Divers theme from 1997 for its shark cages. I know because I owned several sets from that sub-theme :)
I really like this set, but I don't like the poor variety of animals included, at least compared with the old Divers line. I really miss a manta ray or dolphins. There's too many sharks in my opinion (I know its for kids but anyway disapointing for me).
For Americans who want this set after seeing this review, it is only $92.23 (23% off) at Amazon.com.
Loved the additional technical info & links and the Lego review proper itself. Nice to see a bit of variety in review styles. Easy enough to ignore the maritime info if wanted to. Need a volcanologist to review the up-coming Volcano Explorers theme next.
Good review, I for one like the attention to detail and quest for accuracy. Does anyone know, or have tried, if you can have two of these new hulls back to back and connect them somehow? It looks like they slope slightly and have a slight lip at the deck, but if it could be done, it would allow a large ship hull with a proper moon pool. Let me know!
Great in-depth info! (Pun intended.) Wonderful photography, too!
Furthermore to this theme, having read your review of 60093 deep sea helicopter, you identify it as a CH-46 sea Knight. I believe it is actually meant to be the much larger CH-47 Chinook. As it has the distinctive quad landing gear. The civilian Chinook 234 has a heavy lift capacity of 27,000lbs, or 12,258kg.
Thanks for all the supportive comments.
I disliked the fixed A-frame as well: I would have preferred that it pivot up and down.
I will add a front image of the orange diver torso later today; one without the helmet in place.
I see that the Yellow Plate With Frame 4X4 has been around for a while.
I agree that the CH-47 Chinook is a better match for 60093 Deep Sea Helicopter; I have edited that review to reflect the better comparison.
I quite like this set, there's a lot of interesting play features. It's too expensive for me, and I wouldn't use the boat hull for much, sooooo.... no buy for me. *shrug*
Very enjoyable review--thank you!
Wow... what a review ! Excellent.
Wonderful review and ove the pictures!
My 6 year old got the set (most of the range actually) and loves it. I also used it to make a display for my son's under the sea birthday party. I look forward to tell him all these interesting facts you wrote about later!
Good review! I have to admit I did not think much of the sub theme, but after really looking at it, it really seems like a good line. I picked up this set and 60096. IMO LEGO really hit a home run with the Arctic line and now this line.
Excellent review and I've wanted this one for a while. Thank you!
I really enjoy the different styles of reviews at brickset - just compare this one to Lucy´s of 76052, which I loved... :)
I welcomed a return of a divers subtheme to the lego city. But to me the range is lacking detail compared to the sets of 1997. I am lucky to own several of the old sets and prefer them to the new ones.
I really like the wreck in this set, but - here and especially in the other sets of the range! - there is simply not enough underwater landscape! Just compare this set to 6560 and you will see what I mean. Then also take a look at 6558 and 6559!
Overall I do like this set, but to me unfortunately it and the whole range could have been better. The only thing I really dislike here, is the big hull of this set and of the new fire boat. It just seems too wide and looks absolutely strange.
Great review David. Thank you for the information. Its a lovely set but the theme isn't one for me. The boat should also have rounded smooth plates added to the underside of the hull for gliding across carpets....
Cheers for the torso picture Flags, that's a nice looking fig!
To stick with the tone of the article, I have a small gripe of my own:
"The shark cage contains the scuba diving photographer. He has some cuts and bruises on his face so maybe getting up close to shark shivers can be quite a risky occupation."
Well, no. For a start, he's got a scuba mask/helmet on, so his face is protected. Secondly, he's in a cage, so 'protected' from the sharks. Thirdly, I don't think any underwater photographer worth their salt (pardon the pun) would really get injured in such a situation - the BBC's recent 'Shark' documentary series had a grand total of 0 incidents involving sharks, despite some VERY close filming of sharks such as Great Whites. So it's not really a case of getting close to a shiver of sharks being dangerous (as long as you know what you're doing and are taking all reasonable precautions - though diving itself is quite dangerous), it's more a case of it's just a face they used and it's kinda silly to think it reflects on the job he's doing.
But otherwise it's a good review, and comparing things to their real life inspirations can be interesting.
^ Thanks for the comments; they are all are valid and yes I had thought about the fact that the dive mask offers protection to the diver.
I think that because there are so many divers in this theme and four in this set that LEGO used the injured minifigure face to distinguish the four divers.
TioBella made a valid comment in a User Review that there could have been an extra crew member for Explorer-6 instead of four divers which I also agree with. Perhaps a female crew member as seen in the Woods Hole slide show.
http://brickset.com/reviews/49907
This is honestly one of the best reviews i've read of a Lego set ever (and I've read hundreds over the last year). The enthusiasm for the sets subject matter shines through in your writing, and makes me appreciate what I already thought was an excellent set even more. I enjoyed your very specific comments on ways the set could be made more accurate, and provide a good reference for people to easily customise the set. The in-text hyperlinks to real-world examples of what the set represents also put this review above anything else I've read. Very professional work, it feels like you should be getting paid for this level of detail.
^ Thanks for your very encouraging comments.
I have found that my review style has evolved through writing these posts and magazine articles. My other reviews before becoming staff at Brickset are found here:
http://brickset.com/reviews/author-flagsnz
I look forward to your comments in the future.