Random set of the day: Crab Crusher
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7774 Crab Crusher, released in 2007. It's one of 7 Aqua Raiders sets produced that year. It contains 590 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$49.99/£34.99.
It's owned by 1851 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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37 comments on this article
That small robot by the skeleton kind of looks like a submarine Wall-E
Interesting theme , like an older blend of 3-in-1 brick built creatures, and somewhat larger City vehicles as seen in 2015/2020.
Especially a set like 7773: Tiger Shark Attack , and then sets 31088: Deep Sea Creatures and 31090: Underwater Robot from 2020
One of the sets I wish I picked up, purely for the submarine that actually looks like a submarine.
I love love LOVE this set. Sure, the giant mutant monster crab was kind of terrifying ...
... but in my humble opinion, that submarine is one of the greatest submarines Lego has ever sold. You've got the torpedo housing in the front (in the breakaway section that functions as a secondary mini-sub), you've got a well-designed interior with plenty of space for minifigs as well as tools and diving gear, and the upper section of the sub where you can store the little robot.
I'm a sucker for underwater themes, and while Aqua Raiders was a little hit-and-miss? This set was sublime.
I miss aquatic themes like this. Atlantis was part of my childhood
Aqua Raiders was the best! And that's coming from the Star Wars nut. Seriously, these sets were so cool, I loved the whole theme, bought all seven sets of the line, and I was so sad to see it end after half a year.
I remember one of the old games on LEGO.com or a trivia section on the theme page stated that Aqua Raiders was set in the Bermuda Triangle, which is why there were so many skeletons, treasure, and then the supernatural element of gigantic sea creatures. There wasn't much story beyond that, none of the minifigs had names, but I thought the theme had a lot of potential.
And as bonus trivia, in regards to this set, the trigger to launch the missile is different in the image than the actual set. The images use a 3L gray axle and a gray ball used for Technic characters, such as Bionicle and the Technic Star Wars figures, but what you actually get is the combined part of the small ball and axle, the same scale that would later be used by Mixels. I always found that interesting, and personally, I wish we had gotten the design from the image. I don't know why, but I just like it more than the official set.
Well, there goes my $1000 I bet yesterday lol.
This looks like an awesome set. When I first saw the name, I thought maybe the yellow sub thing crushes crabs, but now I’m guessing it refers to the green thing, which is a crab that crushes other things, like yellow subs.
Love this yello submarine. Great interior. Good build.
This is my favorite set from aqua raiders, and also one of my first sets. I love aqua raiders, it’s one of the only themes I have all the sets to.
Legend has it The Beatles are still evading the Crab to this day...
Aqua Raiders had a pretty cool aesthetic.
I used to call this a "killer" Lego set, along with 7775 and 8635. (I owned all three, of course, otherwise I wouldn't have a strong opinion.)
2000s slang was so weird.
Also, in the Lego Batman I videogame, a recolored black-and-white version is the Penguin's submarine in a boss battle. Sadly, you instead unlock for play the 7885 Penguin's Submarine which was coincidentally (or not) the random set a few weeks ago.
I didn't collect any of the Aqua Raiders sets but now I regret that I didn't. This is certainly a good looking sub. Not to mention the great crab design. I think I can build one with my spares...
I had a few Aqua Raiders sets growing up. I always liked this one for the realistic-looking submarine but never got it. I have the Agents sub from a few years later, which is also great, but this one will always seem so cool.
Is that a submarine which actually looks like a submarine?
My, what happened LEGO?
I don't see any crushed crab here. Someone didn't do their job.
I don't know if this is an odd opinion, but I thought Aquazone and Atlantis were both better than Aqua Raiders. None-the-less it was an epic theme and I loved all the giant sea monsters!
Is the submarine yellow because it's full of melted butter for the crushed crab?
I miss underwater LEGO themes. Aqua Raiders and Atlantis were both amazing lines in their own right. Great submarine and sea monster builds!
But of course, LEGO can’t do anymore underwater themes nowdays, because only the oversized Ninjago bikes, jets and mechs are selling well I guess.
I was more interested in Mars Mission in that time, but I thought this theme was cool too.
Had I been able to afford it, I would have gotten it.
This looks awesome, but I don't know this theme at all.
Oh that gives me Subnautica vibes... Has anyone ever made an LEGO ideas for that? I have to look into this.
Very creator style build using bricks and wedges with no large vertical panels made it easier to create alternative builds especially with a generous 590 pieces at a reasonable price. I liked the way the side walls hinge upwards to allow play in the inside which is nearly all hollow apart from the torpedo at the front (which has a clever vertical pin to engage). The robotic sub also docks in the tower so that you don't lose it. Although at the time most people may have over-looked and purchased the slightly more expensive 7775: Aquabase Invasion.
Found this half the price on a Toy's Us back in the day, such a great set, always loved the underwater themes!
@Norikins said:
"I used to call this a "killer" Lego set, along with 7775 and 8635. (I owned all three, of course, otherwise I wouldn't have a strong opinion.) "
8635 is hands down one of the greatest LEGO sets ever. Even LEGO knows this, they’re still rereleasing it today (even though Agents unfortunately didn’t stand the test of time). 76160 is one I’d like to pick up if I can find it on sale.
Not very environmentally friendly to crush crabs, poor things.
Oh well, I'm off to join my friends for Weasel Stomping Day...
;-)
My Aqua Raiders sets ranking:
https://brickset.com/sets/list-35230
Aqua Raiders was a theme I loved when I was young but I never got any of the decent-sized sets. Looking out for them on Bricklink. If I get one it will probably be this one.
Very strange how I just rebuilt this the other day... I guess Huwbot is evolving telepathic powers.
What a cool set, I missed this theme.
I remember wanting many sets of this series but they werent released in Poland...
This has absolutely nothing to do with the article, but I'd like to let the Brickset staff know that the LEGO "rebuild the world" campaign just put out a holiday add titled "And I think to myself... that's the 2020 LEGO holiday season ad" and at around 0:42 we see a line up of Classic Spacemen with brand new purple and brown colors!
Paid £5 for the sub and various other bits at a boot sale but didn’t get the crab! Might have to retrieve it from the shed and give it a clean up.
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@MCLegoboy:
The type of part you're thinking of is commonly referred to as a "towball", because one of the common early uses for that diameter sphere was for tow hitches on minifig vehicles. They may have switched to that because someone realized it was a simpler solution, or because the Bionicle ball was prone to losing clutch if left attached too long, or they just wanted something less obtrusive.
@Isabella_and_Lego_Liker:
Is it too late to take you up on that bet?
@CarolinaOnMyMind:
That would be a "crusher crab", not a "crab crusher".
@Norikins:
I kinda remember wondering about that sub. It clearly wasn't anything from the Batman/DCS themes.
@TheWackyWookiee:
Not really. None that I've seen, at least. Subs tend to be a lot narrower. I've seen tube-shaped subs, and "boat-decked" subs that are taller than they are wide, but I can't recall seeing a flattened sub like this before. It does have sub-like elements, though.
@Brickalili:
I ordered three racks of fresh-caught snow crab legs in Anchorage when we visited Alaska 3.5 years ago. I ended up giving up on the butter (which congealed long before I finished eating anyways) and ate them plain. They tasted a lot better that way. Since then, I've started to wonder if the reason people dip in butter is because they get the worst-tasting shellfish and need to hide or improve the taste.
See, lobsters are graded in three ways (they're both shellfish, so the same logic should apply). There's softshell, which have very recently molted. The shell has just expanded, so there's not as much meat inside as you'd expect. Next is hardshell, which have had time for the new shell to harden. Finally, there's oldshell, which are close to molting again. Softshell don't survive travel over long distances, so unless you're going to chop the tails off (you can't ship dead whole lobster because their gut biome will cause them to spoil too quickly), you basically have to eat them local to where they were caught, but they're also the cheapest. Oldshell can survive anything, so they can ship those anywhere in the world, and they cost the most. Hardshell fall somewhere in between. Softshell, however, tastes the best, and oldshell tastes the worst. People like king crab legs because they're the biggest, but either I've never had king crab legs that were prepared properly, or they're just not as good as snow crab.
@PurpleDave
Wasn't expecting half your comment would be responding to someone's one-off joke about the tastes of different types of crustaceans.