Orca’s Got Nothing On This Deep Sea Meanie! Mission Deep Sea “Ogel Mutant Killer Whale”
Written: Mar 15 '05
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Pros: Awesome design, cool claws, skeleton drone, propellers.
Cons: Hard to find in retail stores, discontinued design.
The Bottom Line: Want to give the Alpha Team a real test? Pit them against the “Ogel Mutant Killer Whale”!
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO Systems Alpha Team: Ogel Mutant Killer Whale |
When the Alpha Team sets first hit the shelves they weren’t a huge hit with most die-hard Lego fans. There wasn’t much of a story to go along with the series, there weren’t many mid sized sets so you were faced with having to spend big bucks on the larger sets or get nickel and dined to death buying the small ones. When the sets started to go on clearance at Target I stocked up on as many as possible because I knew that was the tell tale sign that Lego was getting ready to kill off the series. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the Alpha Team at first, I am the kind of person that can’t pass up a bargain. Most of the small sets like the Deep Sea Robot Diver were priced at a dollar, tell me, could you pass that kind of price up? One of the redeeming qualities of the series is that it had a tremendous amount of unique pieces to it; the shimmering yellow neon bricks, silver spear guns and yes, even skeleton drones. This was one of the many sets that I picked up when they were on clearance, the final price, $3.50 a box, that’s less than half the suggested retail price!
Lego Mission Deep Sea Ogel Mutant Killer Whale
First off, this is a sub-series of the Alpha Team line. Most of the ones in this series are the meanies and baddies that the Alpha Team try to defeat in an ongoing undersea battle. Ogel, that’s Lego spelled backwards, is the leader and is a true force to be reckoned with. He’s forever coming up with new creations to try and overthrow the Alpha Team and claim victory and the Mutant Killer Whale is just another of his crazy inventions. But what exactly is it? Ever see the movie “Orca” where the ‘killer whale’ hunts down the captain that killed its mate and child? Imagine that, only with more of an attitude, some mechanical modifications and a whole lot of pent up anger. The body of the whale isn’t even close to being realistic but that’s cool, it’s Lego and isn’t suppose to be the same whale that you see at Sea World. It’s made of some of the largest Lego pieces around and has a movable top jaw. Inside the mouth there’s a huge tongue, and even that looks ferocious! One of the most interesting things about the mutant whale is that it has two large claws on the front of it. Normally whales don’t have claws but like I said, this is the world of Lego.
The claw pieces are pretty unique, they have only been in a handful of sets so far and they are awesome to use as rakes for the Rock Raiders series vehicles. These claws aren’t that sharp but they are, after all, claws so these are pieces that you will definitely want to keep away from younger kids. That’s part of the reason that this comes with a suggested age range of kids six through twelve. The claws are movable thanks to Technic style pieces and you can have a lot of fun trying to have the claws and arms grab things or attach the Alpha Team. What mutant killer whale would be complete without some neon yellow eyes? These are optional pieces but personally I think they look great against the black glossy color of the whale. The two gray side fins are a bit awkward looking on it so they were removed by the boys. To top things off there’s a huge tail on the back of the whale, nice for snacking up ships and scaring divers to death.
A lot of people really freaked out when they saw the previews of this set, it was introduced after lackluster sales of the original line up and tried to spark a little “good vs. evil” competition between the two sides. The one thing that really gives this set the ‘meanie’ feel is the skeleton drone. It’s your basic skeleton head that was popular in the Knights Kingdom series and one that I happen to think is creepy but cute at the same time. He rides atop the killer whale, commanding it to do its bidding on behalf of the almighty evil Ogel. The bad part about this is that he’s wearing a scuba mask and oxygen tank. Now, I ask you, if he is already dead, why does he need these items? I guess the designers were trying to make it easy for collectors to swap the body with another figure but to me it’s just a poor judgment call on their part. Another odd thing about the whale is the inclusion of the propellers / engines on the rear. This was a nice touch and even though they are functional, you have to sit there and flip them around manually or blow into them to get them to move. They could have rigged up something to make them move with a rubber band or some type of zip string. But hey, I just write the reviews, not create the sets.
Things To Know
• This is part of the Mission Deep Sea line in the Alpha Team series. To go along with this release there was a small comic strip added in the boxes. These allowed you to follow the adventures of Flex, Cam and crew as they battle Ogel and his army of evil machines. The comics aren’t all that interesting but they give kids some great ideas on what they can do with the sets.
• Unfortunately this set is no longer made by Lego nor is it sold in the Lego World Shop. It made its debut in early 2002 and was killed off before the start of the next year. If you collect Alpha Team sets you can try your luck at places like eBay or look at Lego fans sites in their marketplaces.
The Bottom Line
When I got these on sale I didn’t really think much of them. They had a nice design and were cool looking but I never really got into the Alpha Team series. After the whole AquaZone series, none of the underwater Lego adventures even came close to sizing up. If you have any of the Alpha Team sets or just want something creepy looking, then this set is definitely worth trying to track down. Be sure to check places like KB Toys because they seem to have some weird mystical stockroom of old, retired goods that they are always tossing into the sale and clearance bins. The designers get high marks for the overall appearance of the whale but they didn’t even come close when working out the details of the skeleton drone.
The Stats
Set Name: Ogel Mutant Killer Whale
Family Set: Alpha Team / Mission Deep Sea
Lego Set: 4797
Number of Pieces: 56
Age Recommendation: 6 - 12
Ease Of Assembly: Easy
Cost: $ 9.99
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Other Alpha Team Lego reviews …
Alpha Team Helicopter
Alpha Team Ogel Command Striker
Alpha Team ATV
Alpha Team Cruiser
Alpha Team Deep Sea Robot Diver
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): =see review=
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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