Agent Andy

Awesome indeed. Great work keeping the Ultra Agents theme alive.

Now we have come to the end of the Ultra Agents it might be time to reflect upon the theme as a whole and single out some stand out sets. Let me declare my bias straight out. I like Lego with a secret agent theme. It was the original Agents sets back in 2008/9 that lured me back into Lego after a twenty year hiatus. I saw the Mobile Command Centre in a toyshop and just knew I had to have it. I tried to get as many of the original Agents sets as I could but regrettably missed out on a few - most notably the Volcano Base. I was excited to see the Agents theme revisited in the Ultra Agents sets especially as some of the original Agents sets got reworked and some great new sets were introduced. For me the highlight of the first wave of Ultra Agents was the design of the helicopter that was a part of the Toxikita’s Toxic Meltdown set. The reworked Mobile Command Centre as the Ultra Agents Mission HQ was also a standout. Comparing these two sets there is no doubt the Ultra Agents Mission HQ was an overall better design. It looked way cooler and the uncoupling function of the rig from the trailer resolved a major issue with the original set. Having said that the interior of the Mobile Command Centre was much better and it had the added advantage of housing considerably more vehicles that it’s reworked version. With the second wave the UltraCopter was excellent with its sleek design and twin rotors spinning in different directions. The Agent Stealth Patrol was much better in reality than it appeared on the box. While the third wave contained only three sets each were outstanding. The jet in the Ultrasonic Showdown was a unique design and Braniac was one of the better looking villains. I loved the concept of using an oil rig as the villain’s base and while AntiMatter’s Portal was a bit light in detail on you could easily add to it and the boat and gold toothed shark were great additions. The Ocean HQ was fantastic and, in my opinion, the best overall set in the Ultra Agents series. It was a really enjoyable build and had some standout design features such as the 360 rotating control centre and concealed twin Gatling guns. I really liked how all three of these sets incorporated the app bricks into the sets themselves rather than having them as an additional add on. It was really disappointing to see the final three sets not getting the wider release they so richly deserved. I had to get a friend from the US to send them over to Australia and while my wife still gives me grief about the costs involved when I got to make the final three sets and complete the series I consider it money well spent. Reviewing the Ultra Agents as a whole in my opinion the weaker sets were the ones where the ‘futuristic themes’ got pushed out a bit too far such as the bike from Invizible Gold Getaway that looked like a Tron set that didn’t make the cut. Some of the villains also were a bit over the top and finished up looking more like villains from a superhero universe than a secret agents one. I was also a bit disappointed with the Ultra Agents minifigures as they didn’t seem to have the individuality and appeal that the original Agents minifigures had. Hopefully Lego will revisit the secret agents world some time down the track. I hope when it does it chooses to goes with a more real world/concealment angle with the sets it produces. And I hope that at some stage the ‘holy grail’ might be achieved when Lego can get a licence to manufacture official James Bond sets.