Posted July 24, 200915 yr Set Number/Name: 5980 Squidman's Pitstop Theme: Space Police (III) Year of Release: 2009 (TRU Special Edition/Exclusive) Pieces: 389 Minifigs: 4 Price: 49.99 USD at TRU Resources: Brickset, Bricklink After the second mass release on Lego.com, I went to my local TRU looking for the Hoth set and Corporate Alliance tank droid, and they didn't have them. But then this caught my eye, as I thought it wasn't coming out for a little while more. I decided it was worth reviewing and as I was posting this, I found it had already been reviewed... Ah, well. But, since this is such a controversial set, I think that buyers leaning either way need all the details they can get. I had to do this with an old camera since my normal one broke a few days ago, so the pictures will not be of the best quality. Since my first review, uh, didn't go so well, I have double checked everything this time... hopefully. Box and Pieces: The box, depicting the hideout on an asteroid. The minifigs. Squidman and the Skull Twin appear to be captured, and the police officer doesn't seem to notice Snake slipping away. These guys need better training. The back, showing the set features. I was surprised to see that the back of the box did not show all of the functions, like the safe with gold. The two instruction books. Random instructions page. I noticed something strange on the back of the first instruction book. Coming out of the containment thing is... what is that? It looks like a city mechanic with a glow-in-the-dark Snake helmet... Is this an accidentally inserted preliminary image? I have no idea if this has shown up before, because this is the first Space Police set I have bought above $10. The DSS, with a bunch of small stickers. Most of them look quite good when applied, a rare case. The 4 marked bags, each of which has a smaller bag inside. There is also a red rubber hose separate. The pieces... not a lot for $50. Another note is that this is the most random selection of pieces in any set I have ever seen! If you are looking for any certain type or category of piece, do not buy this set. To give you an idea, there are only 8 or 9 pieces that go above a count of six! Actually, the most frequently occurring piece in this set is the 2X2 red brick that forms the four pillars at the bottom of the set. The Minifigs: Four figs in a $50 set is a pretty good deal, but they're not too special... We get the frequently occurring reverse-head officer with a walkie-talkie, and Squidman of course (It's his pitstop after all!). A skull twin is also included, which is nice if you don't want Hyperspeed Pursuit, but annoying if you want both twins! And then there's also Snake, which is very annoying since he shows up in four sets now, like the blue rock monster! Everyone else shows up in two, except Frenzy... which ticks me off because I'm not a big fan of the $20 set. If they had replaced Snake with Frenzy in this set, it would have probably made it sell better. But you do have to appreciate printed backs! A better view of Snake and the Skull Twin. God, I hate this camera! The Vehicles: The other thing you get in Bag One is the police ship. Here is the start. Then we add some more on, including two side handles for a rocket launcher and handcuffs. The pilot has no controls, which makes it sort of hard for him to steer. Also notice the blue technic pins, it's an interesting way to attach the wings. The finished ship. Notice it has no guns except the launcher, maybe the slopes at the end of the wings are supposed to be guns?... This ship looked really neat from the preliminary photos, but up close, it's debatable. The cockpit is waaaaay oversized, and also... There is a giant gaping hole in the front of the ship. :wacko: :wacko: I know these pilots need some leg room, but this is ridiculous! However, I really do like the simplicity of the engines. Bag 2 contains the other three vehicles. Squidman's is the most probably the most appealing; it has a very simple frame. The finished ship, with nice flame decals. It's hard for him to sit down, and when he stands his cape sort of gets in the way. But it's very swooshable. Next you build snake's ship, with a boat hull-looking design. Nice use of pistols as part of the engine. They do tend to wiggle a bit, though. The front of the ship is slightly bulky, but is nicely camoflaged when the engines are added. That's a huge gun! The big engine exhaust pipes add more macho. The two engines, with small stickers applied. This is actually my favorite of the vehicles. Since the aliens are supposed to be a 'biker gang' (I believe Kranx is the leader) it actually looks like a space bike! Well, to my needs-to-be-more-critical eyes. I thought this car was interesting in the prelims, but once you're holding it... It's just terrible. The chassis is made of the s-shaped piece with a few things attached. The completed chasis. I shall now chastise the chasis. (I made a funny! ) The front hinged piece makes it look quite ugly, and the Skull twin can't even hold the handles. And why is the engine so high up? The completed car. The spikes were a good idea, but not well-executed... just like all of the summer exclusive sets. The way the chasis is built causes the car to slant, giving it an interesting look. Cast, take a bow! Well, looking at all the vehicles, at least we can have more high speed chases. The Main Set Bag three is the lower part of the pitstop. You start by building a nitrogen tank and a cart with a coffee mug and dynamite. The support structure. Is this the best TLC can do? There is no middle support, so it's dangerous to press down in the middle of the completed set. The real building process begins. Even now it looks slightly random... you ain't seen nothing yet. A safe that will become part of the wall. This is probably the gold stolen by Frenzy and transported by the Skull twins. Anyone else notice that there has been an outrageous number of gold theivery and 'heist' sets in the past two years? You can start to see the randomness... Is this a good or bad thing? We'll see later. More accessories: two toxic waste bins, three spray paint cans (nice touch!) and two bullet-riddled fins that you can exchange with the ones on Squidman's vehicle to 'customize' it. Here is the completed Bag Three. A crane lift is added; it is a nice addition but is sort of flimsy. Also you get another spike piece on the front... *sigh.* Bag Four is the upper portion of the building. The back wall is my favorite part of the set. It rotates! The front has tools needed for repairs... ...and the back has weapons! This criminal hideout is now complete! Notice the stolen police missile launcher. There is also a Mars Mission gun, except with a neon yellow cone, and two Agents guns with yellow cones. I thought that it was strange to add those cones, and it could only remind me of one thing... Never liked those huge guns in the Slave I set anyway. The wall is added, and it works like a charm! When flipped to the gun side, the black cheese slopes at the top lock in with the ones at the bottom perfectly. However, the spaces in the wall don't have to be that wide. A cover, stating 'Universe-L Parts' is put neatly over the safe (Hehe, they made a funny!). A rat and chainsaw are also put in. The back wall is completed, and now you can see the randomness. However, I like it! It really shows that this is a hideout, not just a red-painted repair shop. It looks like Squidman used everything he could find to build his shop. But why are there flames?... The barred window is great, and there is a chain over it to keep intruders out. However, Squidman, you have to remember... ...sometimes an extra precaution can hurt your chances of escape! The windshield is added, with a nice bullet/grafiti sticker. This shows that Squidman isn't too smart. You'll need more than that one pane to make your shop airtight! The sign and satellite dish are built next. When attached they are both fully mobile and move in any direction. At this point the pictures were getting so bad that I had to adjust the lighting, it took me ten minutes to get it looking good, I hope it looks better now. These are the flick fire missiles on the back of the sign. It would be kind of freaky for an officer if you were flying towards your target and then a sign shot missiles at you! And the complete set! It's very colorful and definitely adds character to the Space Police line, you have to give it that. Here's a close-up of the safe, showing you how the sign covers it. This is a shot of the interior, very roomy for such a small set. You could fit the six aliens in here. This also gives an idea of how many accessories this set comes with- a lot! Here are the toxic waste barrels. Now you see them... Now you don't! The mechanism is fairly simple, but you have to press down really hard for it to work. Another thing that struck me as odd in this set is that a lone police officer with one small, barely armed ship is going to try and stop an entire nest of criminals. He's at a bit of a disadvantage! ...But then he comes back with a little extra help, and sends those space dogs on the run! Squidman's first day on the job: Uhhh... define 'pimp out.' Final thoughts: I think that this set is worth getting if there is a sale or if you had a coupon. This set gives a place for the bad guys to hide out; let's hope they release a police space station! Yes it doesn't have too many pieces, but it adds variety and you get a real 'hideout' feel. I feel very confident after this buy (partially because I used a $5 coupon ) Design: 8/10 Some clever ideas, but holes and gaps leave a little to be desired. The bottom supports is what really hurts this set. Build: 7/10 Nothing special, pieces are very random. Playability: 10/10 Absolutely no doubt here, kids will be all over this thing, from the different ships to the functions inside. Minifigs: 7.5/10 Yes we get four, but Snake and the officer are extremely repetative. Price: 7/10 $40 would have sold this set for many collectors. Overall:39.5/50, or 79%. A decent C+. Hope you enjoyed the review and happy building!
July 24, 200915 yr Thanks for the review. I'm not sure this set is worth 50$ either, but between this and the Hyperspeed Pursuit (also 50) I'm thinking I'm more likely to get this one. Severe lack of bases in space... Regarding the camera, one thing to try (im guessing it doesnt have a macro mode?) is to take the shot from far away so things can be in focus, then simply crop the image afterwards. This also helps to get rid of some of the excess resolution.
July 24, 200915 yr Great review! I would recommend resizing these pictures, but other than that, your review is really detailed (but most pictures are fuzzy). I like how there are lots of accessories, but that's probably all I like about this set. I don't like all of the vehicles that are included in this set, except for Squidman's vehicle. They all look like they were just made in ten minutes, and were added to try to increase the piece count (which is still low) and to make the set cost at least $10 USD more (this would probably be a $40 set without the vehicles). I also hate the random pieces all over the pitstop. It looks like the designer just grabbed some random special bricks near him/her and put them together to make a wall. I voted average for this set, since it does look pretty good overall. I voted no for "Would you buy this set with a coupon/sale or if it was cheaper?" since I would rather save my money for LEGO Star Wars sets and stuff. But if I liked Space Police, I would definitely buy this, even if it wasn't on sale. Edited July 24, 200915 yr by ILikePi
July 24, 200915 yr nice, review. This set actually looks intersting now. I´ve only seen the boxart before and thought it looked like crap
July 24, 200915 yr This set has to be the worst of the SP line. The only decent looking vehicle is the Cyclops guys' and the price is ridiculous. I will admit however, it has some neat details inside the 'pit stop.' Great review though, the end was funny.
July 24, 200915 yr My computer takes and age to load up thos masive, blurry pics, but there are enough to see the sets main details and of course your comments. As much as I would like to buy this set, I already have ALL the characters in it so would only then be buying for pieces - which is okay, but not amazing for £29.99
July 25, 200915 yr maybe that cop is like anikin skywalker, the chosen one who is the best pilot and officer of the space station so they send him to like every mission because hes just that good. idk, but i already have a bunch of that face and certaintly dnt need any more. thanks for the review it was awesome! although i was thinking this set was going to be 30$ just like the prisoner transport. oh well.
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