Ocean Mini-Submarine - LEGO 60263 - REVIEW

The Ocean Mini-Submarine set is a set that is ostensible marketed to the youngest of the LEGO system crowd, those aged 4+ (as shown by the giant 4+ on the box front).  That being said, the box packaging also touts the connection to National Geographic Explorers which is something that I imagine is only of interest to older children (and/or their parents). 

The set comes with a bright yellow mini submarine, a shark, and a treasure chest in the sand.

The set contains only 41 pieces and retails for about $10.  When you open up the box, you are greeted with a single plastic bag of pieces, some loose pieces, plus an instruction book and a small ad for LEGOland.  There are no stickers in this set (which is great for a set marketed to 4-year-olds)!

As you can see from the above photograph, the bulk of the yellow submarine build is actually done via a single, large hull piece.  That said, there are still a few details that you get to build for the submarine including an opening and closing bubble hatch and (somewhat) posable arms with clips for grabbing oceanic treasures.

The set comes with a single minifigure who is wearing a baseball cap and has some nice printing on the torso.  The legs have a couple of pockets printed on them which kind of makes the diver look like he is wearing blue jeans (which seems like an odd choice to wear in a submarine but maybe I'm wrong about that).  

I'd be remiss if I didn't also show off the included shark in the set.  

Heck, the reason I bought this set in the first place was for that Hammerhead beauty!  

In addition to the submarine and shark, you also get a super simple treasure build - basically a sand plate, a single treasure chest, and the most minimal of ocean plants to "hide" the treasure chest behind.  The treasure chest holds a couple of gems but I can't help but wish that LEGO reverted back to including the chrome gold coins for treasure chests, that seems much more likely for a chest found at the bottom of the sea! 

Overall, this is a set that I can heartily recommend buying as an impulse buy if you fancy the (awesome looking) shark.  The submarine is perfectly fine for what it is (my two-year-old loved playing with it and the submarine build was strong enough to withstand his play, though truth-be-told my son is incredibly gentle with things despite being a toddler)!  The small treasure build is a nice inclusion for the set but you can't really manipulate the two submarine arms in a way to easily grab things inside the chest (claws would have been preferred over the simple black clips).  

The Bottom Line (out of 10):

Fun:  9

Play Value:  8

Kid Value:  8

Adult Value:  5

Overall:  7

This is a solid set in the 4+ range.  The build isn't inspiring to adult collectors but the set is fun for kids to play with (I've tested that aspect)!  The shark is the real highlight and I believe that this is the cheapest set that you can buy in order to acquire an official LEGO hammerhead shark.  For $10, this one's an easy one to recommend without hesitation if you are a fan of the nautical theme and an easy one to skip if you don't care about the shark!