Aqua Raiders: LEGO's Underrated Underwater Theme 

Im poor but if i could i would

Your reaction and presentation of the sponsor made me lol. It looks good!

Doesn't ship to Canada :(

Your ad was absolute priceless GOLD! I was laughing by the end of the segment, I hope you enjoy your sponsorship it feels very on brand lol

I live these ild sets. They have a good balance between price, detalisation, functuonality and SIZE. Not like today staff pften having a lot of small detailea and being small as a result

What a great underwater year it was! I still think Nocturn is one of the coolest Bionicle sets ever.

@@CheeseyStudios hehe, Gadunka isn't too bad either

@@CheeseyStudios totally agree. the 2007 titans were the coolest!

Nah, Gadunka got nothing on our Lord and Savior Matoro

Wonder if that was intentional- like anyone who bought Aquaraiders and liked the sea monsters would probably buy a Barraki or two to supplement the Sea Monster count... or give the Raiders an especially Lovecraftian enemy to fight.

Ha, thank you! I'm so glad I thought of that. I've gotta hang more stuff from the ceiling lol

It's like an underwater, dangling above all 😆

Cheesey and RR Slugger have really elevated the game for Lego videos recently!

Yea it makes it look slightly more menacing, dangling above to sweep down to catch unsuspecting minifigs.

Indeed. People don't give Aqua Raiders enough credit, if they even know it existed at all! And don't get me wrong, I love Atlantis too, but there's no denying Atlantis wouldn't be anything without the inspiration it drew from this theme.

I mean, there's room for both. And more. Aqua Raiders really felt like underwater adventures in the Bermuda Triangle, while Atlantis... Well was about Atlantis lol. LEGO didn't really do many multi year themes at the time, the best you usually get are 3 years long theme (unless you're Ninjago, Bionicle, or Monkie Kid), so it's not suprising to see LEGO stop Aqua Raiders after a year, and then 3 yaers later revisit the under water theme.

@@SuperSecretBricks There is definitely room for both, but the two themes were only a year apart. Like Mission Deep Sea was 5 years before Aqua Raiders, but Atlantis only came out a year after that. As a kid they just kind of blurred together for me. Aqua Raiders is still awesome though, like the base is perfect and I love the giant energy crab!

Oddly, I remember hating the Atlantis theme because it was reskinned Aquaraiders, much like how I hated Power Miners for being reskinned Rock Raiders...

The Atlantis movie was fire tho

That sound like so much fun, some great memories there!

That sounds so epic honestly. These beautiful boxes alongside some real fish would be quite the sight!

Same for me! The shop was after you finished the aquarium and in the aquarium was this giant brick built Aqua Raiders Diver. The interesting thing was that I assume it was a hint at the second wave (thats sadly never happened) because the markings were the same but the color was red instead of blue

@@flxd_ You're right, they were red. But I think that was more of a hint towards the old divers, because the submarines had that older look too. Most of them were yellow but not really Aqua Raiders styled (minus some exceptions). Either way, the builds were real nice. The aquarium is one of the things I liked the most as a kid. I have visisted the place again in 2018 and the shop wasn't there anymore. But they had a built miniature of the whole aquarium, which was cool too. They used the (at the time) new City theme divers which had red helmets and suits. Edit: added another paragraph

Ahhh I know, right??! It's so perfect!

I always thought they looked like eyes as a kid (when used on vehicles) !!

It was used in a similar fashion in one of the Creator sets, "Red Creatures", if I remember it correctly. Wheelarches were used as dragon's eyebrows which significantly turned up the overall set look

Glad I could introduce you! This theme was so short lived unfortunately, but everything it did it did quite well.

There were so many awesome underwater themes back in the 90s. I'd love to Revisit some of those one day!

I remember them being trans-medium blue as well. No idea why I grabbed the dark blue ones - sorry about that!

I actually still have my two flourescent blue crystals form this set.

Really appreciate it! I love seeing how far this series has come too, and it's by far still my favorite part of this channel. Once Revisiting Mars Mission: Part 2 comes out, I might consider a remake of part 1 :o

I couldn't agree more. Even though sticking to a format can get a little stale maybe for the creator, it works wonders as the whole concept gets improved on and perfected over time. These video's are certainly the content I like most from Cheeseystudios and they are amongst the best LEGO content I have seen so far on youtube. I am relatively new to the hobby (if you discount my childhood) but it is easy to spot quality and the love and dedication that goes into it is noticable.

Small though they may be, those first three sets are awesome! I wonder if the flash game is archived anywhere. I'm sure I played it as a kid, but I can't remember it...

@CheeseyStudios While Lego surely doesnt have them up anymore, I've found a few online archives with downloads to many of the old Lego flash games 😁

Such an epic set! I still think that's the best proper sub LEGO has ever done. Really glad this could bring back some good memories.

Brings back memories for me as well, as they used it to make penguins submarine Boss in the lego batman game.

That's awesome! I think this was a great theme to start out your System journey.

It was a good time to be a kid, that's for sure. I love going back and building these sets again.

The Crab Crusher is so good! Building that sub back was a delight. I love how many goodies they packed into that interior.

I do miss the simplicity of this time period for sure. Even if themes didn't last long, there was always something new and exciting around the corner.

That's awesome! I'm so glad to see so many people remember it so fondly.

It's my pleasure! These videos are such a delight to make ❤️

I hadn't even thought about the shared sticker sheet. That's kind of incredible O_O

Really appreciate it! I'm so glad you enjoyed this.

lol 🤣 Thank you! Really glad you like the setup.

I'm so glad you enjoyed! Ah, it was such a good time to be a kid.

It's so great when a small boxed set knocks it out of the park! Glad to see another Astro Fighter enjoyer here too 😂

It's insane to think that this theme is going on 20 years old. It's held up so well!

It's so much fun! Simple done well

Floppy armed skeletons are PEAK lego

Yes! I totally agree. There's so much to learn about the oceans yet, so I love it when LEGO creatively fills in those gaps!

Crazy how LEGO has a way of doing that, right? This one takes me back too.

I've been slowly picking up some Space Police sets for sure! Probably won't happen this year (my Revisiting backlog is INSANE lol) but hopefully in 2025

The base is so good! It's got everything a HQ should have.

They're my favorite videos to make, too! So glad you enjoy them

I honestly feel the same way. These really take me back. And the sea creature designs are unmatched!

They're so wonderfully detailed! Way ahead of their time

Thank you! Really nice to see this

I do miss those simpler times of just drooling over the catalogues for hours. It was like Christmas every time one of those came in the mail, ha!

It was such a great time to be a kid. LEGO as a company was at their most imaginative during these years....

Glad you enjoyed!

That's awesome, ha! What other themes are you hoping to see covered? I bet I'll be hitting a few more on your list.

I've gotta watch some old Jang reviews on Galaxy Squad I think. I'm quite unfamiliar with those sets

So glad you enjoyed! My brother and I were obsessed with the red haired guy too. 😂 That's too funny

Glad you enjoyed!

I'm glad you had some personal experience with this theme! The creatures are awesome.

Glad you enjoy these! They're my favorite videos to make, too

❤️❤️❤️

What were the chances of that? 😭 that's so crazy...

Ha, thank you! 😂 It was too perfect of a sponsorship to pass up lol...

Thank you! Glad I. could introduce you to this one.

Sweet find! That squid blew my mind lol. The eyes, the transparent stomach... Haunting!

The creatures were so good! Way ahead of their time, and some haven't been topped since.

It was a good time to be a kid, that's for sure! Glad I could introduce you to a new set :D

Brilliant parts usage!

Just finished my Atlantis collection a few days ago! So many great sets. Best of luck in collecting them - I definitely feel it's worth it! :)

Ha! It's my pleasure. Hope you enjoyed :)

@@CheeseyStudios ok, NOW I have seen the video. I strongly agree with your thoughts on the Aquabase set! As a kid, it was definitely my most wanted lego set, even going so far to ask my mom if we could sell all the sets I owned so that I could afford it. Crazy kid thoughts, I know lol. I never ended up getting it as a kid, but I did finally pick up a used copy a couple years ago. I was surprised and delighted that it lived up to my expectations. Great interior and exterior space, a cute little sub, and of course, that awesome squid! I still really love this theme. I know Atlantis is seen as a successor to this theme, but those sets never really hit me the same way. Partially because I was entering into my dark age when it started coming out, but also cause it went a bit to far on the fantasy elements for my tastes. Every now and then we get some nice underwater sets, but I'm hoping we get a full on underwater theme again some day.

It was a good time to be a kid, that's for sure!

Glad I could take you back. The sea creatures from this theme are so good!

Glad I could introduce you! I'd highly recommend Angler Ambush. It's quite affordable used, and so much fun. You get a little bit of everything in that set!

It's such a pity LEGO has more or less given up on magnets (even many of their trains have stopped using them). There's so much potential with them, just like this set shows!

As someone who also didn't have the base growing up, it was such a pleasure to finally buy it for this video! Sometimes the flagship set disappoints with a theme (Viking Fortress really didn't do it for me, Titanium Command Rig for Power Miners fell a bit flat) but this one checked all the boxes.

It was such a great time to be a kid. LEGO was at their most imaginative!

I'm so glad I could finally get it out! This has been pushed back in the schedule months lol... Hope you enjoy!

​@@CheeseyStudiosI've still got both my sets - The Tiger Shark and the Sub Scooter - from a birthday trip to Legoland back in 2007. Really lovely seeing a full overview of the line. It had such a strong creature aesthetic, and it's honestly why I never got hugely into Atlantis as a kid, cause the monsters never hit the same!

It was kinda the perfect blend of fantasy and realism!

Hopefully I'll get to Atlantis Part 1 later this year!

It's nice that it's such a small theme - easy to collect all 6!

Right!? Man, LEGO was so bold back then 😂

It's so perfect! I'm really impressed by it too.

It's a gorgeous model, and I love how much interior room there is! Definitely lives up to the hype, but even the small sets from this theme are great.

They're so fun! It's too bad the theme was so short lived. I would have loved to have seen what other sets the designer could come up with

I'd love to get more UFO sets at some point. They're so cool

I would love love love to pick up those old sets! I'll see what I can do. :)

Thank you! I wish I had had this base as a kid too. I had so much fun with it here as an adult!

I'm glad they carried over the color scheme from Alpha Team - it just works so well for underwater stuff!

Thank you! I'd love to see some more original underwater and space themes again from LEGO too. With modern pieces and techniques, there's just so much potential.

I do miss all those Flash games. The Mars Mission one was a personal favorite!

Yeah they were really fun xd good times😊 anyway great content man just finish the vid and i enjoyed the memory lane it gave me xd keep it up👍

Almost 😂

I gotchu :)

Honestly, what a great introduction to System this must have been! I'm glad you got to experience this theme too, and remember it so fondly

Ay, awesome! You'll have to see if you can put it together. It's a lovely little vehicle!

No joke, that's one of my dream themes to cover lol! My friend just introduced me to the movie for the first time over Christmas, and I've been wanting to make a video on the sets ever since. I'm going to go check prices on Bricklink right now.

@@CheeseyStudios The movie was so amazing to me as a kid growing up and so underrated now a days! I’m going to try watching it again tonight for the first time in almost 15 years. There are only 4 sets that I know of and looks to be a very limited number of reviews. I just started watching your content recently as I’ve had a huge wave of nostalgia come over me in the past months from my lego days as a kid; and it has been so refreshing to see the themes I grew up with getting covered like this in such detail. I absolutely cannot wait to see your take on these sets. Thank you for taking so much time to edit and produce such professional content!

That's the best part of LEGO - random parts and custom builds!

Sealed? Nice! You can appreciate that lovely box art then too :)

It's such a cool model. Glad you got to experience some of these sets for yourself!

Aye, well deserved. I think this is typically an American product though. I buy a lot of cheese, but this seems a bit outside of anything I'd ever consider buying. It is probably delicious and easy to use though, I'm pretty sure of that.

Appreciate it! It was a match made in heaven. I've turned down a lot of sponsorships in the past, but really wanted to make this one happen since hey, I just like cheese!

Oh yeah, that is all backwards lol! I wonder how I managed that

I would have loved to have seen what they would have done next with this theme, too...

Hopefully one day! I wish I had some of the sets, but it just didn't appeal to me back in the day

At the very least I'll be doing all of Atlantis!

The glow in the dark stuff always looks so cool. I'm glad it's been showing up in a lot more sets lately!

It's so crazy, right?? These sets were designed for 8-12 year olds! Actual nightmare fuel 😂

I'd highly recommend Crab Crusher to round out the collection - it's an awesome set! Glad you have the Shipwreck though. That one is tricky to find these days!

In the old web browser game the atlantis crew was also looking for what happened to them, along with this you find the crab killer sub sunk in that game

Yooo that's epic!

Happy to bring back some good memories ❤️

Oh dang! I'll have to look into that.

You can't go wrong with any of these sets! Hope you can pick up those big ones at some point.

Oh nice 😂 Now I gotta know, who were some of the winners?