REVIEW: 6353-1 Coastal Cutter

[Lorentzen]

INDEXED

6353 Coastal Cutter

Name: Coastal Cutter

Theme: Town/Nautica

Year: 1991

Pieces: 175

Minifigs: 2

Price: USD$19.00

Box (picture taken from peeron.com)

THE REVIEW:

This is my first set review outside the LEGO Pirate world. My other reviews have all been of classic Pirate sets.

Lagoon Lock-Up Rock Island Refuge Skull's Eye Schooner

This Coastal Cutter was one of my last sets before I entered my dark age. As a result, it is in quite good condition which should make for some nice pictures of the set and its functions.

THE MANUAL:

The front of the manual has a marine-like design with the yellow rope acting as picture frames. It is simple yet effective.

Random page

As you can see, the manual is quite easy to follow, with seperate building steps, as seen on this page.

THE INTERESTING PIECES:

I like stickers, and have never understood the whole DSS problem :) - I, for one, love to place the stickers as accurate as possible, so this set was perfect for satisfying my needs to place stickers on numerous bricks.

The windows on this cutter are pretty cool, and have a great blue colour to them. I like those more than the non-coloured transparent windows in other sets.

I like the design of the small motor for the motor boat.

THE MINIFIGS:

You get two police officers with this set. One for each of the boats.

Both of them have a life jacket, while one has a white police hat, and the other sails around with his hair blowing in the wind :)

Take a look at their police uniform. It's not as detailed as the current police uniform, as you can see to the right.

Also, the two minifigs in this set has the classic face. The newer police officer looks tougher. I guess he must have faced a lot more trouble in Legotown in his years of service, compared to his 1991 colleague.

THE BOATS:

Motor boat:

Great little boat, with clever a design

Cutter:

I am in love with this design, and I think that the design makes this boat fit in with today's LEGO sets. It does not look like it's from 1991 at all.

Front:

Front, cockpit

Side:

Back:

THE COCKPIT:

Great design no doubt. Look at all the details in such a small space! The white tile with the print is really great, as is the black phone.

THE CRANE:

In order to pull the small motor boat on board the cutter, you'll need to use this wheel on the side of the cutter. It's situated just below the cockpit, and it is one of the greatest simple things I have ever seen in a LEGO set.

When you turn the wheel, it pulls back a red crane with a hook. This hook will grab onto the device on the motor boat's front "hood".

A few TECHNIC pieces and a rubber band are used in order to make this work.

Almost there...

Ahh - we're ready to sail back to our headquarters

THE DESIGN:

As mentioned earlier, the design is what I love most about this set. I really do feel that this set could be sold today, and no body would notice that it was designed back in 1991!!!

The colour scheme is flawless all around. All colours work well together, and the windows, lights, alarms, etc etc all go great together, making this set one of LEGOs very best in this category of sets.

These other boats from years close to 1991 are also pretty timeless in their design:

6483 from 1994 (although this actually looks a bit chunky)

6596 from 1995

6679 from 1991

VERDICT:

Design:

10/10 - Flawless. The design is contemporary, the function of the crane is perfectly done, and the colours are great.

Playability:

8/10 - Two minifigs (both police officers) are not "enough" - maybe a minifig in need of help, or a robber on the run instead of one of the police officers. The crane and the fact that there are two boats in one set, makes up for this.

Parts/Build:

8/10 - There are some great parts in this set: the "wings" with stickers. The red crane, and the cool windows to name a few things. The building process is easy, yet interesting: You get to build two boats, and you're challenged a bit when you get to the part with assembling and making the crane work.

Price:

10/10 - I think that a set like this, with two minifigs, two boats, a crane, 175 bricks and the sheer quality of the design/colour scheme makes this set worth every penny.

This concludes my first non-Pirate review. I hope you enjoyed it :)

Edited September 16, 2009 by Lorentzen

[Milan]

Very detailed design!

When I was a kid, I was dreaming of getting this boat. It looked so good on lego catalog back then.

And I still like it very much.

Thanks for the great review!

[prateek]

Great review for a great set! I love the mechanism with the wheel.

[Joebot]

Great review! I love this set. I still have mine put together (you can see mine here docked next to the Coast Guard station).

The harbor sets from that era were so well done. I totally agree with you that this set has a timeless, classic design that looks as good now as it did 15+ years ago!

[CP5670]

Nice review. The winch mechanism is great. It could have used another minifig though as you say.

6483 from 1994 (although this actually looks a bit chunky)

This is actually one of my favorite City sets ever. It's simply packed with features, and I think it was the only 9V set of any kind that included lights, sound and a motor.

[Big Cam]

Great review, I swore this was a different set because I know I have a set with this boat but I don't remember mine having the tow feature. I'll have to double check.

Thanks for the pics though, very well taken and fun to look at!

[Section8]

I have this set. It was never my favorite but it's still a well designed set. The only problems with it I encountered was the sticker on the 1 x 2 tile on the small boat; the piece was a bit too small for a sticker and should have been printed. I also wonder why it comes with police minifigs when the previously released 6387 Coastal Rescue Base had different, non-police uniforms.

[Rijkvv]

I have this set, and it is one of my favourites. It's a really beautiful ship. The hull is only six studs wide, but the ship looks quite large, not just a regular patrol boat. Maybe the best ship with a six-wide hull ever released. I've spend a lot of time playing with this one, and I still have regret to have lost the stickers.

The only problems with it I encountered was the sticker on the 1 x 2 tile on the small boat; the piece was a bit too small for a sticker and should have been printed.

Four years later Hurricane Harbor was released, and that set includes a printed tile 1 x 2 with Coast Guard print. So there is a printed version.

Edited September 16, 2009 by Richie

[Lorentzen]

Thanks for adding a poll - I wanted to, but forgot

[Section8]

Four years later Hurricane Harbor was released, and that set includes a printed tile 1 x 2 with Coast Guard print. So there is a printed version.

Thanks for pointing that out! I'm a purist, but not so much that I can't sub in another official part if it looks better! I still have the sticker on the tile, it's just that it fell off a few times and is dirty. I think I glued it on to the tile too.

[Legoist]

This really deserves a 5 - outstanding.

Usually I don't like boats, but this one has a brick-built hull isn't it? And the crane system is just superb.

[BlueBard]

One of my first City sets and a great one, isn't it? Allways a pleasure to read such a nice review