With all the Corona stuff going on, I find myself with some time on my hands to re-build and review some of my older sets. Now, with this series being some 9-10 years old, it is not really THAT old, at least in my eyes.
When I first built this sub, I was a little disappointed, since I expected something more sizeable. Now, several years later, reviewing it critically opened my eyes for its many functions, high play value and overall completeness. See for yourselves and enjoy!

Parts

This set relies on many, many "special" parts, like claws, the drill, large joints for the arms, Crash Bars, Side Bows, the inevitable flip-torpedoes and large turbine parts. The standard red and yellow of the newer sets of this series is mixed with slightly more dark grey parts, which I found to be a nice touch. All the parts can be used excellently in MOCs. The set comes with nine stickers, which is aaaalmost a little too much in my eyes.

Minifigures

There are two minifigures in this set, which is OK, another one would have been good but not necessary. We have one explorer with an interesting faceprint but only one-sided head and the yellow gear of the new part of the series. There is a box with his gear in the cargo bay of the sub, which holds his flippers and a harpoon. The other figure is a hammer-head-shark-warrior with an awesome design! He wields the usual trident and guard a treasure chest with an atlantean helmet and some gems.
And no, I did not count the crab as a minifigure.

The build

Very simple and straightforward, starting with the patch of sea floor and then the ship from the large bottom parts upwards. The turbines are attached via TECHNIC connectors and the arms are attached via the very versatile snap-joints.

The completed model

As mentioned before, this sub has a lot of functions, especially for it's rather medium size. Let's start with the obvious. The large arms are moveable in every direction (until they reach the ship's hull, of course), the left-arm drill can rotate freely and the claw on the right arm is even more versatile, since it is mounted on a ball-joint for all-round movement. The sub has two spotlight-arrays to both sides, which can be tilted up and down. The cockpit and the hatch in the back can both be opened. The cockpit has two levers for steering the sub, no monitors or further controls, unfortunately. The hatch holds a toolbox with flippers and a harpoon. The main gimmick of the cargo area is the small ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) that totally resembles the big ship itself. It also has a claw- and a drill-arm and two large propeller turbines. It fits nicely in the hatch. Another interesting design element are the heavy protective parts over the cockpit and the turbines, the latter of which also hold the near-to-useless flip torpedoes.
The small patch of sandy sea floor holds the treasure chest and an ancient pillar. Some seaweed and a crab give it a more realistic touch.

Overall opinion

Once again, I learned, the first impression can be deceptive. This rather medium-to-small set has everything an underwater-exploration-themed LEGO model needs: a sturdy, powerful sub with a lot of functions, enough gear for the explorer, a small rover to explore possibly dangerous areas before venturing into the unknown and a scary guardian of the deep, watching over some rare and valuable treasure. This set alone can guarantee some good playing! Even though the build is not really challenging and there might be some minor flaws (cockpit design, very small patch of sea floor, only two minifigures), this set is both convincing to the eye and to the playful hands.
So any more words would be too much, 12/10 would buy again!

Another birthday gift/purchase ala the gift card, I am now 2 sets away from completing out the Atlantis theme for my collection.

There are two minifigures in this set, the Diver and the Hammerhead warrior. Aesthetics wise I am still partial to the Shark Warriors from 2010 then these Hammerhead Warriors. They are still formidable and fearsome looking for minifigures though. The Diver, like all of the 2011 Divers has yellow fins and arms rather then the neon green. That's another of the aesthetic changes I don't care too much for.

I'll start with the smaller builds in the set - the first is part of a sunken ruin with a column, seaweed growing on it, the little crab piece (which very cool looking) and then the gold treasure chest with gems and gold Atlantean armor in it. I love the ridged column pieces and I'm hoping LEGO will make more of them available or possibly consider a Greece/Roman theme later on with their sets.

The second smaller build is the mini sub drone that is a micro version of the large main model and obviously is used for getting into smaller areas that the big sub can't. There's a spot in the larger Sub's cargo area that this can sit in when not out exploring.

The larger build, the feature model for this set is the Deep Sea Raider sub. I rather enjoyed the build of this set overall. The cockpit area for the diver is on the sparse side for detail work and controls other then the joysticks. There's a cargo hold area in back that lifts up with a crate and an extra set of diving fins and where the mini sub sets at when not in use. The arms of the sub with the drill bit and crushing or grasping hand. I also liked the detail work for the side propeller/jets for the sub build.

Love them or hate them, stickers are also a feature of this set they provide a lot of detail to the sub once they're placed. Also in the aesthetics, I preferred 2010 better is the choice of the yellow highlights instead of the neon green coloring. I know it caused the Atlantis sets to have a christmasy feel, but the shade of green worked. The yellow seems too cheerful and happy after all the mystery of the unknown as the Salvage Crew dives deep into the Abyssal areas of the seas to find the lost city.

Still, I enjoy the Atlantis theme overall greatly and am even now plotting and saving towards the final two sets to complete out this theme.

The build is easy, it takes about 45 minutes, there are 2 bags. This set comes with a new diver and a hamourhead warrior, the divers this year have yellow fins and light grey oxygen tanks and light grey harpoon guns. The pillar is slightly higher than the angler attack pillar, this one is not collapsible, but it has the cool seaweed piece on the top and beside the treasure chest. The jewels that are inside the treasure chest are the lower gold part on the portal emperor (in last year's portal of Atlantis) and the red, transparent and blue jewel pieces. The Small Sea Jet is just a smaller submarine that fits in the back of the actual drill submarine. it has a very small drill piece and a hook to hold a crystal. you can't fit a minifigure on the back properly. It looks like a smaller version of the drill submarine. The drill submarine itself is a big sub with a lot of detail. The main functions are on the front arms, on the left we have a hand for picking up stuff, and on the right, we have the drill, there is a round grill piece, (a new piece I think) that you turn to turn the drill, the arm is on a hinge, it can move into quite a lot of positions, it reminds me of the power miners drills. The cockpit is big enough to fit the diver with his oxygen tank still on, but you can store them in with the spare ones in the box just behind the cockpit. The cockpit window is quite big, it is a very rare piece. there is a a bit that comes down so you can lift the cockpit up. There is room for the harpoon gun next to the little box that they can store the fins in when they are not being used or thi driver is driving the submarine. Behind that is where they store the sea jet. on the sides of the propeller bit, they use the power miners cockpit pieces on both sides, there are flick fire missiles. on the back, there is a boot to cover the bit with the box and sea jet. it has a 2 stud bit that folds down to stop the sea jet falling out. there are 2 stickers that are identical to the ones on the legs of the undersea explorer set. beside them are 2x2 lights, in front of them are 2 more lights that that fold over about 200 degrees.. My Conclusion is that it is too expensive at £26, if you see it cheeper, then buy it, it is a good set.

I think the second wave of Atlantis sets deserves a closer look and this set is quite emblematic for the changes.

Design-wise I was really pleased with the new verticality throughout the first wave of Atlantis vessels. Unfortunately, 7984 is falling back into what used to be the standard design for any kind of vessel (submarines, spaceships and the like), building from bottom till top, resulting in structures that look interesting only from above. Star Wars is - of course - an honorable exception.

Also color-wise, the second wave is less dark and threatening. Yellow instead of lime green and light grey instead of dark grey, give a less mysterious mood. I think it's good, that the colors and the prints on the minifig change a little bit, but the yellow (naked) arms for the diver in several thousand of meters depth are destracting.

But there's an upside and a big one, too. I really like the new metal grey! For the first time those "metal"-parts don't look somewhat transparent and really massive and metallic. The drill piece might not be very useful, but the eight pieces of 4614461 are simply fantastic.

Hope you liked my review, with some very personal views.