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.
This. This it. Or at least this was it. The pinnacle of my LEGO collection for several years. The size! The looks! The minifigures! The number of pieces! Everything about this set is incredible! Despite being a "dollhouse"-like model, it has me completely convinced, even after all these years! Now, here we go!

Parts

With more than 1,000 parts, this set surely offers a lot of possibilities! There are many baseplates, staircases, fences, dark bricks and TEETH, a lot of teeth! All these parts can be used nicely in MOCs! Special parts include the gates, the transparent parts of the "gate" and all the mystic atlantean discs of the series. A few TECHNIC parts are included in the shark-head-mechanism and many hinges are used to make the whole thing foldable. The set comes with five (yes you read right) stickers, which is amazing, since all the textures, colours and patterns are created with bricks only. The stickers are only decoration for the shark head and the statues.

Minifigures

There are seven minifigures included in this set, counting the skeleton as a figure. That is a good amount judging by the overall number of pieces. There are three aquanauts, two males and a female. All have two-sided heads, green vizors and flippers, as well as some gear (two harpoons and a camera). One of them has an extra set of spotlights attached to his suit, while another one has an additional propeller (this one being a more rational size than the one with the City of Atlantis...) on the back.
Then there are two atlantean guards, a shark- and a squid-like one. The third atlantean is the Portal Emperor who guards the portal itself. He wears golden armour and has a crustacean-like face. All atlanteans wield the usual tridents.
The last minifigure is a skeleton of an unlucky diver who seems to have died just after discovering the portal. Ironically, the skeleton wears a helmet which debuted in the 2007 Aqua Raiders series. So it seems, the dead guy was one of these explorers...

The build

After the minifigures and the two shark-statues, the main build begins with the huge staircase and the shark-head to the front of the fortress. The whole thing is built in a modular way, with the individual modules being linked together via TECHNIC pins. Next up is the centre part with its two floors and the platform with the portal on top. The portal itself is some piece of TECHNIC-artwork with several gears and a mechanism underneath the platform. The dark red frame with the discs is built separately and clicked in place via vertical holders. It is not connected to the portal construction itself! When finished, everything is connected to the shark-head-staircase.
The second instruction booklet covers the two wings, starting with the left. As with the previous part, everything is built from bottom to top, so not too challenging. Only thing you have to look out for is the right colours of the bricks, since the black and dark grey could be mixed up judging by the print in the instructions. When both wings are finished, they are attached to the left and right of the centre structure and the shark statues are put in their respective places.

The completed model

The looks of the finished model alone leave quite the impression. The huge shark head with the glowing red eyes hides a fascinating mechanism to reveal the staircases. When the head is pulled upwards, the lower jaws open to both sides and give access to the stairs. The portal itself is guarded by the impressive-looking Emperor who guards the disc-activated mechanism to open the portal. Like with the City of Atlantis, a disc needs to be put on the stone tablet in order for it be turned and open the blue beams of the portal like a camera lens. Behind the portal is an awkwardly placed treasure chest, which can be easily removed, luckily, so the whole thing serves as some kind of Stargate-like portal.
The lower floors of the central structure hold one room with a table with a map and a goblet on it and another room with a large bed, maybe for the Portal Emperor himself.
The lower floor of the left wing has double gates and holds what seems to be some kind of dungeon or BDSM-fetish-room. The choice is yours. The lower right wing has the same gates and some kind of weapon's locker and a table with some potions and an encased frog. The upper floors of both wings have an open gallery with more stairs that also lead up to the portal platform and a small tower to each side on which the shark statues are placed.
The whole structure is heavily decorated with golden tiles, bricks, tridents, sea weed and white fangs. Both wings can be folded towards the centre part, so the whole thing can be stored easier.

Overall opinion

After clicking together the separate modules of the set, everything that comes to mind is just "Wow" (by Owen Wilson). The fortress is over 30cm high and more than 50cm wide! And all of that while being quite massive! This set has a focus and one focus alone: to impress by sheer size! There are not really that many functions to it, to be honest. When it comes down to it, there's only the shark head and the portal itself that can really DO something. The rest is all endowment, furniture, gear for the minifigures and the dimensions of the model. These things contribute to the high play- and presentation-value of the set. The good amount of minifigures gives an open mind tons of opportunities to play and when combined with other sets of this series, there's room for far more than one kid to join the fun!
Me, as an AFOL, I'm still overwhelmed by the size of this baby every time I build it. It rarely happens that I'm out of words to describe my feelings towards a set, but here it is the case. I was so blown away, when I set it up for the first time! It was my largest set for quite some time, until I got the 60125 Volcano Heavy Lift Helicopter. But this set, even though being nice, could never EVER achieve the same impact and awe that the Portal of Atlantis gave me. This one set here, I can wholeheartedly say, is one of my all-time favourites.

This set beats my old night lord castle, though just slightly. And what makes it even better is I got it for 30€ on bricklink (45 with shipping cost). It can still be found for less than 50€ and is a very good deal I think.

Parts

It had quite a few good parts for me, lots of stairs (not sure any other sets has more) two pairs of golden doors, many trans-blue bow bricks, many tridents, 5 treasure rings, tons of arches, including fancy 6x3x5 arches. Also tons of teeths, though it's not the most exciting.

Minifigures

Well, 7 minifigures for a 1000 pieces model... The set could use more. But they all look great. I very much like the divers, despite them being almost identical, the outfit is really cool looking. The squid warrior is currently my favourite lego minifigs, beating Gimli, or Red Harrington, from the lone ranger, it has an unique piece instead of legs and a great looking "helmet" with a complex mold and good prints.

The build

It's quite a classic build, with a few more interesting parts, such as the sharks and the stargate.

The completed model

The completed model looks awesome. It is very large, it also has some good height with the stargate. the gold pieces really stands out with the black wall.

Of course, one flaw to this set is that having doors and stairs underwater makes no sense has you can just swim over the wall, but you could probably find some way to justify it anyway.

What makes this really stand out is the stargate and the shark mouth. They look super cool, and are also fun to use. when you lift the upper jaw of the shark, the lower jaws will also open. The treasure rings are the keys to the stargate, rotating the turn table won't open the stargate, unless you use the treasure ring as a key which is an awesome feature.

Overall 5 bricks : Although Atlantis is not my favorite theme this is a great set. It really has everything Lego is about: fun to built and a great set to show or to play with and besides that filled with great parts to use for your MOC's. And since everyone is in one of these categories this set is a great addition in every bodies collection. Try to find it used on E-bay or any other site and you will probably have it for a reasonable price.

Building 5 bricks : building it is fun, first the 2 sharks, than the entrance with the shark mouth which can be opened and closed with behind it the small rooms. Than the left and right walls with on each side a small tower and a gate. You finish with the great functioning ornament on the top. The sidewalls are connected with hinges so you can vary the position of the walls. All finished a great looking and good working set.

Parts 5 bricks : The parts in this set were in fact the reason for me to buy it. You find 6 very nice minifigures and loads of useful bricks and accessories. Some worth mentioning like the gold and the transparent blue parts, the dark tan plates and the black ornaments

Playability 5 bricks : Being an AFOL I'm not the playing type but my 7 year old son had great adventures with this set, the content speaks for itself here.

Value 5 bricks : I bought for € 50,00 which is in my opinion a good price for a 1000 part set. Bricklink shows even less for a used set so if you can get it under that price grab it cause it is definitely worth it.

Box/Instructions

The box for this set is large, but since it was the biggest set from this theme in the 2010 sets, that isn't surprising. You get two instruction booklets and numbered bags, which are appropriate for a set this size. With the numbered bags it was a lengthy build, but without them it would have taken a lot more time and a lot of sorting.

Parts

The parts in this set are great! There are tons of teeth, a bunch of gold tridents, seaweed pieces, and you get pieces of various types in gold and that dark red colour. Additionally, you get a frog (what a pain that was to get under the little plastic dome) and a printed map tile.

Minifigures

In this set you get seven minifigures if you count the skeleton. You get an Atlantis shark warrior, an Atlantis squid warrior, Samantha Rhodes, Ace Speedman, Axel, the Atlantis portal emperor, and of course the skeleton.

The shark warrior is pretty awesome. He has a special plastic head with printed eyes, painted teeth, and printing on the top (a cool blue pattern). There is also printing on the front of both the torso and legs. He comes with a gold trident.

The squid warrior is even better, and in my opinion is the second best minifigure available in the 2010 Atlantis sets. He is very detailed with a printed torso and special tentacle leg piece. You also get a printed squid head piece that goes on top of the standard minifigure head, and in my review of the Gateway of the Squid set that it is impossible to separate these pieces. I should now qualify that it is nearly impossible. If you misaligned the eyes with the holes, then pull off the two pieces together and try attaching it to another minifigure body (that it fits onto tightly) and carefully push the helmet off from the bottom. Anyway, this figure comes with another trident, and it is fantastic.

The three divers look basically the same. They all have the same suits, fins, and all of them have double-sided heads. Samantha and Ace both come with spear guns, while Axel comes with a camera instead. Ace has an extra propeller on his back and Axel has back mounted flood-lights, probably to go with the camera.

My favourite figure in this set is the portal emperor. His torso is printed on both sides with scales, muscles, and what appears to be some sort of leather harness and a belt. However most of this is hidden by the armour, which is fantastic. It is detailed and has the look of being worn, which looks great. His legs are also printed with scales and some leather clothing. His head is painted only on one side with large blue eyes, gills, scales, and a very displeased expression. His helmet is the same style as the body armour and looks vaguely spartan and covers the entire head (with hols for the eyes). Along the bottom of the front part there are little teeth. And of course he too comes with a trident.

Finally, you get the skeleton with the old-style SCUBA hat. He is holding a green gem in his hand suggesting that he was killed trying to steal the treasure. Really, there isn't much else to say about this minifigure as it is a standard skeleton with a cool helmet.

The build

While the build was certainly time consuming due to the number of pieces and the intricacy of some of the steps (the portal), it was not overly difficult, though it is certainly not for beginners. Some of the shark teeth were difficult to get into place and the portal was more complex because it includes quite a few technique elements, making it fragile and somewhat difficult to assemble. However, the portal certainly looks good when finished, so the design is fine. One annoyance though was the stickers. There are not too many, but they were difficult to place, especially the ones on the large shark head gate.

The completed model

The completed model is fantastic, though it does not look like it has a thousand pieces when finished. I love the way the portal looks, it is reminiscent of the stargate from Stargate Sg-1, and I know some industrious sci-fi fan will find a way to mod the design and make a little stargate (if no one has already).

Starting from the front, you've got three entrances: two gates and the shark's head. You cannot fully open the shark's head without blocking off the staircase, but bear in mind that being fully open involves being almost completely vertical and that doesn't look very good anyway. It looks much better when it is half open (I actually prefer it less than half), so I don't consider this a real flaw. The gates on either side lead to a small area at the back of the model and on the very end of each of the side pieces there are more stairs leading up.

It should be noted that the sharks detach from their places, so if any of the explorers take a short-cut and swim over the walls, the sharks are liable to make a meal of them. The sharks themselves are fairly well designed considering their size, but I think that the fins are a bit small in proportion. Their jaws can fully open, but the head must be tilted back in order to do so, and a minifigure won't fit in their mouths. However when their mouths are fully opened and they are positioned on the main model, they do look good and I think that was what Lego was aiming for here.

On the back of the model, there is a small area to explore which includes some weapons, a little frog under a glass dome, a pair of handcuffs, the portal emperor's bedroom, and a room with a map, presumably a map of Atlantis. The map is a printed tile.

Finally, there is the portal. This set comes with all five of the little keys required to open it and placing the final key in the space on the platform and turning it allows you to open the portal. This mechanism works really well and when operated moves the transparent blue pieces out of the way to reveal a treasure chest. I am not sure why a portal is merely hiding a treasure chest (generally they are a mode of transportation), but if you dislike this, it is a simple matter to remove the chest and have the diver's go through the portal (and if you buy the City of Atlantis set when it comes out, they will have a cool place to go and explore).

Summary

Overall, this is a pretty good set. It is a bit pricy ($130 CDN) and I had hoped for some traps, but in my opinion the set is worth it because it looks really great and comes with some really awesome minifigures (it is the only set with the portal emperor and one of two sets that have the squid warrior squid, plus you get the skeleton with the classic helmet). The lack of traps can be made up with by the warrior minifigures who can act as obstacles in their place (especially if you have extra ones from other sets). Obviously, if you can get it on sale, then this set is a great choice if you love the Atlantis theme or even if you would like to pretend it is a Stargate. I got mine buy one get on half off with the Gateway of the Squid, so I was able to get two sets I really wanted, the Gateway of the Squid (which is a good $10-15 more than I think it should be) at half price.

At over a thousand pieces for a set, this set took me two days to complete. Never have I taken so long to build a set of this size and scale... not since my memories of first getting the Black Seas Barricuda for Christmas one year, and then... I had the help of an Uncle with building it. For the Portal of Atlantis, it was worth the two days. Thank goodness that LEGO has taken to numbering bags as part of the building process.

To date, this is the LEGO Atlantis theme Queen Mother of all Atlantis sets to get.

Six minifigures listed on the box. I say seven as I count skeletons as a minifigure. Three of them are the Atlantean Dive Team. Two are armed with harpoons and the third carries a camera for taking pictures. Two of the divers have a slight intricate build for them... the diver with the camera has "Flood Lights" attached to his air tank so he can have better illumination. The Atlantean Dive Team Captain who carries a harpoon has a "mini propeller" attached to give him more speed underwater.

You then have the rare Atlantean King who can at this point and time, only be gotten with the Portal of Atlantis. He wears golden armor, all of which is very well detailed. You then get the second possible Squid Warrior in the Atlantis theme. Next then comes the Shark Warrior who's uncommon to get compared to the Atlantean King and Squid Warrior. All of them carry golden tridents and are well detailed. Both the Squid and Shark Warrior have the rubber type heads for their molds.

The final minifigure or an included bonus and surprise depending on how you look at it is the skeleton. The helmet piece is from Aqua Raiders theme and thus pays homage to that series of sets. He's also carrying a green gemstone which suggests how he met his untimely demise.

Over all, whether you go by a count of six or seven, that's a good number of minifigures to have with the skeleton in the bunch.

If you've been going after and collecting up the Atlantean Key Rings, look no further then this set as it has all five of the different colored Key Rings.

Like many newer sets, the build is modular, making it easier to put together as you go through 9 polymer bags full of pieces. Personally, I felt those thousand plus pieces and the two days to build. But it is well worth it.

The cover of the box gives a deceptive simple feel. As if the Stargate feel at the top of the stairs with all the Key Rings put in place around it and the minifigures are the only draw to this set. Not so!

The two sharks that rest top the end spires of the Portal set serve their purpose well enough and being able to be set on the ends and stay there or easily slide off as they animate and come to life to attack the Atlantean Dive team. The build here is simple, though repetitive, but it's solid and again, it serves its purpose.

The Shark Head opens up to reveal or allow minifigures to go up the stairs to the big Stargate type portal. It's been pointed out in other reviews that if you open up the shark head all the way, it blocks the stairs, so you have to keep it part-way open to have a minifigure go up the stairs. It's odd that in the on-line video that's how the team gets to Atlantis and in the play set, there's a golden treasure chest full of gems behind the portal.

When building the actual Portal on the set, it's a bit of a flimsy build with all the technic pieces involved. But it looks good when you're done.

The sides of the Portal set are fairly similiar in build, though the instructions mix it up a bit so it's not so boring to put together. Plus the added fact that behind the walls of the Gates and when you turn the Portal set around, there are a number of hidden features and areas for the Dive team to explore and minifigures to go through.

When you see those details, no wonder the Atlantean King gets angry and will attack. You're pretty much having the Dive team break into his home and invading from the perspective of the so-called monsters.

As the set is modular, I had problems when it came to attaching the sides to the main stairs and Portal area. Basically the sides shattered once I tried to push into the connecting slots in. So I found myself having to connect the sides first and then rebuild the side walls again. The left side was very close to being a complete rebuild for me.

Once it's all snapped togther, it seems to hold fairly well and the sides of the Portal set fold in to help with moving and storage of the set.