Back in January when the first LEGO Agents pictures were leaked, the reaction was fairly mixed. But since we put the new poll up last Saturday, nearly a quarter of you have indicated that LEGO Agents sets are what you’re looking forward to the most for “late 2008” LEGO sets.

As I’ve seen more and more of these new sets, I couldn’t help but think that 23% of you couldn’t be that wrong.

So I picked up the two smallest sets yesterday, 8631 Jetpack Pursuit
and 8632 Swamp Raid (along with 7038 Troll Assault Wagon). To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was very pleasantly surprised!

We’ve already featured full reviews of the two sets I bought (8631 and 8632), but I wanted to add a few words of my own.

8631 Mission 1: Jetpack Pursuit

The jetpack is ridiculously huge, to be sure, and the gun on the snowmobile won’t go all the way down, but this is a pretty good $10 parts pack. You get a bunch of pearl silver elements, including skis and a propellor, plus orange cheese slopes and dark blue vertical stabilizers.

The minifigs (left) are what make this set, I think. The cyborg fig has a new type of arm that fits anything with a rod connection point, and the back of the torso is printed with a large version of their logo. The agent fig has a double-sided head and black Mutt Williams hair.

8632 Mission 2: Swamp Raid

LEGO barbed wire! This set includes two loops of barbed wire sure to please military and post-apocalyptic builders, two dark gray “grilled cheese” slopes, four black girders, and three dark green leaves. Space builders will likely be pleased with the chrome silver cheese slopes on the well-designed bike — a mix of SYSTEM and Technic pieces.

In contrast to Alpha Team minifigs of the past, LEGO Agents figs have somewhat more realistic facial expressions, making them more useful in other contexts. The “guns” are a little disappointing, but easily corrected with larger brick-built guns of your own (or BrickArms, for that matter). The new helmet on the bad guy is hilarious, and the face underneath even more so — but in a good “I can see a use for that!” way.

Building Swamp Raid was actually pretty fun — especially the bike. The dock has a fun play feature that flips the bike off when you punch a lever. Oh, and did I mention the cyborg crocodiles? Indeed, hilariously awesome cyborg crocodiles.

Missions 3-6

Missions 1 and 2 have given me hope for the rest of this theme, and I’m fairly eager to get my hands on them. A quick rundown of what I’m seeing in the other sets:

• 8630 Gold Hunt: A man with a golden gun. A big pile of pearl gold 1×2 tiles.
• 8633 Speedboat Rescue: Sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads. Dr. Evil would be jealous. The female agent also has a new hair element.
• 8634 Turbocar Chase: Four more barbed wire loops, a new laptop element, and the weirdest villain minifig in LEGO history.
• 8635 Mobile Command Center: Lots of dark blue, with all four Agents minifigs. The only set with the evil overlord Dr. Inferno (whose flaming hair is awesome).