The LEGO Tropical Aquarium is beautiful. It may not be such a glamorous $480, but for the right person with the right amount of disposable income, the price may not matter. The person who has such a set may be older or it was given to him as a gift. They may be part of the growing LEGO lifestyle audience, the same audience that will buy LEGO Wall Art or Lego flowers which are integrated into the living space. The LEGO Tropical Aquarium features a trendy pop art style not found in more intense LEGO playsets.
The tank measures 14 inches high, 20.5 inches wide, and 11 inches deep; If this were a real tank, it would hold approximately 13 and a half gallons of water. You build the edges of the tank in a black frame, the bottom of the tank (which looks like sand), and the background landscape of the tank (a blue water background decorated with little waves and bubbles). You are not building the glass that forms the tank itself. But when you look at the aquarium from a short distance, the scenery becomes heavy, and your brain concludes that all the negative space is water. This is a cool optical illusion that adds to the appeal of the scenery; I can easily imagine people doing a double take as they walk past it.
Assembling the tank itself is simple: you lay bricks in layers to provide tactile strength and gouge to “fit” and reinforce the connection points. But the most interesting part of the build is the inhabitants of the aquarium: fish, crustaceans, rocks, corals, seaweed, anemones and thematic elements that LEGO designers carefully arranged into a colorful stylization.
The closest equivalent to creating a LEGO Tropical Aquarium set is creating one of LEGO botanical sets. Like flowers in a bouquet, coral consists of many multi-colored pieces arranged symmetrically in a circle. Agree, this is an unnecessary process. But the variety of corals means you'll never be stuck building one formation for too long before moving on to the next. My favorite part of the landscape are the sea anemones that sprout from the rock face like a bouquet of poisonous flowers.
Animals have no real analogues. They are very similar to the real thing, but LEGO calls them “bricks” in their promotional materials. The whimsical approach allows LEGO designers to play with size and scale. Looking at this aquarium, it seems as if you are looking at it through a magnifying glass; everything is larger than life. The whole tank feels a little more crowded than it should; a fish this size won't be able to move around in such a small tank… But the variety and aesthetic impact outweigh the practical quibbles.
Each animal and pen type has its own plastic bag, making it easy to divide the work among several friends or family members. You build an element, install it in a tank, and then build the next element; there is no consistent need for this. This is a set that, thanks to its diverse but isolated elements, is suitable for collaboration.
The tank has several mechanical functions built into it. Hidden within the stones are built-in gears, rods and pins that allow you to animate four different elements by turning a knob or dial. The crab comes out of his cave. The massive fish waves its tail and body. A cluster of orange corals sways in the waves. And the treasure chest, half buried in the sand, opens and closes. Inside the chest are gold bars and a note in a sealed bottle.
As an 11th grade high school English teacher, I read a lot of college essays, and one of my students wrote a particularly memorable one this year. He detailed his efforts to place a freshwater fish tank in his bedroom. For him, it was a lesson in patience, consistency and long-term planning – realizing that there is a huge difference between creating something great and maintaining it over a long period of time.
The LEGO Tropical Aquarium is a stress-free alternative to a real aquarium – for people who want atmosphere rather than the constant expense and labor required to establish a nitrogen cycle and minimize algae growth, not to mention cleaning the aquarium itself.
LEGO Tropical Aquarium set #10366 retails for $479.99 and contains 4,154 pieces. It's available exclusively in the LEGO store.
Kevin Wong is an IGN freelancer specializing in LEGO. He has also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku and other publications. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.
