Branko’s been thinking a lot about Dreamzzz lately. Here is his first formal review for the wave:
I imagine the brainstorm sessions for the latest wave of Dreamzzz sets went something like this. Get a group of children in a room as ask them what they like. They all start shouting and words get thrown onto a whiteboard “Tigers! Knights! Tanks! Diggers! Sharks! Swords! Dinosaurs!” with a subdued “classic space” or “classic castle” mumbled by an aging adult LEGO fan in the back of the room. All that remained was to group these terms together and you end up with something like this Tiger Shark Tank.
This set ticks the boxes of having buzzwords, or clickbait, to make sure to appeal to as many sensibilities as possible. Not only is there a shark, and a tiger mixed, there is a reference to Black Falcon castle, another to Pirates and then there is a tank. The only thing to widen the appeal more was to add Space to the mix, but Mr Oz has done that plenty in previous iterations of Dreamzzz.
71515 Tiger Shark Tank contains 1548 pieces and retails for AU$229.99/£129.99/$139.99/€139.99. Follow me to read why you want this set.
Box and contents
The review set generously provided by LEGO comes in a foldable box that we have seen a few times over the last few years. It contains 12 bags, and an envelope for the instructions and stickers. The front of the box shows the Tiger Shark Tank version of the build, and the back also shows the alternate build of a Tiger Shark Ship. The front and side also shows the Nightmare emperor who we assume is going the be the main nightmare/baddie in the next season of the animated series. Unfortunately, the new episodes are not yet available (and probably wont be until the middle of 2026), so we will just immerse ourselves in what the box has to offer us.
The instruction booklet shows nice cartoon drawings of the set, and throughout the manual, a story is told by way of these drawings. Given that I love me a graphic novel, I greatly enjoyed these embellishments in the manual. Looking at the side of the instruction booklet you can see four colours; yellow indicating the ‘common’ part of the build, purple the ‘baddies’ part (look carefully it’s there), blue for one alternative build and green for the other. Just looking at the number of pages you can see that about a third of the manual is ‘common’ before we have to decide which variant we want to build (if you like maths: this means about half of the build is common and the other half varies). The baddies are seriously under represented in this set.
The Tiger Shark in this set is a bit of an unusual creature, compared to the other Dreamzzz sets in this series. The other four creatures are an manifestation/avatar of the crystal creatures, but the Tiger Shark appears to be a natural inhabitant in the dream world who makes friends with our heroes; Mateo, Z-Blob, Izzie, MrOz and some dreamlings.
Build: Tiger, Shark
Two pieces immediately jump out when opening bag 1, a fairly substantial sword (6594996, see “Collector’s Guide to Dreamzzz 2026”) and a striped Windscreen 6 x 7 x 1 1/3 (6594312). Please refer to NewElementary for a much better description of all the new and cool parts in the Dreamzzz sets than I could provide you.
I must note that the sword seems a little oversized. As you can see it is about 1.5 times larger than Mateo! Historically large swords have existed, but these dimensions are a departure from reality and are leaning hard into the realms of comics (anime in particular: Top 10 Largest Swords In Anime), but I digress (this seems to become a habit).
Mateo comes with two facial expressions and holds a green transparent shield. He is accompanied by Z-Blob as he has always been, really.
As soon as we commence building the main set we can instantly recognize the tiger part of the shark. Orange shark-ish shapes appear quickly and the first black stripe appears, which is closely followed by the striped windscreen that forms the top of the shark’s head. The neck of the shark contains black brick-built stripes.
I am very pleased that this part of the build does not use any stickers. In addition, the shark has a neat double row of teeth, really reminiscent of a real shark. Congratulations folks; it’s a tiger shark!
The next bag gives us Izzie (and more teeth!) Izzie holds a pearlescent white sword and wears a matching armour. She also has a crystal creature friend matching the same colour. It is a really hypnotizing colour and great to see but very tricky to photograph, so I hope you’ll get a chance to see it in person.
The next part of the shark forms the lower jaw (that’s where the teeth go!) and gills on the side of the neck. The use of the large claw/teeth parts for gills works really well, and the large rows of teeth really bring home the shark presence. We have to apply stickers for the shark eyes at this point.
Moving on we build the rear of the shark, making use of smooth curved peased to give us a good fishy shape. The top is formed with much the same pieces to give us a nice symmetric shark, apart from some stripy accents.
Once the tail is complete it can connect to the front using an axle for guidance and a double clip for connection. This already hints that this connection is not meant to be permanent.
No shark is complete without fins (so don’t eat shark-fin soup!) so we build the tail and dorsal fins for the shark. This uses a part I haven’t seen before 6574782 Brick, Modified 1 x 1 x 1 2/3 with Studs on 3 Sides, that first appeared in 21362 Mineral Collection.
One the dorsal fin is complete we add two pectoral fins and the shark is complete. At this stage I am satisfied. The shark looks excellent! It would fit right in with the aquarium and is an excellent set just like this. We’ve got Tiger and Shark, do we really need more? This does seem to be a theme with this range of Dreamzzz sets: “But wait, there is more!”
The next bag reveals a second, green, crystal creature, who is promptly imprisoned by the Nightmare Emperor, well good night to you too!
While we’re at it we also get introduced to Arika and a Grimspawn. Arika’s name does not accidentally conjure images of arachnids (spiders) given that they have several rows of eyes and do not seem to be limited to just four limbs.
This small intermezzo accounted for the purple pages in the instructions, and we now find Mr.Oz has fallen asleep and is ready to wield his creativity. In earlier Dreamzzz series Mr.Oz has shown space symbols and several of his creations had a space them. Not so this time; he’s wearing armour with the black falcon’s crest which sets the tone for his ideas.
Oz conjures a medieval looking cabin containing an aquarium with a tiny baby tiger shark. This makes me wonder; what is the relation between tiny tiger shark and big tiger shark?
Once the cabin is complete we can insert it between the head and tail of Tiger Shark, creating an even bigger Shark! Again; I’m there. This is great, do we really need more? Oh but wait, there is more!
You can now decide to either keep going towards a Tank or a Pirate Ship.
Build 1: Tiger, Shark, TANK
We will proceed towards the Tank first, showing Mr.Oz using his hammer to conjure the tracks. I’ve always been taught, if you cannot fix it with a hammer, it’s not worth fixing. Not sure if this is what they meant.
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The frame for the tracks mean business. Several layers of technic bricks with bracing pins are created to make sure the whole thing is solid and doesn’t come apart.
On step 254 I found an unusual instruction to place a brick that is not really visible in the picture. Typically LEGO instructions leave no doubt at all, but this step is not as clear I have become accustomed to.
Once we arrive to the sides of the tracks I began to wonder; it is nice to have such a dense build, but is it really necessary to fill the entire side with brackets? It feels like the kind of thing I would do in my own builds because I’m to lazy to come up with something more elegant.
Next we build the top of the platform for the tracks, and decorate the sides. This gives a bit of a steampunk style, that fits with the older style cabin Oz conjured earlier. We also get introduced to the Dreamling pilot.
The pilot looks a bit lost but no fear, the Dreamling captain arrives with the next bag and shows we can put the shark on the tracks and commence building extra vehicles!
This first vehicle uses a sticker to add a targeting reticule that for licensing reasons is not at all a Death Star thermal exhaust port.
The next bag gives us another vehicle with a multi-shooter (always nice to have means to propel LEGO pieces through the air). The last part wraps up with two boosters for the shark.
With all this complete the Tiger Shark can be completed with boosters and support vehicles, leaving two things left to do: add the tracks, and a Black Falcon flag (don’t question it, just go with it).
At the end of each of the bags I had quite a few pieces left over. Typically I use the pieces that are left as a validation if I missed anything but there was too much left. I had to remind myself that this is one of the alternative builds, so we will not need to use all pieces.
This completes the Tiger Shark Tank. This combination of words is not something I had expected to use repeatedly, but I’m liking it. This set is great, in so many ways; the Tiger Shark, the tank, the swords, Steampunk, the black falcon, the minifigures. Top top TOP!
It’s quite easy to remove the shark from the cabin, leaving you with something akin to a rolling fortress/tank and the shark separate. The two flying vehicles can either attach to the tank or fly away separately. The Nightmare Emperor is clearly outclassed, but don’t we all prefer happy dreams anyway?
But wait… there’s more, we can also build a ship!
Build 2: Tiger, Shark, PIRATE SHIP!
If your desire for ships is greater than tanks, then you can decide the alternate path; turn the Tiger Shark Tank into a Tiger Shark Ship!
The main cabin is nearly identical (apart from the roof) as for the Tank, so you can leave that intact if you already built that. Immediately we set out to build a long structure that rapidly starts getting shiplike shapes.
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The rear of the ship grows, much like ships of old, and the front gets a multi-barrelled cannon mounted, a much more modern touch. The bowsprit is created from a ‘Ninjago sword’ sandwiched between transparent blue panels.
At the back, under the aft deck is room for a cargo sled that clicks into place for transportation.
The entire ship mounts on the back of the Tiger Shark. This is connected a bit more rigorously than the Tank, but with a few steps it’s possible to remove the boat, if you want to give the shark a free swim.
Adding the tracks as sails to the masts completes the ship. It is smaller than I had expected and does’t carry as much presence as the tank. I like ships, so I like this option. I do understand why this is considered the second option. There are lovely details such as the straps on the side holding on the shark, the golden stairs from aft deck to main deck, the deck-mounted cannon, an anchor that can be raised and lowered, and the crow’s nest that fits one of the Dreamlings.
The ship is a bit too small to mount all characters in this set, but like Izzy demonstrates there are ways around this.
Why to get this Tiger Shark
No surprise here; I like this set. A lot. I’m not the only one either; various visitors when seeing the Tiger Shark commented how it brought them back to their childhood, just like it did for me. This set is what I loved in LEGO sets as a kid and it deserves to be a classic. It contains a lot of play value with the ways you can configure and rebuild it, it contains heaps of characters AND it is a nice bright colourful display model for the days when you’re to busy to play. Sure this is the most expensive set out of the series but for this price you cannot get more ‘LEGO’ in my book. Offering two alternative builds in the instructions hints back at the 80’s when boxes showed alternative builds to inspire you.
I give this set 5 out of 5 arbitrary praise units; it just embodies what LEGO used to mean to me and hopefully still means to many people around the world. Thank you LEGO!
Set 71515 Tiger Shark Tank goes on sale January 1, and is priced at $AUD229.99 / $USD139.99 / 139.99€ / £129.99. The set has 1548 pieces, 5 minifigures, 2 Dreamlings and a Grimspawn!
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!