Nostalgia

10366 LEGO® ICONS Tropical Aquarium 3: Customisation

ramblingbrick 18+, ICONS, IDEAS, Lego, MOC, nostalgia, Review, Vintage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Colorful display of the 10366 Tropical Aquarium with LEGO elements including a yellow submarine, a treasure chest, and various sea plants and coral.

We have been taking a look at the 10366 Tropical Aquarium, coming out in mid November 2025. This is a large, expensive set, quite unlike anything that the LEGO Group has produced at this scale before. It’s not based on a renowned piece of Architecture, it doesn’t tie in with any preconceived cinematic universes, and neither does it follow up with one of the regular ICONs subthemes. It’s a 52 litre fish tank, filled with corals, plants, and fish of unrealistic provenance. However, I must admit, it looks quite neat. Impressive even.

A colorful LEGO diorama of a tropical aquarium filled with various coral, plants, and fish, showcasing a vibrant underwater scene.

Fish tanks often feature decorative elements within them. The Tropical Aquarium features a treasure chest, tucked away in the back corner, serving as a bubbler, along with a rock cave and shelf. However, beyond that, it is comprised of all plants, coral, and anemones.

In fact, it’s beginning to look like one of those colourful underwater layouts you often see at LEGO Conventions, with lots of hidey holes and scope for exploration and storytelling. This left me thinking about the broad range of underwater exploration themes that have cropped up over the years, and more importantly, made their way into my collection. And how they could add life to this set.

Let’s start with a quick look at some of the sets which I own (and some that I don’t), which feel as though they might serve as aquarium decorations .

  1. A Brief History of Underwater Themes
    1. Aquazone
    2. 1997-2012: Divers, Alpha Team, Aqua Raiders and Atlantis
    3. LEGO City Deep Sea/ Polar Explorers
    4. LEGO IDEAS
    5. SpongeBob SquarePants
    6. The Little Mermaid
  2. Let’s consider the space that we are planning to customise.
  3. Filling the Aquarium
    1. SpongeBob Square Pants
    2. Yellow Submarine
    3. Fantasy Underwater Layout: Enter the Aquazone
      1. Action Stations
  4. In conclusion
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40506: LEGO® Fabuland® Tribute. A love letter to fans of LEGO® Storytelling.

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I was all aflutter last week when the 40506 LEGO Fabuland Tribute was revealed. The idea of enlarging Fabuland figures is familiar to me: after all, I am now twice as tall and twice as round as a 5 year old. While I have previously reimagined some of these characters as Brickheadz, the interpretation here is much closer to the original figures with regards to their shape and function. But is it work a trip to Billund to pick the set up?

Yes it is. The End.

Sorry, you’d like some more details? please read on.

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I took an Adventure to Brickvention 2025

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I built a thing. This is not a specifically unknown concept. Each year, I build an original model for Brickvention, Australia’s AFOL Networking Event, which was held last weekend. I presented a MOC (my own creation) paying homage to the LEGO Adventurers theme from 1998. The amount of Lore that found its way into the MOC possibly warrants a post in its own right. Here it is.

Let me tell you a tale…

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10355 Blacktron Rengade: Construction, Criticism and Creative Prompts.

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The 10355 Blacktron Renegade is the latest of the LEGO sets from the 1970s-80s to be revised an updated to suit the contemporary adult builder, longing for a hint of nostalgia. In this review, I will look at the build process and components, how the set stands on its own merits, as well as in comparison to the original 6954 Renegade from 1987. We shall also take a look at the 40650 Blacktron Cruiser from 2023 and see if it can be made to fit with the components of the updated craft. I shall NOT attempt to recreate the box art of the classic set at this time. This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Here is a picture of the box lifted from the LEGO Website. I’ll Explain why shortly…

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The Evolution of LEGO Dragons: Part 1 the Classic Dragon

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Today I want to get on my hobby horse and talk about LEGO Dragons.

80112 Auspicious Dragon

It is now more than 30 years since the LEGO Dragon first appeared back in 1993 and in the 2024, the Year of the Dragon, they seem to be everywhere. Not just the Seasonal Asian Festival sets and Ninjago, but also in Creator, Disney Princess, Ideas, and Minecraft, for a start.

Introduction

In this series, I will look at the way that Dragons have been depicted in LEGO sets over the years.

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A Brief History of Crossing the Themes Part 3: Time Cruisers

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We are celebrating the final half of season 2 of LEGO® DREAMZZz by looking at themes, books and more that made a point of inspiring kids to combine sets of multiple themes in creative play. We have already looked at the 6000 Ideas Book and explored the adventures of Max Timebuster throughout the 1994 catalogue. Today we move on to one of the themes regarded as a spiritual predecessor to DREAMZZz, the 1996-97 Time Cruisers.

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A Brief History of Crossing the Themes: Part 1 The Adventures of Bill and Mary/6000 Ideas

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In the run-up to the latest installment of the LEGO DREAMZZz animated series dropping on September 6 2024, I thought we might start a small survey of other ways that books, comics and other media have been used to encourage builders to ‘Cross the Themes’

The Storytelling behind LEGO DREAMZZz provides an interesting mechanic that allows fantasy creations to exist in the otherwise mundane world of LEGO City. Many of the sets in the theme exploit this excuse to mash up fantastical ideas with the mundane. The choices provided for each model also make it a little easier for kids to come up with a different final toy in the set.

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60421 LEGO® City Robot World: Nostalgic callbacks and more!

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The Giant Unicorn Gundam statue outside the Diver City shopping Mall in Tokyo

Robot World is one of the more intriguing sets in the August (USA)/June (rest of the world) LEGO® City range. On the outside, it appears to be a rollercoaster/amusement arcade built around a Gundam-type statue. I might not have thought such a thing to be probable until I recently found a giant Gundam Statue outside a shopping mall in Tokyo. But, in reality, this set calls back to many aspects of LEGO History, hitting the nostalgic cues for people of a certain age. These people are probably younger than me!

Let’s take a closer look.

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LEGO City: This year’s home for LEGO Nostalgia

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Part of the appeal of playing with LEGO sets is the sense of nostalgia: a longing for things gone by. Part of the appeal can be relating to a third party franchise that appealed to you as a child, such as Star Wars, Superheroes (either type), Ghostbusters, Indiana jones or even Disney. Then, there is the appeal of playing with the LEGO themes which were important in your childhood. And this year, we seem to be getting more than a casual nod and wink to some of these themes that we have in years!

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Roving: 9689 Mega Core Magnetizer vs 60432 Command Rover and Crane Loader

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This year’s City Space subtheme brings us a huge variety of sets, from the small one man flyer, to small to medium space ships, to a fully fledged base and a space station. These sets are united through a common colour scheme and the use of modules used in various sets, incorporating the docking linkage element and appear throughout the City, Friends and Technic space themed sets.

When we compare the variety of sets in the LEGO City Space (2024) range, it compares pretty favourably with Vintage space ranges as Classic Space, Ice Planet and Exploriens: We have a small flyer, space ships of various sizes, as well as both small and large rovers, and a large, planet-bound base. The Modular Space Station could be considered to be the equivalent of a base or a larger spaceship.

It is one thing, however, to have an equivalent product range, but how do they compare with sets from the olden days? Today I thought we might take a look at a couple of ‘Large Rover’ sets with a few decades between them: The City Space range is blessed with the 60432 Command Rover and Crane Loader and I thought it might be interesting to compare it with one of the largest rovers ever: 9689 M-Tron Mega Core Magnetizer. If nothing else, it gave me an excuse to unpack this 503 piece bohemoth from 1990. It was the largest set in the M-Tron range. Unlike virtually every other Space range released over the years, M-Tron lacked a fixed base. To make up for this intrinsic defect, the Mega Core Magnetizer travelled the planet’s surface, carrying cargo, dispatching buggies and flyers, and embarking on a world of exploration and logistical management.

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