Revisiting a MOC: Diving Back Into Aquazone!
/Today we venture back to 1995 and Aquazone—a theme that Thomas (also Sylon_TW and SyBricks) and myself are a bit partial to. Aquazone was a sort of an offshoot of space at the time but it took place all under the sea. This is likely because it was an evolution of the “lost” Sea-Tron theme. No mater its origins, I greatly enjoyed it and still have a few sets together in my LEGO room.
Thomas built a great little sub that is reminiscent of set 6175 Chrystal Explorer Sub back in January for a contest on roguebricks.de. The sleek little sub checks the Aquazone boxes nicely: yellow main color with secondary black and trans florescent orange color scheme with trans dark blue canopies, grabby claw arms, and enclose propellers. But let’s talk about the NPU for the bubbly vortices for the propellers being made out of the trans clear minifigure stand piece! What an excellent way to add that underwater feeling and motion to a build!
Thomas was kind enough to answer a few questions that I had about his love of Aquazone and this build.
Michael J: One of the things that caught my attention about this build was that it was a rework. When I’m building, I’ll rework something until I like it, but rarely do I level a MOC and work it back up once it’s “done”. Could you share some of your revision processes, and why you reworked it?
Thomas: Sure, as I said, it was mainly built for a contest on roguebricks.de but I also planned to show it at two AFOL exhibitions, one in September and one in November this year. I was not satisfied with the original landscape. The first version had two big mountains, one on the left and one on the right side. But they were cut on the end with plain sides.
The main idea for that revision was, that for an exhibition it should look good from every single side or perspective. So, I decided to make a new, a more rounded version of the landscape. I started to disassemble the mountains and created a new one as centerpiece. After that I rearranged the vegetation, and the animals of course, around it. I didn’t change much to those things because I really like that in the first version. It just needed some reorganization.
Michael J: I feel the new version is much more focused. I liked the original, but the compactness draws me in so much more! The sub is a great vehicle! Are the stickers custom? If so, you really got the feel right.
Thomas: Thanks a lot, I am very pleased that you like it. The stickers are all original LEGO stickers. And of course, some parts are printed ones out of original Aquanauts sets. I’ve not done my own sticker so far. My graphic editing skills are extremely limited, so no chance to produce my own. In some cases, I would have loved to use custom stickers produced by others. But until now I’ve only used original LEGO stickers. Mostly I cut them and use only small parts or even only colored strips or numbers of the original sticker sheet. But for that contest, that wasn’t allowed. So, the black stripe with the L350F on it, for example, goes nearly around the whole wedge, because the original sticker is that long!
Michael J: Wow, that’s neat. Restrictions make us do some creative things, perhaps that’s why I didn’t recognize them. Was there anything particularly challenging on this build that you'd like to share?
Thomas: Not in particular, but building a landscape is always a kind of challenge to me. I usually focus on vehicles, like airplanes, spaceships or submarines. And when I am done with that main object, I mostly lose the enthusiasm to create a landscape for it. But in this special case, I am extremely happy that I was able to manage it, twice!
Michael J: You do have some great vehicles! Some of which we’ve covered in the past! But I have to say sticking with it really paid off. A couple of fun questions now. What drew you to Aquanauts as a child?
Thomas: Hmm, that’s a tough one. I don’t know… LEGO in general was my favorite toy as a child. But some themes were more interesting than others. My childhood favorites were M-Tron, Ice Planet 2002 and of course Aquanauts. I really don’t know why. Maybe the color schemes could be a reason. All three got these cool colored windscreens but also great play features. I remember myself playing and swooshing around with these little submarines for hours. So maybe it was a combination of both.
Michael J: We have some of the same favorites! Those three really have solid color identities. Do you think the world is ready for the Neo Aquanauts Theme?
Thomas: Ha ha! I am, in any case, I love that theme so much. For the rest of the world, we have to see how LEGO would realize it. We definitely need more themes from the past. But maybe not in a “modern” way. Remembering the Nexo Knights theme, most people were nauseated with it… that was at least my impression. But my first reaction was, “Oh great, new windscreens for Ice Planet 2002 MOCs!” So, there will be any good impact whatever LEGO will do to it, so let’s get this on!
Michael J: Cool new parts are always good! I’d like to see Neo Aquanauts take off as a MOC movement! What’s your favorite LEGO piece?
Thomas: Arr, that question is the toughest. I already read some of these interviews and I thought I was prepared for that question… But now I have to reconsider. I won’t say I have a favorite single piece but maybe a favorite category or class. My MOCs are mostly super clean, and I love all these curved slopes. And even better is that LEGO started to produce these cut versions which run under wedges like 29119 / 29120 or 80177 / 80178 in the newer sets. These are absolutely great. But also, the basic not curved Slope Corner 13548 is one of my favorites. But we would need that in some more colors. ;)
Michael J: Fantastic choices I haven’t gotten to play with 80177/8 yet but I have a bunch of 29119/20 that I’m working with right now! Anything else you'd like to share?
Thomas: Umm, not in particular. But I want to thank you so much that you gave me that opportunity to talk a little bit about my creation. It was a great pleasure.
Michael J: You’re very welcome, and thanks so much for chatting with us!
Do you have any Aquazone sets? What are your favorite LEGO color combinations for themes? Let us know in the comments below!
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