6190 - Shark's Crystal Cave

Rating:
Pros: Very rare pieces included; very large sub design
Cons: Bare base area; way too expensive
Contents: 251 pieces including 2 mini-figs and 1 shark
Price: About $55 - Discontinued
Reviewed: 29-Dec-1998
Reviewed by: Mark Bauer

In the deep ocean depths there is a large rumor that there may still be a small percentage of the Aquashark race still alive in a cave by the Neptune Discovery Lab ruins. The toxic waste dump disaster supposedly killed everything in its path but apparently some reliable Hydronauts claimed they saw a very large sub with an Aquashark logo speed past their sub as they searched for crystals. The news traveled fast and brave explorers went to find the missing race but never returned. Finally the Hydronauts were fed up of all the disappearances so they sent the Hydro-Search Sub in to find out what has happened. The sub slowly reached the ruins of the Aquanauts great lab but found nothing. They put on their spotlights and noticed a small crack in the wall of boulder. To their surprise behind the boulder was a cave. The sub was too big to fit so they ventured out on foot unsure of what they might find. Along the way in the cave they started to spot subs that had crashed and were abandoned. The Hydronuats got worried and headed back but were stopped immediately by a large sub that looked like a shark. The sub quickly snatched the Hydronauts and dragged them to the secret Aqaushark base and threw them into the prison for who knows how long.

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When I found out that K-B's Toy store still has a small stock of this set I immediately went to the store and picked up one. After foolishly not getting one when they were available everywhere, I finally had one and my Aquazone theme is now totally complete up till 1998!
Anyways, onto the set. This set consists of a huge sub, a small sub, and a base for the Aquasharks. The main thing to this set is the sub so I'll cover that first.
The sub can be summed up in one word, large. This set may not look too big in pictures but trust me it is large. Maybe not a big as the Stingray Stormer but it still has an impressive 45 (meaning 45 1x1bricks lined up together) length. The front of the sub has the main cockpit, which has nothing special to it except for the ugly pre-printed canopy. The next section has a long canopy that covers a storage place for a mini-sub that is so small and basic I won't even describe it. On the sides of this area there are two octagonal canopies that really serve no purpose but add to the look of the sub. The next area is a small room covered by a blue canopy that is preprinted with a pretty cool design. The small room has no controls so I am guessing that it is used to hold prisoners. The back area has two black sloped canopies that can be lifted up to reveal a space used to store one or two crystal boxes. The very back has two propellers one is on top of a fin usually seen in planes in town sets.
The station is actually not a station nor a cave but just a plate with a cage piece to hold enemies, which actually is pretty spacious (lucky prisoners they get a big jail). The top of the jail has an area where the large sub can dock to drop of crystals or prisoners. Overall the station has not character at all but serves a good purpose.
There are some unique pieces in this set that cannot be found in any other set to date. There are some octagonal supports on the jail and on the sub that are blue, which is rare. The Trans-orange canopy covering the mini-sub and the Trans-orange octagonal canopies both are not found anywhere else in that color except for this set which was cool to see.
There are a few bad things about this set, which lowers the rating significantly. First, the cave area is way too bare looking without the ship on top of the prison. Second comes the price of the set, which hurt the rating the most. This set comes with 251 pieces. Lets see, 251 pieces would be about 44 dollars or so. Nope, this set cost 60 dollars (with tax)! I was totally shocked to see this. If I were not a big collector of Aquazone I would never pay this much for this set. So although it has a lot of unique pieces and large sub it still is not worth the money I feel and if you can find it I would only recommend this set to the big collectors of Aquazone, otherwise keep your money far away from this set.