LEGO Aquazone

This cropped image of an Aquazone mock-up features a peculiar shark figure with black and yellow stripes that have never been done in any other set.

## Product Information

### Year(s)

Late 1990's

LEGO produced at least a few mock-up prototypes for their Aquazone line that would've featured more sets and aquatic animals based on undersea exploration, though it never amounted to anywhere else.

## **Summary**

Aquazone was an underwater theme first introduced by the LEGO Company in 1995. The setting of all the Aquazone lines was the ocean, and usually involved two sides combating each other for certain valuables (such as Hydrolator Crystals and other treasures). The first two were the Aquanauts, the heroic miners who worked at the Neptune Discovery Lab to search for Hydrolator crystals; and the Aquasharks, the villainous underwater miners that wanted complete control of the mines. As the series progressed through the years, new factions were introduced as the older ones were phased out of production. They include the Aquaraiders from 1997, an alternate villain faction that competed with both the orgiinal factions (a theme named Aqua Raiders was introduced in 2007, though is unrelated to Aquazone); and the Hydronauts miners and the fish-like Stingray mutants who were locked in war with each other in the 1998 sets. The protagonists would even capture the Stingrays and lock them up in the Hydro Crystalization System.

With the start of the Aquazone line some new pieces that later became ubiquitous were introduced. However there were also some pieces that were never seen again outside of this theme including the crystals, silver knife and short harpoon, minifigure flippers, propellers, Hydronaut helmets, and the Octopus. Some of the more exclusive themes include the Aquazone visors, Aquanaut, Aquashark and Stingray helmets, along with the minifigure head for the latter subfaction; and the suction guns.

## **Prototype Sets**

There really isn't much information I could find about these sets, what number they were labelled, what name they would've had, or even if they were for another underwater theme rather than Aquazone; though LEGO cooked up at least a few mock-ups of underwater-themed playsets that were shown in a toy catalog. The first one, even though it more likely looks like something that was designed for Seatron, featured a black and red futurustic underwater base that would've been used for the bad guys and alongside floating aquatic plants & yellow windshields is a skeleton minifigure to the right. The second set was a classic yellow undersea explorer vehicle that also features a a grey octopus to the right of the image. Thie third picture features at least several submarine and underwater ground-explorers used by different factions that come in their own colours like red, yellow, and blue. And finally, the picture up above, albeit cropped; featues a deep sea diver minifigure with a harpoon gun standing next to an undersea explorer, some sort of giant eel/aquatic snake, and a black shark figure with yellow stripes; making it some sort of striped tiger shark. This kind of shark has never been released before in any other LEGO set.

## **Final Verdict**

For reasons unknown, whether it be the theme coming to an end or general uninterest in the mock-ups, the Aquazone prototypes were never released and have not been seen again since the 1990's; making them indefinitely: **LOST**.

## **Gallery**

Some sort of underwater base that may have been intended for one of the Aquazone villains, though could've also been made for SeatronA deep sea explorer mock-up that was built for AquazoneAn assortment of scrapped Aquazone submarines

## **External Link**

* Serwithed,. (2016, August 13). Some Unreleased LEGO Themes. *Rock Raiders United*. Online forum thread.

## **Reference**

1. ↑ https://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/Aquazone