Crystal

The 1x1 Crystal with 5 points has been a cornerstone of many LEGO sets since 1995. While some more recent sets use the piece as a generic valuable rock, when it was first introduced it was often used as a source of power.

The Crystal first appeared in Aquazone subtheme Aquanauts sets as a chrome colored piece. Today the crystal is available in thirteen colors, the most common being chrome, trans-neon green, and gold (both pearl and metallic).

The Aquanauts mined and collected the crystals for survival. They used submarines and other vehicles to collect the crystals (and fight off opposing Aquasharks) and bring them back to their base, the Neptune Discovery Lab.

It is unclear if the crystals were used to power their vehicles, or if they were used for trade. Later  Aquazone subthemes like the Hydronauts and Stingrays has similar motives. Later themes, like Rock Raiders, have much more detailed mythology and background story that give us further insight regarding the purpose of the crystals.

For the Rock Raiders, based on the video game and promotional materials, the crystals represented the only source of power for the stranded crew. The crew crash landed on the mysterious planet, and they had to collect crystals to power and repair their vehicles to eventually make their escape.

The Rock Raiders, and later the Power Miners, battled native rock monsters to obtain the necessary crystals. According to Power Miners mythos they were sent down to investigate the source of recent earthquakes. They discovered that the rock monsters were creating the earthquakes, and that the rock monsters consumed the power crystals as a source of energy. The obvious solution was to take away their source of food, causing the rock monsters to starve and die off.

In more recent Town, Lone Ranger, and Superheroes sets the pearl gold and silver crystal appears as a source of valuable wealth, basically gold.

The recent announcement of a new Arctic theme provided us with a few images of the new sets, which include crystals in the blocks of ice. At this point it is unknown if the crystals have value, are a source of power, or are merely ice.

4793: Ogel Shark Sub

4793:  Ogel Shark Sub comes from the Mission Deep Sea subtheme, which falls under the larger Alpha Team theme.  The submarine, unlike most, has two arms, one with a claw and one with spinning blades.  This is interesting because several of the Aquazone submarines also came with arms attached to the subs, so I wonder if they were designed by the same people, or possibly paying homage?

As you can see it has a very sleek design and is pretty awesome looking, but we can't ignore the fact that a submarine with arms is just absurd.  It's generally much too dark underwater to see anything, rendering such weapons useless.  Additionally, submarines are generally used for long-range combat against boats, which would make arms pretty useless.  But who cares, this is a really fucking cool submarine.

Shit, look at the dude it comes with (three of them!).  He has a fucking skull for a head and a trans green helmet.  Intense guy.  Anyway, overall it's a really cool set, but not very practical.

6155 - Deep Sea Predator

What is a deep sea predator? When I think of the phrase, an anglerfish or giant squid comes to mind, not a shark. Regardless, this Aquashark set premiered in 1995 under the Aquazone theme, the first of several underwater Lego themes. It made use of magnets, like many Aquazone sets, along with moveable joints (the two arms) that weren't used in many other sets. Since then the Lego Group has introduced several other methods of creating moveable joints and arms, usually with more success.

Look at the shark that it comes with. Does it believe this submarine is also a shark, perhaps a godshark? Were the Aquasharks able to train sharks to do their bidding, to domesticate them?

Why were the Aquasharks and Aquanauts eternally fighting for the chrome crystals. Were they a power source? Crystals according to both Rock Raider and Power Miner (two similar themes from different generations) mythos were a source of power. The Mars Mission theme also featured the 7645-1 Crystal Reaper, again collecting (really exploiting and colonizing the Mars natives, but that's for another entry entirely) crystals to fuel their machinery. Therefore, it can only be assumed that these crystals, and the battle for them, were yet another in a long series of Lego themes centered around collecting crystals for energy. Aquazone premiered before elaborate backstories were established for themes (only a few years after), so this is primarily conjecture.

It's interesting that the crystal becomes such a valued Lego piece. They are chrome, which is one of the least produced Lego brick colors, and of course traditional crystals are rare and valued as well. On bricklink they average around 20 cents a piece. They really serve little purpose in building, other than being a crystal, or adding detail to something, because they can only be attached to a stud.

Back to the set however, the large glass screen would make it nearly impossible for this submarine to really be a 'deep sea predator' because the immense pressure would instantly crush the glass. The design itself is much like a shark, with a large fin on top and small fins on each side. Compared to other Aquashark sets, it's a medium sized submarine, being piloted by only one Aquashark, and seems to be built primarily for battle, but also able to collect crystals.

In closing, I believe the topic of collecting crystals will be key to many Lego themes and will be discussed in the future. Although the Aquasharks are the 'bad guys' in this theme, their connection to sharks and the sea itself makes it possible that they could be defending their world against the Aquanauts.