One thing I really appreciate from the Sky Pirates sub-theme is its wild blend of steampunk/dieselpunk elements with the classical pirates-look. The Lego designers did a great job with the Raid Zeppelin and the Misfortune’s Keep (mostly), so lets have a closer look at the Sky Shark.
With the Ninjago Movie just around the corner and the new sets hitting shelves these days, a lot of the Sky Pirates-sets are now significantly reduced. That’s always a good chance to strike, even if I find it a bit sad that they don’t seem to have a more prominent role in the future. A pity. I really would be happy if they would become a permanent theme.
Anyway, back to topic. Design-wise, the Sky Shark follows the tradition of the Misfortune Keep of having a flying contraption made up of parts that are rather made for being used to build a pirate ship. A bold, but quite fun concept and the Sky Shark wears its freaky hybrid-DNA with pride. Not every element on it make sense (exhaust pipes for what exactly? Treasure chests as engine pods? And what the hell are these pistols are good for?), but that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? Its certainly a pretty wild thing.
This said, a couple of bits and pieces are getting easily knocked out of position and the plane has a couple too many stickers on it, but its all within the range of being acceptable.
Regarding play-features it has a quite fun bomb-dropping mechanism, where you pull back a slider on its back which is connected with two chains to the lids of the treasure chests. The chests open and drop some dynamite on their target – or two fishes. Depending on the freshness, the latter may be actually the more devastating weapon!
Its pilot, the pirate flying-ace Flintlocke, is exactly the same version as in the Misfortune’s Keep. He is quite a character with his huge moustache and is one of the few Sky Pirate Minifigures that actually have a unique body print.
On the Ninja-side we have Lloyd, who again didn’t got the best flying machine possible. Its really not more than a wearable really. At least it has some really nice flame-pieces.
Speaking of wearables: The set is quite generously equipped with weapons. A lot of them mounted on the Sky Shark, but after you have finished assembling it, there is still a good number of them kicking around. Very nice! Ah, and before I forget: there is of course the obligatory Djinn-blade. Which means two Axe-heads for my medieval world! I’m always glad to get a couple of those.
All in all the Sky Shark is a nice little set, which sits very comfortably in lower price-range. It has a quite unconventional look and a decent Minifigure-lineup. Its surely something you can have a lot of fun with. So if you find it somewhere and you have a soft spot for weird designs: go for it.
Pros:
Creative and unconventional use of parts.
Lots of accessories.
Cons:
The design is hit or miss, you like it, or not.
Pieces may fall off.
Pieces: 350
