The designers of LEGO Icons 10366 Tropical Aquarium wanted to include every colour possible – but one proved especially tricky to include.
Between the plants, creatures, fish, and decoration, the newly revealed 10366 Tropical Aquarium is a riot of colour. In fact, the designer of the LEGO Icons set, Sven Franic, explained at Fan Media Days that the set began with a quest to include as many colours in one set as possible.
"The way this came to be was, while staring at one of our colour palettes, I thought: could we just use all of these?" remembered Sven. "Thankfully, our design process is a little bit more nuanced than that, but we wanted to combine nature and put it in your living room.
"We're experiencing an interior design malaise in terms of colour, so it was really fun working with a lot of different colours. When you design cars, you don't often get to pick a glittery purple and all of these interesting elements. We were able to really test the shapes and colours of the LEGO system."
While the original goal was to include as many colours as possible, it wasn't possible to include them all. Ironically, one colour that just didn't fit the palette was coral – despite brick-built coral actually appearing in 10366 Tropical Aquarium.
"It wasn't really intentional," said Sven. "Coral was just a colour that didn't work for us here. There are definitely a lot more colours that we haven't used here, but it's one of those sets that spans quite a huge range of shades."
Interestingly, coral appears to be a tricky colour to include in more sets than just 10366 Tropical Aquarium. Speaking to LEGO Fan Media about LEGO Ideas 21359 Italian Riviera, the theme's Design Lead, Jordan Scott, echoed Sven's sentiments about coral not quite working for the set.
"We did talk about whether we have done the coral colour for one of the buildings because they are very bright and vibrant in real life, but our coral is just a little too neon in a way," he explained. "We've tried it, but if you render it or build something, it's quite in your face and it draws all of your attention to that site."
Indeed, coral tends to appear in more brightly-coloured, child-focused sets across LEGO Disney and Friends, although not exclusively. Some prominent examples include 43207 Ariel's Underwater Palace and 43254 Ariel's Crystal Cavern, rather than the more realistic sets like 10366 Tropical Aquarium and 21359 Italian Riviera.
The coral sea shells and bricks in the sets pictured above do highlight that the colour tends to draw the eye. In the case of 21359 Italian Riviera, you can imagine how a whole building in that colour might have overpowered the other shades, while in 10366 Tropical Aquarium, it might have stood out too much from the blends of the other colours.
Even without coral, 10366 Tropical Aquarium still manages to debut a wealth of colours. We won't know exactly how many until we get a parts breakdown, but even at this early stage, there are plenty of colourful features to explore.
LEGO Icons 10366 Tropical Aquarium will go on sale for LEGO Insiders from November 13 and for everyone else from November 16, retailing at £399.99 / $479.99 / €449.99.
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