Ocean Treasure Hunt

1) What is it?

There's an old story among ocean treasure hunters that an ancient pirate ship was sailing across the ocean long ago.  One of its small boats was carrying the treasure chest, but then it sank into the depths of the sea and the treasure was lost for ages.  Then it is said that many years later some treasure hunters found the boat and the treasure, but were unable to bring them to the surface.  Perhaps it was due to a pirate curse that wouldn't allow anyone to retrieve the treasure.  The treasure hunters did manage to mark the spot with an ordinary looking buoy, in the hopes of soon returning to try again.  They never returned because they died shortly thereafter (because of the curse?)  However, the buoy still remains.  Now, two brave divers have decided to investigate the waters by this particular buoy.  Although these waters are full of colorful fish and plant life, the divers better watch out - because you never know when a shark or octopus might come by.  Will these divers recover the sunken pirate treasure - or will they be so mesmerized by the ocean life around them that they never find it?

2) Why did you build it?

I built this model because so many LEGO fans like sets with incredible details, but sometimes those sets are so big that we don't know where we will put them when we're done building them.  This Ocean Treasure Hunt is a great build with a lot of amazing detail and yet it is also slim enough to be displayed on a bookshelf or a desk.  The footprint of the build is a 6x24 plate.  It has exactly 500 pieces, is 7.6" wide, 2.0" deep, 8.8" high, and weighs 15.7 ounces.

3) Why do you believe this would make a great LEGO set?

It would be a great set because 1) it tells a great story, 2) it is a stunning display piece, 3) it makes great use of detail and color (notice the second picture where the clear panels have been removed to make seeing the underwater details easier), 4) it doesn't take up much room, 5) as a smaller set it would be more affordable than larger sets, and 6) it has some fun building techniques (Consider, for example, the 3-D effect where some items are in front and others are in back.  The third picture shows how this effect was achieved.)

Please support the Ocean Treasure Hunt and help these divers find the treasure of 10,000 votes!