This May be the best lego speedboat there is apart from the Octan one in set 6543-Sail 'n' Fly Marina. OK so I paid £2.79 for this off bricklink which is a good price. two stickers on the side were missing, but i can understand as it was probably dunked underwater and the stickers peeled off. BTW i wont do a box section as it didn't come with a box.

The Minifigs:

Two Identical Minifigs with blue legs, white torso, classic smiley head, a white helmet with black visor and a lifejcket. I replaced the visors with clear ones because it looks better.

The Boat:

I've never seen such a sleek boat with it's contrasting colours and it's '5' racing stickers.

the engine on the front is a nice touch and I like the exhausts at the back. The build is similar to the boat in set 6344-Jet Speed Justice. It also comes with two radios.

Overall rating:

I really like this boat. the colours couldn't be better and the engine and exhausts make it look fierce like a shark (hence the name) I give it a 5/5.

I could quite easily imagine the Cargo Carrier (4030) being intercepted by the Dark Shark in unfriendly waters! I have a few of these in my collection and again they are a popular addition to any marina or coastal town.

The craft is quite unassuming in its appearance; the long black hull with canoe-style stern, twin exhaust pipes and the all-important hand held ship-to-shore radios mounted on brackets. The power plant is exposed through the deck head and nudging up to this is a vent and plate with the number ‘5’ on it. Why a number 5? I wonder if this was fifth in a fleet? The colour scheme of black and red works well and is nicely broken up by the yellow ‘arrow’ on the side, just a pity this is a sticker and has been lost from so many sets out there. With the addition of the round stud applied to the underside of the craft, a sense of speed can be achieved which makes the craft look like its up on the plane.

It’s a great set which has outrun my Coastal Cutter (6353) many times!

The Dark Shark is very cool and has some great features. It has a huge engine in the front and a spoiler in the back. The two minifig cockpit is also a nice feature. This is a great set and there is nothing bad about it.

I think this one was labelled in the catalog back then as the smugglers' speedboat, and that is usually how we played with it. Always trying to outrun #6353 Coastal Cutter, and generally succeeding too as no other boat could match its speed.

Box/Instructions

I only found the instructions, a folded sheet with ~10 steps. Back then booklets were only found in bigger sets if I remember correctly, folding sheets were the norm. At about 80 pieces this means around 8 pieces/step, and since the bottom layers are almost entirely black you have to pay a bit of attention too.

Parts

Two bow bricks and plates, the boat studs (which were new that year if I'm remembering this right), two red tail fins... Some nice parts for building boats, and besides that a nice selection of bricks, plates and tiles with clips, grilles, handles etc. Difficult to make something else than a boat though but it really is a small set so no complaints here.

Minifigures

What is this, the Nondescript Smugglers' Uniform? Two figures in the same outfit: white shirt, blue pants and white helm with (awesome but impractical) black visor. Fortunately they have life vests, but having them in the same faceless outfit makes it look like they work for SPECTRE instead and I doubt that was really what they were going for. Or it was just a race boat all along and I was misled by false advertising?

The build

It's a nice, short build. A small boat (but a lot bigger then some of those tiny little speedboats) with a sleek form and menacing colour scheme, a nice touch is the engine showing in front of the windscreen (although the practicality of that is debatable since this makes it exposed to salt water, it never stopped me when I was a child though) and the slopes at the rear combined with the yellow stickers really make for a fast look. This is also unfortunate, as the stickers are to go over several bricks. I did my best to place them on one 1 x 8 brick so they are still attached, but this is the kindest way I can put it. One weird observation is that the stickers on the two Dark Sharks we have have aged differently: one set is looking almost pristine with a vivid yellow colour while the other set has faded to a really muted yellow. I don't remember putting one of them through significantly more abuse than the other one though, so the reason for this discrepancy is beyond me.

The completed model

Sleek and menacing - both because of the form and the colour scheme and helped by the black visors - just as you want your bad guys to be. Then again, no storage to actually smuggle stuff (nor anything to smuggle, really, unless those radios are worth a lot and they seem far to ubiquitous for that) means that maybe it's time to change them from 'smugglers' to 'racers'? Another childhood illusion lost...

Overall opinion

Whatever the occupation of the minifigs in this set, the boat itself is a superb speedboat. And the next generation still is poised to create adventures with this one together with #6353 as both are still well liked: this one in particular for being 'cool'.

This is from the late 80's early 90's Town theme and has all of the things one would expect from it. Simple design, easy to build, good looking and alot of fun to play with. The boat is long a narrow like a speed or cigarette boat should be. Does have two mini figures to race to victory. Good Set, I have kept this one assembled in my cabinet for past 3 or 4 years - a winner - good set to call your own.