Quirky/unusual or forgotten sets

MinifigsMe · January 2013

Maybe it's just me, but I love stumbling across an expected set (either on brickset or ebay) that I've just not heard of before, but is delightful.
Here's one I found today, which is just such a lovely idea:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=7870-1
The Hans Christian Anderson bucket - featuring builds such as the princess and the pea. Made me smile.

Anyone else feel the same?
(this is just about sets that are pleasing not about what they're worth now!!!)

richo · January 2013

Two words. Time Cruisers.

JamesJT · January 2013

thomasmain said:
That's a good one. I think it languished because the tie-in to the stories was not as obvious as it could have been. Instead of a bucket, a box set that also included a storybook with Lego illustrations would have been nice, I think.

I like http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=364-1 because it's got a variety of buildings and vehicles and is just an all around great play set.

-T

This was my first ever lego set, I was 3 years old. I didn't bother with the instructions (still don't), I just built a big house. I didn't leave my room for days which is probably why they bought me more and more lego.

Oldfan · January 2013

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=1593-1 is an interesting one: originally just a set of instructions to build a "super model" using the pieces from http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6929-1 and http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6880-1, it was later packaged and sold as a stand-alone set (available if you bought laundry detergent in the UK).

MinifigsMe · January 2013

@richo - oh no, please don't go there! ;-)

@oldfan, that's a good find.

binaryeye · January 2013

I remember seeing 6355 Derby Trotter in catalogs as a kid and thinking it was different but interesting:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6355-1

There are other sets in the Town - Leisure line that are sort of quirky, for example:

6552 Rocky Retreat
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6552-1
6563 Gator Landing
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6563-1
6444 Outback Airstrip
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6444-1

just2good · January 2013

just2good's forgotten licensed sets: part 1
Paul Frank set-

Top Gear set-

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium set-

MinifigsMe · January 2013

The paul frank one seems an odd choice for lego!

Aanchir · January 2013

binaryeye said:
I remember seeing 6355 Derby Trotter in catalogs as a kid and thinking it was different but interesting:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6355-1

There are other sets in the Town - Leisure line that are sort of quirky, for example:

6552 Rocky Retreat
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6552-1
6563 Gator Landing
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6563-1
6444 Outback Airstrip
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6444-1

In the US, at least, Outback Airstrip was not in the Leisure subtheme-- it, 6490 Amazon Crossing, 6550 Outback Racer, and 6553 Crisis News Crew formed the short-lived "Outback" subtheme. Which, on the whole, was quite a quirky group of sets in general.

rocao · January 2013

Was Leisure even a real sub-theme? I don't think it was

binaryeye · January 2013

I just referred to it like that because that is how it's listed in the database here. Sorry for the confusion.

roxio · January 2013

#1490 town bank , hard to find, poor reviews, but still costs a fortune
second-hand !!!!!!

BELTRAD · January 2013

richo said:
Two words. Time Cruisers.

Never heard of these before so looked them up and wow, I mean just......... wow, those sets look like something out of a really crazy dream either that or some really sleep deprived designers lol

richo · January 2013

^ it's a well known fact, or maybe myth lol, that lego used its spare parts for this theme.

DadsAFOL · January 2013

Here's one that I wish I had. brickset.com/detail/?Set=4679-1

There's something cool about the "mystery" of what bonus parts would be included. I went looking for this one and noticed that Brickset shows the inventory as 114% complete - showing 1709 parts for a 1500 part set!

Yodalicious · February 2013

binaryeye said:
I remember seeing 6355 Derby Trotter in catalogs as a kid and thinking it was different but interesting:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6355-1

There are other sets in the Town - Leisure line that are sort of quirky, for example:

6552 Rocky Retreat
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6552-1
6563 Gator Landing
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6563-1
6444 Outback Airstrip
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6444-1

Loved the Rocky Retreat. Holds a special place for me as it was the last set I got before entering my first dark ages. Sadly, I've located every old set of mine except it in the last year. It even got as bad as me thinking maybe I never actually owned it, but just remembered seeing it in stores. But nope...found the instructions last week. Somehow that one set is gone though.

Zeya · February 2013

DadsAFOL said:
Here's one that I wish I had. brickset.com/detail/?Set=4679-1

There's something cool about the "mystery" of what bonus parts would be included. I went looking for this one and noticed that Brickset shows the inventory as 114% complete - showing 1709 parts for a 1500 part set!

That one was during my dark age, but I read about it... Apparently the box on top would contain a random assortment of pieces, and also pieces in colors that had never been in sets before. And then people went insane for them. But I guess this wasn't really "fair" so Lego has decided not to make something like that ever again.

Come to think of it, that reminds me of the mixed bags they used to have at brand stores up until recently.

LegobrandonCP · February 2013

#7870 is really cool! Never seen that before. Plus, the models are really adorable. Anyone know why the set is named Hans Christian Andersen Bucket?

Lego_Lord_Mayorca · February 2013

How DARE someone demean the Time Cruisers theme? That theme is awesome because the sets were a jumble of parts, and you could have pieces from sets that you might otherwise not own. The highlights were obviously the Hypno Cruiser and the Flying Time Vessel. Heck, with the lack of any hope for a Back to the Future theme, the Hypno Cruiser was the coolest time machine in my eyes after the DeLorean! Even CUUSOO's recently-approved BttF time machine model may not live up to the hype once we see the final produced set; that will leave the Hypno Cruiser as Lego's best time machine.

Now, the Time Twisters from 1997 were a bit more suspect. I must admit though, that the Twisted Time Train is funky and quirky, and I'm glad I own it (though I am in no rush to rebuild it).

thenos · February 2013

LegobrandonCP said:
#7870 is really cool! Never seen that before. Plus, the models are really adorable. Anyone know why the set is named Hans Christian Andersen Bucket?

Just a hunch, but HCA is Dutch, 2005 was the 200th anniversary of his birthday, and the models were from fairy tales he did (i.e. The ugly duckling).

Standard_Grin · February 2013

^ Actually he's Danish which makes the link to LEGO even shorter.

Aanchir · February 2013

Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
How DARE someone demean the Time Cruisers theme? That theme is awesome because the sets were a jumble of parts, and you could have pieces from sets that you might otherwise not own. The highlights were obviously the Hypno Cruiser and the Flying Time Vessel. Heck, with the lack of any hope for a Back to the Future theme, the Hypno Cruiser was the coolest time machine in my eyes after the DeLorean! Even CUUSOO's recently-approved BttF time machine model may not live up to the hype once we see the final produced set; that will leave the Hypno Cruiser as Lego's best time machine.

Now, the Time Twisters from 1997 were a bit more suspect. I must admit though, that the Twisted Time Train is funky and quirky, and I'm glad I own it (though I am in no rush to rebuild it).

I collected more Time Cruisers sets, but in retrospect I really prefer the Time Twisters. First of all, they had a much more interesting color scheme IMO. Grey, Bright Yellow, and Tr. Light Blue is nice, but there's something quite neat about Black, Earth Orange (classic brown), and Bright Blue. Also, the minifigures in Time Twisters used exclusively pre-existing minifig parts and STILL looked cooler than the Time Cruisers main characters with their weird eyes and noses. On the whole, whereas Time Cruisers had an aesthetic of unbridled whimsy, Time Twisters had a more focused sort of anachronism, with lots of grim imagery like bats and skulls incorporated into their designs.

I also thought the functions of the Time Twisters sets were often cooler than their Time Cruisers counterparts. Of the two Time Twisters sets I had, the Time Tunnelator had a spinning propellor AND flapping wings, while the Whirling Time Warper had dragon arms holding crossbows and dragon heads on each side that moved up and down, skulls in top hats that popped out of the cones on top, and a propellor in the back attached to a rotating cylinder full of treasure.

What Time Cruisers and Time Twisters alike were good for was functioning as a crash course in LEGO Technic functions, much like Power Miners did many years later.

thenos · February 2013

Standard_Grin said:
^ Actually he's Danish which makes the link to LEGO even shorter.

He's from one of those countries over there. :) danish does make more sense doesn't it.

peterlinddk · February 2013

thenos said:

Standard_Grin said:
^ Actually he's Danish which makes the link to LEGO even shorter.
He's from one of those countries over there. :) danish does make more sense doesn't it.

2005 was the big Hans Christian Andersen-year here in Denmark, with lots and lots of failed festivities, all culminating in a concert with Tina Turner (!).

But LEGO actually produced some rather nice sets inspired by the famous fairytales - sadly they were all in the Belville-theme: http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=Belville&year=2005

Oldfan · February 2013

richo said:
^ it's a well known fact, or maybe myth lol, that lego used its spare parts for this theme.

Probably a myth, since the Flying Time Cruiser boat hulls at least are unique to that set; but the set designs sure feel like they were MOCed by the designers!

The best contribution made by Time Cruisers might be all the Timmy jokes made by AFOLs over the years in various MOCs, stories, games, and forum posts...

super_curry_max · February 2013

dear lord i want that monkey keychain

Lego_Lord_Mayorca · February 2013

I'll agree to that, @Aanchir. I definitely thought the Time Cruisers had it made with the aesthetics, but the Time Twisters had some cooler functions.

Good to see I have some support in my praise for Time Cruisers and Time Twisters. In retrospect, it was a little too enthusiastic, but I take back no statement.

DanGP · February 2013

richo said:
Two words. Time Cruisers.

Hadn't heard of Time Cruisers until now. They look INSANE. #6499 looks like its been driven by one of the village people.

jdylak · February 2013

Those Time Cruisers sets are horrid! They all look like somkething you'd see in the Lego Club magazine that some 6 year old made and sent pictures in. Ugh!

Aanchir · February 2013

jdylak said:
Those Time Cruisers sets are horrid! They all look like somkething you'd see in the Lego Club magazine that some 6 year old made and sent pictures in. Ugh!

I don't think you'd say that about them seeing them in person. Many of them have got some quite clever Technic functions that help add a level of intricacy to their designs. I was six when that theme was out and I struggled to come up with models to fit that theme which shared nearly the same level of complexity. It's hard to remember any set with a flapping wings function cooler than that of the Time Tunnelator, and the way the top-hatted skulls would pop up and down on the Whirling Time Warper was a sight to behold.

While there's something bizarre about the mish-mash of motifs the sets use, overall they were no more juniorized than most of the other sets of the mid-90s. And it helped that both Time Cruisers and Time Twisters adhered somewhat strictly to their respective color schemes, with the exception of the Magic Mountain Time Lab which struck me as quite weird even back then!

Overall, as far as a "time travel" theme is concerned I think Time Cruisers did an excellent job reflecting that with an anachronistic sort of aesthetic, and Time Twisters tied its designs together even better with a consistently darker spin on the concept. The mid- to late 90s and early naughts may not have been the best period for set designs but they were a time of a lot of innovation, breaking from the basic "Castle/Space/Town/Pirates" lineup to introduce really imaginative new themes like Aquazone, Time Cruisers, Adventurers, and Alpha Team.

carlq · February 2013

jdylak said:
Those Time Cruisers sets are horrid! They all look like somkething you'd see in the Lego Club magazine that some 6 year old made and sent pictures in. Ugh!

Actually, Time Cruisers has always had a very TARDIS-ish feel to me - bits and pieces from all over the timeline, which shouldn't work together, but do. :-)

I have a very soft spot for that theme, as they were the sets which started my little nephew's interest in LEGO - and marked a brief surfacing for me out of my long Dark Age (who do you think bought, and built, those sets for him?).

Hemel · February 2013

super_curry_max said:
dear lord i want that monkey keychain

$45 on fleabay!

roguetrader1987 · February 2013

The 1980's Bank- it was never in the UK catalogue and so freaked me as a kid and I had to have it!

bobabricks · April 2014

I think any of the old 1980's-1990's space, pirates, city and Johnny Thunder stuff was the best because even small sets with less than 200 pieces came with full baseplates and all of the sets were just very lively and fun. There is just something about those sets that make them better than the sets released today.

Bluefairy_56 · April 2014

I have the Robo Guardian #6949 and Saucer Scout #6835. I actually enjoyed building them. I don't usually like any of the space Lego, not even Star Wars unless it's R2D2. But these were fun with all the things it does.

Yellowcastle · April 2014

^ I missed this thread the first time. Thanks!

Pitfall69 · April 2014

I'm sorry, but I thought Fabuland was creepy.

adventure_al · April 2014

binaryeye said:
I remember seeing 6355 Derby Trotter in catalogs as a kid and thinking it was different but interesting:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6355-1

There are other sets in the Town - Leisure line that are sort of quirky, for example:

6552 Rocky Retreat
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6552-1
6563 Gator Landing
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6563-1
6444 Outback Airstrip
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6444-1

These are great, GREAT sets! In terms of playability and design.

Quirky/unusual or forgotten sets

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