What do you get if you cross a Land Rover with a vintage roadster? A Land Roadster of course, with this one owned by Adventurers hero Indiana Jones Johnny Thunder. There’s working steering, space for three mini-figures, and more to see courtesy of Sseven Bricks via the link above.
Held in an enormous temporary structure in London’s Hyde Park, the ‘Great Exhibition ‘ of 1851 was a triumphal showcase of the British Empire. Sponsored by the world’s first soft drinks company, featuring the world’s first public flushing toilets (which cost a penny to use, hence the phrase ‘spend a penny’), and with the world’s largest diamond at its centre, the equivalent of one in three of Britain’s entire population visited the exhibition during its five-month run.
Exhibits ranged from art, jewellery, and ornaments from across the Empire, to the world’s first fax machine, the world’s first voting machine, prototype Colt revolvers, and a weather forecasting machine powered by leeches. Because 1851.
Cue this astonishing creation by bartsbrickworks of Flickr, who has reimagined the Great Exhibition (and the remarkable Crystal Palace that housed it) in a LEGO Adventurers / steampunkish universe. There might not be leeches, but a steampunk submarine, space rocket, and time machine are amongst the varied exhibits on display to an enthralled crowd of mini-figures, with much of the model motorised to bring the contraptions to life.
There’s so much more of this incredible build to see at Bart’s ‘The Crystal Palace’ album, and you can purchase your ticket to an amazing exhibition of wonder and whimsy via the link above.
TLCB Opinion of the Day; Archeologists are glorified looters. Whether it be an item of great reverence to a particular culture, the wealth of an entire people, or the bones of someone’s ancestor, they’re all ripe for digging up and sticking in a museum.
Cue Indiana Jon… um, we mean ‘Johnny Thunder’, who’s about to get his hands on the ‘Lost Sun Disk’ from the mouth of a hidden jungle totem. He may have to shoot a native or two, but that ancient treasure belongs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art!
Newcomer workhardbuildhard is the builder behind the aforementioned theft, with Johnny and an accomplice ready to make their daring escape in a neat grey Jeep CJ. The locals certainly won’t be able to keep up with that!
There’s more of the build to see at whbh’s photostream via the link above, or alternatively visit any Western cultural museum for innumerous items of great worth successfully looted by brave archaeologists.
Hollywood loves a reboot. Cue ‘Top Gun, Maverick’, ‘Fast and Furious 10’, anything with ‘Star Wars’ in the title, and ‘Jurassic World’. That said, a genetically-modified dino-weapon running amok in a theme park is a winner in TLCB Office. Because we’re 6.
Also rebooting a dinosaur-based classic is chriselliott.art, whose marvellous vintage half-ton ute inspired by the 5975 ‘T-Rex Transport’ Adventurers set was suggested to us by a reader.
Clever techniques, gorgeous presentation, and a conspicuously absent T-Rex can all be seen at Chris’ photostream. Click the link above to reboot.
Ah, ‘Orient Expedition’, one of the ‘Adventurers’ sub-themes that we had completely forgotten about. Still, Kevin J. Walter hadn’t, and as such he’s recreated the 7420 Thunder Blazer set from 2003, only his is much, much better.
Johnny Thunder’s wings will no doubt help him to plunder some valuable antiquity of great significance from a vaguely far-eastern culture, and return it to its proper place in the British Museum, where it belongs.
Join the expedition somewhere in the Orient via Kevin’s photostream at the link above.
Indiana Jo… er, we mean ‘Johnny Thunder’ finally found the Treasure of Marco Polo (a box containing a stamp collection, a broken toastie maker and some Victorian pornography, since you ask) after the daring airborne race against Sam Sinister that featured here last week, and he’s now on the long road home with his bounty.
But what’s this! Sam seems to have caught up with our intrepid explorers and is deploying his much-feared office scissors to halt their escape! Will Johnny and his pals make it across the rickety bridge in time? Will Sam run carrying scissors? Find out courtesy of Travis Brickle by clicking here!
LEGO’s late ’90s Adventurers series with Johny Thunder was one of this writer’s favourites. What was basically an unlicensed Indiana Jones theme, archaeologist ‘Johnny’ travelled around the world in search of unique and wonderful artefacts whilst trying to outwit his nemesis Sam Sinister and Baron von Barron, all the while being chased by rolling boulders. This lovely flashback to the theme comes courtesy of Flickr’s Markus Rollbühler and Grant Davis who have constructed not only a brilliant hot air balloon and classic bi-plane, but also the backstory to accompany them. Join the adventure by clicking here.