Subject:
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Re: Whatever Happened to Time Twisters?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 8 Jun 2002 15:59:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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901 times
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In lugnet.general, Carter Lance writes:
> Whatever happened to Time Twisters?
Not sure if you mean this literally but the simple answer is that the theme
was cancelled by LEGO (1997/8?). The general charge leveled at LEGO by many
folks in these forums is probably true - the company "created" the theme as
a way to make use of a variety of excess pieces. So it probably was never
intended to be standard, longlasting theme (like Town or Trains).
I've never really understood why people have been so shrill in their
denouncements of this theme. Personally, it was this theme (and the Fright
Knights Castle one) that really accelerated my interest in LEGO beyond
simple geometric sculptures with basic bricks to seeing the possibilities of
using the toys for creating more full blown stop motion animation videos (a
hobby* I started in '98).
> Can the pieces or minifigs be used for anything?
According to some people around here, no they can't. Once again the
dismissal of a whole theme as being comprised of "useless parts" has always
intrigued me. I sort of thought one of the key elements of "The LEGO
Experience" is that it spurs and encourages imagination. Yet, being able to
look at a pile of "useless parts" and see their potential for uses besides
simply building some company-designed set not to one's liking seems to be
beyond a lot of people. I guess it's easier to just whine, complain and
criticize - especially if LEGO hasn't been producing the sets that you want
them to release.
And on the subject of the sets that were designed for the Time
Twisters/Cruisers theme - I happen to like quite a few of them for what they
are themselves (not just for parts harvesting). I can understand their lack
of appeal for the more mainstream crowd but something about their Rube
Goldbergesque designs appeals to me. I LIKE the way LEGO glommed a bunch of
seemingly disparate parts together to create a bunch of wacky vehicles. I
also liked that most of these models included moving pieces. Building these
sets and getting a chance to put together some rudimentary moving,
interconnected pieces (rolling wheels causing wings to flap, etc.) helped me
to get a basic grasp on some of the "mechanics" of working with LEGO and
once again realize the potential for bigger and better creations of my own.
But admittedly, the best thing that can be said for the Time
Twisters/Cruisers theme is that it is a great source for all kinds of
different elements - a source made all the better when they could be grabbed
at discount clearance prices (as were most of my sets in this theme).
Here are some of my favorite elements:
- ALL the "spooky" mini-figs - glow-in-the-dark Ghosts and Skeletons
- The Time Twisting henchmen make perfectly good knights with that
breastplate looking torso. Lots of good thug mini-fig heads.
- Brown log wall pieces in the train set
- Blue/Black swirl radar dishes (I'm going to use these some day in a crazy
psychedelic animation video)
- Castle wall elements (black) in the train set
- Spiral stairs
- The round cylinder piece on the front of the train made an excellent bass
drum for the rock-n-roll mini-fig band I built
- Plenty of weapons (knives, swords) used as decorative pieces
- Whirling Time Warper had some cool pieces - the 4x4x2 blue cones, the
extra skeleton heads and dragon wings, the bubble dome cockpit piece, and
the translucent cylinder pieces.
- Extra barrels pop up in a lot of the sets (means nothing to many I know
but I have some kind of cooperage attraction left over from days of working
at a colonial history museum)
- The Mystic Mountain Time lab was a set with plenty of great parts - a
monkey, some great headgear, some BURPS (which everyone wants now that
they're harder to get), lattice windows (arched and shuttered), smaller blue
baseplates, some nice trans-orange panels, a old-style palm tree, and a row
boat.
- Speaking of a boat, I got myself the Flying Time Vessel (6493) cheap on
ebay and it includes a gray/black pirate ship hull and a light grey train
engine window piece.
Now I can't really say much in defense of Timmy but I do like the look of
the doofus Professor mini-fig. I've already used this head on a fig in a
video (Live at the ABC Club) as a character who gets thrown out of the bar
after making a nuisance of himself. I also thought the Professor's head
would work well if I ever got around to creating a video I want to do called
"The Adventures of Hoffman's Bicycle" which would be about Dr. Albert
Hoffman and his experiments at the Sandoz pharmaceutical labs back in the
1940's. But in the meantime there's so many uses for a basic goofy min-fig head.
That's just a few of the things that I got out of the Time Twisters/Cruisers
theme. Once again, I understand why the seeming majority considers these
sets beneath them but luckily I'm not bound by popular opinion in my LEGO
enjoyment.
Greg
*The Animated Brick Company:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=5089
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