Great read and good job on all these references. The comic art looks great to me and I wish they’d bring this theme back. So many opportunities to explore different cultures and regions, plus the ability to get creative with futuristic settings would give this theme a flexible set of sources material that only an Adventurers reboot could rival. I think a new generation of kids would really appreciate the concepts this theme could bring about. Thanks for sharing.

Its been a couple months, so here's a quick status update. Everything is scanned, and I've translated/completed 1996. Along the way it really hit me how long in the tooth my old work is looking now, though... so I've rescanned all the 1995 Klick issues, plus the 1997 run that is in the new lot. I've re-done all of 1995 already and am making my way through '97. I'm gonna be cleaning up the rest (though they'll still be based on Dark Turtle and Hallfiry's original scans), then refreshing the website to make the reading experience nicer.

Obviously this is adding some time until this is done, but I hope it'll be worth the wait for everyone.

Here's some comparison shots to give a sense of the level of visual improvement:

(New left, old right)

(Old left, new right)

 

Edited November 19, 20222 yr by Tazakk

That's funny, I was just going to post to see if there were any updates! Looking fantastic, can't wait to see the new comics, new scans, and new website! :) Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!

merry christmas

https://emilyinternet.zone/realms/ogel/buster/

Everything is now live, and the Tim Timeloop is now complete. I also wrote an in-depth piece on the history of Time Cruisers and this comic.

Thanks again to TalonCard and jamesster for making this possible :)

Oh my gosh Tazakk, thank you so much for all the hard work you've put into these! I can't wait to sit down and read the entire saga! It's crazy how long this has taken to come to light, and I'll be forever thankful for you and everyone else who had a hand in keeping the recovery going over the years.
-Apparently Ali/Ingo is from the Wild West originally--don't want to spoil what characters he's connected to, but that's super interesting.
-After 26 years, finally some lore on the aliens from the Explorien stickers, lol.

Sooooooo...it's possible the Strange Origins of the Time Cruisers theme isn't done yet. I ran across an Instagram post here from a 1994 Italian Topolino comic. It's a wanted poster/contest featuring Max Timebuster, and it seems to indicate some further, possibly comic, adventures in forthcoming issues. Rough Google translation:

"WANTED
Name..MAX
Last name...TIMEBUSTER
Address. UNKNOWN
Nation. LEGO
Profession....
TIME MAJOR.
Eyes... COVERED BY DARK GLASSES
RED hat WITH VISOR
Particular signs.
UNGROWTH BEARD
Hobby....COLLECTING. LEGO
Caution
Now you know almost everything about him, but you will soon see him in action. From
next week, on Topolino, the adventures of Max Timebuster and his time machine
begin. You will see him venturing through the streets of the LEGO SYSTEM
City and on the railway lines of the Trains. His favorite hobby - collecting
LEGO - will inspire him to take on the Oropacos tribe in the Pirates and Castle's
famous dragon. Thanks to his time machine, he will even be able to annoy the
Spyrius in Space. Malo Max's adventures are also a challenge for all vol. Build
a time machine more powerful than Max's with LEGO bricks, take a photo or draw a
drawing and send it by 30.09.94, Operazione Max Timebuster, LEGO SpA,
va C. Colombo 12, 20020 Lainate (MI ), The best projects will not only help us
take on that scoundrel, but will also be exhibited
at the Bologna Motor Show, from December 2nd to 12th. Now that you know the address, remember to write to
us to receive the new 1994 catalog or ask your toy
dealer for it. Alls next week, always on LEGO SYSIEM Mickey Mouse"

The adventure continues...

First of all, thanks everyone for sharing all these background infos on Time Cruisers! Very interesting stuff.

There's two things I found interesting enough to share here, I hope it will be of interest for you too.

1. Ice Cream Promotion

The Austrian catalog of 1997 shows an ice cream promotion in cooperation with Eskimo (part of Unilever). If you collected 10 ice cream sticks you would get a key chain. The ice doesn't look much like Tim though... It's also interesting how different the Austrian and German 1997 catalogs are in regards to Time Cruisers. The German one doesn't even mention the 1996 sets, while in the Austrian three of the four are shown plus the promotion mentioned above. Maybe that has to do with the Klick magazine and the comic starting in Austria... on the other hand the Germans got the radio plays in 1996, which we didn't get 

Time Cruisers by sinister5988, auf Flickr

2. World Club Game

I have this board game from my childhood, unfortunately I can't recall from which issue of World Club Magazin it was. A board game featuring four worlds: Western, Divers, UFO and Castle (Fright Knights). Looking at the featured themes it must have come out in 1997. It's NOT this game https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?G=03096&name=LEGO Time Cruisers Board Game&category=[Game][Time Cruisers / Twisters]#T=I which was available for sale.

20230320_143239 by sinister5988, auf Flickr

20230320_143228 by sinister5988, auf Flickr

I don't have any more info on this, or how it is played, but I found three game cards that obviously belong to this game:

Karten by sinister5988, auf Flickr

Tim and Ali are certainly looking weird here. Very interesting they call him Ali here, as his name was usually Ingo in Austria. The card also says Tim is one of Dr. Cyber's best friends and the leader of the Time Twisters is called Captain Spooky - anyone ever heard that name?

That's it for now... I also recently bought a whole bunch of Austrian Klick and World Club magazines from 1995 - 2001, if I find anything of interest I'll be sure to share it here with you guys!

Chris

 

I'm sorry I didn't reply to this sooner--that's fantastic, a great find! If there are any gaps in the Klick/World magazines online I'd really like to see those scans! :)

For anyone who's interested, I have found a little more info about the game from World Club Magazine.

It is actually listed on Bricklink, although there's absolutely no info about the game:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?C=925.789-D&name=Lego World Club - Das Zeitreise-Action-Spiel (925.789-D) (German)&category=[1997]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

This German page though goes into a lot more detail, even the rules of the game are explained:

https://www.reich-der-spiele.de/ludomu/lego-das-zeitreise-action-spiel

Here's the translated version:

"Game components: Game board, 4 identity cards, 16 life chips, 16 position cards, 16 code chips, 12 opponent cards, 3 life chips for opponents

Commentary: This game was a supplement to the LEGO World Club magazine. In addition to the game material mentioned, you also need one LEGO figure and one dice per player. The game is played in twos or fours. With four players, two form a team. The game board shows four time zones: Castle, Western, Divers and UFO. Each player receives an identity card that shows their attack strength, defense strength, and life points. These values can also be found on the enemy cards. Players start at the "Time Wheel" in the middle of the plane. The aim is to collect 8 code chips as quickly as possible. There are four positions per time zone where the chips are hidden. It is important to reach them as quickly as possible. Three of the four positions require defeating opponents before capturing the chip. Once a team has collected 8 codes they return to the time wheel and roll a 6 they win."

So there were many more cards and chips that I'm missing unfortunately...

Chris

@sinister5988, your message encouraged me to get a pretty-much complete copy of the World Club board game myself! (I think I'm only missing a couple of life chip tokens and maybe one card.) I've made a video about it here; I've also put a link to full scans of the game materials in the description. :)

I just watched your video @TalonCard - great job! Didn't know you are the guy behind LoreEscape. I had already subscribed to your channel a few months ago.

Awesome to see the game explained in such detail, thanks for your work! Makes me happy to see so many people, like you, Slugger and many others dig up so much history about Time Cruisers. I sure hope there'll be a lot more to discover in the future!

Chris