There is already a wonderful review here on Eurobricks, but after receiving a MISB copy of this set a day ago I just could not resist reviewing it myself. During the build I took 189 pictures, but I've trimmed that down to just over 50 for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Set# - 5988

Name - Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins

Theme/Subtheme - Adventurers/Desert

Year - 1998

Piece Count - 710

Minifigs - 10

More info @ Brickset, Brickshelf

First up is the box. On the front - lots of chaos and action is depicted against a beautiful desert background (complete with mirage in the top left).

On the back of the box - some crazy alternate models!

The sides of the box feature some fun pictures as well. Here are a couple.

The box features an opening front flap for more fun inside.

On the reverse side of the top flap are some extra pictures along with a story to set the mood - "Ancient ruins are the home of many hidden riches. But Beware! Where treasure lies, booby traps, villains, and scorpions await. With building sets for the LEGO SYSTEM Adventurers Collection, only you, the LEGO MANIAC can determine who will get the treasure first..."

I've always loved these elaborate boxes. One of my favorite features was the little plastic windows that displayed a variety of the pieces.

Slicing through the seals and lifting the flap reveals all the fantastic pieces. In the center is a cardboard tray which divides the box into three sections. The instruction manual and other catalogs are found under everything - thanks to the cardboard tray they are in perfect condition.

All the pieces + instructions. There are 10 mains bags of pieces + 1 bag of large special parts, the plastic display tray with parts, two 16x32 tan baseplates, and some other larges pieces.

Close up of plastic display tray

Contents removed

All the pieces de-bagged and spread around. Yummy! There is a massive variety of pieces. There are not stickers in this set.

In place of stickers, we get absolutely beautiful printed pieces. This set has a truck load of these wonderful printed gifts from the LEGO gods. This is just a small sample:

Once you manage to stop drooling over all the lovely pieces, it's time to dig into the build. When you open the instruction manual you're treated to more fun pictures

This is one of those older manuals with perfect colour differentiation - no confusion with light grays, dark grays, and blacks! There are no piece call-outs - I grew up with my instructions like this so following them isn't very difficult. This means you end up with approx. a 45 page booklet instead of 2x 70 page booklets as more pieces are added per step. However, even as with new sets, you start by building the figures.

You get the whole crew of good guys (Johnny Thunder, Dr. Charles Lightning, Miss Gail Storm, Harry Cane), the bad guys (Baron Von Barron, Lord Sam Sinister), the Pharaoh, and three happy skeletons. Note: Figs not arranged as listed

You then turn this pile of pieces...

...into two palm tress

The first vehicle that you build is the 6-wheeled truck. Starting with the base...

...bulk it up a bit and add a cockpit...

...add some accessories and you're almost done.

Front and back views. In my opinion, the truck is one of the nicest vehicles in the desert theme.

You then build the bucket of the hot air balloon and deck-it-out with sand bags and accessories.

Next up you start to construct the balloon. Stage 1 -

Stage 2 - the netting must be prepped with elastic bands at the four corners (thanks to the air tight bag in which the elastics came in, they were still fresh and rubbery!)

Stage 3 - the net covers the top section of the balloon and is secured by attaching the elastics to a technic rod which runs through the center.

Stage 4 - the two halves come together to form your balloon

Add some final touches and connect the bucket to the balloon

Complete

Now construction on the ruins begins. You start by laying the foundations for the front section.

Add the Pharaoh to his sarcophagus and give him a home within the temple.

The temple gains height and is decorated by some of those fantastic printed pieces.

Yet more printed panels are added at around the half way point of the build.

Trap doors are installed along the top of the ruins.

The first trap door (covered with the yellow tile, activated by pulling the red pin) simply drops the unlucky explorer back down to the main floor. The second trap door (covered with blue tiles at the moment, again activated by pulling a red pin) drops four 2x2 bricks (pictured later) and causes an axe to come crashing down. I've heard many complaints about this second trap not working very well, but I find it works perfectly every time and is quite satisfying.

A treasure chest is filled with some gold.

Here you can see the placement of the treasure chest, and the trap door loaded with the 2x2 bricks mentioned earlier.

The temple gains even more height. Here you can make out the completed jackal face (Anubis) at the center of the temple.

The temple is topped off (missing from picture - 2x dark gray parrots - these were added later)

An obelisk with hieroglyphics is added

Finally a palm tree is added and the front section of the temple is now complete!

The foundations of the back courtyard type area are put in place.

A revolving door with a magnet on one side and a skeleton on the other is added (more on this in a bit)

Two dark gray alligator statues are put together

This whole section of the temple is built up more - details and accessories are also added

This area is now complete. Regarding the revolving door mentioned earlier, this is how a scenario would play out - the ruby sits in a display case (mounted on a magnet) with a skeleton watching over it. If someone attempts to remove the jewel, the door will rotate, the magnet on the back side of the door will snap up the ruby, then the door will finish it's rotation leaving only the skeleton in it's original position and no more treasure to be had!

Left over pieces

The two halves of the temple from behind

The complete set

As you may know, the Adventurers are one of my favorite themes and this set from the desert subtheme has been on my 'must-have' list for nearly 12 years. I always hoped TLC would do an Indiana Jones theme, but now that IJ has basically come and gone I can't help but prefer it's predecessor. After finally getting Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins MISB off Bricklink and putting it together I could not be more pleased. I always thought this set looked fantastic in pictures, but I was blown away when I built it myself - it truly is a stunning set! I'm fortunate to own the majority of the rest of the sets from this subtheme, so this temple complements them perfectly. However, thanks to wonderful design of the set, all the tricks and traps, the vehicles, the minifigs, and all the accessories - even as a standalone set, the amount of playability provided is just unmatched. Don't want to play with your LEGO? - Thanks in large part to those printed pieces (I really can't express how amazing they are) this looks great on display as well.

I really can't say enough good things about Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins. In my opinion this set falls under the category of "All time LEGO greats". Hope you enjoyed the review. Comments and questions more than welcome.

Edited August 24, 201014 yr by Siegfried
Indexed and poll added

Wow, that is a truly gorgeous set. And a great review you have done of it too!

After seeing this review, I know why Lucas did the deal for Indina Jones !

AWESOME set, packed with accessories, minifigs, a hot air balloon and a 6 wheeled truck - SWEET !

Thanks 'ZO6' for the review, I have never seen Johnny Thunder look so happy !

Last but not least the Pharoah himself............ COOL !

I'm a conformist! !

I love this set.

Alltough I don´t

have any Adveture´s

set, I love these now.

The whole egyptian

feeling in this set is great.

thanks, ZO6 !

Thanks for the great review !

I have this set as well, and agree it's awesome, as are the other sets in the theme. For me the highlight are the beautiful printed hieroglyphs which blew me away when I first saw them.

Dr. D.

Edit - I made a typo in the title, could a mod please change it from "Pharoah's" to "Pharaoh's"? Thanks!

Fixed!

Lovely review and so nice to open one MISB! Thanks for sharing.

I love this set - when I was newly out of my dark ages, this was one of the very first 'older' sets I tracked down (Although it wasn't that old at the time, only about 7 years).

It's a great playset with amazing parts - rocks, palms, animals, accessories, heaps of printed pieces - really a treasure-trove. I especially love the sarcophagus piece and think its due for a revival.

This is a lovely looking set, though there are maybe too many panels substituted for bricks. But with the printed pieces, that can be forgiven.

I remember this being on the shelf at Toys R Us, but at that time, I wasn't about to put my money out for a large size set. Oh well.

Thanks for the review.

Nice review! This is one of the best sets Lego has ever made, IMO and one of the favorites in my collection.

This set looks amazing!

A heaping amount of intricately detailed printed parts, lots of cool play features, and a heaping amount of accessories - what more could you want?

If this was sold today, I would definitely save up some money to buy it (Peeron lists it as $80 USD). I've added it to my want list on Brickset, and will keep a close eye on some BrickLink sellers and eBay auctions in the future!

Thanks for this detailed review. Without this, I would've never known about this awesome set!

I'm so envious, you got that set sealed and new! I always wanted that one, and i still want it I love the vehicles of the adventurers theme, and the whole feel to it, and there's a mass of accessoires in these sets aswell.

This set is absolutely gorgeous even by today's standards, and it includes a plethora of rare and exclusive pieces. It has been on my most wanted sets lists ever since my childhood, but unfortunately it's hard to come by at a reasonable price.

Just curious, how much did you have to pay for the MISB version, ZO6?

I have always considered that set to be one of the best LEGO sets ever done. )

And that is the only set that I never got out of the whole Adventurers line! That set has everything in it, great vehicles (balloon!), great building, superb figures and tonns of assesories.The mummy, the sarcofagus, crocodiles, scrolls! Ah, I remember those good old days when the red jem used to be something really rare!

Thanks for bringing those memmories back! )

Good day, ladies and gentlemen! )

What a fantastic set, and a very good review. I love all the figs, I've never seen this set before, so it was new to me.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone! It's nice to see so many of you love this set as well.

Lovely review and so nice to open one MISB! Thanks for sharing.

This was a set that I absolutely had to experience MISB. I just have too much fun carefully opening these elaborately packaged sets and staring in awe at all the shiny, never-before-handled pieces. I just can't take my eyes (or hands) off this set!

This set is absolutely gorgeous even by today's standards, and it includes a plethora of rare and exclusive pieces. It has been on my most wanted sets lists ever since my childhood, but unfortunately it's hard to come by at a reasonable price.

Just curious, how much did you have to pay for the MISB version, ZO6?

I convinced myself that for the first half of this year I would pick up some of those long lost sets and bite the bullet cost wise as they would only become rarer and more expensive. I had a hard time deciding where I wanted to start (a few key sets from classic space, classic town, wild west, and adventurers were at the top of the list) but ultimately there were too many factors that drew me towards Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins. I picked up my copy for $200 U.S. + S&H and I don't regret it one bit. Now I just have to track down missing sets from the other Adventurers subthemes (I'm envious of your Orient Expedition score) before moving on to the Wild West

Edited February 26, 201015 yr by ZO6

Thanks for the review!

Awesome set... I'll definitely buy it sometime!

Your review really made me want a MISB one of these!

Btw, did you buy it from BRICK NATION? :P

Man I always wanted that set. I remember as a kid running to the toy aisle just to stare at this set and begging my mom to buy it, but I never got it. Suppose I'll have to find one on ebay or bricklink.

Thanks for the review!

Awesome set... I'll definitely buy it sometime!

Your review really made me want a MISB one of these!

Btw, did you buy it from BRICK NATION? :P

I hope you're successful in one day acquiring this set in a condition that meets your satisfaction It was due to all the printed pieces in this set that helped confirm that I had to pick it up MISB - I wanted those prints to be as they were the day the set was packaged!

I got my copy from Tassie Brick Trader in Australia. Unfortunately BRICK NATION doesn't ship to Canada.

Nice review! I am totally happy for you to get it MISB. It is this special feeling that anyone should feel at least once in a life with some rare set. Congratulations!

Excellent review! I am sure the experience of opening a MISB set after a long decade, excites you alot, and I can understand why you took so many pictures, at one go, so you can remember this very special building process of yours.

I wanted to buy this set in the past, but it was too expensive for an used set, and I bought the other nice Adventurer set, 5978 Sphinx Secret Surprise which also feature great printed parts and useful characters, but for this set, this is the real solid printed parts heavenly stuff, which just made me want to go search for it. This is certainly the best looking desert adventurers set, ever released, and the built of this set which you have covered is outstanding.

Since you are so interested in reviewing, may I propose that you could sign up for Reviewers Academy, and you have an additional option to view at our resources, and at the same time, its alright for you to post your reviews out of the academy, if you choose to do so.

A great review on a lovely set ZO6!

This is one lovely set as I said. The parts selection is Great, all those printed parts...

The designe of the set is nice, and the figs selection is good-a nice amount of them aswell.

Thanks for the Great review!

CommanderFox

I hope you're successful in one day acquiring this set in a condition that meets your satisfaction It was due to all the printed pieces in this set that helped confirm that I had to pick it up MISB - I wanted those prints to be as they were the day the set was packaged!

I got my copy from Tassie Brick Trader in Australia. Unfortunately BRICK NATION doesn't ship to Canada.

Thanks!

Okay, have you tried asking Brick Nation whether he/she would ship to Canada? In most cases a seller with shipping restrictions will ship everywhere if you just ask :) At least that's how I got a MISB Cannon Cove shipped to Austria (from a seller who usually does not ship there).

By the way, it's so lovely that there are no stickers in this set

EDIT: and again, great review!

Edited February 28, 201014 yr by funkybrick

Awesome review for an awesome set. The structure looks very well built, unlike some models of today. The vehicles are really nice too

Man I miss adventurers... an excellent review of an excellent set! Good one.

Thanks for such a great review ZO6! Your review brought back a heck of a lot of nostalgia for me. Only Adventurers and Wild West kept me in Lego during the late 90's when I otherwise would have been in a total dark age. I really can't say much that hasn't been said already, this set is just an example of Lego at its best. I really can't believe this set has NO STICKERS whatsoever, it really boggles my mind that the pieces are all just beautifully printed ones. If only Lego could stick to this practice currently. I only got a couple Adventurers sets back in the day, but I so badly wish this had been one of them. Incredible piece variety, awesome play features, and the potential for so much adventure makes this set a definite must buy. The only bad side to awesome reviews of sets like this is the compulsion to track them down MISB! Upon reading this review, I have to echo similar sentiments of others on this site, when I say that a reintroduction of Adventurers in place of Indiana Jones (assuming that line is finished) would be fantastic! Anyway, thank you again ZO6!

Edited March 1, 201014 yr by Mac-K