December 17, 201014 yr I don't own any sets from either theme, so I am just going to have to go on impressions from photos. Time Cruisers/Twisters has always seemed to me to be completely random. Like the designers just threw whatever crap they had handy together and called it a set. Ninjago, on the other hand, is a well unified theme. Sure, it's a little odd to have skeletons riding harleys against ninjas, but at least it doesn't feel completely random. I voted for Time Cruisers/Twisters as the weirdest. Now, now. Time Cruisers and Time Twisters were deliberately random, but I think it's unfair to assume they were carelessly random. The idea was clear: to put together elements from various unrelated themes into whimsical time machines. And it was carried out somewhat effectively, given how each set had its own unique action feature. Whatever its design faults, Time Cruisers was my first exposure to a lot of impressive Technic functions. Still gets by as the weirdest in my book, but strategically so. I'm not a fan of many of the sets in retrospect, but it takes a special sort of creativity and a talent for expressing it to make a lovely set like this one (probably my favorite from either theme).
December 21, 201014 yr Ninjago is fine...Ninjas and samurai are basically the eastern knights. There wasn't any talk about KINGDOM being weird when they introduced skeletons in to its theme so why should it be weird now? I'm surprised this isn't in the history forum with Kingdom and castle... Time cruisers was just a random theme. Calling it a 'time traveling' theme was just a pitiful excuse to put in random parts in a box. Personally I wouldn't call neither weird but I voted Time cruisers because LEGO were capable of much more at that time. Edited December 21, 201014 yr by ceroknight
December 21, 201014 yr Ninjas are basically the eastern knights. I'm not an expert on eastern culture, but wouldn't the samurai actually be the eastern knights? On the topic of the thread. The Time Cruisers are probably the weirder of the two, but only because of the aesthetics. The designs are a bit strange, especially the ship. From the concept though, there is nothing particularly weird about Time Cruisers.
December 21, 201014 yr I'm not an expert on eastern culture, but wouldn't the samurai actually be the eastern knights? On the topic of the thread. The Time Cruisers are probably the weirder of the two, but only because of the aesthetics. The designs are a bit strange, especially the ship. From the concept though, there is nothing particularly weird about Time Cruisers. Whoops I meant ninjas and samurai...
December 22, 201014 yr No theme can ever beat the weirdness of Time Cruisers! I mean, just look at those images... Seriously, what is that? I'm actually quite interested in TLG strategy with releasing that line. Anyone here who's got a clue? I doesn't make any sense... Maybe I'll once pick up a set of BL - for the sake of awkwardness and creepy nightmares! Cheers!
December 22, 201014 yr No theme can ever beat the weirdness of Time Cruisers! I'm actually quite interested in TLG strategy with releasing that line. Anyone here who's got a clue? I doesn't make any sense... Maybe I'll once pick up a set of BL - for the sake of awkwardness and creepy nightmares! Cheers! There are a few theories; some say it's because they had to get rid of a lot of over-produced parts from the pirates, space and castle themes. Some say that the lead set designer woke up one night in cold sweat and feverishly drew the devilish designs. And there are those who theorize that the policy at the time was 'madcap creations" We may never know...
December 22, 201014 yr Author No theme can ever beat the weirdness of Time Cruisers! I mean, just look at those images... Seriously, what is that? I'm actually quite interested in TLG strategy with releasing that line. Anyone here who's got a clue? I doesn't make any sense... No, you certainly don't make any sense. Come on, you sound like you're not even giving the theme a chance! If you don't know what it is about and what the sets represent, you shouldn't just say "Ew! That's weird! I don't like it!". Just browse Brickipedia, it will answer most of your questions. The theme is obviously inspired by the Back to the Future movies with the teenage boy and eccentric scientist as protagonists and vehicles as time machines, but instead of a DeLorean or Western Train, they have crazy, fun contraptions. As a kid, I thought that was a very fun concept and I'm very sad to see that nobody seems to share that view with me here. But looking back at it now, the designs do seem a bit too random. Still, as a theme, I think NinjaGo is stranger as it mixes so many different things together.
December 22, 201014 yr No, you certainly don't make any sense. Ay come on it is weird, you gotta admit! :P Look, even I as a eurobricks user haven't got any idea as to what the heck it is all about, so why should children and their parents do? One shouldn't have to go to brickpedia to be able to figure out what a set represents, should one... Now if it was about time cruises t times that really had existed a long time ago, that would be different. But the only location that crazy team of adults and teenagers goes to is Weird-O-Town, a mash-up of all kinds of parallel universes humanity can think of. The professor is in fact a pedophile highly intelligent scientist with strange and peculiar special preferences. Okay, maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on the theme. Seriously, kudos to TLG if it was all an education programm of teaching younger children the art of interpretation... see, they do care about us, we do not mean only flesh money to them. @Sirens-of-Titan: That was a good one! Made me laugh. Edited December 22, 201014 yr by Enpaz
December 22, 201014 yr Author Look, even I as a eurobricks user haven't got any idea as to what the heck it is all about, so why should children and their parents do? One shouldn't have to go to brickpedia to be able to figure out what a set represents, should one... Well, the theme is fourteen years old, so it's obviously harder to get information on it now than it was when it was new. Back then, there were comics and audiobooks that told the story of this theme in addition to any set descriptions in catalogs and S@H. Now if it was about time cruises t times that really had existed a long time ago, that would be different. But the only location that crazy team of adults and teenagers goes to is Weird-O-Town, a mash-up of all kinds of parallel universes humanity can think of. Obviously you're not getting the point of this theme. The idea was it to combine these sets with any other Lego sets you already had. In the audiobook stories, the Time Cruisers visited already established Lego eras such as Town (present), Pirates, Cowboys, Castle, Aquanauts, Space, etc. The compatibility of TimeCruisers with other Lego themes is what made it so playable and great! Which themes can NinjaGo be combined with? The old ninja theme or Fantasy-era Castle at best.
December 22, 201014 yr Ok fine, let's keep the discussion serious if that is what you want! Well, then IMO they should just sell the crazy professor and his henchmen as a minifig pack along with a single time machine. And by time machine, I mean time machine and not some strange time rudder boat! That would be enough for travelling to other times and playing well. But why do/did we need this? Please enlighten me, I do not get it.
December 22, 201014 yr Author It's Dr. Cyber's laboratory and serves as a base for the Time Cruisers. It's where all the time machines and historic hats are stored and where they pick up time-space disturbances. As for having multiple time machines, each time machine was meant different time travel missions. When they needed to travel across land, they used one of the cars. When they needed to travel through water or air, they used one of the boats. I agree that having one iconic time machine equipped for any mission would have made more sense, but it was a nice excuse for producing more sets. Besides, if that's how you wanted to play, you could just pick your favorite time machine and just buy that. No other purchase required. Sorry if I'm taking this a bit too seriously; I'm just tired of hearing how crappy one of my favorite childhood themes was. Edited December 22, 201014 yr by Oky Wan Kenobi
December 23, 201014 yr No theme can ever beat the weirdness of Time Cruisers! I mean, just look at those images... Seriously, what is that? I'm actually quite interested in TLG strategy with releasing that line. Anyone here who's got a clue? I doesn't make any sense... Maybe I'll once pick up a set of BL - for the sake of awkwardness and creepy nightmares! Cheers! As I've said, the second Time Cruisers line, Time Twisters, was significantly better in terms of aesthetic appeal. It also had an advantage in terms of minifigures-- instead of awkward new cartoony faces like the Time Cruisers characters Tim and Dr. Cyber, the two Time Twisters were both beautiful figs made entirely out of pre-existing minifigure parts. I thoroughly recommend this set and this set to anyone interested in picking up a few old sets from the theme. They're weird, certainly, but a lot more tastefully so than most of the Time Cruisers sets. LEGO's intent with the Time Cruisers line is anyone's guess. My own personal belief is that it was meant to expose buyers to a wider range of LEGO themes with just one purchase. Certainly the Free Style/Basic theme did an OK job introducing people to LEGO, but Time Cruisers went ahead and showed them the specialized parts from each theme and how many different ways they could be used. It would certainly match with the magazine comics of that year, where Tim and Dr. Cyber went on adventures in all of LEGO's other current themes.
December 23, 201014 yr Timecruisers were crazy theme. But I loved and I hoped it will stay longer. This theme is still a great idea for Lego game: You can travel across ALL Lego universes and the aim is try to recapture (from the another Evil genius of course) the most important lego Pieces ever (chrome sword, king Kanukah mask, The gold pirate hook) to fix the timeline.
December 23, 201014 yr Timecruisers were crazy theme. But I loved and I hoped it will stay longer. This theme is still a great idea for Lego game: You can travel across ALL Lego universes and the aim is try to recapture (from the another Evil genius of course) the most important lego Pieces ever (chrome sword, king Kanukah mask, The gold pirate hook) to fix the timeline. There actually was a Time Cruisers board game from Rose Art with a plot fairly similar to that... of course, the pieces weren't as desirable, and it wasn't nearly as exciting visually as a video-game treatment might have been.
December 23, 201014 yr I actually think both themes make good sense, I mean this is a childrens toy where imagination is key. I'll admit the time travelers one seems to be a filler theme reusing parts they probably had an abundance of, but still a decent idea. I guess I voted time travelers.
December 23, 201014 yr I think Time twisters gets no.1 spot here. Not because it was a bad theme but because it was very weird and made no sense. Unlike other themes it has no structure and some strange builds. The only good thing about this theme was the ability to get pieces from many themes at once, some even being quite uncommon.
December 23, 201014 yr I don't get what's so strange about NinjaGo...all it is is colorful ninjas who like getting dizzy fighting evil skeletons, and an evil guy on a flying thingy with a zapper and...yeah, I see your point. Sorry Oky, but I'm gonna have to go with Time Cruisers as weirder. That coastal set looks pretty neat though! -Santhor
December 23, 201014 yr Sorry if I'm taking this a bit too seriously; I'm just tired of hearing how crappy one of my favorite childhood themes was. Yeah, you probably are. If it's bothering you, don't read this thread... But I seriously think that Time-Cruisers was an excuse for Lego to get rid of parts from themes, even though it's execution was pretty ridiculous ...(look no further than this set for example of the theme's trippiness) Either the sets sold well, or Lego was adamant on using this method of getting rid of overstock of pieces, but Time-Cruisers was given a second year in 1997. I've never owned any of the sets, but judging from pictures, the bad guys in the second wave from '97 remind me of Nazis... Ninjago is a completely new concept for Lego. They must be trying to ride on their successes of the Games series and Collectible Figures and combine the two into one. The theme has traditional brick-built sets, but also offers collectible spinners, cards and a game that can be played with them. I personally think the whole theme concept is brilliant from a marketing perspective, but I would have executed it differently than featuring multicolored ninjas battling undead, motorcycle-riding, boot-wearing, Nazi-esque skeletons . Just my two cents . -Derek
December 24, 201014 yr Time cruisers, for shure. Like most of you said, it's just a bunch of random parts. No Ninjago is a real improvment over that
December 24, 201014 yr That coastal set looks pretty neat though! Did you happen to notice the transparents domes? And the flying boat? Would you buy this set for like 80 euros in sober state?
December 24, 201014 yr Did you happen to notice the transparents domes? And the flying boat? Would you buy this set for like 80 euros in sober state? Good point. I like the shack on the cliffs, regardless about the air-boat and the BURPs. But no ,it's not worth 80 euros. I don't own it, it just looks neat. -Santhor
December 26, 201014 yr I think NinjaGo deserves the title. That's not only weird because of the minifigs and the sets, but the prices are one of the most weirdest things ever! 20 euros for only a hand full of pieces.
December 27, 201014 yr Hey, this one is a nice entertaining topic. Personally i do not think that one of the two concepts/themes is in itself weird. 1. The Time Cruisers: Yes it is a time travelling theme, and the awfuls lots of mismatching hats that are included are the way children in the 90s would have done it. Well as far as i remember i once build a time travelling thing with a friend that way. (and some of our adventures in far space did look the same when they discovered planets that looked like the 13th century on earth ) So i conclude: TC did not look that weird, when i was a kid, because it looked a bit like that we built ourselve one time or another. The sets were just not good enough to buy one. And i disliked it, because there were no new elements in it (both in terms of parts as well as new ideas like a new faction in one of the pre-existing themes etc). Nowadays i just think, that the sets are poorly executed in term of aesthetics (but i could redo their base as a moc.... and make it a lot weirder while raising the aesthetic values) 2. Ninjago: Does not like weird at all if you look at the idea of the theme. To me it looks like a homage to those campy television shows, comics and cartoons. And those are sometimes really weird, though i have to add i pretty much appreciate that . Its just multiple flavours of awsome. Ninja? Come on, "Ninja" is another word for awsome. Undead contrahents? Undeads are almost always awsome. Big Machines of Doom? Awsome! Dragons? nope, seen too often... just kidding, dragons are awsome. All in all there are a lot of awsome things in it. They are new, or at least not done in this way by TLC or not since a long time. ...and somehow they fit. Its like Power Rangers just in good, because its done by Lego. The only thing they can drop is that spinners-thing, as this seems to raise the price to ridiculous heights. I have to admit if you do not watch shows or read comics, were ninjas, undead, and several other common things of popular culture appear side by side just because they are awsome, Ninjago might seem a bit... strange and weird. But its not made for those people. They have Lego City Oh i forgot one thing: What do you think, if Lego makes a theme based on this movie? showdown of turkish star wars ...and no, it is not a spoof. Edited December 27, 201014 yr by Kumpelkante
December 27, 201014 yr Oh i forgot one thing: What do you think, if Lego makes a theme based on this movie? showdown of turkish star wars ...and no, it is not a spoof. I think that video is going to give me nightmares for weeks. It's just so...creepy. -Derek By the way, this is a very entertaining topic- there are very strong opinions on both sides.
January 2, 201114 yr Time Cruisers was one of the most memorable themes in my mind, particularly because it struck me as so...disheveled in the sense that it seemed like a mashup of different pieces. I also remember it because I have the big purple cotainer that came as a bonus with one of the sets :P
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