Random set of the day: Twisted Time Train
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 6497 Twisted Time Train, released in 1997. It's one of 4 Time Cruisers sets produced that year. It contains 300 pieces and 4 minifigs, and its retail price was US$38.5.
It's owned by 778 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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Just an FYI, according to the LEGO Book, this contraption is powered by hats.
Table scrap models are the best models.
My first LEGO train!!
Why did they think it was a good idea to price it at thirty eight and a half dollars?!?!
I think those weird prices come from being converted from either British pounds or Euros. This is the third RSOTD that I own!
^^Hey! It was my first LEGO train as well!
I got this sucker for Christmas in 1996. The Flying Time Vessel (FTV) from the Time Cruisers theme was my birthday gift just two months' prior, so I was shocked when I unwrapped this box and saw "Time TWISTERS". Oh, to live in age where I had no clue what Lego had cooking up for the next year!
This was the "flagship" set of the theme, so it came with all the main characters. The two humans are Professor Millennium and Tony Twister (Prof has the goatee, Tony the bushy mustache) and I believe the skeleton was named Skully. I forget if the ghost had a name, but Professor Millennium and Tony Twister were (I later found out in a 1997 edition of Lego MANIA Magazine) twins who turned time traveling technology to evil ends. Unlike Dr. Cyber and Tim, the Twister brothers traveled through time to steal items for their own personal gain. And to correct a statement above, they didn't need different headgear to make the time travel work. It seemed to run off various artifacts they stole, hence the presence of the swords, shields, magic wands, and dynamite.
This set was actually a lot of fun. First, the piece variety was mind-blowing. Even after the Time Cruisers laid the groundwork for being zany and eclectic, the Twisters added an ultra cool factor to it. So many chrome pieces, pulled from Aquazone, Royal Knights, Fright Knights, Wild West, and Model Team! A fair share of Technic integration for the individual cars and mechanisms (mostly utilizing pulleys with rubber bands), and some nice structural pieces from Wild West and Castle made this set a bonanza for part collectors, and I imagine it was swooped up in droves after going on deep discount over a year later (I only ever got this one set, though).
Playing is fun with all three cars connected. The train's smokestack goes up and down when pulled, and simultaneously the brown carriage with the platform for Skully flaps its dragon wings, raises Skully up, down, and around, and the hypno disc spins! The black castle car was the least interesting, but it did seem very metal by having the chains rattle and shake as the car was moved, and of course, the pedestal for the ghost with up, down, and around. All in all, it looked pretty creepy when all moving together.
Even though I had already branched out into Technic by then, this was something of a challenge for eight year-old me to build on account of lining up the axles just right in order to get the wing flapping mechanisms to work in sync. And the chains flopping about always seemed to bother me. But I played a lot with this thing, and many battles were had through time over the course of 1997. I'm so glad my late grandfather got it for me, even though he was undoubtedly bewildered by it. One day I'll have to crack open the FTV again along with the Twisted Time Train and have a nice display with them alongside the Hypno Cruiser I currently have on display. Man, what a cool theme.
It was a bizarre set (in a bizarre theme) but I liked it. I think I have at least one, maybe two or three of this set from the crazy Target clearance sales that used to happen back then. (75-90% off)
I liked the idea of these Time Cruiser sets, but most of the sets looked like they'd been assembled by pulling random pieces out of the parts box.
May old brown live forever!
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca
That book you just wrote is every reason RSOTD needs to exist!
I don't know why, but I've always liked this funky theme. It had parts from castle theme, town, space...
This was Lego giving us official permission to mix everything, and there was nothing wrong with that.
I still prefer this without a doubt than the juniorized version of the early 2000's.
A true classic!
Is it true this theme was created to get rid of an excess of random parts?
Such a strange theme, and yet, pretty cool at the same time. They could almost redo it nowadays and have it as Timmy and the Professer time travelling to classic Pirate/Castle/Western/Egypt sets.
I'm not a mix and match kind of guy, so I don't get it. But the pieces are cool though...
This is the only Time Cruisers set I never got, much to my eternal sadness. It always looked cool and I have always liked the LEGO trains.
No suprise a TC shows up after seeing both Clikits AND Jack Stone last week.
There were only bad guys in this year's time cruisers sets?
So they could do their evil time cruiser plans without control?!
Even by Time Cruisers' usual standards this one is a bit of a mish-mash
Great set! I have all the Time Cruisers and Time Twisters sets.
For me, Tine Cruisers were official sets that were just like the crazy things any kid would oould build if they were just playing with everything in their collection
Anyone want a flying wizard skeleton? Going on auction at $38.5! Anybody, nobody, guess not...
One odd thing I've noticed about this set is that the picture on the instructions and the picture on the box have the train cars in different orders.
Regarding the $38.50 price tag: Before July 2000, the prices listed in Shop at Home catalogs included shipping and handling (generally 8–10%) and as a result fell on unconventional increments. In most cases it's easy to translate those prices: $22.00 = $19.99, $54.00 = $49.99, et cetera. In this case, $38.50 = $34.99.
The most underrated Lego theme.
I wasn’t aware of this theme at all.
What were the designers on when this was developed?
It does explain the seemingly random mix of parts in a tub of LEGO inherited from a family friend. I think there’s quite a bit of Whirling Time Warper 6496 in there ...
absolutely bonkers - still loving it. this theme brings back a lot of TLM memories.
I found one of these in a charity shop. Well it was the box but none of the actual pieces for the set in it but a bunch of other random pieces. Plus a Playmobil figure if I remember correctly.
38.5$ for 300 pieces and 4 minifigures, BEFORE INFLATION?
Heck, this is one of the worst LEGO deals Iv'e seen!
I always thought Time Cruisers was hideous, but this set looks like it has some fun play value at least.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca
Thank you for sharing. :) Apparently I was right, it has a lot of fun play value.
The grandfather of Lego Hidden Side...
This was such a mashup of things that was capitalizing on the Back to the Future theme. But it was a lot of fun and really the epitome of the types of things you can do with Lego. This reminds me of their Rebuild the World campaign.
@jlskywalker said:
"The grandfather of Lego Hidden Side..."
I think it was the Monsters Hunters as precursor of Hidden Side.
What is happening in the picture?! Professor Millennium is struck with a flying briefcase and looks to be about to fall off his pedestal. Tony Twister and dynamite in the flames of the smokestack. A ghost driving this doomed train, about to crash into a dark landscape by an angle. This whole train is going to blow up!
Anyone else notice that one of the tires popped off the wheel?
$38.50. That's ridiculous in 2020 for only 300 pieces, let alone 1997.
I love the nuttiness of this set.
Beginning of the end... succeded by jack stone and awful "system" sets :(
I'm pretty sure this was one of the answers to last week's riddles
@SendBrickPics actually, there are two brown wheels there: the inner has a tire, the outer is there so the Technic pin (which the chain attaches to) is fixed and not sliding around.
I always LEGO would eventually figure out that they could do a Time Travel series with Johnny Thunder like characters visiting past and future. With the story-telling prowess they have now, it could be a really cool and fun theme for kids.
@AddictedToStyrene said:
"For me, Tine Cruisers were official sets that were just like the crazy things any kid would oould build if they were just playing with everything in their collection"
I always suspected that the TC line was inspired by what kids built themselves rather than what professional designers came up with. The builds may have been refined by adults and tested on kids, but did not originate with grown-ups. That’s my theory anyway.
I loved this theme. It always seemed to be inspired by wacky classics such as Back to the Future and Ghostbusters.
Time Cruisers was a trip and a half. They were all so wacky but strangely lovable.
I don't know if anyone here has watched Nick on Planet Ripple's LEGO Rewind series but his episode on Time Cruisers brought to light something I was completely unaware of. Apparently there was a massive Time Cruiser crossover comic with different LEGO themes that was released both quite a few years before and quite a few years after the theme was on shelves. As far as I know it's non-cannon (lots of contradictory information both in the comics and to the source material.) but it's still an interesting read.
My favorite bit has to be when he crashes a spaceship into the Ninja theme and just leaves it there. If that's not how Ninjago managed to go from feudal Japan to hyper-techno in just 30 years I don't know what is.
@GHED said:
" @jlskywalker said:
"The grandfather of Lego Hidden Side..."
I think it was the Monsters Hunters as precursor of Hidden Side."
The one from the sand green haunted house?
Hard to believe Lego was struggling in the late 90's...
@560heliport
Thanks for the info.
Everyone should remember this is pre internet hype days, so it was all the hype. I mean as mentioned, parts from all themes, characters galore, stories to go with the sets and magazine comics. RIP the old mag.
Late 90's was the internet start and it all went to shit lol. I had the flying ship and other smaller sets of this series. Was awesome! I was 7
Tom Cruisers :)
I didn't know about this theme, but looks pretty cool.
I love that the reactions to Time Twisters and Time Cruisers are just liked the theme itself: mixed!
I also love how this is the most-commented on article on Brickset this month (so far)! I feel like Huw should do a whole retrospective article on both themes.