Adventurers Figure Refresh: The Good Guys

[Peppermint_M]

Hello!

I have been refreshing the old Adventurers figures with new parts, colours and prints. So far I have been keeping things posted with MOCs, but a lot of people who might enjoy seeing the figures don't really browse the A&A forum so I thought to post them here with more of the "process" information. This post will be for the 'Good Guy' characters.

The figures that feature are re-builds of the figures I had as a child, so there may be some characters missing from the line-up, though I like to think that the main players are all present! Every name is a link to a picture of the first figure issued.

First up we have Johnny Thunder himself. The hat is, of course, the design from Lone Ranger but in the reddish brown shade, I picked that up in a LEGO Movie set. I had hoped to use the re-released classic hat in reddish brown but the dropship set is rather expensive. This hat is a nice medium between the Indiana Jones fedora and Johnny's hat.

I was fortunate to have the newer version of the head print with the white pupils becuase I really wanted to leave his face as it was in the original theme, while I had no qualms about using new faces for other characters, Johnny is just too cool to change too much.

The torso is from Pharaoh's Quest, it was Jake Raine's but I thought he looked better in the tan shirt so Johnny got the gear. The legs are Indiana Jones prints, the gunbelt is a nod to the classic print on the original Johnny Thunder torso and also, seeing as you can take it that Johnny Thunder is either a nod to Doctor Jones or the source material that birthed them both, it felt right. Plus I just love the dark tan colour.

Finally there is the Lone Ranger pistol, the more detailed tooling of the gun is visually pleasing in comparison to the older pistols so I used a lot of them within my Adventurers refresh.

Next there is Pippin Reed, ace reporter! Again, the delightful dark tan colour make an appearance, the pith helmet is unchanged from the original mould but this one looks smarter than the white one. I chose this face print, a newer printing of the first Pippin Reed (see the pupils) because the version I had was from the Egypt sub-theme. The other Pippin Reed print is much too 'bulky' if you get my meaning, for the longest time I thought that Gale Storm and Pippin Reed were two different characters when I finally cme across names. Full disclosure: In my games and adventures, only Johnny Thunder had the 'correct' name. My lady adventurer was always called Lara...

Next up is the torso, this was from the Collectable Minifigures Series 2 Explorer. The red ascot is similar to the scarf that the original torso print had while the strapped on water bottle is like the printed camera. I loved the explorer figure parts so using this torso was a given.

The dark red legs are a replacement for the regular red from the actual figure, again, the dark shades look a lot smarter than the brilliant basic shades. I suppsose that muted colours are more appealing to me. The camera is a must, I never had one when I was younger but this one is bulky enough to work within the setting Adventurer's have so I happily used it.

Here we have Harry Cane. The reddish brown aviator helmet and dark bley goggles look sharper than the old brown and black, I wanted the goggles to match with the harness printed on the torso. The face has is new too, Harry Cane never had a re-issue with pupils printed in so I chose another. This cleaner cut but still rascally looking face was first used in Knights Kingdom 3 for one of the named knights but quickly became a generic for Castle, Viking, Pirate and even Football minifigs. I thought it looked good for a more respectable Harry Cane, less stubble and more beard.

The epaulettes are old brown but are minimal enough a detail that it doesn't look too bad (I hope) the torso is from the Naboo Starfighter pilots, I loved the whole look, but then the original suits that inspired them are from the era I set Adventurers. I was fortunate enough to pick up number of the torso from the online PaB to make a little crew of fighter pilots. The legs are plain until I can find just the perfect looking printed ones, though the pilots were mostly unencumbered in the leg area.

Doctor Charles Lightning, or, as I named him Doctor Carter (I was a bit of an odd child, I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was six...). A dark bley pith helmet looks better to my eyes than the white, I really am not the biggest fan of bright colour in this setting. I had to use the old head, nothing was good enough to replace it, maybe some time in the future a face print will be perfect, but the classic look is so much better. I think the glasses hide the issue anyway.

The torso is from the series 5 Collectable Minifigures Detective. I wanted a torso that was fit for the lecture hall or the dig site! Though I do miss the bow tie from the original (bow ties are cool) nothing in the newer colours and sharper printing of current LEGO worked to my eye. Again, if something comes up which will look better I might change it.

Finally we have Mike. Mike is the biggest change of all the figures. I really wasn't overly fond of the character in the first place. The freckles didn't look right, the fringe was messy but he had a pretty blank look. Maybe too was the fact that my younger brother insisted on playing as 'him' when he played along and that was never fun for me!

This Mike is slightly aged up (the slingshot from the original figure always put me in mind of a kid). The longer hair is a nod to the fringe and the head is one of the varied but still 'generic' City face prints. I thought it made him look like he had a bit more wits about him.

The torso print is from Monster Fighters and refrences the waistcoat he had originally while looking more grown-up. Jeans from the CMF series 8 DJ. Jeans were around at the right time and would be fine for a dig (they still are today!).

With this minifig I thought; just how would someone dress if they admired an Adventure Archaeologist? This was not hard at all.

Well, I hope you liked this fig barf and information overload! Questions, Criticisms and Comments welcome!

[K-Nut]

Really nice! I've always had a great fondness for the original Adventurers lines, and it's very nice to see they're not forgotten. All of the figs look very nice! I really like that you didn't really mess with their faces a lot (at least JT, Pippin, and Doc). Their new appearances look very similar to their original ones which I find terrific. My only qualm with it is JT's new hat. Nothing can replace his original hat, IMHO. Overall very, very well done.

[Divine]

So many fans of Johnny thunder, but I've always been in the dark!

Is he like Indiana Jones?

[Peppermint_M]

Got you covered there.

LEGO Adventurers was one of the major playthemes back in the late 90s and Johnny Thunder was the main character. If you are less than charitable then you'd call it an Indy rip-off, if you are polite then it is a homage to Indy or the same adventure serials that Lucas and Speilberg drew ideas from.

Adventurers has been my favourite since it was on shop shelves

[legofanatic12]

Nice creations! I like the new Mike better than the original one that has a creepy looking face.

[commodore_legolas]

These look great so far! The only thing I think would look better would be dark green legs on Dr Lighting (I think I'd just make him look more like the original version and less like Henry Jones Sr. ) and the Lone Ranger Slingshot piece for Mike ( http://www.bricklink...sp?P=3069bpb280 ) but great job man!

Edited November 13, 2014 by commodore_legolas

[Eric The Hand]

Awesome minifigs.

[legofanatic12]

How about Babloo, Jing Lee, and Sherpa Sangye Dorje? And Gabaros is not counted as a good guy because he works both for Heroes and Bad Guys.

Edited November 13, 2014 by legofanatic12

[Peppermint_M]

My intentions for this was to re-visit the old sets I had as a child. I was never able to get any of the Orient sets so I haven't got hands on reference or ideas for the figures. I may have a go at building them but I don't have the connection as such.

I'm glad people like them, most were created with parts on hand with only one set purchase made (it was for parts mostly but minifigure parts convinced me). I have the baddies coming up, just one more MOC to post with the character before I make the minifig post.

I also have a lot of original characters, universe building and own storyline to turn up at some point.

[Flipz]

Weird, I had never heard of that figure being referred to as "Dr. Charles Lightning"; I've always known him as "Dr. Kilroy" (which I believe is used in the video games and the name used in Orient Expedition, the first time I actually paid attention to the story of Adventurers ).

All of these are fantastic, though it's really weird not to see Harry Cane wearing his brown bomber jacket (which I remember vividly from the Treasure Raiders set, one of my earliest sets). I'd love to see him in the Series 3 Pilot jacket, though I'm not sure if there's any printing on the back that might render it non-period-accurate.

After you've completed the sets you actually had, will you be continuing on with some of the sets you didn't? I remember always wanting Pharoh's Forbidden Ruins, but of course it was far too big and expensive for me to have as a child--I'd love to see a version updated to today's standards.

[Peppermint_M]

I've been thinking about it. I would love to create a nice big layout but the specter of sorting looms so things stay small at the moment. I have sketches and a few brick-tests of a Sphinx replacement (My biggest set ever until I was buying as an AFOL) and thoughts on a pyramid too.