The strange origins of the Time Cruisers theme

[jamesster]

I'll just cut to the chase, and some pictures: Time Cruisers, everybody's favorite theme ( ), started when a LEGO fan built a model of a time-traveling car. People working on LEGO Magazines for Europe liked the concept, came up with some characters, and in 1994 (two years before the theme), launched a magazine comic starring Doctor Cyber and Max Time Cruiser/Timebuster:

Meanwhile, other areas of LEGO's marketing must have had some other ideas, because another character named "Max Timebuster" was showing up in catalogs and TV commercials in 1993-94. Except this Max Timebuster was an adult criminal, often leading the police on chases - even chases into other themes/time periods (though I don't have images of those pages on hand)...

http://i.imgur.com/ZCWnbPz.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dogiDVe.jpg

(Linking to these images due to their size)

Video description from the people that made it:

This was shot in Los Angeles and features a storyline that generated a lot of Grand Theft Auto-type controversy. It features a thief called Max who steals a car and is pursued through the city by police. In the end he escapes and we see the police precinct set from above. There were no CGI effects here -- everything was built from scratch.

By 1996, the comic had been successfully running for two years, and LEGO launched sets based on the concept. Max was renamed to Tim, and the character designs were tweaked a bit - though the physical minifigures still didn't completely resemble their depictions in the comics (perhaps the strange face on Tim's minifigure was an attempt to mimic the cartoony comic style?). The magazines were also expanded into new countries, so the story was rebooted too (though honestly, it wasn't much of a story). The time machines were now the large flagship Time Cruisers set and a small "micro-zapper", rather than the original car MOC that kicked everything off.

(Click for full resolution)

While we don't have the original run of the comics (beyond the first two images in this post), we do have the reboot onward, to the comic's end in 2000. Yep, the comic not only served as the basis for the theme, but outlasted it by years. You can read English translations here (though the album begins with an odd Prinzenrolle promotional comic, the proper magazine comics come after that).

That's the short version. There's way more information here, in the discussion where a bunch of people dug all this up (I hesitate to say I helped, I mostly just watched and contributed trivia ): http://www.rockraide...ruisers-comics/ I'd attempt to credit exactly who dug up what, but... As you can see, it's a lot of people, and a lot of stuff. Off the top of my head, Sadie, Pereki/Tazakk, TalonCard, Fushigisaur, Hallfiry, Dark_Turtle, and probably others that are slipping my mind at the moment all contributed stuff of some sort. And of course, the people who originally made the comics - Kim Hagen, Annemette Allerup, again, others I don't remember.

Here's some of the most interesting info - some excerpts from a conversation with people who worked on it:

... 4-5 years later however, a marketing man revived the idea of having a magazine that could keep the 6-8 yr old boys interested in their LEGO, get the bricks clicking for a longer time in the kids’ rooms, make LEGO stay on the wishing list for Christmas and birthdays.

This time the project started in Austria and again, was intensely tested before launch. The editorial concept this time was far more clearly focused on LEGO – the magazine was initially named LEGO Explorers – for curious and creative LEGO fans, and it brought storytelling about seasonal LEGO launches as well as some educational background stories about i.e. ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, Underwater exploring etc. clearly linking to the different LEGO products.

Tim Timebuster was developed in the first part of this project – later developed into Time Cruisers. The idea was to be able to jump from one LEGO universe to the next – suitable to the season’s launches og different products. Tim and the story was developed by me (Annemette Allerup) and Kim Hagen.

I posed some more specific queries to Annemette earlier which she responded to a bit ago:

"Kim Hagen told me earlier that the TimeBuster concept was based on a huge TimeBuster car build which came either from LEGO or Courage. I'll ask you some follow-up questions now.

1) I've been wondering, was it LEGO or Courage the TimeBuster car build came from?

2) Would you be able to tell me how the TimeBuster concept originated and when/where it was first conceived?

3) Do you know if Max Timebuster of the 1994-1996 Klick TimeBuster series has any connection to the other Max Timebuster, the time-travelling criminal primarily featured within the Town theme who first appeared around 1993 and is featured within various catalogs and commercials?

3a) If not, do you know how the other Max Timebuster came about?

4) Was the later Time Cruisers LEGO theme directly inspired by the earlier TimeBuster series?"-Sadie

Her response:

"1&2. The Timebuster car was one LEGO had received from a keen buileder and big fan – Ole Primdahl showed it to me and we decided to use it for a cartoon in the magazine because it made it possible to travel from one LEGO universe to another in an exciting way. It also supported the idea of combining bricks from different universes. Together we described the opportunities of the concept, but the character and cartoon was creatively developed in cooperation with Kim Hagen whom I had hired for a free lance artist for the magazines. And over the years we published the cartoon, it developed a bit.

3&4. I believe it was our Max Timebuster that inspired the other one But I’m not sure – it’s a US matter I believe

Time Cruisers as a theme was definitely inspired by the good response from the cartoon in the magazines.

So here's what I'm wondering... How long were the actual sets in development for? It's not uncommon for a theme to be in development for years - but really now, do the Time Cruisers sets look like they had two years spent on designing them?

[DuckBricks]

This is really interesting stuff. I had read the comic before, but didn't know how it related to everything in the production of Time Cruisers. Very interesting read!

Edited October 19, 2015 by legozebra

[jamesster]

Oops, slight correction - the comic was rebooted/expanded in 1997, not 1996.

[gamejutzu]

Wow... GG Lego.

Seriously, those guys can be huge trolls when they want to.

[x105Black]

That's a very interesting read. While I wasn't around to be a fan of Time Cruisers, I do vaguely remember some of the Timebusters stuff.

It's always fascinating to me to find out how a Theme, or even a certain wave of a theme, came into being. Thanks for sharing this story with us.

[Ardelon]

Fascinating insider stuff. I had no idea about any of it.

[MocclyTeam]

Never heard about this! Kind of interesting

[Tazakk]

Oh didn't see this before. Really nice, concise summary. Thanks!

Edited November 5, 2015 by Tazakk

[proshare]

Never heard about this! Kind of interesting

Edited November 7, 2015 by proshare

[jamesster]

Update: Here's English translations of a good chunk of the original series of comics, courtesy of Tazakk/Pereki:

http://imgur.com/a/EOmCz

http://imgur.com/a/GSV5o

Check out what happened when the theme launched - the original car got magically transformed into one of the new Time Cruisers sets, Max awkwardly decided to change his name to Tim, and his shirt just changed color without explanation (the letter on his shirt had already mysteriously changed from L to T several pages before).

Despite them trying to keep the continuity solid here, it was still rebooted in 1997. Here's a comparison of different versions of the origin comic (a couple versions of the original, then the 1997 revision, which updated the character designs, time machine, etc), again courtesy of Tazakk/Pereki: http://i.imgur.com/P8Rqqtr.jpg

Also, I gotta say, this panel of the original time machine car flying towards some Pirates ships is pretty cool:

Edited April 18, 2016 by jamesster

[Tazakk]

Thanks again for compiling everything!

Despite them trying to keep the continuity solid here, it was still rebooted in 1997. Here's a comparison of different versions of the origin comic (a couple versions of the original, then the 1997 revision, which updated the character designs, time machine, etc), again courtesy of Tazakk/Pereki: http://i.imgur.com/P8Rqqtr.jpg

I don't think it is entirely the case that it was a reboot. There's a restart to the continuity, but that's just because the scans we have for 97 onward are from World Club, which was a brand-new magazine that year and had to re-introduce the comic. If we can ever get our hands on the Jan/Feb 97 Klick issue, I suspect it will have something else in place of the two intro pages in the World Club Jan/Feb 97 issue - maybe a mini-episode with the Time Twisters, considering they were a 97 theme, we know they appeared at some point, and we have all the other 97 comics.

[tylermaster2]

Looks very interesting, i never knew about thus until i took a look at it.

[Arctic_Ace]

With all this new information somebody should edit the Time Cruisers page on the Brickipedia. I hope the Time Twisters are in the comic I was beginning to question if TT is canon. And best of luck trying to find the rest of the comic.

[jamesster]

With all this new information somebody should edit the Time Cruisers page on the Brickipedia. I hope the Time Twisters are in the comic I was beginning to question if TT is canon. And best of luck trying to find the rest of the comic.

It appears they're in some of the issue(s?) we're still missing (I don't recall exactly what issues we have yet to find/scan), as the website of the artist (Kim Hagen) has this on it:

https://hagenillustr...ects/2065192#12

(Click for full resolution)

Edited May 9, 2016 by jamesster

[Arctic_Ace]

If they are in the comic, I wonder how they would explain why they like to twist time? And I also wonder how they would introduce Ingo/Ali?

.

[Phenix Dark]

Hello !

I scan the french page for timetwisters on my flickr : https://flic.kr/s/aHsmUYLDmw

Enjoy ^^

 

 

[Lego David]

45 minutes ago, Phenix Dark said:

Hello !

I scan the french page for timetwisters on my flickr : https://flic.kr/s/aHsmUYLDmw

Enjoy ^^

 

 

Very nice, thank you for those scans!

Edited March 22, 2021 by Lego David

[jamesster]

10 hours ago, Phenix Dark said:

Hello !

I scan the french page for timetwisters on my flickr : https://flic.kr/s/aHsmUYLDmw

Enjoy ^^

 

 

Thank you very much! 

[Tazakk]

10 hours ago, Phenix Dark said:

Hello !

I scan the french page for timetwisters on my flickr : https://flic.kr/s/aHsmUYLDmw

Enjoy ^^

Wow, thanks so much for sharing this! I'm curious what issues of Klick these were in, I guess maybe they were printing some different comics in France than they were in Germany, neat.

Would it be okay if I translated this into English and posted it on my Time Cruisers page? I would of course link to your gallery and credit you for the scans.

 

[TalonCard]

Upping because I've noticed that there's a French ebay auction with what seems to be a lot of the Klick magazines missing from @Tazakks site. The seller seems to only ship to France, but if there's anyone there who can purchase them I'd be happy to help out on that front if they'd be willing to scan everything. 

[jamesster]

1 hour ago, TalonCard said:

Upping because I've noticed that there's a French ebay auction with what seems to be a lot of the Klick magazines missing from @Tazakks site. The seller seems to only ship to France, but if there's anyone there who can purchase them I'd be happy to help out on that front if they'd be willing to scan everything. 

Nice find! I'm putting out feelers in a few communities for someone who could make the purchase - I'm totally available to cover costs as well.

Edited August 23, 2022 by jamesster

[TalonCard]

Oh awesome! This is an important part of LEGO history and it's great to see the community come together. 😁

[Tazakk]

I've got the magazines in my possession now - thanks to @TalonCard and @jamesster for giving me the heads up and making this possible. Scanlations are on the way, though it may be a month or two as it looks like I'm going to need to replace my scanner.

I can at least confirm this lot does indeed contain everything we were missing, short of the zapper version of the intro they would've used when introing the comic to new regions 1998 onward. I'm excited for the full continuity loop to finally be readable without any gaps!! Finally, the full story of Tim.

[TalonCard]

Fantastic! I can't wait to experience the full saga at last!  Thank you for all of your scanlation work!

[TalonCard]

I noticed (via RR Slugger on YouTuber) that Christian Faber (of Bionicle fame) has not only taken credit for the original Time Cruisers model that was ultimately used in the comic, he's posted it on Instagram, which is pretty cool! I note that the OG Max Timebuster is in the driver's seat, which seems to link every incarnation of Max/Tim Timebuster together.

(My headcanon now is that adult Max was one of Dr. Cyber's original hypno disc test subjects from the Time Cruisers boardgame, and turned into a time traveling criminal. Dr. Cyber altered the timestream to recruit a younger Max to ensure he didn't turn into a bad guy, but the original Max is still out there stealing stuff. When the original Time Cruiser machine was turned into the Flying Time Vessel, the change was retroactive, creating a third timeline where Tim was never Max, and the FTV was always the original time machine.)

Edited November 5, 2022 by TalonCard