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Well, this is unexpected and exciting. Yes, it's overpriced, and yes, all the pieces are technically old, but I like the combination. And I'm a Pirate completest--if I bought the Fairy Tales minifigure set just for the two pirates in it you can bet I'll be picking this one up. ;) TC

I'm quite excited to see that Rusty, Dickens, and Five are back...I think that Cerlin appears with the same personality in the first Time Cruisers tape, is that right? TC

Cap't, I really like your scenario--I too would like to think the Mars Mission sets follow closely on the original Life on Mars sets, but I've been struggling to reconcile it with LEGO Battles. That's a good take on a sticky situation. I thank the year or two overlap is a pretty good source--plus I know there's at least one catalog that showed Classic Space and Futuron on the same landscape. And I'm glad I could bring that to your attention--I also love seeing LEGO Space realized on a grand scale. IIRC, the Life on Mars truck tour display was pretty spectacular too. TC

Great job Runamuck! Another theme has been illuminated by your efforts. :) I really like the name "The Great Wolf". I'm assuming this is the one with the eyepatch? Similarly, does this make Lord Finnegan the Black Knight of the UK storyline? The land of Tarenta is interesting...it definitely matches the catalog image. I'd love to see a LEGO Castle map showing where Ennon, Tarenta, Morica, Avalon, the Western Kingdom, and Saxondale all are in relation to each other... TC

A two-page spread on the LEGO Galactic Adventures show in the Summer 1993 Brick Kicks magazine has revealed some more interesting planets: Mutania, Robot Planet, and Swamp Planet. (Maybe the same as the Jim Spaceborn Swamp Planet?!). It's a shame that these old LEGO shows aren't better documented--they seem to have some interesting bits of lore... TC

I live in Texas, and I've taken a bit of Spanish, but even after looking at the name several times I can't make much sense of it. Would it be possible for you to post an audio excerpt from that part of the audio drama? There may be a degree of pseudo-Spanish going on here, but I think if I could hear it it would help. I had the same thought! I wish we could see how and why and what the original theme designers came up with. I understand that it was an uphill battle to get the theme produced as it is in the first place--there were serious talks about whether or not the skull and crossbones flag was acceptable for a LEGO set. Unfortunately, that piece of information came from a brief mention in an interview about Castle sets in Brickjournal. :p I've tried getting in touch with a few people who worked at Advance at the time, but no luck. I think a new thread in the Castle forum would be the best bet--it would probably be of interest to lots more people there. (I'm really excited about these, BTW. :) ) TC

Thank you again, Runamuck, for all your hard work in translating these stories. :) This one arguably anticipates the addition of the Imperial Armada into the Pirate theme, and gives us a glimpse at their relationship with the soldiers/Imperial Guards. Broadside obviously is not particularly inclined to treat them as allies, but his royal visitor from the motherland seems to be invested in keeping the peace. Roger/Red Beard gives no hint of his Spanish heritage here, though he does agree to help them for a price. (I suspect his relationship with the Admiral is more complicated than previously believed!) Incidentally, this is the second time Broadside has received a royal visitor to Sabatina--these monarchs seem pretty hands-on. Did royals really visit the colonies like this in the 1600s and 1700s? I can't remember reading anything about it, but I'm no expert. Broadside is worse than ever here, sentencing innocent Spaniards to death without a care and engaging in outright piracy himself. Seems his change of heart in the previous adventure was only temporary. I love every time we get to see Skip again! For years I thought he was a one-shot character; it's great to see him reoccurring like this. :) jamesster, thank you for the links! I'd run across most of those before, but I had no idea that one could access the miniland magazines with broken links--I thought they just hadn't posted those yet. Great stuff! TC

That's a pretty cool idea! I don't think the First Expedition's mission profile contradicts an earlier contact with aliens--it's pretty similar to Star Trek's "strange new worlds" mission, after all. The fact that space is a big place is probably a good argument for the later Space sets to be set thousands of years in the future...though like any fictional space ship, LEGO's craft move at the speed of imagination. ;) The Blacktron history is really starting to come together: the new collectable minifigure Evil Mech not only boasts an original Blacktron insignia along with Blacktron II neon-green colors, his bio on LEGO.com hints that he was the harbinger of the Future Generation! Is it all just because Blacktron is an awesome classic theme, or could we be seeing a return sometime in the near future? A few more timeline-related notes: This interview states that the Star Justice Factory theme was based on the Pre-Classic Space fan theme, so it could be set prior to 2079. The German Time Cruisers audio dramas (thank you Orky and Runamuck!) place the Time Cruisers theme in the year 3777 AD. (This was interesting to me; I had never pegged Time Cruisers as a future theme.) They also suggest that Aquazone takes place decades afterwards, and that the Explorien and Spyrius themes take place in their future. TC

I was pleased to note that the Tiki Warrior is explicitly linked to the Islanders in his bio. Themes may be discontinued, but they live on. :) TC

That's interesting! I'd take both stories into account; sometimes the factions are unified, sometimes they struggle amongst themselves. We see this a lot in the Pirate storyline; Broadside steals from his own people and his King, he has spies at court, and while De Martinet serves him, he also covets his job. Space Police too, had renegades who wanted Ice Planet technology. For a company that presently favors good-verses-evil storylines, there are plenty of shades of gray. (Or, as LEGO Batman might say, very very dark gray. Are there any scans of the later Ninja story info? I have the first Ninja Mania Magazine, and I seem to remember the bit about the Princess and the Emperor...those collector cards that came with the minifigure sets, maybe? The scans of the Pirate comic are here, and I've just posted the Space comic you mentioned here. I only have the first part of the Castle comic, and I don't have the issue with me. But I will try to post scans when I get it. Sadly, these seem to be the only comics in the series, though it clearly inspired the later Mania Magazines comic. (Though sadly, the art was never as epic.) TC

LEGO has indeed played pretty fast and loose with even the notion of a linear timeline, though I would argue that there is enough of an attempt at continuity to make it worth investigating and documenting. Having looked into it some more, I think there's a lot of evidence to suggest that Classic Space did indeed begin in the near future--a previous post made a pretty good case for a 2079 setting. There are a few promotional comics that show that the gap between Classic Space and Futron is so large that time travel comes into play when characters from one theme visit another. On the other hand, the solidly Classic Space Captain Indigo character flew Futuron craft in his last appearance, and the Jim Spaceborn comics would have included the Futuron monorail had they continued, so the Classic Space forces were clearly around for some time, maybe even a few thousand years. I'd like to think that Classic Space started out as lunar expeditions in the late 21st century, then evolved into an interplanetary and intergalactic colonization/exploration force. (The text from the 1984 LEGO World Show Guide seems to suggest this.) The Life on Mars Radio Logs mentioned an attempt at invading Earth in 1938 that was foiled by germ warfare. I'd like to think that was the first action of the ADU. TC

King Richard is listed in the cast for one of the Castle audio dramas at hoerspielland.de. I'm fascinated by the Black Knight's connection to two Castle factions; Bricks 'n Pieces Magazine seemed to treat the Black Knights as an extension of the then-nameless Black Falcons. The Disney Adventures magazine comic implied, I believe, that the Dragon Masters are a splinter group from the Black Knights...lots of connections there. I wouldn't think that the Castle Kids comics have anything to do with the audio dramas, but if there's one thing Runamuck's translations have taught me, it's that anything is possible. (And heck, we finally got a Blacktron origin story in LEGO City Undercover, so you never know.) The Wolfpack were some of my favorites; it'd be neat if there was more information about them. (I used to pretend that one of the pirates was a descendant of the Wolf Pack leader, for obvious reasons. ) :excited: :excited: :excited: :excited: These are the kinds of things that make my day. Good catch! I hadn't notice most of that, and had chalked the difference in appearance in the Soldier flags up to artistic license . TC

You know, as much fun as all the other audio dramas are, it's this one that sets some serious events in motion. Will really does find out about his father, and we even learn his last name!!! I was not expecting that. The revelation about Foul and the Barracuda and Will definitely throws a new light on the other pirate crew's inclusion in these early adventures. It sets up an epic confrontation between Will and Foul, though I doubt anything will come of it since it's the second-to-last audio drama. :( Broadside seem genuinely shaken by his execution of an innocent man--perhaps this accounts for the change in his character in other appearances. And all that was from Google's bizarre translation--I can't wait to see yours, Runamuck! :) Adrick

I don't think anyone interested in a possible LEGO Space timeline was really looking to the game LEGO City Undercover to provide much in the way of new information...but (spoilers ahead) it appears to provide a backdoor origin story for Blacktron, of all things! TC

Bravo, Runamuck! I liked this one a lot. Poor Camila, it seems like she's the only decent person in the whole Tropical Sea. ;) So there's a small island in the north, ruled by Governor McGeyer! I think this is the unnamed small island near John Silver Island on the Ladybird map, if it isn't John Silver island itself. I wonder if these are colonies from the same unnamed European power that the soldiers belong to. McMoney appears! :) There's a character in the Ladybird books who owns a general store on the pirate's island--his name is Magpie. Is it possible they are the same character? It seems like almost every Pirate story involves Will and Roger/Red Beard sneaking into Port Royal, but this exchange is priceless: "Will: Not so loud captain. Can’t you tread a little softer, you peg leg is rather noisy. Roger: What are you talking about? I am not stomping, I almost hover over the ground." Do Bliss and Neal appear for the first time in this story? More named pirates! The best part about this story, though, is that Flashfork finally comes into his own as a character. Bessie, Anne, Rummy, Will, and Roger/Red Beard are all well defined characters by this point, so it was nice to see him get a turn. I think the idea of a gourmet chef trying to please a crew of pirates is hilarious. Roger's desire for a hamburger is very funny too. (I think this is the earliest appearance of that dish in the LEGO universe...) TC

I love that the Steve thing is still going...IIRC it started as a Lugnet thing, possibly even rec.toys.lego--back in ancient times. TC

Runamuck, I can't say this enough: you are awesome for doing these. I know Time Cruisers isn't really your thing, but I'm finding these just as interesting as the Pirates audio dramas. Anyone less dedicated would have just done the Pirate bits and called it a day. I'll rummage around in the Time Cruiser Navi, Navi...the uh, Hypno Cruiser trailer to find a hat to take off to you. Nice educational bit there--George Lucas had a similar exchange in Star Wars, but he catches a lot of flak for it because it's not explained as a joke as it is here. :laugh: Best. LEGO Pirates joke. Ever. Since it's an audio drama, you really have to know the sets to get it. I have fond memories of recieving Skull Island as a Christmas present in December of '95--my first '96 set. I had wanted the larger Skull Island set that year because it had the cool skull face, but it was too expensive. I was excited that they came up with a scaled-down alternative. There's a similar Skull Island joke in Monkey Island-- . You know, the Time Cruisers are actually pretty damn hilarious--the characters are better than any of the models. As jamsster pointed out, the idea that Gator Landing is just over the hill from Paradisa is funny as well. Considering the size of the Flying Time Vessel, the shed behind the General Store must dwarf the store. They must stock a lot of bonbons. It sure sounds like the three bandits are intended to be the ones included in the Western sets, but they seem to have different names in the Western audio dramas...curious, given that otherwise these LEGO stories are pretty consistent... I think Bo'sun Will Saves the Governor may be my favorite Pirate story yet. It's not as swashbuckling as some of the others, but it's an excellent illustration of the version of the Pirate storyline in which there are no good guys, really. I mean, Roger is funny and Will sort of acts as his conscience, and Foul is a little more underhanded than Roger, but here all of the characters work together to keep Broadside (who is a terrible person!) in office. Rummy lamenting the situation is pretty funny, and I love the part where Broadside catches Roger in broad daylight and is forced to pass him off as a Pirate hunter! I can't wait to see what the next installments have in store. I only wish it had gone on longer so that we could see Woodhouse and the Spanish Admiral introduced as proper characters. TC

Runamuck, you are doing the LEGO community a great service in making these audio dramas more accessible to the LEGO community. I'd read summaries of the Time Cruiser audio dramas before, but I missed out on the great dialogue and character interaction. I particularly like Robby's unique speech patterns. I've always wondered what a Time Cruiser series would be like; now I know! :) Notes on Operation Cybercom: Ali's jokes don't translate well; I'm guessing. "Oh, is not lazy bum, is a quick bum, nice bum, uh uh." "In front of the lab, did you just say lab, Tim? Or even Time Cruiser Lab? You are wrong, this is not a lab." "But professor…" "This is a nuthouse." Great line. :) I've mentioned this before in other threads, but it bears repeating here: I never would have guessed that Time Cruisers takes place in the year 3777, so this is really interesting. It is odd that, in spite of the future setting, everything aside from the time machines themselves resembles the present day. (Particularly the shuttle launch...) Even so, this is an oddly consistent point for LEGO: both Captain Indigo and Clutch Powers show a future that looks remarkably like the present. Go figure. Time Cruisers appears to be slightly educational, as Professor Cyber gives lectures to Tim about booster rockets, tracking transmissions, lives of the early settlers, etc. I particularly like this aspect of the audio dramas; the early 60s incarnation of Doctor Who was intended to be educational as well. "If he has traveled into the past or future with that thing, I’m unable to search there." "No?" "I have no jurisdiction to do so. There you have to talk to, well look for my predecessors or successors." This exchange is quite clever; the writer of Operation Cybercom is clearly better than most of the drama would otherwise indicate. ;) The mention of Spyrius miniaturization rays is consistent with catalog descriptions. Doctor Science joins Nova Hunter and Captain King in the ranks of Explorien leaders. This is by far my favorite; I wish I could go back in time and change my Eurobricks name to "Doctor Science". TC

Just noticed that Toys 'n Bricks reported that Series 11 will contain a "warrior Tiki man". I would bet you dollars to donuts that this is an Islander update, although even if it's not, it would probably mix well with them. Time to dust off my Islander collection... TC

That's a good question! You're right; the Armada sets do have more of a 16th century flavor to them. The reason I placed them where I did was that the 1996 Armada line carried over certain elements of the Islanders and Imperial Guards lines--Kahuka and the Admiral were said to be friends, and the Imperial Outpost was sometimes grouped with the Armada sets in 1996 catalogs. The LEGO Chess game also shows Woodhouse aboard the Armada Flagship, implying that the two powers had some kind of alliance and existed at the same time. Of course, since I posted this version of the timeline, it's become apparent that there are other dates for the Pirate theme out there. The US boxes do specify the 18th century, and I accept that as definitive. The German audio dramas place the 1995 sets in the 1640s, however, while the German Time Cruisers audio dramas place the 1996 sets in 1602. All dates should be considered valid, but they are mutually exclusive. LEGO does tend to play fast and loose with historical details--morions are certainly anachronistic for the 1710s, but then so are shakos. Thank you! Red Beard has been shown to be in command of all of the Pirate ships LEGO released during the original Pirate line (he wasn't included in the Renegade Runner, but the Disney Adventures comic featured him escaping in it); whether he maintains a fleet of ships (as some pirates did) is up for debate. We do have sort of an answer on the Barracuda/Skull's Eye front--the Skull's Eye was known as the Dark Shark II in Germany; Dark Shark being the Barracuda's more widely used name. Runamuck's translations of the German audio dramas show that many of the crew from the original Pirate adventures--Red Beard, Will, and Rummy--were aboard the Dark Shark II. So it seems likely that the Skull's Eye was a replacement for the Barracuda. It's funny; both the Bricks 'n Pieces story and the LEGO Maniac comic show a Skull Island strangely free of pirates. Maybe nobody sticks around after Red Beard leaves. TC

The new Galaxy Squad mood video recounts all the planets from the Bug Battle game, and also states that the name of the galaxy the bugs are invading is the "Planet X" galaxy, also described as the "Outer Galaxy"... TC

Every time I get to read one of these while listening to the audio drama I feel like I just received a previously-unknown pirate set. :grin: :grin: Notes: I really liked the pirate scenes--Captain Ironhook is a great foil for Red Beard. The scenes with George and Susan go on for too long, though. Will says that Ironhook drew the ace of spades from his sleeve--apparently Ironhook does own at least one shirt. Silver Island seems to be near the Foggy Islands, and both are said to be in the South Sea. Given that the Island of Fogs is south of everything in the Treasure Islands map, it's possible that this is the sea south of the Tropical Sea and not the actual South Sea. This also seems to indicate that the Sea Star is definitely not the Renegade Runner--it's hard imagine the Skull's Eye Schooner fleeing such a puny ship. I'll bet Red Beard regrets selling the Sea Star to Ironhook now! This does seem to confirm the notion that it is Ironhook, not Red Beard/Roger, who is in conflict with the Islanders. Best lines: "Yes, but he doesn’t know that you know that. Therefore he believes that you think that you lost the island to him."--This could have come right from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. "In the name of all cross-eyed beach crabs" "I think the supreme shark is biting me in the rear, how did they spot us so quickly?" Red Beard's cursing continues to be the best part of this series... So I noticed the third Time Cruisers audio drama is on YouTube also, and it just so happens to have a substantial pirate section in it... TC

I'm sure it is supposed to be a play on "Pirates of Penzance" (which is a hilarious operetta BTW; Gilbert and Sullivan are awesome). If I understand correctly, Penzance was a quiet seaside tourist town and the last place a band of pirates would be based, so the title is supposed to be humorous. "Fenzance" (definitely with an "F") is accurate, though--it appears on the Treasure Islands map in the Ladybird books as a location on Sabatina. As Runamuck pointed out, the Imperial Trading Post was called Port Fenzance in some countries, while others linked it with Port Royal on the other side of Sabatina. I don't think it's ultimately clear where the Trading Post set is actually supposed to be, but there are clearly two major seaports on Sabatina: the Naval base (and occasional pirate haunt) of Fenzance and the capital of Port Royal, where the Eldorado Fortress and the governor's headquarters are located. TC

This is true, but the soldiers/Imperial Guards seem to be a mix of every European colonial empire, so it wouldn't be out of the question. You make a good point, though, the LEGO pirates are supposed to be of Spanish descent. I think everything comes across pretty well--without the original scripts it would be hard to be 100% accurate with the character names. That's a good point--I guess I was thinking of and the catalog pictures, rather than the actual sets. Also, yay!!! Is this "Pirate Sails on the Horizon"?Another odd thing about this audio drama--it refers to the Islanders as having brown skin. I guess the comics always gave the characters flesh tones, but this caught me off guard... TC

Runamuck, you are awesome for doing this! I love this version of Captain Roger--his swearing is ridiculous, but entertaining. Add Scarred Johnny to the list of "pirates-worse-than-Roger" that we never see in minifigure form. Someone should make one...I imagine him with Rudo Villano's face. I'd also like to see minifigs of Ben and Michael. We see here the disadvantage of sailing around with giant pirate sails all the time, though the Dark Shark II could obviously take the Sea Lion in a fight. ;) Again, it's great to see locations from the first wave of pirate stories used for the newer sets...Fenzance and the Island of Fogs were on the Ladybird map. Is the Sea Star supposed to be the Renegade Runner? At the end, Roger puts Rummy in command, and seems to be about to sell her to Ironhook... Which episode are you going to translate next? I can't wait!!! :classic: TC