Old LEGO Adventurers Cartoon

[emily]

Hello everyone!

 

Recently I found this curious scan in a folder on Brickshelf. It is probably from the January February 1998 issue of LEGO Bricks and Pieces magazine, from the United Kingdom, and as you can see it advertises a LEGO Adventurers themed cartoon.

 

Unfortunately, I don't know anything more - and neither does the rest of the internet, as best as I can tell. So, I'm here today to ask you if you might happen to know anything more about this cartoon. Any new information at all would be greatly appreciated.

[Sir Kohran]

I've seen that page before (I might even have it stashed away somewhere). I can only assume the show was planned but never actually made. If it had been, it would've been the first Lego television show.

[Gatanui]

I never heard about that, but it would have been pretty nice. I wonder what led to its cancellation?

 

-Gata

[Lyichir]

I never heard about that, but it would have been pretty nice. I wonder what led to its cancellation?

 

-Gata

If this is what I think it is (it won't load on my computer, but the context of this topic reminds me of a short video featuring Johnny Thunder building an airplane and then taking off in it), there was no cancellation. It was a pitch by an animation studio to create a Lego TV show, and they used the classic Adventurers theme as a subject. Lego just didn't take them up on it.

 

If this is referring to something else, forgive me for assuming, but I've seen so many people share that video under the assumption that it was an actual project that Lego was involved in. But it's no more than a proof of concept that I think was made several years after the Adventurers theme ended.

 

Of course, Johnny Thunder is soon going to be making his actual animated debut in The Lego Movie, where he's one of the many Master Builders. And he'll even be showing up in one of the summer sets, if the Lego Movie visual guide is any indication.

[Sir Kohran]

 

I never heard about that, but it would have been pretty nice. I wonder what led to its cancellation?

 

-Gata

If this is what I think it is (it won't load on my computer, but the context of this topic reminds me of a short video featuring Johnny Thunder building an airplane and then taking off in it), there was no cancellation. It was a pitch by an animation studio to create a Lego TV show, and they used the classic Adventurers theme as a subject. Lego just didn't take them up on it.

 

If this is referring to something else, forgive me for assuming, but I've seen so many people share that video under the assumption that it was an actual project that Lego was involved in. But it's no more than a proof of concept that I think was made several years after the Adventurers theme ended.

 

But why would Lego advertise in the magazine a show they had no desire to have made?

 

I'm fairly sure the pitch you're referring to was for Orient Expedition, five years after the scan Tazakk linked to.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Sir Kohran

[Lyichir]

 

 

I never heard about that, but it would have been pretty nice. I wonder what led to its cancellation?

 

-Gata

If this is what I think it is (it won't load on my computer, but the context of this topic reminds me of a short video featuring Johnny Thunder building an airplane and then taking off in it), there was no cancellation. It was a pitch by an animation studio to create a Lego TV show, and they used the classic Adventurers theme as a subject. Lego just didn't take them up on it.

 

If this is referring to something else, forgive me for assuming, but I've seen so many people share that video under the assumption that it was an actual project that Lego was involved in. But it's no more than a proof of concept that I think was made several years after the Adventurers theme ended.

 

But why would Lego advertise in the magazine a show they had no desire to have made?

 

I'm fairly sure the pitch you're referring to was for Orient Expedition, five years after the scan Tazakk linked to.

 

Huh. It is different than what I thought you were talking about (I couldn't tell since Brickshelf was down at the time of my last reply). I'm not familiar with this ad, and it's possible I never had a chance to see it before, considering it uses the British names for the characters (suggesting that it only showed up in the British mag). I had never heard about this series before, and I'm pretty sure if it were ever finished it would have at least shown up online somewhere in the intervening time. So I guess it can go into the same category as other "promised but never delivered" gems such as Bionicle: The Album.

[emily]

I'm still holding out on the possibility that it exists, however unlikely it may be. If it was just a series of shorts that aired during commercial breaks, a la the Exo-Force special in 2006, I think there's a good possibility that it has just been forgotten. Especially since the magazine didn't specify the time the show was supposed to be airing, which I imagine would have deterred a lot of people from trying to watch it.

 

The magazine is from January 1998, so it would have had to have been a very late cancellation if that was the case. I imagine that it would be a situation reminiscent of BIONICLE's The Legend of Mata Nui, where the content is there for the most part but doesn't exist in a fully polished, publishable form.

[Kopekemaster]

I don't actually see anything there saying that it is LEGO-related (other than Adventurers, which is a pretty common term, and Sam Grant's name), and the little preview thing (with the hands around the old CN logo) doesn't seem to resemble LEGO in any way.

 

Maybe it was just inspired by the sets and didn't really have much to actually do with LEGO? I really have no idea.

 

But I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else.

[Sir Kohran]

I don't actually see anything there saying that it is LEGO-related (other than Adventurers, which is a pretty common term, and Sam Grant's name), and the little preview thing (with the hands around the old CN logo) doesn't seem to resemble LEGO in any way.

 

Maybe it was just inspired by the sets and didn't really have much to actually do with LEGO? I really have no idea.

 

But I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else.

 

Lego create media to promote their sets. If the media's content doesn't portray the sets then it's a waste of time for them. So if this was made, it definitely would've been about the Lego line.

[Kopekemaster]

 

I don't actually see anything there saying that it is LEGO-related (other than Adventurers, which is a pretty common term, and Sam Grant's name), and the little preview thing (with the hands around the old CN logo) doesn't seem to resemble LEGO in any way.

 

Maybe it was just inspired by the sets and didn't really have much to actually do with LEGO? I really have no idea.

 

But I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else.

 

Lego create media to promote their sets. If the media's content doesn't portray the sets then it's a waste of time for them. So if this was made, it definitely would've been about the Lego line.

 

 

I more meant that LEGO probably didn't make it, CN probably did and LEGO was giving them more of a mention than anything.

[Lyichir]

 

 

I don't actually see anything there saying that it is LEGO-related (other than Adventurers, which is a pretty common term, and Sam Grant's name), and the little preview thing (with the hands around the old CN logo) doesn't seem to resemble LEGO in any way.

 

Maybe it was just inspired by the sets and didn't really have much to actually do with LEGO? I really have no idea.

 

But I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else.

Lego create media to promote their sets. If the media's content doesn't portray the sets then it's a waste of time for them. So if this was made, it definitely would've been about the Lego line.

 

I more meant that LEGO probably didn't make it, CN probably did and LEGO was giving them more of a mention than anything.

 

That's not how licensing works, or how the Lego magazine ever did. Cartoon Network would have no reason or right to make an Adventurers-themed cartoon without Lego's approval and permission, and the Lego magazine almost never advertised non-affiliated works (or even fan works that weren't specifically submitted to the magazine). Meanwhile, it isn't JUST Sam Grant's name: apart from the oddly-named Evil Eye and Lizard Boots, and the vague "Professor", all of the listed names are those of characters from the Adventurers theme. It's pretty clear from this ad that the publishers of this issue of the Lego magazine, at the very least, were under the assumption that Lego was involved in the production of a Cartoon Network mini-series. The question is, what became of that?

[12345678]

Sorry to bump a dead topic but i've been searching online for the Lego Adventurers TV show I remember from when I was a kid and this is all I could find about it. It had been driving me a bit nuts to not find ANY mention of it anywhere else and I almost thought I was imagining it.

 

The show did exist was was broadcast on Cartoon Network in the UK. I was obsessed with the Adventurers Egypt sets when I was about 8 years old and loved the show, although I was only occasionally able to see it.

 

The episodes were really short (probably less than 1 minute long) and aired between other cartoons for a few weeks. This created the problem that the story was usually broadcast out of order. There was a special omnibus featuring all the episodes put together, but I only saw it once. It was really exciting when I did see it though!

 

I can't quite remember how it was animated, but I know it wasn't a 'cartoon'. In my head, the story was told using a montage of still images of the Adventurers sets, with voice acting over the top. However, there might have been a bit of camera movement like in this commercial, I'm really not sure: 

 

The characters had names like that magazine scan suggests. Johnny Thunder was called Sam Grant in it - in fact, I knew him as Sam Grant before I saw the name Johnny Thunder in a tie-in book, and I always preferred it. Evil Eye was the baddie. The 'Lizard Boots' character is confusing me - I always remember the show referring to Slyboots as 'Sam Sinister', but I might be wrong. Pharaoh Hotep was in it. I can't remember the actual storyline at all.

 

Hope that's helpful to anyone else here. To be honest, the show could've been really bad, but I remember liking it. 

 

I wonder if anyone knows how to find out who worked on it, or if an old copy that someone recorded on VHS will ever turn up. I doubt it.

[masterchirox580]

Well then, looks like someone should submit this to the lost media wiki. This sounds quite interesting and I'm surprised no one has brought it for nearly 20 years. I suggest looking at any archived lego forums from 1998 (assuming there are some) to find some kind of information on it or proof of it's existence. I'll check brickset on the wayback machine.

 

UPDATE: Darn it. Brickset only goes back to 2000.

Edited February 22, 2016 by masterchirox580

[-Windrider-]

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