Random set of the day: Black Cruiser
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7424 Black Cruiser, released during 2003. It's one of 20 Adventurers sets produced that year. It contains 28 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$4/£1.99.
It's owned by 1,569 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $22.00, or eBay.
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23 comments on this article
The title made me think it was a Blacktron set.
Beauty in its simplicity for the Baron.
LORE TIME!
Lord Sam Sinister (formerly known as Baron von Barron, Mr. Hates, Evil Eye, and Sam Sanister, and more recently known as Samuel von Barron) drives the Black Cruiser... and you can be sure that wherever he drives, he's going to steal some priceless treasure! For instance, the Black Cruiser was spotted in Venice outside the house of Marco Polo, where the dastardly villain eavesdropped on the heroes talking about the Golden Dragon. Interestingly, this cameo makes the Black Cruiser the first China set to appear the Orient Expedition comics, as well as the only Kabaya set to appear in the story at all.
Another fun fact: Shop At Home catalogs tended to advertise this set with one tiny little difference: Lord Sam Sinister using his original head from the 1998 Egypt and 2000 Dino Island subthemes. A prototype photo, perhaps?
Looks a bit more Dark Gray than Black to me.
So if he's using the right hand to hold the binoculars, how well is he able to steer with that hook?
I wish Lego still made that lovely vintage car grille piece :(
They even cancelled the later version (as used in Indiana Jones and Pharoah's Quest sets) which was crazy and annoying to me given that the piece had been used not only for vintage cars, but also hot rods, greebling on spaceships and even shoulder pads on mechs.
Same goes for the vintage wheels, youd be surprised where they can actually be used beyond just vintage cars (eg I saw an early Lego Star Wars set it was either a Millenium Falcon or X Wing and it used the vintage car wheels as greebling on the engines)
Adventurers! A nice fun little set from a great theme. The car is relatively small and simplistic, but it is far from the smallest or simplest. That distinction goes to 3055 which takes the title by having the smallest footprint (6 studs long, 4? studs wide) and least pieces (16). It does still manage to have a steering wheel though, unlike 2541 which has the same footprint, but seems to have more bulk.
Lord Sam Sinister! Now I want to ride Lost Kingdom Adventure....
Orient Expedition hit during the beginning of my Dark Ages, but even I couldn't resist the Yeti Hideout and the Temple of Mt. Everest. The latter I got on 50% discount at my local Target - the Himalayan theming was just so DIFFERENT from anything I had seen before in LEGO.
The theme as a whole is a bit dated in terms of sensitivity - anything depicting Asia as exotic, dangerous, or "forbidden" is immediately iffy, IMO - but the theme at least positioned Sam Sinister and his cronies as the obvious baddies. Overall, it was refreshing to see non-Euro, non-North America locations so heavily featured.
I think it'd be cool to get an update of this theme along the lines of the Jungle and Animal Rescue CITY lineups. Have Johnny Thunder 2.0 and his team tracking snow leopards in the Himalayas and bactrian camels in the Gobi Desert. Is it too much to ask for a LEGO gharial?
@Brickchap said:
"I wish Lego still made that lovely vintage car grille piece :(
They even cancelled the later version (as used in Indiana Jones and Pharoah's Quest sets) which was crazy and annoying to me given that the piece had been used not only for vintage cars, but also hot rods, greebling on spaceships and even shoulder pads on mechs.
Same goes for the vintage wheels, youd be surprised where they can actually be used beyond just vintage cars (eg I saw an early Lego Star Wars set it was either a Millenium Falcon or X Wing and it used the vintage car wheels as greebling on the engines)"
Speaking of pieces used to detail cars, I'm very glad that https://brickset.com/parts/design-50943 is still in use to this day. It's part of the reason I got 9442, I always love seeing it pop up.
I got this set just for the figure. It had a great faceprint, a hook for a hand, and above all a top hat.
I got mine as a gift, as part of the Orient Expedition World Travel Kit, which contains 7422, 7423, and this set.
I was going to build mine in honor of it being the RSotD, but I found it was already built, so I guess I'll take it apart instead.
Still dislike if people count Orient Expedition as part of the regular Adventurers line - it's much more Adventurers II (if you insist on the name).
Sure a good bunch of the characters are supposedly identical (?), but the background story is contradictory to old one, building style, colors and release style changed noticably - and nowhere has Lego mentioned OE as an Adventurers sub-theme officially (until the DK books copied fansite stuff years later).
To me Orient Expedition is a FULL reboot of the Adventurers theme, much like Bionicle G2 (2015) was a full reboot.
Those little impulse sets had a few neat parts (and the uncommon Himalaya Dr. Kilroy), but rather clumsy builds. The fact that a few of the parts in them (those with 3.18 bars) had a bit of a loose fit at the time didn't help. Lord Sinister here represented the India sub-theme, whilst Kilroy was Himalaya and Johnny was China.
OE itself was an interesting concept - unfortunately it meant a short lived series. The boardgame was also rather neat.
One of the last sets I got to complete the Orient Exoedition theme. Not because it's not great, but because these three I could only buy online long after the fact. I have a bit of shop folder that proves they were sold in stores near me at the time, but I didn't have money for them yet back in 2003.
It's a fun little car. Basic, but not too basic. The crate with tools makes it quite competent as an Adventurers vehicle. Overall, this is a nice set from an amazing theme!
“Aren't you a little short for a Cruiser?”
@WemWem said:
[The theme as a whole is a bit dated in terms of sensitivity - anything depicting Asia as exotic, dangerous, or "forbidden" is immediately iffy, IMO - but the theme at least positioned Sam Sinister and his cronies as the obvious baddies. Overall, it was refreshing to see non-Euro, non-North America locations so heavily featured.]]
I dont see the issue with Orient Expedition though. As you yourself mention it was the first time we got realistic locations outside of Europe/North America and most fans seem to love the theme for that (myself included).
The volcano subtheme showed volcanos as pretty dangerous but you wouldnt say it was 'offensive' to al the countries in the world that have volcanos.
I also never got the impression OE was trying to depict Asia as 'dangerous', they were just cool interesting new locations for new adventures.
I also dont see the problem in Asia being 'exotic.' It IS exotic relative to Europe, UK or North America where most of Lego's markets at the time were. Just look at contemporary travel ads for places like Thailand, Vietnam or various Pacific Islands, they often refer to 'forbidden' or 'hidden' exotic locations and ability to discover fascinating new cultures.
As an Australian I find Europe quite "exotic" and yes dangerous at times (coming from a country town where its a one lane road and drivers just stop for you even if there isnt a pedestrian crossing versus Vienna trams for instance which go really fast and the driver doesnt seem to care whether passengers have fully disembarked or not before shooting off! Much of Europe to me is like fantasy storybooks and all these different foods, languages, traditional dress that are a world away from small town Down Under.
I cannot find any issues with the depiction of Nepal or India (and remember the theme was set in the 1920s so of course its not going to have modern skyscraper cities or current technology).
The ONLY character that may be a bit "iffy" as you call it was Emperor Chang Wu. Again people need to understand the time period and theme Lego was going for. They were depicting warlord era China (look up warlord Zhang Zuolin who bears some resemblance to Chang Wu ) and indeed the guy was a villain so of course hes not going to be "nice".
Adventurers actually had good AND bad characters from ALL the races depicted.
Like Baron Von Barron was clearly based on 1890s-1940s adventure and military genre tropes regarding German antagonists, and no one seems to have a problem with his character, so I dont see the issue in a similar character that happens to be Chinese.
@PurpleDave said:
"So if he's using the right hand to hold the binoculars, how well is he able to steer with that hook?"
Maybe the car comes with black cruise control
Literal meaning of a car is just 4 wheels and an engine. Are those glow in the dark headlamps or false advertising. I like the way the radiator also has a top hat.
The upper-crust colonialist/imperialist, thus typically 1930s British bad-guy... Wonder if they'll bring him back in the latest City (re-released Johnny Thunder!!) from sets like 5938 into 60426 XD
@MCLegoboy said:
"Looks a bit more Dark Gray than Black to me."
More like Very, Very Dark Gray...
Adventurers? Be still my beating heart!
(I wish they'd re-release Barron Von Barron or Sam Sinister - or both - in some fashion)
@Maxbricks14 said:
"The title made me think it was a Blacktron set."
No, you're thinking of 40580.
@Brickchap: Yes, transit in other places is less forgiving. Australia's wildlife, on the other hand...
@gearwheel said:
"I got mine as a gift, as part of the Orient Expedition World Travel Kit, which contains 7422, 7423, and this set.
I was going to build mine in honor of it being the RSotD, but I found it was already built, so I guess I'll take it apart instead."
I eventually got all the monsters from Adventures 7411, 7412, and 7413. I liked 7418 the most (even more than 5988), but I'm missing almost all the other orient, jungle, and dino sets.