ThrowbackThursday: 1998
Posted by Huw,
This week's article has been written by Concreteface, who talks us through the hot new themes of 1998:
For me, 1998 was a magnificent year in LEGO. As many as two new themes and ten new subthemes (and Znap, but we don’t speak of that) were introduced and for the first time, the number of LEGO sets released surpassed 300!
However, I don’t think The LEGO Group was as excited as I was, though, as it was also the first time the company experienced a deficit. Ironically, 1998 was the year where the new slogan “Just Imagine…” was introduced. I’m sure LEGO hadn’t imagined that a much larger deficit was on the horizon…
Adventurers
Deficit aside, The LEGO Group was very productive in 1998. One of two new themes was the Adventurers – not to be confused with the subsequent Indiana Jones theme that surfaced ten years later. In Adventurers, we follow Johnny Thunder on his voyages around the world. First destination: Egypt! Johnny was a greedy bloke who wanted to get his hands on the Re-Gou Ruby (which, of course, had magical powers).
He went looking for it in all sorts of places like 5988 The Temple of Anubis, which was mostly filled with cool traps and secret areas. In his search, he also came across a Sphinx (apparently, before it lost its nose). Looking at that set today, the tent included looks very out of place, but I remember loving it as a child.
The ruby actually appeared in three of the sets that year, making it seem like it wasn’t as rare and hard-to-get as made out to be. Another non-rarity was beige-coloured elements. Oh boy, did we get many tan bricks, for the first time!
Radio Control
The Radio Control theme was the other new theme that saw the light of day in 1998. This year it only resulted in one set – 5600 Radio Control Racer. It could be changed into five different designs, and, obviously, the set included a completely new RC chassis (which required 4 A4 batteries – just like the old Gameboy!) and the controller.
I was so, so excited when I received this car for Christmas, but I soon found out that building a remote-controlled car out of LEGO bricks probably wasn’t the best idea. It didn’t handle crashing into kitchen cabinets and table legs all that well.
Res-Q
This year, the Town theme spawned the short-lived Res-Q subtheme, which (not surprisingly) consisted of all kinds of rescuers – from helicopters and boats to (rather small) cars and the 6479 Emergency Response Center. For me, the highlights of this subtheme were 6473 Res-Q Cruiser and 6462 Aerial Recovery (it had a stretcher!). Do note that the latter was actually so awesome that it was featured twice in the UK catalogue.
In all of the box art and in the catalogue, the scenes depicted seem very action-packed and urgent. Which is somewhat strange as none of the sets included anyone in need of being rescued…
Insectoids
Along also came the Insectoids – the new Space subtheme, featuring insect-like vehicles and their Zotaxian owners. Quite an innovative range in my opinion, but the execution of it lacked a little finesse. While the flying insects (like 6969 Celestial Stinger and 6909 Sonic Stinger) were very faithful to their real life counterparts, the ground dwelling insects were at times hard to recognise. I remember owning 6919 Planetary Prowler, but it wasn’t until just now that I realised it’s actually supposed to resemble a grasshopper.
The largest set of the subtheme was 6977 Arachnoids Star Base, which is rather odd as arachnids aren’t technically insects. I suppose “Arthropoids” doesn’t really have the same ring to it…
Brick-wise, the range included many new pieces, including insect wings, transparent half-spheres, and, most importantly, an element that produced light and (a very annoying) sound. Sadly, the theme had a similar life span to certain insects, and it was thus already discontinued in 1999.
Ninja
Admittedly, I’m a Japanophile. Always have been, always will be. For that reason, the new Castle subtheme Ninja stroke a very pleasant chord with me.
Most memorable was 6093 Flying Ninja Fortress – of course also one of the priciest sets of the year. The set depicts a fortress, which acts as the stage for a battle between the samurai (and the grey ninjas) and the robbers (and the black ninjas). The name of the set does confuse me, though, as it implies that this is the ninjas’ residence, while it’s clearly owned by the shogun and his samurai (based on the architecture and that ninjas didn’t really have fortresses).
The building style is also seen in 6089 Stone Tower Bridge and 6083 Samurai Stronghold, the latter being my favourite. The composition of the stronghold and the parts selection were both excellent, especially considering the relatively low price tag.
My least favourite set of the subtheme was 6088 Robber’s Retreat. First of all, it’s littered with BURPs. Presumably to give it a more organic look and feel, but it just looks odd and bulky. And second of all, it was always unclear to me who was actually fighting who in this set.
It only just dawned on me now that they’re using the word “ninja” as an umbrella term for the robbers, the samurai and the actual ninjas. I guess LEGO didn’t really go for “historically accurate” when developing this range.
Interestingly, the Ninja subtheme wasn’t at all featured in the UK and European catalogues, but only in the North American version.
Aquanauts & Stingrays
The Aquazone theme released its two last subthemes this year – the Aquanauts and the Stingrays. In America, the Aquanauts were called Hydronauts, maybe to differentiate them from the 1995 subtheme Aquanauts, though these sets are clearly a continuation of that faction.
The Aquanauts were presented as the good guys, who mined the oceans for crystals. The biggest set – 6199 Hydro Crystallisation Station (outside America it was just called “Aqua Base”) – was their home and conveniently, it included a prison cell to hold enemies hostage. They also had a Hydro Search Sub (or “Aquanaut Magnox”) which contained yet another prison cell. Aquanauts – the self-proclaimed police of the sea.
The Stringrays were of course their opponents in the battle for crystals and the reason the Aquanauts needed prison cells in the first place. If you ask me, the Stringray vehicles were far superior to the Aquanauts’, the most notable set being the 6198 Stingray Stormer and 6160 Sea Scorpion (outside the USA called the “Stingray Lobster”. What do you think – is it a scorpion or a lobster?).
Their evil plan was to “steal” the crystals from the Aquanauts. If you ask me, this seems a lot like a “man versus nature” conflict, and I’m convinced the Stingrays were just the misunderstood heroes. I guess this was a way for LEGO to pledge their allegiance to Shell…
Belville & Scala
Neither of these themes were new this year, but since I’m a female, these sets really caught my attention back then. Having grown up with Belville and Scala, I find it quite funny when people complain about LEGO Friends being gender-stereotypical, when it’s nothing compared to Scala and Belville.
The Scala theme was basically just brick-built doll houses where you could live out your wildest domestic dreams. The jewel in the crown was unmistakably the 3119 Sunshine Home, which included a bedroom and a nursery. This created a foundation on which you could attach as many rooms, for instance a kitchen, as you wanted.
As a refreshing counterweight, the Belville theme was focused on maritime outings, headed by 5848 The Belville Luxury Cruiser. LEGO was so confident in their so-called “beach mad” range that they postulated this was all you needed to have lots of fun in 1998. Ah, I miss those simpler times…
A whole new (digital and licensed) world
The simpler times were already starting to get complicated, though, as LEGO entered the digital world for real this year. The Technic Mindstorms seed was planted in the form of the Robotics Invention System that allowed users to program their creations through a master brick.
In 1998, LEGO also released the much important LEGO Creator video game in which you could create and build anything you wanted using virtual LEGO elements.
Last but not least, 1998 was the year LEGO announced that its first licensed theme was in the making. As far as that is concerned, let me just leave you with the wise words of a certain green fellow: "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."
Based on my observations in the comments and in the forum, a lot of you were in the middle of your “dark age” in the late 90’s (maybe that explains the deficit…). Even so, do you have any fond (or not so fond) LEGO memories of 1998? I’d love to hear them!
You can view the catalogues from which these images were taken in our repository.
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66 comments on this article
Awesome themes and awesome memories these sets are...
I also think the res-q theme introduced the zipline-piece, which I still think is just so cool...
I'm a bit unknown with the editor's backgrounds but Huw you're female? (as stated in the part of Belville & scala)
@Jito Huw is male. The author of the article, Concreteface, is female. It's stated in the first sentence that the author is Concreteface ;)
I keep thinking Res-Q should be reintroduced as a Thunderbirds-esque theme full of huge vehicles and cool gadgets. Seems tailor made for the same demo as Ultra Agents.
@Jito: the text has only been posted by Huw, but is written by Concreteface as the first paragraph states...
@ kfr & Paperballpark
Oops you're right... I was so excited that I skipped right to the pictures and comments in between...
Yes, last time I checked, I'm male :)
Nice, I was born in 1998. :) I actually have only one set from that year... It's 8428 (or 8432, whatever) Concept Car. It's one of those sets that are considered "bad" aesthetically, but I think it's still designed pretty well functionally.
I was a teenager in '98, but I was still quite a fan of Lego, and 1998 was actually a pretty awesome year.
While City was gone and replaced by that awful juniorised line, I *loved* the RES-Q sub-theme. I'm still annoyed that I never did buy the hovercraft (how amazing was that?) but the two-seater rescue helicopter was one of the highlights of my childhood. That helicopter was AMAZING. I loved that.
I was hugely into the Adventurers, as well. And given how long the theme lasted, I can't have been the only one. It was very Indiana Jones, but it was so new and different and cool. I didn't get any of the bigger sets, but I picked up as many of the smaller sets as I could (only last year did I purchase that plane, there). Plus, I liked the attempt at villains. Lego had done many themes that included heroic characters, but there were so few villains that when they started putting out villains (like the mummy, like the Adventurers' antagonists), I was so excited.
I didn't buy many of the Insectiods sets. I liked the idea of them, but the one I really wanted was the Sonic Stinger and I never did get it.
As for Ninja ... yeah, I'm with the author, I thought it was overdue, and was an amazing theme. I got 6083 for my birthday, and it was a beautiful little Japanese temple. I adored it.
Finally, poor Aquanauts suffered their untimely demise that year. I really liked the Stingray faction (again, villains), and I liked the updated design of the Aquanauts as well. The original Aquazone factions were easily identifiable (the Aquasharks were in black shark-shaped subs, while the heroes were in white/blue and white/black outfits with bright yellow submarines), but these guys? Even the heroic-faction wore dark colours and had unusual colour schemes and chrome pieces, and I really liked that they were quite mysterious.
It was a good year.
I remember seeing Znap sets at a discount retailer a couple years later. I almost bought a few because they used the standard Technic motor for the period (and a guy can never have too many motors), but ultimately didn't because the sets were just so unappealing. Of course, they were the precursor to today's studless Technic.
Great article, but i found mistake. Ninja subtheme was featured in at least one european country, the Czech Republic. Here is the proof http://www.artpeter.net/Data/Lego/Katalogy/1998.php
Another trip down memory lane and it was a happy but significant time for me. Having collected "space" since 1979 this was it the last (not really very spacey) theme. Ive just checked and I didn't actually buy any sets in 1999 (I have some now but must have bought them 2nd hand) Luckily 2000 saw Star Wars which is indeed Spacey
@havlik.jakub666 - Thank you! Interesting how it's in the Czech catalogue, and not the other European versions I have seen (including the "Medium International" version). I should probably have written that neither the UK catalogue nor the International catalogue display the theme instead.
Smack bang in the middle of my dark ages. Scala and Belville interest me greatly though, if only because of the new colours and pieces that were introduced. Never ceases to amaze me every time I come across what I think is a new piece, only to then find out it was first released in a Scala or Belville set. Applies to a fair number of Friends minifig accessories.
I always liked Res-Q theme , and my sister was into Scala ...even when we only seen them in shop :)
1998 eh? I was 14 at the time and by this point pretty much all I cared about was Football, Playstation and girls! I have to say I'm glad this was well into my dark ages - very little appeals to me in that catalogue at all.
And I thought Belville was bad? SCALA is just hideous! Doesn't even look remotely like LEGO for the most part. No wonder the LEGO group struggled around this time... Wow, that's a BAD year!
EDIT: OK, so some of the Ninja stuff is pretty cool, as well as the UFO's and some of the Western and Egyptian stuff. But as for the rest? Awful, IMHO.
1998 was the year that for me LEGO was no longer "cool" and the first year of my dark ages. Previously I had all the Aquazone sets and felt that asking for the stingray set and the aquazone base for Christmas and birthday respectively was too much, especially as we now had awesome things other than Lego, such as the Playstation and state of the art videogames that cost a bomb!
I do regret however missing out on the subsequent star wars sets....
Thank you for the write-up, Concreteface - a most enjoyable read.
I was well into my AFOLdom by '98 and it doesn't seem that long ago. I still have some of the minifigures and creatures from back then in my display collection including Pharaoh Hotep and a scorpion from Adventurers, two ninja (one black, one grey) and a samurai from Ninja, and a stingray minifigure and manta ray from Aquazone. I was especially impressed by the ninja minifigures and still think they're very cool.
The Throwback Thursday retrospectives highlight how subjective memory is depending on the stage of one's life (kid, teen, adult) and ones relationship with LEGO (FOL vs DA) at that time.
This was probably one of my last years playing with lego as a kid. Maybe '99. Nice read once again.
Wow... you know, I always think of the late 90's as when LEGO was going down the toilet. But those Ninja and Adventurers sets are totally awesome, as are the Aquazone and Res-Q offerings.
Some of the other stuff though... sheesh LEGO, what were you thinking?
"Interestingly, the Ninja subtheme wasn’t at all featured in the UK and European catalogues, but only in the North American version"
I am pretty sure I have an Italian Lego catalogue with this theme
I loved the Adventurers theme released in this year, and collected every set available in the UK bar 5988. I enjoyed all the new elements introduced such as the big camera and the scorpions, and the back story behind the theme was interesting. Was this the first theme to have a full cast of named minifigures? (I swear blind I saw Johnny Thunder called Sam Grant in promotional materials!) One of the biggest draws for me though was the cars, most of which used that new element which allowed for two minifigures to be seated in the same vehicle together, something I had never seen before!
"I am pretty sure I have an Italian Lego catalogue with this theme"
I also remember it from the German one.
You forgot Extreme Team! http://brickset.com/sets/theme-Town/subtheme-Extreme-Team/year-1998
I'd love to see an Egypt themed Adventures series come back, and the Aquanauts theme is cool too!
Only three lines about one of the most important introductions in Lego history: Mindstorms?
Technically it was 8219 that ended my Dark Ages that year but really it was buying Robotics Invention System 1.0 with my x-mas bonus that did the job.
Probably as a result of the Mindstorms introduction Technic had a relatively quiet year without flagship sets like the previous year's Barcode Multi-set or the 8448 Supercar that was to arrive the next year. It did however have 8417 Mag Wheel Master, a motorbike that looked much better than any bike before it. It used new wheels that were only used in Technic sets this year and in 2002 when the Mag Wheel Master was re-released as 8430.
I was 10 in '98... definitely playing with LEGO, I just never had any of these sets :( Great article, I look forward to these TBT every week now lol
Awww, 1998. A good year to be born.
I remember the Adventurers theme very fondly. My parents got me both the Sphinx and the huge temple set for my birthday (it must have been my 12th birthday). The temple was the first "flagship" set I ever owned, so I was incredibly proud of it. Oh, the adventures I used to have. I was over Aquanauts in 1998 because I had gotten my fill of the whole thing the few years prior. It's really interesting to watch what basically amounts to the death of an original space theme over the mid to late 90's. Those insect sets meant absolutely nothing to 12 year old me, which is a shame because I was super into Exploriens. Did Lego drop the ball there, or were they putting all their space designers onto that impending licensing deal?
1998 was a pretty good year, although large, specialized elements were becoming very widespread at that time. I didn't entirely notice since that was already fairly commonplace when I first started getting into LEGO — my childhood favorite theme was probably Aquazone, which used a lot of fairly chunky parts.
Speaking of Aquazone, it's interesting that the good characters from 1998 were branded as Aquanauts. In the United States they were branded as Hydronauts, a totally separate faction. Understandably, since they had totally different costumes and color schemes than the Aquanauts of previous years! I never felt drawn to the Hydronauts sets at all, but I did get the Stingray Stormer (which was apparently just called the Stingray in Great Britain).
I really loved the original desert wave of Adventurers, although I didn't get much at all of the later waves. The traps and secret hiding places were really engaging, and while the sets had some chunky and specialized elements that drove up the prices, they also had an impressive amount of brick-built detail. Lots of cool printed elements in that theme too, probably more than were strictly necessary. It was nice getting cars that two characters could sit side-by-side in for the first time, and getting so many stylish Brick Yellow/Tan elements. A lot of people felt that the Adventurers sets felt very Indiana Jones, but for me the vibe I got was more Adventures of Tintin, since those were the adventure stories I grew up with. And truth be told, Baron von Barron and Sam Sanister (known in other regions as Sam Sinister and Slyboot) could have passed for Tintin villains!
Regarding the Flying Ninja Fortress, the grey ninja were employed by the Shogun, while the black ninja were employed by the bandits. I guess the use of Ninja in so many set names is because in charge or not, they're meant to be the "stars" of the theme. Sort of like other theme names like Knights' Kingdom. It would be more accurate to call that theme King's Kingdom, but that would be just plain silly. :P
I was 17 and fortunately never had a Dark Age as such. I had forgotten what a banner year 1998 was - I loved Adventurers, having wanted TLG to make Ancient Egyptian Lego for years, and X-Treme Team was also a huge favourite back then. I associate Res-Q more with 1999 and remember that helicopter very fondly indeed. Also, the kids nextdoor had the hovercraft, which was a brilliant set. You're right, though - how weird it is that there's nobody to rescue!!
I didn't take to the Ninja stuff but I did pick up the tower on the cheap a couple of years later, and it languished for quite some time (we may be talking a year or more - unheard of for me!!) before being found, built and appreciated a bit more. Now I wish I'd paid more attention to the Ninja stuff over those few years, because it was far better than the western-style Castle sets coming out at the time.
1998 was such a fantastic year and so quickly there after LEGO lost their way and almost lost the company itself.
I was four in 1998, my favorite themes were Adventures and Res-Q and I own many sets from those themes although I wish I had more even to this day they are some of my favorite sets. So in many ways I think it can be said 1998 sets got me into Lego.
The ninja theme wasn't featured in the UK catalog due to a worry over youth being influenced by how badass ninja were, and possibly being influenced by such awesomeness. They cut up TMNT for TV there, removed the word ninja, and took away Michelangelos nunchucks and gave him a grappling hook. Ninja are just too awesome
ZNAP?? Wow, never heard of that until now. Thankfully so, I suppose.
The good old days! Though I was only 3 and don't actually have any 1998 sets.... But my older brothers were collecting throughout the '90s, so that entire decade has a fairly high degree of familiarity for me. (I could name most every 1998 System set without any trouble.) I really enjoy seeing catalogs from the '90s, particularly LEGO.com, of which I only have Fall and Holiday '99. I was pleasantly surprised last week to discover two scanned 1996 LEGO.com catalogs on lego.wikia.com. Are there any LEGO.com catalog enthusiasts out there who would be willing to scan '90s catalogs and put them online?
All I have to add comes as a personal note: this year defined me as a totally "Lego Fan" which eventually made me the AFOL I am now. Didn't know about this "deficit" thing, and Mexico was no exception: for your parents or for yourself to get your hands over decent Lego sets was a huge problem! Nevertheless, I did manage to get my hands over some "jewels of the crown", my childhood's best memories/sets!
Great article, well written and v interesting - thanks.
Thank you for all the comments so far! It’s really interesting to hear about how you remember 1998 and what sets were important to you.
@Lewis88 – You’re not mistaken! Johnny Thunder also went by the names of Sam Grant and Joe Freeman.
@Duq – I must admit that I simply wasn’t into Mindstorms (or Technic at all), which is why it’s not really presented in the article. It might be an idea to do a feature exclusively about the history of Mindstorms?
I also left out Technic eLab, Technic CyberMaster and Technic CyberSlam, because I frankly don’t know enough about those themes.
The above is also the reason I left out Extreme Team.
@chrisbstm – I’m sure you’re onto something there ;)
1998 was the second year of my Dark Age (which lasted four more years). Regretfully, the only good thing I have to say of the sets released that year is that they at least seems to be better than the '97 sets.
1998 must also have been the second year LEGO ditched real dioramas in their catalogs in favor of dull computer graphics.
I don't remember any of these sets at all. Lego must have passed me by in the late 90s.
Having just viewed the full catalogue, I quite like the look of the Adventurer sets and the Western theme.
"Johnny was a greedy bloke who wanted to get his hands on the Re-Gou Ruby"
:|
Take it back. :P
98 was actually the one of the first years I was really into Lego, so I remember collecting a lot of Insectoids and Stingray sets (and wanting the Adventurer sets but not being able to afford them.) The Sea Scorpion was awesome.
@chrismajor2124 - Never! >:D
@VBaskin2010 - This is Znap (don't tell me I didn't warn you!): http://brickset.com/sets/theme-Znap
I was in the middle of my dark ages in 1998 but looking back I don't want a set from this year. I have the ugly Technic 8462 tow truck (which could have been much better with fake engine and proper styling) but that's it. I also think that decrease in LEGO's profit did not come by accident.
Nice summation. Thank you. The town vehicles at this time just looked blocky and immensely juniorized. Awful wedge shaped monstrocities with small wheels.
Loved the Ninja and Samurai theme though, and when my Dark Age was over and I found out about these guys - they were one of the first ebay buys. Whose side were the red , white and green ninjas on then? (technically speaking). Anyway it put Fright Knights away forever and that can't be a bad thing....:o)
1998 was the final hurrah of Aquazone, I picked up 5 of them, 2 Insectoids, 1 Adventurer, and possibly one or two other things. I was 12 at the time and really just trying to find elements that could get me back to the glory days of M-Tron and BlackTron of which I just had Beacon Tracer, but I was a broke Lego fan from a broke family, so I grabbed anything I could get for a good price. If I were to go back for any of these sets it'd probably be Aquazone, I just need the Hydronaut's big sets, and Sea Scorpion. The arrival of Star Wars the following year prevented my departure from Lego during the bad times... consequently I have yet to go through a Lego dark age.
Interesting article, thanks! I had entered my dark ages a couple of years before this with the 1995 Aqua Dome base being my last set, so pretty much everything above had passed me by. Don't really feel I missed out on too much, but the Adventurers and Ninja look like they would have been fun...
@waylander - Looking at box art and polybag scans, it seems like all the non-black ninjas were on the side of the shogun/samurai. Apparently, Bonsai (the black ninja) was the black sheep of the ninja family.
And I totally agree with you about the Fright Knights!
1998 was the start of my lego dark age. Why was town replaced with town junior?
Rad article! Nice to see this year get some attention, because as hinted at near the end of the article, it was truly the last gasp of old Lego, and the precipice of things both great and terrible to come for the company. Luckily, we all know it turned out even better than all right in the present!
In an alternate universe, 1998 would have definitely been the last year before I sunk into a Dark Age. I was turning 10, and it was the second year in a row that I saw my beloved Town backslide into this weird, juniorized mutation! One thing I realize now that I couldn't see then was how in spite of being in awe of new themes like Adventurers, Insectoids, X-Treme Team, and Res-Q, I didn't have that all-encompassing desire to have just about every set in the theme ("gotta catch 'em all", the mantra of all late-90s kids). I loved the Sphinx's Secret Surprise, and I got it. I loved the Hydro Search Sub and got that, too. But otherwise, I felt no strong desire or compelling motive to want anything else out of the theme. In retrospect, I even look back and wonder why I got even just one set (I'm looking at you, X-Treme Team Mountain Retreat!) and I realize that 1998 was indeed the beginning of a Lego "Dark Age", following the "Golden Age" of roughly 1988 to 1997. Thankfully, it was brief.
Of the sets mentioned in the article, I have most of them! The RC Car was my Christmas gift in 1998, along with the medium-sized Cyber Slam set, Cyber Scorpion Attack (or something like that). I really only wanted the big, $50 Cyber Strikers, a great set that inspired the BIONICLE Tarakava three years later, but thanks to eBay, I got it for $25 back in 2009. The Ninja theme seemed something like a rehash of the Royal Knights theme from 1995, but with Japanese influences, but I still craved them mainly because of my parents' edict that ninjas were "too violent" for me to have. To this day, the only Ninja set I have is one from a later year with two red ninjas.
I wish I could write a Throwback Thursday article! 1992 was a banner year for my collection, but 1994 was truly the start of my single-minded Lego obsession. I just love going through those old catalogs!
^ I'll be very happy to publish it if you do.
@VBaskin2010, For some reason LEGO felt the need to compete with K*NEX which was gaining popularity at the time, so launched ZNAP, a similar quick-to-connect construction system that was broadly Technic compatible. It was clearly a failure, though, given it was cancelled after 2 years.
Stingray Stormer - is still one of favourite sets. The designer(s) captured the Stingray shape as perfectly as possible with the parts available at the time.
I was only 5 years old in 1998 so these sets were, to borrow from the Lego Movie, awesome(!) at the time and I have a large collection of sets specifically from 1997, 1998 and 1999. I was pretty much exactly the target audience at this time and it's likely why I got so involved in Lego Star Wars (which is probably in turn the main reason I've never had a dark age so far).
I feel like at the time the stories and characters creating the themes were so much better / wholesome / simplistic than most of what we get today. Even something which does have a fairly good narrative behind it, Ninjago, cannot compete with 'Ninja' in my eyes. I would take a Japanese mountain castle over some crazy skeleton chopper any day.
Over the years I've had to sell a few sets, but I've made sure to keep the Ninja, Town Harbour and definitely the Western. These themes are far too good to let go and hold all the best memories of actually 'playing' with Lego! Although I don't usually comment on these articles they're really well written and I just had to share my thoughts
I was 15 and still very much into lego but I kept it on the down low because my friends would never have understood. I loved the Adventures sets and still have all of mine. I remember this period as being very sparse in good sets and themes, Castle and Pirates were always my favorites. Adventures basically kept me interested in Lego until the Harry Potter theme was released.
^ I actually remember running into a high school friend in the toy section of a department store, one day, and having to quickly pretend that I was buying for somebody else. It was one of the Adventurers sets, too.
Anyway, I'm not speaking for everybody, but I absolutely LOVE these Throwback Thursday articles, at the moment. These are my favourite things on Brickset, right now. I so enjoy having the chance to talk about all these old themes and subthemes and so forth. This is all the Lego I grew up, and it's really cool seeing everybody's thoughts on them.
Nice I always love to look back on lego's history.
As someone who was in the middle of their Dark Ages, but who had a little brother who was really into Lego, I remember thinking how much more awesome the sets were "back in my day"
I think it was the garish colors (lots of yellow and neons!) and the fact that Lego was creating a lot of specialized pieces that made me concerned at that time that Lego was beginning to lose their way. The themes were also just too forced, I mean, insectoids and sting rays, really? It seems like Lego was much more into trying to figure out how to make a conflict between factions than creating interesting sets.
Those ResQ sets are either boring or hideous. ugh!
The adventurer's theme was just an attempt to create an Indiana Jones clone, but hey, at least they are trying to be creative.
Ninja could have been really cool, but as mentioned above, there was zero attempt at historical accuracy, remember in 1999 they create a set called "Shanghai Surprise". For Ninja. In Japan. I guess that it would indeed be a surprise for anyone in Shanghai to see a Ninja.
I was born in 1995 so 98 and 99 were among my first lego sets. These are the sets I look back on with fond memories. I view Adventures the same way you grownups view classic space or castle. As far as I'm concerned all these sets were perfect but I suppose I'm blinded by nostalgia.
I am not surprised lego ran deficits during this year. The company made some poor business decisions and they paid the price for it during this Era. They got rid of Pirates, which was at the time their most popular seller. They juniorised the city and castle sets - and belville + Scala were also very juniorised. They tried to convince us consumers that Scala and Znap were also lego. It is no wonder they lost money during these years. This year was what inspired me to enter my dark ages, and looking at this article it just reminded me of why I chose to enter my dark ages.
I wasn't buying LEGO in 1998 but my boss at work gave me quite a few of these sets last year. My son and I have just built the Temple of Anubis and some of the other adventure sets - reminds me of the top floor of the Legoland Windsor hotel :-)
I can confirm Poland also had Ninja theme in catalogues- I was a big fan of the series! I even won a HUGE poster in some contest! :)
Insectoids is still one of my favorite space themes. the story, designs and electronics inside were all amazing combination! Shame I never get bigger sets... I stil want the spider queen! :D
They had some pretty cool stuff back then.
The Star Wars sets came the next year ;) (they are still missing quite a few sets).
I was a bit beyond my KFOL days in 1998, but even when I was a KFOL, I never knew anything about Lego's line of products. I simply got Lego sets as gifts sometimes, and I liked them, and wanted more. That was it. So it's amazing to see what Lego was actually doing as a whole in any of these past years. I think I would have loved to have that Adventurers set as a kid. Heck, I probably would have liked any of these except Belville. That ad makes the theme look creepy.
A lot of my very first sets are in this catalogue! I had the smallest ones from Insectoids, Aquanauts, Adventurers and Res-Q. 6451 Res-Q boat was my largest set.
98 was the start of some of my worst lego years. it was around this time family realized I liked lego and BIG sets at that. so naturally they got me MegaBlok....... at the time those sets were around half the price for similar size sets. so I ended up with a lot. star wars by 2002 got be back over to Lego. but for about 4 years (I was still in mid school most of that time) there was no new lego coming in :/