Random set of the day: Temple of Mount Everest
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7417 Temple of Mount Everest, released in 2003. It's one of 20 Adventurers sets produced that year. It contains 292 pieces and 4 minifigs, and its retail price was US$30/£24.99.
It's owned by 2365 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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47 comments on this article
Best part about Adventurers was the opportunities it opened up for LEGO to do subthemes based on different non-European cultures. Would probably be "problematic" in 2021. Oh well. Good set, pretty amusing twist on the tower + drawbridge gimmick archetype.
I really hate that I missed the adventurers theme, I guess you could say that it was a “Miss-Adventure”:) But seriously, these sets were so good, and totally deserve a reboot!
@LegoRobo said:
"“Ok, who drew the mustaches on the skulls?”"
I just laughed so hard right now after reading that then looking at the skulls!!!
Proudly on display in my LEGO room! In hindsight, this was really 2/3 mountain and 1/3 temple — the temple itself is really tiny, just 10 studs square, compared to the imposing Scorpion Palace. But who cares? It's still awesome in its own right. And it includes a biplane! But my favorite feature, oddly, was the barred door. I thought it was so cool how you could block the door just by slotting a (printed) tile into the gap behind the 1x2 modified plates.
Johnny Thunder > Indiana Jones
All this for just $30?!! I'm sure in 2020, this would be a $50 or more set, even with the same piece count.
One of my all time favorite sets. That gold chrome sword in particular saw so much use.
Alpine Johnny is definitely the best Johnny Thunder variant!
Great use of Fabuland axes too!
Those poor peoples skulls...
They’re already dead. To set them on fire seems overkill...
Don’t tell me some nonsense about them being torches
But the hidden chrome sword...
@Your_Future_President said:
"Those poor peoples skulls...
They’re already dead. To set them on fire seems overkill...
Don’t tell me some nonsense about them being torches
But the hidden chrome sword..."
Skull torches.
@Harmonious_Building said:
"Best part about Adventurers was the opportunities it opened up for LEGO to do subthemes based on different non-European cultures. Would probably be "problematic" in 2021. Oh well. Good set, pretty amusing twist on the tower + drawbridge gimmick archetype. "
Yeah Adventurer's brand of "exoticism" would probably not fly in 2021. Its no surprise this is about the same time Lego had their issues with the Maori over Bionicle which was much worse in its blatant theft of names from various native languages from the Pacific region. In fact, in general most of the adventure film genre suffers from that issue and is usually handwaved in the case of Indiana Jones as just being a side effect of the pulp serials it was imitating (Temple of Doom is probably the worst in that regard "chilled monkey brains" and all that). But I still love Indiana Jones and Adventurers both despite of it.
Adventurers sure was a great theme and Orient Expedition was a great final sub-series to cap off the line. Moving across India over Nepal and into China offers a neat story progression and a variety of building styles that the prior Adventurers waves never could capture. I am sure there is a way for Lego to address the cultural sensitivity issues if they wanted and give us an Adventurers continuation or spiritual successor that is similarly captivated in world travel.
Orient Expedition was a fantastic sub theme and way to end the Adventurers’ series. That said, I’m still hoping for a revival.
Donner, party of two? Donner, party of two!
(How oddly appropriate that autocorrect was trying to change that to “Dinner”)
@cody6268:
It’d probably also click in at 500pcs.
@ClassicDragon:
Skorches!
@xboxtravis7992:
Oh, they couldn’t even film Temple where it was set. They had to go to the country next door, who didn’t mind as much that it painted their neighbor in an unfavorable light.
"We finally finished climbing the mountain and reached the fabled temple, after months of heavy travelling with shortage of supplies, disease, near loss of limb, and death."
"You know we had an used an airplane from our extensive catalog of them, right?"
I love this set. Got it for my birthday in 2003 ( I assume?) Finally, my Adventures minifigs had a decent location to visit! I have built and rebuilt this a couple of times, but now it's proudly displayed/will be displayed in my Lego room.
Those 3x3 corner slopes were so useful for Blacktron, main reason why this set didn't stay built all the time for me.
A trove of the lovely medium orange is the icing on the cake for me.
Unique:
6082 4x10x6 rock (BURP) in white x1
3068 2x2 tile with Orient Expedition mountain map print in white x1
43892 animal trunk with bar and recess in medium orange x4
Rare:
2340 1x4x3 tail in dark grey x3
3464 small wheel with stub axles in light grey x1
3003 2x2 brick in medium orange x1
3581 1x1x2 with shutter tabs in dark grey x2
6636 1x6 tile with wood grain print in tan x1
30055 1x4x2 barred fence in tan x1
30284 Minifigure snowshoe in brown x4
32039 axle connector perpendicular in tan x2
41767 2x4 wedge brick right in light grey x1
41768 2x4 wedge brick left in light grey x1
And for those of you who were curious about the sword it has been in 9 sets
One of my fav if not THE fav Adventurer's set.
I loved it and still have it out.
I want to still mod it up on a higher, much higher snowy mountain.
Passed on this set during my Dark Ages when it was on CLEARANCE for $17 at Target. I’m still mad about it.
I love this set, and theme!
@Galaxy12_Import - I didn’t realize until years later how rare the white BURP pieces were, but I’m consequently even more glad I got the Everest Adventurers sets!
Brilliant playset, although I might say the cultural depiction here is... slightly questionable if released today.
Still, this looks absolutely amazing!
Here's ya lore:
The fourth year of LEGO Adventures saw our intrepid explorers traveling across the orient in search of Marco Polo's (fragmented) legendary treasure. After freeing the enslaved people of India they traveled to the Himalayas where this set takes place.
Once there they encountered the sinister Ngan Pa, a hunter who's taken to the slopes to slay the legendary Yeti. However, they also met Sherpa Sangye Dorje, a mountain guide, who agreed to help the explorers find Marco Polo's golden sword among the peaks if they kept the hunter from slaying the legendary and endangered beast.
I've build this set a few weeks ago.
Great set, nice minifigures and great play value.
I'm still waiting for the Adventurers revival.
The amount of play features packed into this set was phenomenal, especially for its time- this is one of my all time favourite sets!
And the board game was awesome too!
@sanderkoenen said:
"I've build this set a few weeks ago.
Great set, nice minifigures and great play value.
I'm still waiting for the Adventurers revival.
"
Technically, we did get an Adventurers revival in 2011 with the Pharaoh's Quest line (which was basically a re-imagining of the original Egypt wave of Adventurers, but with different characters), but nothing since then. I'd love to get any sort of original LEGO Adventure theme personally, regardless if it has Johnny Thunder or not.
Must be one of the nicest sets on my 'i want list', but honestly, i don't think i will ever get it properly. Must be so expensive right now.
It's not really about the figures, who look outdated by now, but the building and the location. Aah, Himalaya, temples, oriental atmosphere, ... Love it.
Still need to build my Ninjago's ice emperor's castle though...
Superb set
Retroactively collected the entire Orient Expedition series, making it the most expensive board game in my collection. (It's not a good board game by any standard.)
The intro to the instructions include a 4 page comic highlighting all the booby traps from twisting rope bridge, falling axes, ejector mechanism floor, to secret sliding cliff wall. The 32 x 16 baseplate was very useful and made the 3 alternative builds hinted at in the instructions quite different. The last 30 pages explained the board game which looks fairly tricky. Seemed to need a lucky roll of the dice, have a useful trump card and collect useful items to beat the foes on your way to the golden sword.
It is certainly one of Lego’s most underrated sets. I’m stoked to have this beauty, and if you’re considering it, grab a copy whilst you can, it is a joy.
Definitely a great set, I got it from my parents for christmas in 2003. Really like the minifigures and the traps. I had already been a big fan of the Adventurers theme, but a little too young for the first three waves, so when Orient Expedition came along, i was fully hyped.
Last year I rebuilt the set for the first time in a few years, took it apart shortly afterwards and built a bigger version of the Temple on a base of 32x48 studs. Of course my version also has traps and hidden treasures! Otherwise it wouldn't be a true Adventurers set/moc ;-)
My Top 15 Adventurers / Orient Expedition Sets list:
https://brickset.com/sets/list-37565
@Vladtheb said:
"One of my all time favorite sets. That gold chrome sword in particular saw so much use.
Alpine Johnny is definitely the best Johnny Thunder variant!"
Can it still be called ‘Alpine’ if he’s in the Himalayas?
I absolutely adore this set, I spent countless hours playing with it.
I have all the OE sets, except for one or two little tiny sets and still plan to complete my collection.
I loved the door too - so simple, but so cool.
really nice set!
This set was weird in-story as, after having an instalment of the online comic focusing on every major Orient Expedition set up to this point, the plot suddenly LEAPT AHEAD to the China arc after the 7412 Yeti's Hideout episode, abandoning a cliffhanger it had previously set up and only giving a literal two-panel summary of this set.
I suspect it's because we had hit summer by then, so the writers wanted to get to focusing on the summer sets - the China wave - rather than continuing to elaborate on models that had been around for half a year by that point. Still, it made for a rather jarring leap in the story. How Johnny and co. got out of the net trap has, as far as I know, never actually been resolved...
As to the set itself? Wanted to get this, ended up not doing that thing. I started off 2003 with the aim to get all three big Orient Expedition sets that year; but by the time I got 7418 Scorpion Palace, I had already got bored of saving up for expensive sets, and - while I still enjoyed it - I found the palace a little underwhelming in some ways, I remember it being quite a fragile build.
Plus, BIONICLE movie hype mostly took over my Lego-buying by the time summer rolled around: I was much more invested in buying Takua and Jaller and their friends, than continuing on the Orient Expedition train xD
In hindsight, I'm okay with the fact that I didn't get it. It's still a neat set, but I guess it just doesn't look quite as impressive now as I thought it did at the time? But it's still cool, though, it's still cool ^^
@Brickalili said:
" @Vladtheb said:
"One of my all time favorite sets. That gold chrome sword in particular saw so much use.
Alpine Johnny is definitely the best Johnny Thunder variant!"
Can it still be called ‘Alpine’ if he’s in the Himalayas?"
Yes, the Himalayas are part of the Alpine Orogeny.
I really wanted the Adventures/Orient Expedition sets when I was younger. Unfortunately, as other have mentioned they are not exactly culturally sensitive. They are certainly well designed sets with great play features, it's a shame that the whole Adventures/Indiana Jones trope is essentially about looting other cultures. Oh, and on top of that they are incredibly expensive now, so that saves me some $.
@Dash_Justice said:
"it's a shame that the whole Adventures/Indiana Jones trope is essentially about looting other cultures."
To be fair, at least some pieces of story material at the time emphasised that Johnny Thunder and his team were more about finding the various ancient treasures to study them, with intention to put them back afterwards; it was the villain characters who wanted to steal them outright. This was especially emphasised with the Sun Disc in the Jungle subtheme, at least in UK story media; the Lego Adventures Magazine had the characters specifically state their intention to study the Sun Disc, then leave it where it was; while the DK puzzle storybook "The Lost Temple" also saw Johnny and crew willingly leaving without it.
The Orient Expedition ones were a bit different in their own right, since the lore was that real-life European explorer Marco Polo had been *given* the Golden Dragon, the treasure the Adventurers were seeking, for services to the Khan, but had been forced to leave it behind in China due to its enormous size and had left the map for subsequent explorers to bring it the rest of the way. Whether taking something that had already been given away counts as looting the culture or not... is, I'm sure, a complicated question!
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"A trove of the lovely medium orange is the icing on the cake for me.
Unique:
6082 4x10x6 rock (BURP) in white x1
3068 2x2 tile with Orient Expedition mountain map print in white x1
43892 animal trunk with bar and recess in medium orange x4
Rare:
2340 1x4x3 tail in dark grey x3
3464 small wheel with stub axles in light grey x1
3003 2x2 brick in medium orange x1
3581 1x1x2 with shutter tabs in dark grey x2
6636 1x6 tile with wood grain print in tan x1
30055 1x4x2 barred fence in tan x1
30284 Minifigure snowshoe in brown x4
32039 axle connector perpendicular in tan x2
41767 2x4 wedge brick right in light grey x1
41768 2x4 wedge brick left in light grey x1
And for those of you who were curious about the sword it has been in 9 sets"
Don't forget the sherpa hats!
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"This set was weird in-story as, after having an instalment of the online comic focusing on every major Orient Expedition set up to this point, the plot suddenly LEAPT AHEAD to the China arc after the 7412 Yeti's Hideout episode, abandoning a cliffhanger it had previously set up and only giving a literal two-panel summary of this set.
I suspect it's because we had hit summer by then, so the writers wanted to get to focusing on the summer sets - the China wave - rather than continuing to elaborate on models that had been around for half a year by that point. Still, it made for a rather jarring leap in the story. How Johnny and co. got out of the net trap has, as far as I know, never actually been resolved...
As to the set itself? Wanted to get this, ended up not doing that thing. I started off 2003 with the aim to get all three big Orient Expedition sets that year; but by the time I got 7418 Scorpion Palace, I had already got bored of saving up for expensive sets, and - while I still enjoyed it - I found the palace a little underwhelming in some ways, I remember it being quite a fragile build.
Plus, BIONICLE movie hype mostly took over my Lego-buying by the time summer rolled around: I was much more invested in buying Takua and Jaller and their friends, than continuing on the Orient Expedition train xD
In hindsight, I'm okay with the fact that I didn't get it. It's still a neat set, but I guess it just doesn't look quite as impressive now as I thought it did at the time? But it's still cool, though, it's still cool ^^"
It is actually explained in the printed version of the comic, which was published in the LEGO Magazine. Pipin finds the rock under the palace with the 'M' carved into it. Johnny fits the gem from the temple into the mountainside, the rock opens and reveals the sword.
I also never understood why they cut it from the web-series, your theory makes sense!
The more I find out about the Adventurers theme the more annoyed I am that I was deep in my dark ages at the time and completely missed that theme as well as several others, including the early years of the Modular line or sets like 10300 and other early UCS or Creator Expert ones. I mustn't even start thinking about the trains like Horizon Express, the Maersk train or the Emerald Night...
Great set regardless of the BURPs it used. Great figs and a great build with fun features.
A brilliant little set!! Particularly these Orient Expedition sets featured a great design execution, from bricks and burps to magnificent minifig characterisation and compelling storytelling. Also, it was an organic exploration of other cultures architecture codes and traditions, respectful and to some extend, educational. There was no need for "cool shiny fluorescent futuristic" discourses to have a cohesive well-designed theme and successful toy.
Here, hoping for an Adventurer's new era.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
" @Dash_Justice said:
"it's a shame that the whole Adventures/Indiana Jones trope is essentially about looting other cultures."
To be fair, at least some pieces of story material at the time emphasised that Johnny Thunder and his team were more about finding the various ancient treasures to study them, with intention to put them back afterwards; it was the villain characters who wanted to steal them outright. This was especially emphasised with the Sun Disc in the Jungle subtheme, at least in UK story media; the Lego Adventures Magazine had the characters specifically state their intention to study the Sun Disc, then leave it where it was; while the DK puzzle storybook "The Lost Temple" also saw Johnny and crew willingly leaving without it.
The Orient Expedition ones were a bit different in their own right, since the lore was that real-life European explorer Marco Polo had been *given* the Golden Dragon, the treasure the Adventurers were seeking, for services to the Khan, but had been forced to leave it behind in China due to its enormous size and had left the map for subsequent explorers to bring it the rest of the way. Whether taking something that had already been given away counts as looting the culture or not... is, I'm sure, a complicated question!"
Valid points, I'll be honest I did not really follow the storyline at the time. For the record, I don't look down on people who do want/like these sets, that would be ridiculous--it's a toy after all. I have just personally decided not pursue them.
It's also interesting that Adventures and Studios seemed to overlap a bit (some characters even crossed over). The Dessert, Jungle and Dino Island sets included cameras and equipment. These were omitted when then the Orient Expedition subtheme was released and were never mentioned again. This seems to imply Adventures was actually just a fictional portrayal of and Indiana Jones-Type movie. Maybe this is the reason why seemingly identical Adventures characters got "new" names in 2003: Barron Von Barron > Lord Sam Sinister, Dr. Charles Lightning > Dr. Kilroy, Gail Storm > Pippin Reed, etc. What if the former were the actors real names? Then they just decided to use the fictitious character names for Orient Expedition?
All you people wanting an Adventurers revival: I guess Johnny Thunder being in 70815 Super Secret Police Dropship doesn't count, eh? Understandable.
I loved the biplane in this one. I mean, I'm an aviation history buff, of course I'm gonna like it, but what I really liked what the use of fin pieces as struts between the wings.
@TheOtherMike said:
"All you people wanting an Adventurers revival: I guess Johnny Thunder being in 70815 Super Secret Police Dropship doesn't count, eh? Understandable."
Oh no, you've caught our greatest weakness! I definitely made sure to get a copy of that version of Johnny Thunder and am open to the idea that the dropship was actually a stolen piece of the Adventurer's equipment from the unrelased Space Odyssey subtheme
@Dash_Justice said:
"It's also interesting that Adventures and Studios seemed to overlap a bit (some characters even crossed over). The Desert, Jungle and Dino Island sets included cameras and equipment. These were omitted when then the Orient Expedition subtheme was released and were never mentioned again. This seems to imply Adventures was actually just a fictional portrayal of and Indiana Jones-Type movie. Maybe this is the reason why seemingly identical Adventures characters got "new" names in 2003: Barron Von Barron > Lord Sam Sinister, Dr. Charles Lightning > Dr. Kilroy, Gail Storm > Pippin Reed, etc. What if the former were the actors real names? Then they just decided to use the fictitious character names for Orient Expedition? "
Oh, I didn't take it as a slight or anything; I just wanted to add to that particular point because I found it interesting ^^
I figured as a kid that the cameras were to make videos of what they discovered, which is especially relevant if the hero adventurers are only studying the artefacts and leaving them where they're found; they'd definitely want good video footage of their various discoveries. There is a lot of sense behind your suggestion too, though!
Regarding the names, it was a regional thing; in the story material I saw in the UK, Johnny Thunder / Dr. Kilroy / Pippin Reed were their names even back in the older subthemes, while I believe the other names were their American equivalents... several other themes back in the day gave their characters different names on either side of the Atlantic too, such as Insectoids and Slizers/Throwbots. The trend didn't continue into the 2000s, though, with the rise of online media as the main story source; and I think this was the reason that they standardised the Adventurers' names across the board for OE ^^