We’re so glad to have you here! Lore Escape is for those who love deep dives into worldbuilding and storytelling. We'll be looking deep into LEGO themes and characters from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s (though directed at those who grew up with these, not for kids), as well as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and the Marvel and DC cinematic multiverses. If you routinely have a million wiki tabs open after a hard day, this channel is for you.
Lego Minifigures Series 26 has a few new additions to the Lego Space Lore! 1) The Blacktron Mutant; 2) M-Tron Powerlifter, and 3) Ice Planet Explorer!!
If you heard of RR slugger, he has some really good music that he made for the background of his videos they might work really well for yours. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have them copyrighted.
I love RR Slugger! Not only have we heard of RR Slugger, incredibly, RR Slugger has heard of us! We made a video about a LEGO Club Time Cruisers board game (Currently titled "The Best LEGO Game You've Never Heard Of") partially as a companion piece to Slugger's video on the original retail board game, and Slugger was nice enough to give us a shoutout in his "3 Years on RU-vid" video in response. :) I'm also a fan of Slugger's music; I know that he's made it available for others to use but we cover such similar and sometimes overlapping topics that I want to avoid the perception that I'm copying that channel directly.
Thank you so much for the lovely comment! Feel free to share with anyone else you think would like it; as a smaller channel with an irregular upload schedule it does take awhile to grow. :)
@@loreescape47 you should do a video on the Lego club and related mania magazines. I always wanted to do a video on that subject, but I don’t know that much about the mania magazines that much but even went onto LEGO channel and gathered every mention of LEGO club. There’s some pretty interesting stuff that I found with the episodes as I watched them all.
I hope we get to see the rest of the character trading cards someday. I'd definitely be curious to see what trivia and quotes are attributed to Johnny Thunder, Senor Palomar, Sparks, and Hallie Comet. They're not every LEGO fan's cup of tea, but I love how cheesy they are. It's also curious that while Rocky could speak in LEGO Mania Magazine, his trading card quote has him speaking English a lot more fluently than his primitive "HULK SMASH!"-style speech. Pretty sure that "fudgeterranean" is supposed to be a portmanteau of fudge and subterranean. Just substitute (fudgestitute?) "sub" with "fudge" and it becomes a lot easier to pronounce.
I was hoping someone else would want to see those! That makes two of us at least, lol. As an Adventurers fan yourself you can probably appreciate how much I was hoping for a Johnny Thunder card. Buzz Bailey is alright I guess, but he's no Johnny Thunder. There WAS some kind of auction relatively recently of sealed game pieces, as pictured in the video, so hopefully they'll turn up someday. I'd like to think that Rocky is actually a quite intelligent being, and probably picked up more of the language as more expeditions were sent to Planet U. ;) And yep, my struggles with fudgeterranean were SUPPOSED to be a gag, I thought it was funny with just how convoluted it was and the ridiculous number of letters it has. I love a good portmanteau (and fudgestititue is a good one!.) I did unintentionally flub the pronunciation of both fudgeterranean and re-tree-val (retrieval) anyway. Ah well.
@@loreescape47 It's speculated in-universe by Docs that the Rock Monsters may have had an advanced civilization that crashed, and Jet wonders if they'll rebuild someday in the future after the Rock Raiders leave Planet U (source: High Adventure Deep Underground). So Rocky gradually (re)learning English fits quite nicely with that narrative! I wondered if you were just doing a bit with "fudgeterranean" but I wasn't sure, so I wanted to be helpful just in case you were genuinely stumped by the word. I know I've had instances where I missed an obvious play on words!
4:53 Well you'd have to see who's willing and able to go with you. Not everyone is able to go off to a theme park in California. Maybe your older brother has college and your dad has a very important job. So it's just you, your mom, sister, and cousin off to California.
That's a very wise and realistic approach. For me, my childhood brain could not wrap itself around the idea that anyone in their right mind WOULDN'T drop everything to take off on a free trip to LEGOLAND. ;)
I remember that one. I experienced it in real time. Had no idea what the hell it was as I had _zero_ pop culture awareness at the time. Just knew they did the commercial song for the Toa sets that year. Apparently they were popular at the time? Still an unknown to me.
I remember them being very much a part of the sonic background of my teen years; not sure how big they were at the time they did the Bionicle commercial but at least in retrospect it's a pretty big name band for Bionicle to have had.
Random spots in random places across the planet@@loreescape47. The various owners just so happen to use an aesthetic that matches, or some are older than LEGO using the colors on the ItalianFlag. They're only coincidentally funny to LegoFans.
Ngl I love the audience in the beginning Johnny thunder makes sense as it takes place on 1922 and Timmy makes sense as ya know, the whole time traveler thing
I had fun putting in period-appropriate minifigures and other cameos there. 😁 As per the usual Time Cruiser disguise logic, Timmy and Dr. Cyber blend right in because they're wearing different hats. 😆
Thank you so much! Ice Planet is definitely on my list; I have fond memories of playing with my Ice Sat V; I don't think I'd ever seen that many wheels in one set before. I also have a sealed 1711 Ice Scooter that I've been saving for when I need to cheer myself up on a rainy day. It will take awhile but I want to get to all the Space subthemes. I hope you'll check out the UFO video as well!
When you said stay up late to watch Star Trek TNG. did the same. Every Thursday night 11 pm after the news on channel 9 and 30 years later I still do the same but unfortunately it tastes a little different these days. 👌👍. Picard warmed the heart ❤️. Discovery is ahhhhhh frustrating. Lower decks rocks. Strange new world awesome.
This video was so useful for me! I've been trying to make a blacktron moc and was having trouble deciding who should be the leader. I didn't know about the Centerions, and ended up making my own 6 man team. Unsure if I will make them
@loreescape47 The best part was learning that they had a leader, but also confirming my suspension that Space Villian and Rench arnt members of the organization but just posers
You’ve got to fight one of these four alien races: which one do you choose? Zotaxians (UFO/Insectoids) Crystaliens (Mars Mission) Invaders (Alien Conquest) Bugoids (Galaxy Squad)
Was not expecting Basil the Bat Lord to come off so... Team Rocket level villain? They tend to play him up as a vampire warlord in wikis... and my imagination.
One thing I’ve always loved to theorize (and, still sticking to it) is that Willa the Witch attempted to obtain the Re-Gou Ruby in pursuit for eternal life which is why we see her scrolls, chalices, along with the stacked red and green translucent jars left behind on the alters of Sobek in set 5988 Temple of Anubis / Pharaoh’s Forbidden Ruins. Whatever happened is the mystery. Perhaps it wasn’t her destiny to acquire it. All we know is that in set 10273 Haunted House: Manor Von Barron, we see what might be the possible Re-Gou Ruby, or a prop with the hint how Baron acquired it which was by choosing one of the red translucent jars 👌 My theory goes much deeper but, that’s just a story for another time 😅
This was fantastic. Truly incredible work. The way you were able to one, find all these facts, references and other sources, and two, organize them into a concise story, is amazing. Thank you so much for blessing us once more!
Thank you! Excited to see you here. 😁 And hopefully they'll at least re-use the name at some point, "Starthropods" is too good to pass up. Greg Mote deserves some Zotaxian crystals for that one.
I've heard people mention how the helmet-designs remind them of Predator. When the Predator took off his mask in the movie it was a memorable moment. It's funny how Zotaxian lore suggests a similar shock-factor when Alpha Draconis sees his own face. The lego faces were a nice surprise, they look VERY....alien The brain-like structures on the helmet intrigued me a lot. The Zotaxians seem well adept at combining tecnology with biology. It also makes me wonder if the orange faces on their ships are not just logo's but actual heads.The fact there is a tube attaching to the head from outside makes this more convincing. Perhaps this is a specialized Zotaxian mutant who serves as a biological supercomputer. Possibly inspired by the Navigators from Dune.
Oooh, I hadn't thought about the Predator connection, I like it! I've gotten a hint of Alien vibes from them, especially in how they might look if they weren't somewhat squat minifigures. I've also thought they looked like the Vorlon from Babylon 5, though I'm pretty sure I started watching that show first. Love the idea that there could be larger mutants connected directly to the ship; as a kid I always figured their technology had a biological component to it.
@@loreescape47 I looked up the Vorlorn and see the connection. Especially the huge shoulder/chest piece. Apparently their outfits are encounter suits designed to hide their appearance intentionally I was not aware of Babylon until today!
@@hab0272 I'm glad to spread some awareness there! :) It was a pretty big deal to 90s sci-fi aficionados (even baby ones like myself, lol) and I'd like to get back into it one day--I missed the first season and the spin-offs that have happened since the main series ended.
The pirates are probably wearing eye patches because one of their eyes is for when they're inside the ship, which is much darker than the outside. They would switch eyes instead of having them adjust
I've had this pointed out to me a few times since the video went up; I like this explanation a lot! (I'm a little surprised that wasn't something I'd heard about before, I like to think I'm pretty well versed in pirate lore as well as LEGO lore, but it just goes to show you that there's always a cool new fact out there.)
Wow, just wow. The depth of research in media materials astonishes me, and having most of it work together is a level of LEGO lore I've never seen or created on RU-vid before. I'm so glad I was recommended this video, and I'll be happy to share the channel with others seeking LEGO lore content!
These aliens have always been so mysterious to me. I always wonder why there were two species sharing the same planet and armor. I remember UFO being presented in TV ad together with the Frightknights. Them encountering a medieval society makes them feel even more scifi/alien/mysterious by contrast. Funny how Roboforce was only released in America. I've heard alien abductions are more common there, maybe the needed some protectors.. By the way love the whole style/editing of this video. Feels like a genuine report or documentary!
Thank you so much, that's exactly what I was going for! :) I hadn't thought of it that way, but that makes a lot of sense! The mystery of these aliens definitely appealed to me; there aren't many toy lines out there that hinted at a whole strange world like this. One of the things I like about the assembled lore here is that even though there's a lot out there in terms of the world and characters, it still feels like we've barely scratch the surface.
@@loreescape47 i wasn't even aware of the sheer amount of lore! This channel is a treasure-chest! I only knew Draconis from the lego racers game. I love how their interdimensional spacetravels interconnect with other themes (kind of like timecruisers). I just noticed that Chamon's re-assembly staff looks similar to the bat-staff that Basil wields. Perhaps a gift from Chamon? Basil is also seen wielding this staff while riding a dragon. His powers might be matching Willa's at this point.
the way the Insectoids lore starts and ends is insane While the idea of most of the themes taking place on a single earth is interesting. the idea of the themes taking place on other planets is also quite interesting.
Agreed on both counts! I was surprised to find the Bricks 'n Pieces magazine that placed a UFO droid at the beginning and end of the Insectoids story, I was not expecting that. I do enjoy a linear history of LEGO themes but there's room for all possibilities in the LEGO multiverse. :)
The inter-connectivity of themes in those comics was something else, I definitely played with them that way and coincidentally made Willa the Witch one of the most powerful characters in my lil head-canon as a kid (and to this day). Hate to shake my cane around but you can’t get that today, it would end up looking like that Elsagate stuff with all these unrelated IPs interacting.
The Time Cruisers comics do a great job of hitting that sweet spot in terms of theme connectivity. Willa the Witch is a fascinating character, looking forward to covering her more in a Fright Knights video at some point. I think the biggest difference between then and now is that during the 90s the emphasis was on making distinctive looking characters like Willa, Flatfoot Thompson, and Alpha Draconis that can be slotted into relatively generic settings like Castle, Western, and Space and inspire storytelling in kids. This combination led kids like myself to crave every bit of lore that was created for these characters and worlds. Today it's different because worlds like Ninjago and Dreamzz are so specific that you're led much more directly to the TV shows they launch with. I think there's merit to both approaches, but that time period between the late 80s to early 00s has a particular draw to me.
I appreciate this interconnectivity. It makes for imaginative stories. It's fun exploring how a medieval crusader would view an alien from outer space. Maybe they see them as angels? Willa was a fun character. On one side she is insanely evil and powerful, but she's also a cat-person who likes a warm fireplace.
Your videos are so underrated. Where do you recommend people such as myself with slightly more than average Lego lore knowledge start on the journey to becoming a lore master such as yourself?
Thank you so much! I try to include links to the major sources in the video description to help in this respect. Brickipedia is actually fast becoming a great resource for LEGO lore, I believe thanks largely to the efforts of @VezonWireless. I think checking out the pages of the themes you're interested in should lead you to some good links. One of the main resources I use are the LEGO club magazine archives at miniland.nl, most of which have also been backed up at the Internet Archive (archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22LEGO+Club%22) along with other scans. And of course, can't forget the Emily Internet Zone (emilyinternet.zone/realm/), which has a huge amount of archived Time Cruisers, Space, and Pirates lore.
Another fantastic video, well done! Reconciling the heroic and villainous depictions of UFO certainly paints their history in a tragic light, especially Andy Droid being interpreted as willingly joining the Zotaxians only to be forcibly reprogrammed when his saviors turned into conquerors. Though I definitely got a laugh out of seeing one-off gags (such as the ending of the commercial) being treated as dead-serious lore! I'm curious about one aspect of this video. The Exploriens and RoboForce segments are described preceding or alongside storylines set in modern day with the LEGO Mania Magazine comics, such as RoboForce failing to stop the UFOs' invasion of Earth. Since your timeline puts most Space themes in the far future, how does this work? Are the UFOs jumping back and forth across time? Are they hopping between different universes? Are Exploriens and RoboForce consisting of aliens that just happen to resemble humans? Or does far-future Earth coincidentally look just like Earth in 1997? Also glad to see legible transcriptions of X-Commander's card at 7:20 and 25:31, since the only scan on the internet is BrickLink's tiny compressed image. Do you have a full transcript of the card and the other LEGO Builder's Club cards from that series?
Thank you so much, I always look forward to hearing from you and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. :) In those dead-serious moments I crack myself up sometimes; most of the channel's humor is in this vein. (See also suggesting that the humorless aliens getting into the spirit of the holidays was what finally kicked off the rebellion against the Emperor; things get wacky when you take all the sources with equal weight.) As far as the Mania Magazine lore goes, that's almost dealer's choice. Unless it was dealing directly with Time Cruisers, the magazine didn't usually make a distinction between present and future time periods, and that's equally valid as an approach to LEGO lore IMO. As you know, I prefer a more linear perspective that is also a part of plenty of LEGO storytelling, but when you're trying to present all the sources together, there are going to be some leaps in logic no matter which approach you take. There's a further wrinkle in that the alien's origin in another universe was not part of the Mania Magazine backstory, so that had to be finessed as well. Basically, the four approaches to the UFO aliens across all stories was A. a friendly exploratory force that sometimes fights evil, B. a completely alien society with unknown motives that could threaten life on Earth, C. an enormous alien fleet that is actively invading Earth and battling against contemporary Space factions, and D. a small group of rebels fleeing from a conflict on their homeworld. I knew I had to end at D because that's where Insectoids picks up, and I wanted to allow for C to have already happened at that point because the Chamon and Alpha Draconis figures appear throughout all of the storylines, and while obviously they can represent other aliens, it's possible that some rediscovered or future source would identify them more conclusively. What I tried to hint at was that the UFOs are moving backward and forward through time, and that it is the black hole they use as their conduit to Earth's universe that allows them to do this. The ability of the UFOs to appear in any time was suggested by the Shop-at-Home Catalog, and Christian Faber's own approach to these kinds of gateways also allows for time travel. (Though Faber envisions this as a one-way trip in his model and also conflates it with passing through universes, but that's a whole other video.) This was preferable to having the aliens be so long-lived that were just hanging around in the galaxy for thousands upon thousands of years from Castle to late Space, though I did consider that as well. So all that is to say, from the perspective of the video, the UFOs are able to travel back and forth in time, probably using the black hole for this purpose. Their far-future war with Explorien and RoboForce was interspersed with reconnaissance missions back to the 20th century to observe/frighten Earthlings. The Exploriens were eventually able to travel to the Zotaxian dimension themselves as indicated by the European catalogs (though with disastrous results for them), and it is probably from this vantage point that the RoboForce would have seen the aliens departing their homeworld to invade in the 20th century, as per the Mania Magazine comics. But aside from a few suggestions I opted to be ambiguous about what happened when to avoid potential conflicts with as-yet-undiscovered sources and to keep from interjecting my own interpretations more than I already have. All that being said, while I was making the video Faber dropped the Big Idea sketch of the original plan for Chamon to travel to a universe where all time periods are happening on different planets, which seems to be what they ultimately went with, as it matches the Let the Games Begin commercial and what little has been revealed of the Insectoids bible. (This does seem to contradict the UFO booklet, which states that the black hole leads to Earth's solar system, but I was able to use this in the video to help make room for stories A-C.) If I'd had more time to take the story apart and put it back together again, this universe is potentially more friendly to having the space factions and contemporary town in the same time and place. So there are a lot of possibilities out there. I'll put the transcribed text from the card in another comment. I'm afraid that I don't have a secret source for this; it's just me zooming in really close on the Bricklink image and squinting for dear life.
X-Commander "Attack! Attack! X-Commander the fearsome free wheeling space alien runs rings around Saturn and can send rockets spinning into outer space. He and his army of alien invaders can appear as any life form they choose. The bad news is that they have just boarded their galactic destroyer and set a course towards earth!"
It actually doesn't say that the yellow castle is from the time of king Arthur. It says, "Just like the time of king Arthur..." Minor difference but felt I had to say it since I know Swedish.
The LEGO Space Book introduced a pre-Blacktron corporation called Sort Elektronika that brings this parallel even closer. Looking forward to updating the video some day with the new backstory!
This is one of those connections that seems incredibly silly on the face of it, but becomes more fun the more seriously you take it. Wait'll we get to Pharaoh's Quest.
