The theme's second year of production introduced an enemy faction called the Time Twisters, lead by the evil brothers Tony Twister and Professor Millennium. Their goal was to meddle with the past and steal items of value that they stored in their cylinder hats. Their crew consisted of skeletons and ghosts, for whatever reason.
Interestingly, the toyline was long predated by a comic series in the European LEGO magazine Klick Magazine. In 1994, Kim Hagen started illustrating Time Buster, in which Tim (then known as Max Timebuster) traveled through time and space in Dr. Cyber's Delorean-esque time machine to visit many different LEGO lines. International advertising for LEGO themes during this time also featured a character named Max Timebuster, depicted as an adult criminal who traveled through time to steal artifacts from various LEGO themes. In 1996, the comics were retooled to more closely match the newly-released LEGO theme, including changing Max's name to Tim and changing the time machine from a car to a flying boat, as well as letting Dr. Cyber join Tim on his travels. Starting in 1997, the LEGO magazine World Club Magazine ran a new comic series by Hagen, now based upon the misadventures of Tim and his monkey Ingo as they traveled through The Multiverse and visited many different LEGO lines, including LEGO Castle, LEGO Space, LEGO Adventurers, Aquazone, and Rock Raiders. These comics were discontinued after 2000.
Time Cruisers had a mixed reception, and nowadays mostly carries a negative connotation. "This reminds me of Time Cruisers" cry collectors every time LEGO puts out sets that on first sight look clumsily designed or just plain random. Indeed, most of the Time Cruisers sets looked like hastily slapped-together mishmashes of sets from various earlier lines than a theme of its own. There was no unifying design theme, other than the overabundance of play gimmicks. The sets had clashing, and often garish colors and the vehicles didn't quite resemble anything. In short, they looked more like random crap thrown together by a kid from his spare bricks, than an official LEGO line.
On the other hand, the Time Twisters faction's sets were better received, as they had an overarching and more-or-less consistent design style and color palette. Of course, these too had many playfeatues, but at least they looked like something. If the theme is fondly-remembered for anything, then it has to be the creative gimmicks (flapping wings, spinning gadgets, bouncing skull heads) and for its impressive collection of unique LEGO items. The designers took advantage of the concept to throw in as many interesting pieces as they could: besides the hats, there were magic wands, chromed swords, harpoons, crystals and trumpets, grails, dynamite, suitcases, and of course the ever-popular Orange Transparent Chainsaw. Even if they were questionable as models, there's no denying that the sets were good part-bags.
Guides and info about the mere seven sets of the line can be found here
, here and here. Information on the World Club Magazine comics can be found here, with English translations compiled here and here.
Tropes seen in this LEGO theme :
- Adaptation Name Change:
- In the original Timebuster comics, the kid is named Max Timebuster and the scientist is named Professor Nockelberg. The later LEGO sets and all later Time Cruisers media (including the comic's 1997 reboot) change their names to Tim and Dr. Cyber, respectively.
- During the Dino Island subtheme, the professor in LEGO Adventurers was most commonly named Dr. Kilroy, although some North American sources still called him Dr. Charles Lightning. But in the Time Cruisers comic's adaptation of the subtheme (in both English and German), his name is changed to Professor Titus.
- Adaptational Villainy: Whereas Max Timebuster was just a kid traveling through time and visiting various LEGO themes in the Klick Magazine comics, he was depicted as a thief always on the run from the police in various catalogs and advertising materials.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Tony Twister of the Time Twisters with his Twisted Time Train and Time Tunnelator.
- Advanced Tech 2000: In the UK, the Time Cruiser models were Theme Named "Time Cruiser <name> 2025".
- Animal Motifs: Bats for the Time Twisters.
- Alternate Universe: Apparently there's also a bit of this present within The Multiverse, since Tim apparently meets two different universes' versions of Dr. Kilroy; one is named Professor Articus, is Dr. Cyber's brother and immediately recognizes Tim, has a full beard, and his lifelong dream is to discover the portal to Armeron, while the other is named Professor Titus, does not recognize Tim, has mutton chops, and cares mostly about finding a T-Rex egg.
- Continuity Nod:
- Most of the different hats and pieces in the sets are continuity nods to other LEGO themes.
- In the comics, when Tim first meets Professor Articus and Linda Lovely, they are confronted by Mr. Hates and Sly Boots. Articus mentions that Sly Boots is a former prizefighter, which references the German audiotape adaptation of LEGO Adventurers, Die Jagd nach dem Pharaonenschatz.
- The Insectoids storyline is identical to that of the Insectoid Invasion book, even if the planet is called Armeron instead of Holox. There's even Aquazone factions present on the planet!
- Cool Car: The Delorean-esque time machine from the early 1994 comics.
- Cool Train: The Twisted Time Train. Even Tim and Ingo are wowed by its appearance.
- Crossover: All the hats used in this line are taken from other LEGO themes, allowing the time travelers to visit those other themes. This was taken to its logical conclusion in the comics.
- Dem Bones: Bonehead is a heroic skeleton who keeps time bandits locked up in the Mystic Mountain Time Lab, while Boney is a villainous skeleton who works with the Time Twisters.
- Dub Name Change:
- In the UK, Tony Twister becomes Baron Blomberg and Professor Millennium was known as Commodore Schmidt. They're still siblings, though.
- The monkey's name is Ingo in the UK and Australia; Punky in the US; Ali in Germany; and Kikol in France.
- The robot's name is Cranky in the US and Wacco in Europe.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the 1994 comics, Tim's name was originally Max Timebuster, and he sported a very different look from his eventual toyline counterpart, wearing glasses and a red hat. Even weirder, international advertising depicted Max as an adult criminal who stole artifacts from different time periods. His time machine in the comics was originally a car, rather than the time boat. When the comic was retooled in 1996, Tim's name and the time machine's design were changed, but Tim's design remained the same. In the World Club Magazine comic series, Tim's full name was Tim Time Cruiser in the early comics, which was later changed to Tim Timebuster in later comics.
- Everyone Is Related: As confirmed by comic artist/writer Kim Hagen, Tim is Dr. Cyber's nephew. Dr. Cyber is also the brother of (at least one version of) Dr. Kilroy, who is the uncle of Johnny Thunder, who is the father of Josh Thunder. That's one unusually-large family tree for LEGO.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The time-travelers seem to have picked up a little bit of everything from all the LEGO worlds they have visited.
- Forced Transformation: The Time Twisters' xzylogif cannon transforms Tim into a fuzzy monster and Tony Twister into a pig.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: The evil Tony Twister wears a black leather jacket.
- If It Swims, It Flies: The fittingly-named Flying Time Vessel (aka Labo 2025) is a ship with wings that flies through spacetime. Tim operates a flying boat in the Magic Mountain Time Lab set, hence its alternate name of 'Flybo 2025'.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The Time Cruisers' friendly skeleton is named Bonehead (by LEGO Mania) or Skully (by Shop At Home), while the Time Twisters' evil skeleton is named Boney.
- Meaningful Rename: In Timebuster, Max Timebuster renames himself Tim Timebuster, so that his name starts with the letter "T" to match his new flying Time Cruiser. Out-of-universe, this was likely done to better align the comic character with the physical minifigure.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Ingo is the team's mischievous monkey, whose antics are just as good at getting Tim into trouble as they are at getting Tim out of trouble.
- The Multiverse: The World Club Magazine comics' interpretation of the LEGO Universe. Tim and Ali don't travel so much through time as they do between universes, and each universe is host to one to three different LEGO themes.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Both Tim and Dr. Cyber have more cartoony-looking eyes than what was the norm for LEGO Minifigures of the time (Dr. Cyber even looks cross-eyed), and Tim also has a nose.
- The Noseless: Tim is one of the few LEGO characters to avert this. It's so weird that even the Detective has investigated it.
- Punk Punk: "Random LEGO parts from the bin"-punk for the Cruisers, "haunted castle"-punk for the Twisters.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the original Timebuster comic, Max Timebuster is explicitly referred to as Professor Nockelberg's grandson. But in the Time Cruisers reboot, while their relationship is not stated in the comic itself, Kim Hagen refers to Tim Timebuster as Dr. Cyber's nephew.
- Spectacular Spinning: A lot of spinning functions across the theme, including the Hypno-Disks which are responsible for powering the time machines.
- Time Machine: Every vehicle featured in this line. In the comics, Aquanaut scientist Professor Hydronis builds a device called the "Time Zapper", which can turn any vehicle Tim finds into a time machine.
- Time Travel: Mostly the casual kind, although the Time Cruisers make a point of not interfering too much with the past or future.
- Time Travel for Fun and Profit: The Cruisers do it for fun, the Twisters for profit.
- Verbal Tic Name: In the French comics, Kikol is named by Tim after repeatedly making "Kiiiik-kolll!" sounds. It's not yet confirmed if this holds true for the English (Ingo) and/or German (Ali) versions of the comic.
- Wind-Up Key: Wacco has one on his back.
