Random set of the day: Desert Expedition
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 2879 Desert Expedition, released in 1998. It's one of 21 Adventurers sets produced that year. It contains 196 pieces and 5 minifigs, and its retail price was US$20.
It's owned by 853 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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11 comments on this article
Not the best priced sets back then were they..
What I'd give to have Adventurers back again!
@Virgilnz I'm not sure what you mean. This set retailed for $20 and had 196 pieces, which is just over 10 cents a piece, which tends to be the average price across the board. It also came with a large "sarcophagus" storage container.
Won this set in a Lego Magazine contest back in the day (then I lost it to the dark ages). The highlight of this set is the 2873 hinge pieces with the shark decal on them to form the airplane fuselage. Neither the car nor the seemingly abandoned coffin is anything to write home about, with a major theme of the Adventurers line seemingly being about grave desecration.
The adventurers line was generally very strong, but this is is a weird hodgepodge that doesn't really work for me. I think I got this in a bulk buy years ago but I've never bothered to build it. Maybe some day.
Was a really good set. I think, that the plane still is one of the best minifig scale biplane Lego did.
Can that plane actually land with that crate beneath it?
Five Minifigs for just $20 (granted one is a skeleton) is pretty nice, especially since there weren't that many Adventurer's Minifigs and you didn't need many sets to collect them all.
This is one of the best biplanes ever produced, thanks to the detailed engine inside the cowling and the fact that it can land with cargo between the wheels. It's definitely on my wanted last. What I don't understand is why this kit has three separate numbers in the database.
From what I can gather, 2879 was a Toys R Us exclusive. The regular boxed set was 5948 and 5909 came with the Mummy Storage Container.
^ Yeah, I don't think I ever saw this in Australia. I would've bought it in a heart-beat if I did.