Random set of the day: Sphinx Secret Surprise
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 5978 Sphinx Secret Surprise, released during 1998. It's one of 21 Adventurers sets produced that year. It contains 347 pieces and 7 minifigs, and its retail price was US$50.
It's owned by 3,658 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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45 comments on this article
Adventurers FTW! What a fantastic theme this was... they should 100% bring it back. (Sorry Dr. Jones, but you can't beat these guys!)
I have Pharaoh Hotep from this set in my display collection. He was my first mummy :~P
@Zander said:
"I have Pharaoh Hotep from this set in my display collection. He was my first mummy :~P"
The first and only figure with toes!
Another one of my largest childhood regrets ... not buying this set, when I had the chance.
The name kind of sounds like an ancient food dish.
"What does the Pharaoh wish for thine meal?"
"Fetch me Sphinx Secret Surprise."
"It shall be done your excellency."
I'm not exaggerating much when I say this is my favourite set of all time--it wasn't my first set ever, by about five years, nor the BEST Adventurer set--but it was my first Adventurer set, and it was all things I'd ever wanted in 1998 and it remains a really fun collection of figs and parts. This is the set that, first of all of them, that made Johnny Thunder the "protagonist" of my entire LEGO collection.
Fighting over the Pharaoh's treasure, and dead guy on the right just wants to know if he can buy a drink of water.
@Murdoch17:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/search.page?q=toesT=P
There's been...a few more.
This is a great set. It is 100% my choice for an 18+ remake from this classic theme.
One thing I love about Adventurers sets is the sheer number of accessories. They even invented a backpack neck attachment and crate piece to help hold them all. And the creative way they are displayed in the art so you can find them all is incredible. Pistol in a mug? What a thing of beauty.
^ You have my vote.
One of the all-time great sets from one of the all-time great themes. I only had a few Adventurers sets but they drove my imagination WILD.
I'm pretty sure this was the biggest set I'd bought with my own money at the time. 5988 may have been bigger, but to my mind, this was the centerpiece of the line. (which didn't stop me from later getting 5988, mind you.) Loved the homage in 11021.
This theme is also at the origin of part 30149 - that 5-wide part that allows two minifigs to sit side-by-side in a 4-wide car - still in use nowadays.
I second the motion for a remake. In fact, since the remake of Space 10497 and Castle 10305 (and Pirates somehow the year before 21322) I'm for a remake of all and every Lego themes at the tune of about 2 per year (must keep in budget somehow!)
Damn, I wrote this whole thing about my story with this incredible set, and even though I still had 11 seconds to go before I posted it, the site still ate it. Pissed enough to not attempt a rewrite, but I want to say that Sphinx Secret Surprise, although being one of the last sets I got in 1998 as a post-Christmas present on clearance at Target, it was certainly not the least. This set was the best of that year's Adventurers theme, and in retrospect, it still stands head and shoulders over much of what came after it in 1999, 2000, and 2003.
@Zordboy said:
"Another one of my largest childhood regrets ... not buying this set, when I had the chance. "
Likewise, I only got 5918 due to economics but this was "the one" I should have gotten from this theme.
What a fantastic set! Love the brick built sphinx, the black god of death, the sarcophagus...Just a year before I came out of my dark ages.....And the instructions are available! Will see if I can recreate most of it. (At least I have Johnny Thunder and the rest of the supporting cast from the Orient Expedition sets).
Pull up the instructions and it won't be secret or a surprise anymore.
Checkmate, Pharaoh.
Great set, played with this one a ton. It's full of memorable characters, the baseplate gave a new dimension to play by hiding stuff within, and the theme itself was such a blast. It is greatly missed!
Very cool set with a clever reuse of the Paradisa baseplate.
This is the only set to contain all 4 of the papyrus maps from the Adventurers line, although not all of the different obelisk bricks. I like how both spell out (although in a very simplified way) the names of some famous egyptian gods (horus, anubis, thoht (mispelled) and khnum).
What an awesome set. It looks amazing, captures the subject matter very well, has a great vintage car (but it doesn't take up the entire set...), fun interesting characters, a cool fabric tent and lots of great printed pieces. Nice raised baseplate too.
This was the second or third biggest set I owned as a child and the only one I ever owned from the Adventurers line and I feel so lucky to have had it. I loved the Egyptian theme, the fancy base plate, and honestly one of my favorite things about the Haunted House drop-ride are the references to this set! Best of all, I still have it (parted out) in my collection!
One of my favourite sets as a kid, still have all the pieces somewhere.....
That’s not the real sphinx, the nose is intact.
One of the best sets of all time imho. I loved seeing it in catalogues when I was a kid, but it was already discontinued by that time. And now, about 20 years later, I finally bought one that's proudly displayed next to my 5988 and 5986
I have zero nostalgia towards this set so I'm not as enthusiastic about it as the majority of commenters. But I bought this baseplate in mint condition a couple of years ago and I was just disassembling my moc with it yesterday. It's an awesome baseplate! I bought it right after I saw this fabulous moc: https://www.brothers-brick.com/2020/08/23/the-natural-wonders-of-the-raised-baseplate/
Love this kind of sets. It looks like a model made of Lego bricks, diorama, from 100 years back, realistic
Absolutely loved this set. The action to flick-fire Hotep out of his hiding place was always fun even if occasionally he didn’t make it as far as I’d like, and then you have hidden snake pits and falling obelisks on top of it all, absolute master-class in set interaction
It has been so long since any Egypt or even Mummy theme was produced. Itd be nice to have something like this again.
Especially something like the Mummy set from Studios, really vaguely referencing Universal Monsters would be nice. I kinda wish there was a movie theme again in general.
I prefer Victoria's
Great set. They got the feeling of an archeological digsite right with the removable sections of the baseplate and stuff like the tent. The building has a fun play feature, as does the falling obelisk. Getting all four maps is a treat too!
We sure have been lacking proper historical themes these last few years, haven't we?
@Binnekamp:
Not to mention, the mummy can be separated into smaller parts for easier looting.
My all time favorite set. Pure love. This set is a complete package, from the 3d baseplate to the minifig accessories, there is nothing to miss in this one.
In full agreement on this being a fantastic set! Never had it myself, but I do remember getting to see it in person once; back in 1999, in year 3 at school, we were learning about Ancient Egypt for a while. We had a little display relevant to it set up in the classroom, and someone in our class - I don't remember who - brought in their copy of this set as their contribution to that.
(I brought in my own 5938 for the display as well, although it was kinda pitiful in comparison!)
In any case, it was fantastic to see in person; and between those lessons and the Adventurers theme, I've definitely got an enduring fascination for anything ancient-Egypt related. Definitely my other absolute favourite Lego theme (alongside Rock Raiders and Bionicle, naturally!), and would for sure be onboard with it getting a reboot of some kind.
On a tangential note, not this set, but I am in the process of reassembling its bigger sibling, 5988! I got it from the used lot I got a few months back that I keep mentioning... recognising some of the exclusive pieces from that set in the photo was the thing swayed me into buying, since it's a set that's been on my wishlist since forever. It's only about 70% complete in the end, so I've got a lot of Bricklinking still to do for the remaining parts (and some of them are more expensive than I'd like...); but still, I'm pretty excited to have my hands on it finally :D
@HOBBES: I'm assuming you're leaving Galidor out of that "revisit every theme ever?"
@Trigger_: I'm also pretty sure the real Sphinx doesn't have a mummy-launching mechanism.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @Zander said:
"I have Pharaoh Hotep from this set in my display collection. He was my first mummy :~P"
The first and only figure with toes!"
LEGO should have called him Pharaoh Toe-Step! :~P
There have been other minifigures with printed claws on their feet as well as bigfigs with either moulded or printed toes.
Okay, so I was wrong on him being the only guy with toes. But he WAS the first!
Side note: When the 'Orient Express' Ideas set comes out, I plan on putting Pharaoh Hotep figure on board along with a certain Doctor. (Doctor Who fans will know what I'm talking about!)
The tent! The baseplate! The sphinx! If I could go back and time and retrieve another Adventurers set, this would be it.
@Murdoch17 said:
"Adventurers FTW! What a fantastic theme this was... they should 100% bring it back. (Sorry Dr. Jones, but you can't beat these guys!)"
We got pretty close. According to Mike Rayhawk, long time concept artist for LEGO, some LEGO City Arctic sets started as a pitch for Johnny Thunder to explore the Arctic: https://twitter.com/mikerayhawk/status/1298030571432615937
The MacGuffins would've been mammoths and sabretooth tigers frozen in the ice: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/189117-action-and-adventure-themes-that-never-made-it/
The concept evolved into the 2018 Arctic City sets with the frozen ice-age animals.
I never had any of these as a kid, but I got this and a few smaller ones in a haul last year. Such fun play toys, and I hope they'll do OK as displays in my future city.
@Bricknave said:
"The tent! The baseplate! The sphinx! If I could go back and time and retrieve another Adventurers set, this would be it.
@Murdoch17 said:
"Adventurers FTW! What a fantastic theme this was... they should 100% bring it back. (Sorry Dr. Jones, but you can't beat these guys!)"
We got pretty close. According to Mike Rayhawk, long time concept artist for LEGO, some LEGO City Arctic sets started as a pitch for Johnny Thunder to explore the Arctic: https://twitter.com/mikerayhawk/status/1298030571432615937
The MacGuffins would've been mammoths and sabretooth tigers frozen in the ice: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/189117-action-and-adventure-themes-that-never-made-it/
The concept evolved into the 2018 Arctic City sets with the frozen ice-age animals."
Alas, what might've been!
@Murdoch17:
I've seen a book that cited certain minifigs as being the only ones with noses, even though other minifigs had been released with printed noses before the book was published. The other one I remember is a claim that the chicken suit guy has the only reversable torso assembly. I did search for one, but I don't believe I was able to find a second instance. Shark suit torso had identical flippers, but it also had printing on the front.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @HOBBES: I'm assuming you're leaving Galidor out of that "revisit every theme ever?"
@Trigger_: I'm also pretty sure the real Sphinx doesn't have a mummy-launching mechanism."
I don't know; if Lego were to produce another Galidor set with the original mould, I might just buy it just for the weirdness of it. These (Galidor) look more like 'Masters of The Universe' figurines than Lego that's for sure. I would not mind getting the 'spacecraft' as well. I guess we can say we are safe from seeing any of that - they cannot recreate a goat mould of a few years I don't expect them to resurrect a Galidor mould. ;-)
@HOBBES said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @HOBBES: I'm assuming you're leaving Galidor out of that "revisit every theme ever?"
@Trigger_: I'm also pretty sure the real Sphinx doesn't have a mummy-launching mechanism."
I don't know; if Lego were to produce another Galidor set with the original mould, I might just buy it just for the weirdness of it. These (Galidor) look more like 'Masters of The Universe' figurines than Lego that's for sure. I would not mind getting the 'spacecraft' as well. I guess we can say we are safe from seeing any of that - they cannot recreate a goat mould of a few years I don't expect them to resurrect a Galidor mould. ;-)"
...Unless they did minifigure-sized vehicles / creatures as a tribute! (That's what they should have done back then, to be honest!)
Managed to get all the figures in a recent bulk buy, but no baseplate so can’t rebuild
This was one of my son's favorite sets. Mummies, pharoahs and such were his peak interest when this LEGO theme was released. He still has all his LEGO sets, but this theme is the favorite among them.
@Murdoch17:
They couldn’t do it as minifigs because one of the main features of the show was “glinching”. You can’t have a toy line about a show with “glinching” where the toys can’t “glinch”. You also really can’t have a toy line about a show with “glinching” where the toys _can_ “glinch”, either. So basically you just can’t have a show about “glinching” period.
Such a good set. Glad I have it. Only a few more adventurers to get.