Explore The Mysterious & Dangerous Ancient Ruins of The Amazon With This Awesome Set!
Written: Sep 06 '06
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Pros: Huge set, interesting figures, tons of accessories, lots of replay value.
Cons: No longer made, expensive, almost impossible to find.
The Bottom Line: If you were a fan of the Adventurers series, this is one set that you better put on your wishlist!
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO - Amazon Ancient Ruins |
Buried deep in the Amazon rainforest stands a temple that's been untouched by human hands for hundreds of years. Well, that is until the Adventurers team arrives. When this series was first unveiled it met with mixed feeling from Lego fanatics. Some liked the colorful scenes, others got into the companion stories and comic strips and people like me were just grateful to have some new elements to collect. To call this a large set is really an understatement, to date it is one of the largest that I've purchased [the others include Star Wars, Fright Knight Castle and Hogwarts Castle]. Even so, this was released in 1998 so it is considered 'older'; it doesn’t help that it's no longer made and that $90.00 price tag is laughable by today's Lego pricing standards. If you were to start looking for this new, still in the box, you can expect to pay between $150.00 and $200.00 for it. Thankfully I purchased mine when it was still affordable, paying a measly $60.00 for this, I now feel like I ripped off the seller, it was pretty obviously that he had no clue what gold mine he was sitting on with this set.
Amazon Ancient Ruins
This is a huge set that will have Adventurer lovers drooling! Not only do you get a replica of Dr. Lightning's Car [on a smaller scale but still impressive] but you get some incredible figures, an amazing base plate, weapons, tools, a small raft [they call it a boat, I call it a raft], trees and foliage and booby traps! There are some very unique pieces to this set so trying to build it from stock items might be tricky, you can elect to buy the pieces individually but if you want the authentic, real deal, you are going to have to pay the price or start scouring small local toy stores to see if they have any in stock. Building this can take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour, more than that if you are new to building Lego sets. The book that comes with it is big but it does give you the step by step photo instructions on how to build everything that comes with the set. On the box there are some alternative designs so you may want to keep that to store the pieces in as well as a reference guide because only the main designs are the ones that you get building instructions for.
When it comes to building this, the directions are good and you should try to follow them the first time around. Getting the bottom sections of the temple lined up and be a little tricky so be sure to count the number of pegs on the baseplate. Get one of these in the wrong spot and you may have to tear down a few sections to the top layers placed properly. I had trouble with the bridge, no matter how careful I was with it, it never stayed in place so I had to add a few small pieces under it to keep it from coming undone. There are a lot of small things that you can move around; where you put the skeleton heads, place the booby traps and the little extras are all things that you can change around at will. The booby traps are nice but it does take a little bit of work to get them to activate properly. If all else fails with the spider web trap, just add some flat long tiled pieces to the edges of the pits and rest the web over it.
Oh That Amazing Base Plate!!!
There aren't many sets that have huge base plates to them and this is one of the largest I have ever owned. The beauty of it is that you can use it for just about any set. There are four wells on the corner sections, the perfect place to put traps or hide treasure and the blue stenciled river section that runs between the two green side pieces is incredible. Having a huge base plate like this is what makes the almost hundred dollar price tag somewhat tolerable. This isn’t the most sturdy of things so treat it with care and make sure that when you are done using it that it gets packed in something that will keep it from getting crushed. The stenciled rock pieces on the sides are a nice touch but they will end up getting scratched if you aren't careful. Because this so big, you have a lot of options when you are building this. The instruction / building booklet that comes with this is big and it does take a while to build but once you complete it, it is an amazing thing to look at. I strongly suggest the you build this according to the instructions the first time around and then when you are done, go back and make changes.
The Figures
The characters in the Adventurers series are incredible and the ones that are included in this set certainly won't disappoint you. To start off with, the best figure, in my opinion, has to be the Incan god Achu. You don’t learn his name until you start to read the comic that were a companion to this series so if you ever wondered what his name was, now you know. The bright yellow headdress makes him seem larger than the other figures but is the large, colorful cape he is wearing that really makes him 'pop'. The combination of green, red and yellow for the figure were excellent choices by the designers that put this set together, too bad they didn't put this much effort into the other series. Unless you see this figure up close, you are going to miss out on a lot of the stenciled detail on him, namely the ornate design on the chest and waist. To keep the strange vibe flowing, there is also a skeleton included. If you are a little puzzled when you open the set as to why there are extra skeleton heads, those are to put on top of pikes to warn treasure hunters to 'stay away'!
One of my all time favorite female characters is Miss Storm. She may have started out as a lowly secretary but she's worked her way up the ranks and now is a full fledged explorer, or in this case, adventurer. She has the same bucket hat as Dr. Lightening but outside of that, she's all girlie. If those ruby red lips of hers don't hook you, the curls in her hair certainly will. Every set like this has a bad guy and this one is pretty mean. He looks more like an old west cowboy than a thieving adventurer but even so, I wouldn't want to mess with him. He's one of the few that has a specific accessory, in this case, a pistol. Other cool characters include Johnny Thunder, Dr. Charles Lightening and one common, run of the mill worker. He's the most colorful of the human figures; nice red and white striped shirt, blue bandana [snap on, not stenciled] and a small black bucket hat.
Accessories
There is no shortage of accessories in this set but if you feel like there are, you can use items found in other Lego sets. That is one of the nice things about standard Lego sets, 99% of the elements are interchangeable. So for almost a hundred dollars, what exactly are you getting in the way of accessories? The small boat is always nice to have, you can fit about four figure into it or haul a lot of stolen treasure. I was a little disappointed that there were no functional treasure chests in this set, all you get is a faux wooden crate with no lit. The gold coins aren't plentiful so if you want more than the four that come with this set, you will have to get them from a brick vendor or broker [I highly suggest Baylit for this]. You also get flames, poles, pikes and flags. The goblet, drinking cup, plate and pan are nice but with only one of each of them, they are sort of useless. Tools include a pickaxe, binoculars, magnifying glass, movie camera, mallet / hammer and a few backpacks. Weapons include a sword, pistol, rifle, shotgun and for what ever reason a lance from the Dragon series. Maybe this has some sort of tie in with the dragon that is included in the set.
Animals, Critters & Creatures
If you ask any Lego fanatic what makes a set for them, chances are you are going to get a lot of different answers. For me, it's the perks. The small little things that don’t need to be in a set but their inclusion really adds a lot to it. In this set you get an awesome bat [just like the ones featured in the Bat Lord series], two snakes, [one red, one black], a dragon, spider and companion spider web. The dragon is the only thing that doesn’t really fit into this set. I've never heard of dragons being the in Amazon but hey, maybe the Lego designers know something that I don't. The spider web is one of the traps that you can set if you build yours according to the provided instructions. Personally, I thought it was better used to block the small bridge but do with it what you will.
The Bottom Line
I can't complain about what I paid for this, even after it was discontinued I ended up paying $30.00 less than what I would have paid for it had I picked it up at a store. The base plate alone is worth about $20.00 and can be used for a lot of different things and with almost every other Lego set and series. When they decided to kill off this set, a lot of people complained about it, they knew that eventually the series would be axed. Thankfully it was given a second chance when the Orient Expedition mini series was released but after being burned with previous add on sets, most people were reluctant to invest in them if they weren't going to be something that was around for more than a year or so. I wish I could get a couple more of these to get the figures and base plate but I'm not holding my breath. There was some talk about Lego re-releasing this set in the retro section of the Lego Magazine but that seems to have just been gossip and wishful thinking.
Set Name: Amazon Ancient Ruins
Family Set: Adventurers
Lego Set: 5986
Number of Pieces: 453
Age Recommendation: 6 and older
Ease Of Assembly: Moderate to hard
Time Of Assembly: 30 – 60 minutes
Cost: 90.00
As always, thanks for the visit…
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2006 Freak369
Other Adventurer set reviews
Johnny Thunder
Johnny Thunder and Baby Dino
River Raft
Sam Sinister And Baby T
Dr. Lightning's Car
Adventurers Pen
Jungle Surprise
Island Racer
Research Glider
Egyptian Mummy
Oasis Ambush
Scorpion Tracker
Sphinx Secret Surprise
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60.00
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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