News: The Adventures of Steamrod

[lol username]

Steampunk is an interesting thing. It's a broad genre with lots of possibilities for exciting stories and interesting characters, and very popular with LEGO fans. Despite this, LEGO has never produced any steampunk-themed sets, much to the dismay of steampunk LEGO builders.

Adventurers is also an interesting thing. Through multiple sub-themes over the course of five years, LEGO chronicled the expeditions of Australian adventurer Johnny Thunder and his team, who thwarted the plans of various treasure thieves while recovering ancient artifacts. The characters and theme became very popular, and even though Johnny Thunder hasn't been seen in a LEGO set for ten years now, the theme still lives on as a core element of LEGOLAND parks, with the characters also occasionally appearing in other places like My LEGO Network and LEGO Universe.

But wouldn't it be great if LEGO actually made a steampunk themed set? And wouldn't it be cool to see the Adventurers theme get a real LEGO product once more? From the creators of the Thinking with Portals project comes The Adventures of Steamrod, a CUUSOO project that aims to do both of these at the same time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickthing/sets/72157632701790895/

And the results so far have been fantastic. Despite only being added to the site hours ago, Steamrod already has over 200 supporters, and that number is growing very fast. And while the proposed set makes heavy use of new decals, it uses no entirely new LEGO pieces, making the production of it more plausible.

Steamrod doesn't directly use any Adventurers characters, instead, it's set in an alternate steampunk universe. With the hero Sir Jonathan Bolt being distantly related to good 'ol Johnny, and the villains being a battle-scarred steampunk-armored alternate version of Lord Sinister and his Slybot henchmen, Steamrod is essentially a steampunk-themed Adventurers reboot, with enough ties to the old characters to keep that Adventurers feel while still remaining a fresh, new concept - something LEGO has truly never done before. Now let's make this idea a real set!

Sources: LEGO CUUSOO

Official Flickr Set

[ProfessorBrickkeeper]

Hmm. I'll probably support it. As it is, I've actually built some steampunk Adventurers MOCs. :)

[STUDZ]

Want... SO MUCH WANT.

[Aokpisz]

I wouldn't mind if all they ever created out of this project were the Slybots. Those things look like Spyrus/JT. So awesome.

[PeabodySam]

Why is it that I feel much more excited about this project than I have felt about anything LEGO is releasing this year (even Galaxy Squad)?

It's the homage to the Adventurers, I bet.  Damn, these guys know how to strike at my nostalgia and use it to their advantage.  That's how LEGO got me to purchase a couple Pharaoh's Quest and Dino sets, after all.

Still, if this somehow gets through review... LEGO better keep the minifigs as close to the original concept as possible, because that concept is simply awesome.