Review 5936: Spider's Secret

[def]

Pulling out an old set I have some affection for, and trying to fill in a gap in the review index here. I bring to you a delightful little set: Spider's Secret.

Set#: 5936

Name: Spider's Secret

Theme: Adventurer's/Jungle

Year: 1999

Pieces:128

Minifigs: 3: Miss Gail Storm (Jungle) with pith helmet, Señor Palomar with Backpack (Senor Palomar), Skeleton with Standard Skull

MSP: U.S.$12

Peeron

Brickset

Bricklink

The booklet

The cover is nice, conjuring the Amazon jungle. The characters are accosted by numerous creepy crawlies as they discover a long hidden temple.

Four vignettes are played out on back. Particularly sharp is the magnifying glass showing Johnny Adventure on the photo Gail Storm took.

The Pieces

A surprisingly small assortment considering the end product. But those pieces are fantastic:

An assortment of foliage.

A car chassis, a cobweb, a camera, and a car cab.

A pile of printed and metallic pieces. The Aztec-style posts are more impressive than those that came with the Crystal Skull set. The photo features Johnny in front of a temple, and the map leads to this temple, I'm guessing. And some printed car parts. All for $12 MSRP?! Oh, inflation, you've led us down a frightful road.

Three figs, including a happy, ball-socketed skeleton, and an evil,evil man, we can tell by his scowl and beard. Never trust a bearded fig.

His evilness extends to his backpack. What does he keep inside?

Dynamite. Lit dynamite. He must be mad.

The Finished Product

The truck is mostly two large pieces, and lots of details, but it works, because those details are overwhelming. The map tucks in behind the seats, the windshield looks well-used.

A spare tire in back.

Two seats and the wheel on the left. An instrument panel lies between.

The first half of the build adds the odds and ends; Gail's camera, a campfire, and the creepy crawlies.

The temple? altar? is small, but the details make it. The simple colors, the torch on top, the cobweb covering the center and the Aztec 'paintings'.

From the back, we can see two more torches, dramatically framing the treasure.

With the cobwebs removed, we see an ancient victim, with an axe looming ominously overhead.

With that sack of bones out of the way, a fantastically sculpted shiny treasure is revealed. Truly worth dying for!

To the right, we see the trap. One pull of the blue knob and...

Somebody loses a head.

The Final Verdict

Design: 9/10 The temple is perfect to me, much more than the sum of its parts. It is small and simple, but it looks bigger. The car is alright, but the fact that half of it is two big pieces keep this from being a perfect design.

Build: 8/10 The lack of interesting design lends to a lack of an interesting build on the car. But the temple is interesting, if symmetrical.

Playability: 10/10 This is packed. A tweakable temple, lots of little accessories for the figs and the playset. They lend themselves to use with other sets.

Minifigures: 9/10 Now, let's imagine this was an Indy Jones set. I would now own one more Indy Jones figure (currently five and counting for me. That's Anakin Skywalker territory). I think it's amazing that they gave two figures that weren't Johnny Adventure. Two figures and a skeleton is a good deal for a set this size.

Price: 10/10 Great price.

Overall: 9/10 This is a great mini set. The price, the pieces, the concept. It all works. Compared to the sets today, this holds up incredibly well.

I love it when Lego does ancient culture style stuff. I'm looking forward to the Prince of Persia line this year. I regret not getting the bigger Aztec temple released along with this, but this will do. If you need some sweet jungle ruins, it's not to late to snap up this set.

Edited February 22, 2010 by WhiteFang
Indexed

[ZO6]

Great review and beautiful pictures!

I've got a huge soft spot for Adventurers sets. Even a relatively small set like this is packed with massive playability. Thanks to the overall design and wide variety of pieces that are included (lots of colours, wonderful printed columns etc.) this set looks great on display as well.

[prateek]

As ZO6 is, I'm a softy for JT/Adventurers. The sets always had the nicest vehicles and cool pieces, and this set is no exception

[Lordofdragonss]

You put treasure Upside-down!

I love the cars from adventures, even with this One piece they were amazing!

[Big Cam]

Awesome review! I love these old sets that I never knew of. Pics look great, and I just love seeing sets I have never seen before!

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'def' for this review of a very interesting and cool set !

You gotta love traps don't ya !

The car is sweet and just what you expect for that era and a bullet hole in the windscreen - alright now we are talking !

That backpack is awesome and I wonder if the new TNT fits in the backpack - might be safer !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[def]

You put treasure Upside-down!

Ah, I guess the head-dress looked like a big smile Or maybe Lego meant it to be reversible

[WesternOutlaw]

Nice review Def. I'm a huge fan of Adventurers and love the Jungle expedition sets. I really like that introductory image.

Somewhere in this jungle, I think I had the set. LINK to EB Topic.

Fantastic set, at a reasonable price. I was hoping LEGO would offer a few more jungle sets like this one for the Indiana Jones theme. I suppose we do have one.

Front-paged!

[funkybrick]

Great review!

I really like some of the Adventurers' serieses (if that is the correct plural ) and have always loved this set, even though I haven't got myself a copy of it.

Back then, this was a very good deal for 12$, I think!

Anyway, thanks for the review

[def]

Nice review Def. I'm a huge fan of Adventurers and love the Jungle expedition sets. I really like that introductory image.

Somewhere in this jungle, I think I had the set. LINK to EB Topic.

Fantastic set, at a reasonable price. I was hoping LEGO would offer a few more jungle sets like this one for the Indiana Jones theme. I suppose we do have one.

Front-paged!

Many thanks! I have a selection of old sets, but it's only worth taking the time to review them if they excite me, and this one does.

Your Amazon series is a knockout!

[CommanderFox]

Great review def!

This set is actually quite nice! I like the parts in it, especially some of the printed parts.

The little play feautures are also good.

I especially like the car though, something about it, I just love!

Thanks for the review!

CommanderFox

[Twickin']

Nice review Def, enjoyed reading it.

I loved the Orient theme!

[Mac-K]

Thank you for this great review Def! I never got any sets in the Adventurers Jungle line, which I colossally regret because I think the Jungle and Orient sub-themes were really fantastic. I have to say, looking back through the catalogs and such, I love the vibrancy of the color scheme in the Jungle sub-theme. The brightness of the red, blue, yellow, and green just looks so good, and it works wonderfully in this set. There's a great number of special pieces here, the camera, film piece, Sun Disk (as I remember it being called ), and let's not forget those fantastic pillar pieces ! The figures included are nice, and like you said Def, it's nice to see Johnny not included in every Adventurers set. The only thing I might nitpick about is the jeep, I feel like that was a bit of a step backward from the vehicles in the Egyptian themed sets. One plus is the rear mounted spare tire, that's a nice touch. But the front, especially what's supposed to be the engine block just looks bland, I think the grill piece that got introduced during this time ought to have been used there. But other than that, I really can't find anything to complain about. This seems like a great little set, thanks for sharing Def!

His evilness extends to his backpack. What does he keep inside?

Dynamite. Lit dynamite. He must be mad.

Edited March 1, 2010 by Mac-K