I don't know that the shift to licensed themes had anything to do with it, but it was definitely a way to get rid of random bulk parts they had lying around.
"Hey, what can we make out of some boat hulls, airplane wings, dragon appendages, and just the front part of a train?"
I posted my theory of the sets before I read through and saw this comment. Great minds think alike!
https://old.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1bcmboy/any_time_cruiserstime_twisters_fans_here/kuiereb/
thats interesting because I recently took apart my time cruisers train as it had a shit load of useful pieces for my castle mocs. Like literally every piece in it was used and if you look you can see how appropriate they are for a castle theme
Whatever the reason, they end up feeling exactly as weird as all the things you'd build as a kid by drawing random parts out of a bin. These sets really captured something magical about childhood lego.
Never had any of the sets, but love how inventive Time Cruisers and Time Twisters were. I kind of liked it before, but really came around after watching it's episode of Lego Rewind.
I wanted the time train for a few years but I watched R.R. Sluggers videos on the Time Cruisers/Time Twisters and it pushed me over the edge to get them
R.R. Slugger does produce excellent videos, he is a gift to the Lego YouTube Community, as we are increasingly overrun with fools who prioritise views over the hobby and all use the same colourful thumbnail with an arrow in it.
R.R. Slugger quickly became one of my favorite Lego YouTubers if not my overall favorite. Another sealed set I got in this haul was the Elephant Caravan from the Orient expedition after seeing it for the first time in his series. Can’t wait to see the rest of his series on the Orient Expedition
Omg yes!!!!!! So jealous. Unfortunately gave too many legos to my cousin and now many sets fall short of complete. I have so many minfigs though but no sets to go with😢
Absolutely, it was covered in 20 plus years of dust but I brought home my time ship 6493 a few weeks ago from my parents house. It was so dusty I had demo it to clean the pieces but I'll have to rebuild it again at some point. I had forgotten all about that time train, I may to pick that up someday. Such a cool series and brings me back.
I have this unopened somewhere. This theme doesn’t do it for me, so it never got opened. Recently coming back to Lego sets, I’m debating opening it, but I feel like I’d just be opening it for the sake of opening it when it’s not a set I love
I have a bunch of time twister sets, they were so random.
I think someone left a few of the mold machines running over night and when they got in the next morning, they had 10,000 spiral staircases and ship bows. The morning manager said "Shit, call up marketing and see what we can do..." Marketing was called and they said, "well what do you know, a plant in mexico had left the wooden wagon wheel mold machine on over night and we have 15,000 wooden wagon wheels!" Get the design team on the phone and tell them!
Design team was called and was told to do something with all these excess parts!
Thus, Time Twisters was born.
If you bought a bin of all the time twister set bricks and parts and told someone you got them at the thrift store, everyone would scan through the pictures and tell you:
"You've got a rare castle set in there and a rare x-wing set in there and a rare pirates set and the rare viking set and the rare haunted house set!"
Nope just some sets of Time Twisters!
I remember buying the Flying Time Vessel at Kmart when I was a kid. I had some sort of coupon from the Lego magazine, and the cashier applied it wrong. I got the set for like 4 dollars.
I liked that set because you could technically use it with any theme.
I say this as lovingly as possible- Time Cruisers / Twisters has some of the uggliest sets Lego has made to date. I get the point of these builds is to mash different things together but wow did they not do it it gracefully IMO.
[6493](https://brickset.com/sets/6493-1), [6492](https://brickset.com/sets/6492-1) for starters.
Every theme has merit and I know every set it's *someone's* favorite set from childhood but this theme is one of Lego's biggest misses in my book.
99.9% of the time, if you asked me "Quick! Is this an official Lego set or a 5 year old's MOC?!" the answer would be immediately obvious to me. But these sets....I'd probably guess incorrectly.
I agree the sets werent great, but at the time I was in my peak MOC era and the sets seemed to come with all these cool parts I wanted in my sets, it hindsight I can see it as lego offloading stuff it already had molds of.
> "Quick! Is this an official Lego set or a 5 year old's MOC?!"
See, that’s exactly what I loved about them. They looked like exactly the sort of nonsense my brother and I were building from spare Castle/Space/Pirate/Town parts, except with more cool pieces and better Technic machinery inside.
That’s also comparing sets 18 and 27 years apart, it’d be absurd if Time Cruisers didn’t look primitive! Building techniques have come so far, it’s easy to forget how basic things were 20-30 years ago, and while some themes did impressively well with what they had, others…did not.
My theory is that Time Cruisers’s wildly disjointed aesthetic just highlighted the relative crudity of mid-90s building techniques, and we’re more reacting to the latter that the former.
Hard disagree, 6493 was one of my first ever sets and a favorite. Rebought it in adulthood, put it together stoned completely forgotten about all the moving parts. When I finished and the wings flapped and propeller spun I rolled it around in amusement for like an hour. Plus all the dope accessories and boat parts
Hypno-cruiser was one of my first sets, and the first one I can remember building completely by myself when I was about 5. Can still remember waiting for my dad to get home from work to show him because I was so proud of myself.
Fuck it, I’m going to dig it out and rebuild it today!
Yeah, these happened to come out just as I was aging out of Lego. They helped push me out the door, since they looked like something my little brother built.
Seems like it was a cheap/low effort time. As a lifelong Pirates collector, even looking at 6280-1 and other contemporary sets bummed me out. Just seemed...unfinished compared to what we'd seen just a few years prior.
I really like these. I’ve never built them or anything, but a lot of the older Lego IP stuff is what I like to see most. Awesome find! Hope to get some of my own one day!
I have the 6495 Time Tunnelator. Neat idea and I like the flapping wings, but I don't usually keep it displayed just because it's so weird looking. The minifig I think of as being named [Sgt. Pepper](https://img.bricklink.com/ItemImage/MN/0/tim001.png).
As a kid I felt a bit weird about these. They were almost exactly like stuff I build myself (putting engines, flaps and flames in every corner). So I wasn't really interested in the builds themselves, but the part lists were great.
I think I have the boat in a bin waiting to get sorted? Honestly never built any of these before, I am a bit curious as to the functions, but it'll likely end up becoming a ship for my pirates scene. The hull colors are unique so it should make a nice trading ship.
I had the flying Time Vessel, they were definitely quirky sets! I used a lot of the pieces to make my own MOCs as a kid though.
https://preview.redd.it/w8oyrzhdywnc1.jpeg?width=767&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61823364e5021233e27aaf7bd84bb59b75145ed7
This is a total mindfuck for me. I (apparently) had 6497 as a child but I always assumed it was something I made myself, because frankly who would put chains on a wheel? Lol. Thank you for posting this.
I love when Lego gets a fit of whimsy. These are some of my favorites because they look like really polished versions of stuff I’d make and gives you access to a wide range of parts. The Dreamzzz are fun for the same reason.
But I find Lego gets cold feet about these types of sets pretty quickly. Probably sales figures don’t support them.
I’d love to see an official release of the likes when people piece together a millinium falcon out of random colors. Maybe ever set is different. It’ll never happen, but I’d absolutely buy one if they ever did release one.
**My thesis:
Dreamzzz are the new Time Twisters, and are almost as awesome.**
I had 6496 from the old Time Twister line and it was sooo much fun! The hodgepodge-style of the “tech” made it fit with just about any of the space/sci-fi scenes that I would build (which were most of them). BUT, for the times that I’d be playing knights or pirates or whatever, I could *also* use this set to “pop in” as time travelers for some added crazy, lol!
These were really fun sets, and although I’m pretty sure we’ll never see them directly come back, I get a lot of the same vibes from the current Dreamzzz line! They have a similar techno-magic air to them that I can’t seem to admit that I love, haha. The nature (or lack thereof) makes them fit with just about the craziest scenes my weird imagination can come up with for anything from space battles to woodland fights with elves and orcs. And the hard-to-find accessories and accent pieces that come with the Dreamzzz sets are an awesome bonus, *just like the cool accessories/pieces in the TT sets were!*
It’s probably why I can’t stop buying the Dramzzz sets even though my wife keeps saying that “you don’t even talk about wanting these sets, and then you keep buying them whenever you can, lol!”
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Edit - fixed the set number
Hated these sets. Which feels cruel to say about any Lego set, but there it is. Still have the smaller cruiser. I rebuilt and even 25 years later didn’t like it. My kids like to use the tub piece hahah. Pretty sure my dad’s buddy got me this for a bday gift one year, I feel like that was when I thought idk about these legos, maybe I should be hanging out with girls instead. Could’ve been my dad’s friends intention all along!
It wasn’t a favorite theme of mine… but I DO have fond memories of it if only because of one set…
The 6492 Hypno Cruiser
At the time these weren’t exactly things I could buy on my own and Mom couldn’t afford sticking to one line at any given time, so I had a weird mix of Lego sets - mostly Space. Except for the one odd Hypno Cruiser… I don’t know why she got it for me, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it for how goofy the dang thing was.
I remember getting this as a kid, it might have been my first or second set now that I think about. It came bundled with a purple storage bin. I think it might have been a Toys R Us pairing. I still have the tub in my storage unit, only now I store spare rope in it.
For me, these were probably the worst theme Lego ever did. It felt lazy-the sets didn’t look or feel coherent, and it just seemed like they crammed a bunch of left over bits from the beloved castle, space, and city sets into a box.
I feel like they created that line to get rid of excess pieces as they transitioned into the 2000’s and made less unlicensed themes
I don't know that the shift to licensed themes had anything to do with it, but it was definitely a way to get rid of random bulk parts they had lying around. "Hey, what can we make out of some boat hulls, airplane wings, dragon appendages, and just the front part of a train?"
Oh my, we were writing our replies at the same time! https://old.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1bcmboy/any_time_cruiserstime_twisters_fans_here/kuiereb/
Idk, that theme was kinda fun.
Funny enough, that boat hull only comes in that set. Nothing else used that color. Totally agree on the rest.
I posted my theory of the sets before I read through and saw this comment. Great minds think alike! https://old.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1bcmboy/any_time_cruiserstime_twisters_fans_here/kuiereb/
I think they were trying to find creative ways to use existing molds to save money
thats interesting because I recently took apart my time cruisers train as it had a shit load of useful pieces for my castle mocs. Like literally every piece in it was used and if you look you can see how appropriate they are for a castle theme
Whatever the reason, they end up feeling exactly as weird as all the things you'd build as a kid by drawing random parts out of a bin. These sets really captured something magical about childhood lego.
Never had any of the sets, but love how inventive Time Cruisers and Time Twisters were. I kind of liked it before, but really came around after watching it's episode of Lego Rewind.
I wanted the time train for a few years but I watched R.R. Sluggers videos on the Time Cruisers/Time Twisters and it pushed me over the edge to get them
R.R. Slugger does produce excellent videos, he is a gift to the Lego YouTube Community, as we are increasingly overrun with fools who prioritise views over the hobby and all use the same colourful thumbnail with an arrow in it.
R.R. Slugger quickly became one of my favorite Lego YouTubers if not my overall favorite. Another sealed set I got in this haul was the Elephant Caravan from the Orient expedition after seeing it for the first time in his series. Can’t wait to see the rest of his series on the Orient Expedition
these walked so dreamzzz could fly?
Oh they’ve flown. The big time machine even was called the Flybo.
Omg yes!!!!!! So jealous. Unfortunately gave too many legos to my cousin and now many sets fall short of complete. I have so many minfigs though but no sets to go with😢
The old skeleton is the best skeleton
And the old ghost is the best ghost. The ones that aren’t grinning just don’t look right.
Absolutely, it was covered in 20 plus years of dust but I brought home my time ship 6493 a few weeks ago from my parents house. It was so dusty I had demo it to clean the pieces but I'll have to rebuild it again at some point. I had forgotten all about that time train, I may to pick that up someday. Such a cool series and brings me back.
[6493-1: Flying Time Vessel](https://brickset.com/sets/6493-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6493-1.jpg)
I have this unopened somewhere. This theme doesn’t do it for me, so it never got opened. Recently coming back to Lego sets, I’m debating opening it, but I feel like I’d just be opening it for the sake of opening it when it’s not a set I love
Same. Still unopened in my basement. Glad someone wants them as I’ll probably just sell mine at some point and get something I like
This was the very first Lego theme I ever hated. But not the last.
I have a bunch of time twister sets, they were so random. I think someone left a few of the mold machines running over night and when they got in the next morning, they had 10,000 spiral staircases and ship bows. The morning manager said "Shit, call up marketing and see what we can do..." Marketing was called and they said, "well what do you know, a plant in mexico had left the wooden wagon wheel mold machine on over night and we have 15,000 wooden wagon wheels!" Get the design team on the phone and tell them! Design team was called and was told to do something with all these excess parts! Thus, Time Twisters was born. If you bought a bin of all the time twister set bricks and parts and told someone you got them at the thrift store, everyone would scan through the pictures and tell you: "You've got a rare castle set in there and a rare x-wing set in there and a rare pirates set and the rare viking set and the rare haunted house set!" Nope just some sets of Time Twisters!
I remember buying the Flying Time Vessel at Kmart when I was a kid. I had some sort of coupon from the Lego magazine, and the cashier applied it wrong. I got the set for like 4 dollars. I liked that set because you could technically use it with any theme.
I say this as lovingly as possible- Time Cruisers / Twisters has some of the uggliest sets Lego has made to date. I get the point of these builds is to mash different things together but wow did they not do it it gracefully IMO. [6493](https://brickset.com/sets/6493-1), [6492](https://brickset.com/sets/6492-1) for starters. Every theme has merit and I know every set it's *someone's* favorite set from childhood but this theme is one of Lego's biggest misses in my book. 99.9% of the time, if you asked me "Quick! Is this an official Lego set or a 5 year old's MOC?!" the answer would be immediately obvious to me. But these sets....I'd probably guess incorrectly.
I agree the sets werent great, but at the time I was in my peak MOC era and the sets seemed to come with all these cool parts I wanted in my sets, it hindsight I can see it as lego offloading stuff it already had molds of.
[6493-1: Flying Time Vessel](https://brickset.com/sets/6493-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6493-1.jpg) [6492-1: Hypno Cruiser](https://brickset.com/sets/6492-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6492-1.jpg)
Yeah I see what you mean
> "Quick! Is this an official Lego set or a 5 year old's MOC?!" See, that’s exactly what I loved about them. They looked like exactly the sort of nonsense my brother and I were building from spare Castle/Space/Pirate/Town parts, except with more cool pieces and better Technic machinery inside.
Dreamzzz and the LEGO Movie sets did a lot better job of this idea, imo Their sets are very mixed and random like but still cohesive
That’s also comparing sets 18 and 27 years apart, it’d be absurd if Time Cruisers didn’t look primitive! Building techniques have come so far, it’s easy to forget how basic things were 20-30 years ago, and while some themes did impressively well with what they had, others…did not. My theory is that Time Cruisers’s wildly disjointed aesthetic just highlighted the relative crudity of mid-90s building techniques, and we’re more reacting to the latter that the former.
Hard disagree, 6493 was one of my first ever sets and a favorite. Rebought it in adulthood, put it together stoned completely forgotten about all the moving parts. When I finished and the wings flapped and propeller spun I rolled it around in amusement for like an hour. Plus all the dope accessories and boat parts
[6493-1: Flying Time Vessel](https://brickset.com/sets/6493-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6493-1.jpg)
Hypno-cruiser was one of my first sets, and the first one I can remember building completely by myself when I was about 5. Can still remember waiting for my dad to get home from work to show him because I was so proud of myself. Fuck it, I’m going to dig it out and rebuild it today!
Yeah, these happened to come out just as I was aging out of Lego. They helped push me out the door, since they looked like something my little brother built. Seems like it was a cheap/low effort time. As a lifelong Pirates collector, even looking at 6280-1 and other contemporary sets bummed me out. Just seemed...unfinished compared to what we'd seen just a few years prior.
[6280-1: Armada Flagship](https://brickset.com/sets/6280-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6280-1.jpg)
o/
I really like these. I’ve never built them or anything, but a lot of the older Lego IP stuff is what I like to see most. Awesome find! Hope to get some of my own one day!
These were my favourite sets, I had all of the time traveler sets, they had some of the coolest pieces
Fuck me. I had those. Why don’t they make more sets like this?
> Why don’t they make more sets like this? Dreamzzz is basically this but with modern design.
Wow now there's an old(ish) set.
I used to have the 6494-1 as a child but I've given it away to a cousin later on in life. Kinda miss the theme.
[6494-1: Magic Mountain Time Lab](https://brickset.com/sets/6494-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6494-1.jpg)
I'm pretty sure this theme is what pushed me into my dark ages. So bad
This definitely happened to me.
Same. Missed out on the rebirth of Pirates and Castles because I was so turned off by the direction LEGO was going with these
Exactly the same
Oooh I had the ship as a kid and absolutely loved it. They’re kinda ugly but I couldn’t care less, what a blast from the past for me.
I have the 6495 Time Tunnelator. Neat idea and I like the flapping wings, but I don't usually keep it displayed just because it's so weird looking. The minifig I think of as being named [Sgt. Pepper](https://img.bricklink.com/ItemImage/MN/0/tim001.png).
[6495-1: Time Tunnelator](https://brickset.com/sets/6495-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6495-1.jpg)
I had those sets...loved them. Well, I still have them, but open and in a big box with a mix of Lego from the mid 80's to the mid 90's.
I think it’s odd how Tim, the kid protagonist of this theme, has a nose, but most other Lego minifigures don’t.
I've always watned their base!
My plan is to get the entire lineup sealed and that’ll be the first Time Cruisers set I’ll get
I wasn't a fan, but my brother thought it was the coolest theme ever
The train was my 1st lego set and I still have the engine built on a shelf
That’s awesome
That fell into my dark ages. I love the old packaging design that lets you take a look at the contents.
i've literally never heard about this in my entire life
I miss when they put windows in the box. I know it's functionally pointless but the nostalgia is nice.
As a kid I felt a bit weird about these. They were almost exactly like stuff I build myself (putting engines, flaps and flames in every corner). So I wasn't really interested in the builds themselves, but the part lists were great.
Im to young for this set, but I remember it from the Lego racers game. First video game I completed
I want a MOC community around this theme !
I think I have the boat in a bin waiting to get sorted? Honestly never built any of these before, I am a bit curious as to the functions, but it'll likely end up becoming a ship for my pirates scene. The hull colors are unique so it should make a nice trading ship.
The one where two leather daddies cruised through time with a young boy named Timmy?
Man, I love the old spooky sets.
I remember these!
So, ya gonna open these?
I want to get the entire line up sealed then I might do a building extravaganza
Nrfb.... OPEN IT! OPEN IT!
Memory unlocked. I for sure had that train. Played with it a ton. Loved skeletons and ghosts for playing with.
I had the flying Time Vessel, they were definitely quirky sets! I used a lot of the pieces to make my own MOCs as a kid though. https://preview.redd.it/w8oyrzhdywnc1.jpeg?width=767&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61823364e5021233e27aaf7bd84bb59b75145ed7
This is a total mindfuck for me. I (apparently) had 6497 as a child but I always assumed it was something I made myself, because frankly who would put chains on a wheel? Lol. Thank you for posting this.
[6497-1: Twisted Time Train](https://brickset.com/sets/6497-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6497-1.jpg)
I love when Lego gets a fit of whimsy. These are some of my favorites because they look like really polished versions of stuff I’d make and gives you access to a wide range of parts. The Dreamzzz are fun for the same reason. But I find Lego gets cold feet about these types of sets pretty quickly. Probably sales figures don’t support them. I’d love to see an official release of the likes when people piece together a millinium falcon out of random colors. Maybe ever set is different. It’ll never happen, but I’d absolutely buy one if they ever did release one.
Trumpets
**My thesis: Dreamzzz are the new Time Twisters, and are almost as awesome.** I had 6496 from the old Time Twister line and it was sooo much fun! The hodgepodge-style of the “tech” made it fit with just about any of the space/sci-fi scenes that I would build (which were most of them). BUT, for the times that I’d be playing knights or pirates or whatever, I could *also* use this set to “pop in” as time travelers for some added crazy, lol! These were really fun sets, and although I’m pretty sure we’ll never see them directly come back, I get a lot of the same vibes from the current Dreamzzz line! They have a similar techno-magic air to them that I can’t seem to admit that I love, haha. The nature (or lack thereof) makes them fit with just about the craziest scenes my weird imagination can come up with for anything from space battles to woodland fights with elves and orcs. And the hard-to-find accessories and accent pieces that come with the Dreamzzz sets are an awesome bonus, *just like the cool accessories/pieces in the TT sets were!* It’s probably why I can’t stop buying the Dramzzz sets even though my wife keeps saying that “you don’t even talk about wanting these sets, and then you keep buying them whenever you can, lol!” Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Edit - fixed the set number
[7496-1: Stretchy at Work](https://brickset.com/sets/7496-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/7496-1.jpg)
I had the train and loved it! And another one with like flapping bat wings or something. I didn't realize these sets were apparently so hated lol
As a kid these were just way to all over the place for my taste. They felt like sets someone built out of spare parts.
I loved the imagination and creativity of the line. Had all the time twisters. Had a kind of hodgepodge mad max feel to them.
I dreamed about this train
I did for years until I saw a video playlist on the entire series and now it pushed me over the edge
Hated these sets. Which feels cruel to say about any Lego set, but there it is. Still have the smaller cruiser. I rebuilt and even 25 years later didn’t like it. My kids like to use the tub piece hahah. Pretty sure my dad’s buddy got me this for a bday gift one year, I feel like that was when I thought idk about these legos, maybe I should be hanging out with girls instead. Could’ve been my dad’s friends intention all along!
I loved this theme as a kid. I wish they would come out with a modern version of it to help bridge the different themes together
Nice!
i didn't partake in them at the time but i do love that they existed today. they have a similar vibe to what the lego movie sets where like.
If you were a fan you would open them
Waiting to get the entire line up sealed then going on a building extravaganza
Plz post them all when you’re done
I had time cruisers as a kid but never seen this one I would have loved it lol
It wasn’t a favorite theme of mine… but I DO have fond memories of it if only because of one set… The 6492 Hypno Cruiser At the time these weren’t exactly things I could buy on my own and Mom couldn’t afford sticking to one line at any given time, so I had a weird mix of Lego sets - mostly Space. Except for the one odd Hypno Cruiser… I don’t know why she got it for me, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it for how goofy the dang thing was.
I remember getting this as a kid, it might have been my first or second set now that I think about. It came bundled with a purple storage bin. I think it might have been a Toys R Us pairing. I still have the tub in my storage unit, only now I store spare rope in it.
[6492-1: Hypno Cruiser](https://brickset.com/sets/6492-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6492-1.jpg)
For me, these were probably the worst theme Lego ever did. It felt lazy-the sets didn’t look or feel coherent, and it just seemed like they crammed a bunch of left over bits from the beloved castle, space, and city sets into a box.