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A video/picture review of "Mystery of the Sphinx", a recreation of set #5978 "Sphinx Secret Surprise".

"Sphinx Secret Surprise" was one of the original sets from the LEGO Adventurers theme back in 1998-2003. It was modeled after a sphinx, and also included two obelisks, a statue of Anubis, a small car, and a camp. The brave Johnny Thunder and the vile Baron Sam Sinister von Barron both came to this ancient sphinx, seeking a ruby placed on a pedestal just outside the sphinx. What neither of them knew was a deadly booby trap that was inside the sphinx...

Now, "Sphinx Secret Surprise" was released back in 1998, and as most LEGO fans know, sets do not tend to be on shelves for more than a year and a half. And unfortunately I never got the chance to nab this excellent set while it was on the shelves - wallet and time issues, you know. But luckily LEGO released a program called "LEGO Digital Designer" in 2005, in which you design a model, send it to LEGO, and they mail you the pieces to build the model. It took several years due to limitations with the brick pallets in order to get the proper bricks, but in 2008 I was finally able to make a recreation of the "Secret Sphinx Surprise".

The only alterations I made to the model were a slight modification to the car to make it look more solid (since the piece was not avaliable using LEGO Digital Designer's brick pallet, but luckily I had it in my collection) and the inclusion of Minifigs such as Johnny Thunder, Gail Storm (a.k.a. Pippin Reed), Charles Lightning (a.k.a. Dr. Kilroy), and Baron Sam Sinister von Barron. The skeleton was included with the set.

It's a rather good recreation of the set, even including the Anubis statue and one obelisk. Granted, it's not the real thing, but considering the limitations of LEGO Digital Designer, this is as close to the real thing as it gets. This video/picture review shows the different aspects of "Mystery of the Sphinx" and its functions.

Of course, the Island Racer and the two Minifigs at the end were not part of this set, but added for the review.

The music was written by David R. Punshon and Richard Wells; three Egyptian-style tracks called "Desert/Pyramid Area", "Snake Pursuit/Desert Speedster", and "Wack-a-Snake (Sphinx Theme)". The two Minifigs at the end are property of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lucasfilms. Johnny Thunder, Gail Storm, Charles Lightning, Baron Sam Sinister von Barron, LEGO Digital Designer, Adventurers, "Sphinx Secret Surprise", Minifig and Brick designs, and so on and so forth are property of The LEGO Company.