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Originally this topic was geared towards the discussion of the mid-80s LEGO Publishing Classic Space comic book series, Jim Spaceborn, but it's since expanded from its roots to encompass retro LEGO comics, storybooks, animated cartoons, and the like in general. I'm however retaining the original contents of the OP below to serve as this topic's initial subject of discussion and to maintain the flow of the topic. For the uninitiated, Jim Spaceborn was a Classic Space oriented LEGO comic book series authored and illustrated by Frank Madsen , and developed and produced in collaboration with LEGO's short-lived publishing division, LEGO Publishing from 1983-1987. The series was initiated after the production of an internal prototype Classic Space book titled Trapped in Space in 1983(from which Jim Spaceborn would later draw a good deal of its inspiration and story elements), written by Douglas Hill and illustrated with photographs. However, the book was never published as LEGO later scrapped the children's book concept, and thus gave birth to the Jim Spaceborn comic book series. The series comprised of three 48-page installments and a series of three 24-page mini-comics, the third installment and the series of mini-comics, however, were never published. Development began with a white 12-page test album "Mission Spyspids", after which a second test album with imagery on 31 pages, and the vast majority of the rest of the album's pages being blank merely to give it the feeling of a final album was produced, this one carrying the name "Jan Spaceborn: Galaxens Hemmelighed". Though the name Jan was later changed to Jim subject to being deemed politically explosive. Both the test albums, unlike the final releases, were hardcover books rather than paperback. Finally, Jim Spacborn 1: The Unknown Galaxy was produced, and published in 6 countries. After which development of the series' second installment Jim Spaceborn 2: The Kidnappers From Swamp Planet/Castle of the Darkmen commenced and was published in 5 of the aforementioned six countries excluding Denmark. The unpublished third installment was titled Panic On Board of which I've uploaded layouts provided by Frank Madsen, and the 3 mini-comics titled The Monorail Service, Cleaning Robot, and The Competition. According to Erik Dyhr Thomsen, LEGO Publishing Product/Development Manager 1982-1988 LEGO Publishing was created by Keld Kirk Kristiansen, current owner of LEGO. His idea of LEGO Publishing was that they should use LEGO bricks in various media, such as books and movies. I've been in contact for a good while now with Frank Madsen among a whole host of others on the series' development team and generally people who collaborated on the project. Frank has been instrumental in the discovery of a lot of the aforementioned, having generously provided the images of the entirety of the contents of the 1983 internal prototype book Trapped in Space, the layouts for Jim Spaceborn 3, the entirety of the initial 10-page test album of The Unknown Galaxy, 1984 and 1987 Jim Spaceborn character model sheets, the original pages of The Unknown Galaxy, some covers and layouts from some of the 3 unpublished mini-comics, and much more to come, some of which I've yet to upload and will edit into the original post when they become available. He's also informed me that sometime in 1986 a Jim Spaceborn animated film was planned and produced in a Danish studio led by Jeffrey James Varab (a former Disney animator) and Jakob Stegelmen. Though development only reached the extent of a storyboard of the initial 10 minutes of the film. Soon after I contacted Jeffrey, and he told me that not only was a feature film based on the comics planned, but as well a series and video game. And if you have anything more to share with regard to Jim Spaceborn or any other retro LEGO comic or the like that hasn't been outlined or shared already please do so. Retro LEGO Comics/Storybooks/Animated Cartoons List Animated Cartoons: Comics: Storybooks:

Warning: May contain mild spoilers for The LEGO Movie. 70803 Bad Cop's Pursuit Review by Fushigisaur For those who have not heard (the sad few) LEGO recently made a feature length motion picture based on it's beloved building toy. However, rather than prominently feature existing sets, the majority of the models used in the film were original creations made specifically for the movie. It is only logical then that these models are released as actual sets under the LEGO Movie label. Each set in this line depicts a scene from the movie, and this set is no exception. In this scene, Emmet, WyldStyle and Vitruvius have boarded a train to escape The Old West, followed closely by Bad Cop. They build a ramp in front of his patrol car, causing him to drive his car over the edge of the bridge. However, Bad Cop quickly rebuilds his car into a flying version, swoops around, and takes out the bridge with his lasers, causing the train to fall into the river below where police gators wait to consume or heroes. They are saved by Batman, but not before Bad Cop manages to attach a tracking device to Emmet's leg.... Bad Cop's Pursuit consists of two parts. The first part is a section of the destroyed bridge. This bridge is actually a little more detailed than I would expect, with damaged rail ties and a vine hanging over the edge. The end of the track is on a hinge, supported by a single pole. This pole can be pulled out to make the bridge drop. There is a handle on the very end that a minifigure can hold on to for dear life. Contrary to what is depicted on the box, if you drop the bridge while a minifigure is attached to this handle it will not fall but remain firmly in place. It is better to set the minifig on top of the tracks so it will actually fall, but you can play with it however you want. Also included is a tiny frog on a rock under the bridge. This adds nothing to the set functionally, but I thought it was a neat little detail nonetheless. While I was not very excited for this part at first, having put it together I must say I really like it. I almost want to buy a couple more of this set to assemble a longer bridge... One complaint is that the colors are a bit too dark. The second part of the set is Bad Cop's car. This is the reason I bought this set, and I would assume most people buy it for the car as well. It is a nice build, very sturdy. There were some nice techniques used in building it as well, though nothing mind blowing. It is a little bland, but this fits nicely with Lord Business's traditional practicality-over-aesthetics approach. It can fit one minifigure inside it, and is actually quite roomy, giving you room to get your fingers down in there to remove the driver. The top flips up and down for easy access to the figure inside. Unfortunately Bad Cop does not fit when he is holding his gun, but without it he fits fine. The car's main gimmick is the laser cannons on the side, which can be folded out when needed and folded back in, very neatly. There are some lights on the front-bottom, the purpose of which I cannot figure out. Overall, I am satisfied with it. Also of note is the fact that, while the car contains no wheels, it does have the wheel-cover pieces in it's design, making me think that it could maybe be rebuilt into it's landbound form with minimal extra pieces added... even if this is not the case, it's still a nice touch to remind you that this was, at one point, a car. Included characters are Emmet, Bad Cop, and two police gators. Emmet comes with the Piece of Resistance, and Bad Cop comes with a special gun which can fire the tracking device when squeezed. Both minifigs have double-sided heads; Emmet is smug on one side and screaming on the other, while Bad Cop has Good Cop on the back of his head, just like in the movie. Unfortunatly Wyldstyle and Vitruvius are not included. Vitruvius can be found in Lord Business's Evil Lair, and Wyldstyle can be found in the blind bags or a few other movie-series sets. So if you want to relive the scene in it's entirety, you need to buy more sets. Diabolical, but very smart. Rating Design: 9 / 10 I shy away from a perfect score, but it's still really good. Both parts are very detailed. The car manages to contain all of it's functionality while staying very compact. Quality: 8 / 10 The car is very sturdy, but the bridge is a bit flimsy. However this may be intentional. Fun: 9 / 10 While I will probably set this on a shelf on display rather than playing with it, I imagine it would be very fun to. it has enough gimmicks to keep a child entertained, and I'm sure any kid would want to reenact the scene from the movies once or twice or twenty times. Price: 9 / 10 $30.00 is about lower-midrange for these sets. It's affordable, but not super cheap either. But it's a good choice for those who want a good sized set but aren't willing to shell out 50-100USD for one. I am not good at putting numbers to things, sorry.

Glad to see you finally posting all this stuff. I don't have much to say at the moment as I've already told you everything I think about this so far, but again, good work - this stuff has collectively been the Holy Grail of retro LEGO media for ages. Oh, and as long as we're on the subject of these old LEGO Publishing comics, here's a shameless plug for my scans of Castle Kids: The Robber Baron, the first comic (and apparently the only released comic) from Jim Spaceborn's castle-themed counterpart: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78925 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=521570 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=522746 To anybody else who finds this stuff interesting, if you haven't already, check out the Pirates comic (The Golden Medallion), the Pirates audio dramas that followed, and the assorted other audio dramas that came after that: http://www.peeron.com/cgi-bin/invcgis/scans/6255-1/?ct=1 http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=76762 http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85529 And if Jim Spaceborn is any indication, where there's LEGO media, there's even more unreleased/unfinished LEGO media...

Jeffrey said the video game was going to be in the same format as Dragon's Lair, correct? A laserdisc game?

You're most welcome. And you'll be pleased to know the storyboard for the first 10 minutes of the Jim Spaceborn animated film still exists, albeit in storage, and Jeffrey's agreed to scan it all for me whenever he next has the opportunity, which may be a while from now as he's very pressed with film work for the moment. On the subject of audio dramas, I forgot to mention that a radio drama at one point was also produced from 5 pages of The Unknown Galaxy by P1's "Your Children's Books", which was a radio magazine of sorts. I'm working on hopefully acquiring this radio drama. I'll also be looking into the development of Castle Kids, along with the Pirates books and comics.

Adding to jamesster's post, you can find most of the audio dramas in this YouTube playlist (although unless you speak German, they won't do much but provide something to read along to). It will never cease to amaze me how far LEGO developed so many projects that ultimately never came to anything. A film, a television series, and a video game? And this all predates project Darwin by several years! (and brings the tally of canned LEGO TV series to 4 or 5, depending on the fate of the Adventurers one). I hadn't realized LEGO Publishing was behind the Edward and Friends Fabuland TV show, although in retrospect it makes sense. I assumed the company petered out after the poor performance of Jim Spaceborn and Castle Kids. The Trapped in Space book is fascinating. The minifigs predate the first officially produced minifigs with faces not built around the classic smile by 13 years. All of this information on the development of both Jim Spaceborn and LEGO Publishing is wonderful to see. It's incredible that they were taking the possibility of stories with minifigs this seriously this early on. Thank you for your efforts in unearthing it all!

To expand on this, though of course you're already aware, but for anyone else who this might be of interest to, according to Mark Stafford in addition to Trapped in Space, there's a Castle equivalent prototype book, a copy of which is in the possession of Niels Milan Pedersen. Which prompts me to wonder if it's as to Castle Kids as Trapped in Space is to Jim Spaceborn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KtYwWsVKU4 I.... I.... Can we even do any of this? Cutscenes? Both Ogel and TeeVee are Presdent Business? Special item tiles? Is this real life?

... Only in the set. The Toa Metru were the only ones who rode a Kikanalo. They should have put him with someone else, like Nidhiki as the Toa of Air. This mask looks good.

Actually, do worry. I have recently trained up some attack dogs, and they'll eat the flesh off anyone who makes pointless posts on this forum.