Review:5978 The Secret of the Sphinx/Jack Phoenix

Jack Phoenix
Country: Finland Age Group: AFOL Gender: Probably?
Joined: Quite a while ago № of Reviews: 2 № of Featured reviews: 0
Building Experience: A few decades' worth

Average rating:

5.00

(one vote)

Overview of the set with everything fitted into one picture.

Quite a blast from the past, 5978 The Secret of the Sphinx is an Adventurers Egypt set that was originally released in 1998 and it hasn't been rereleased as a part of the Legends series or anything, unlike 6769 Fort LEGOREDO or 6350 Pizza To Go, for example. At 342 pieces and 7 minifigures, this is the second-largest Adventurers Egypt set, surpassed only by 5988 Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins at 710 pieces and 10 minifigures. According to the Brickipedia page, this set cost about $50 in the United States and $90 in Australia; I don't recall for sure, but I think it cost about 300 mk in Finland back in the day. Not accounting for inflation, this is about 50€ — which, at a glance, seems somewhat high, but trust me when I say that 300 mk was a lot of money back in the day.

The packaging[edit | edit source]

Given that we're talking about a set that some eBay sellers describe as "vintage" or "retro", it's probably understandable that I don't have the original box available anymore. Were it not for the Internet, I'd have to base this section entirely on what I remember, which isn't much. But lo and behold, eBay has almost everything — including some (heavily overpriced) unopened Secret of the Sphinx sets, which nicely show off the box.

The box is pretty big, although I don't have the exact dimensions at hand. But those aren't so important anyway, as boxes are meant to be opened up, right? So in the front we have the whole set with some action going on — Slyboots is trying to sneak up on Dr. Kilroy and Pippin Reed while Johnny Thunder has managed to grab the magical Re-Gou Ruby, only to upset the Pharaoh by doing so. The box has a flap, which allows you to "peek inside" — let's take a look! There are some ancient Egyptian symbols, as well as seven peeking windows, of which six show individual items (coins, snake, magnifying glass, etc.) and the last window shows off a wide array of pieces belonging to the set.

The sides aren't very interesting so I'm not going to write anything about 'em. The back of the set shows off some alternate builds, including some rather creative uses for the included tent.

The linked images are archived from an eBay auction via archive.is.

What's inside the box?[edit | edit source]

So now that we've looked at the box, it's time to look into the box! Alas, this isn't going to be an accurate unboxing description because it's literally been almost two decades since I unboxed this set. So there are 342 pieces in total, which seems slightly low if you compare that to some of the more expensive, high-end models released during the past 6-ish years, but in the 1990s, this was a lot. I'd actually argue that it's still quite a lot of pieces, but the sets have become slightly cheaper. Had a set like 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van been released in 1998, I'd estimate that its price would've been at least 1000 mk (~168€), probably more. The prices are getting more reasonable while the piece count is going up, which is always good.

Baseplates? Baseplates![edit | edit source]

But hey, this set has a raised baseplate! The actual Sphinx is built onto this and you can attach a lot of other stuff, such as the palm tree, too, on it. Not to mention that it looks cool! This particular baseplate is actually an old design which dates back to at least 1992, when it was used in the set 6416 Poolside Paradise — in different, brighter colors, of course. This discussion on BricksetForum.com suggests that raised baseplates were expensive to produce and prone to breaking — luckily I've never had to witness the latter — and, like it or not, so 1990s. I'll be honest and admit that I'm looking at things through very nostalgy-tinted glasses, but what can I say, they are fun and make sets feel a lot bigger than they are. Maybe one day we'll see some modern sets with raised baseplates, but I'm guessing not anytime soon.

Making a Sphinx[edit | edit source]

Onto the smaller pieces! What I find rather remarkable is that this is a big set that nevertheless uses mostly relatively average parts — if we ignore the minifigures and the baseplate, I'd say that the tent, the HC514 license plate, the sextant, the black coffin (both parts) and some of the map pieces are the only truly unique and/or hard-to-find pieces. Of these, the HC514 license plate has appeared at least in 5988 Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins but also the much more affordable Adventurers Amazon set 5936 Spider's Secret.
Various other Adventurers Egypt sets included various map pieces — there are four different ones, each one having a number (20, 40, 60 or 80) in the lower left corner — but I believe the "80" map piece is only included with the biggest two sets, this one and the Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins one, which also seems to include a different color variation of the coffin "top". I'd assume that some other travel/research-related sets would have included the sextant, but I'm not sure; it's actually one of the few pieces that I've managed to misplace over the years and had to order a new one online. Luckily I was able to find one for an affordable price.

Meet the Adventurers[edit | edit source]

Dr. Kilroy with two map pieces

And then there are the minifigures. As the second-largest Adventurers set, this one includes an impressive number of minifigures: Johnny Thunder, the character appearing in the Adventurers logo, and his companions, Dr. Kilroy and Pippin Reed; their enemies, Baron Von Barron and Slyboots, and the neutral characters Pharaoh Hotep and even a Pharaoh Skeleton.
The only character exclusive to the Adventurers Egypt theme that isn't included is Harry Cane. This set is a fine choice if you don't want to buy the smaller sets containing only the character(s) — although I must wonder why the Pharaoh doesn't have a scepter in this set, although he has one in the tiny 1183 Mummy and Cart set.

Playability[edit | edit source]

Push the lever and watch the Pharaoh fly! Well, almost.

By moving the lever on the right side of the Sphinx, you can "push" the Pharaoh out of the Sphinx and scare the Adventurers! This was illustrated in the 1998 LEGO Catalog, even. It's a nice touch, but this set provides plenty of fun even without it. So the Sphinx rests on the raised baseplate, but there are other components to this set than that — there's the tent, the camp, the car and some smaller things, such as the brown box or the black coffin. Not to mention accessories, plenty of accessories! Like a real archeologist, you're gonna need maps to find your way around, magnifying glasses to read them, shovels to dig up treasures (or snakes...) and guns to keep enemies from attacking you. All of these tools are available, so you can make sure Johnny (or his friends) are well-equipped when they go on a ruby hunt.

Verdict[edit | edit source]

This is a wonderfully detailed, pretty big set built mostly using rather standard parts. While I'm glad I got this back in the day, I still wouldn't buy any of the brand new, unopened Secret of the Sphinx sets from eBay or similar sites; at 200+, no matter whether € or USD, that's a ripoff. If and when you can get a used one for 30-60€(/USD), go for it.