Wow! So take notes everyone. This is how you take a sort of difficult challenge and have fun with it. Who is agent Janus? It turns out the Agent can be male, female, from another time...or can be a robotic car. let's get to it!
As if this was a race,
fe2cruz flies out of the gate with his street tracker motorbike. He uses an unorthodox technique to outfit his figs that has since become one of his signature look. Scrunchies have never looked so adorable. I just want to give that minifig a big hug!
Then he certainly doesn't disappoint with this Spy Hunter poster that hearkens back to the day when the Atari 2600 was the best thing in the history of the world ever! I can still hear that PeterGunn theme music!
Then he posts his black and white 14 wide Spy Hunter hot hatch to chase down the evil Dr. Nothing.
Speaking of Dr. Nothing, he has some pretty sinister ideas...but even he had to return to the drawing board when he realized his invisible Test Driver car didn't make the nudist driver invisible...nor the red rimmed tires. Its like that dream you have in Jr. High...you know the one. Its the first day of school, you're getting your class schedule down pat, you're meeting your new teachers and getting acquainted with a whole slew of new peers when suddenly you realize half way through fifth period you've been naked all day.
Next fe2cruz submits this awesome little Corvair Dune Buggy to chase down Dr. Nothing's bank heist partner Thomas Crown. Yep, there's no shortage of very cool back stories in this great challenge!
If you think my buddy
bucklava is new to LUGNuts think again. He was a founding member back in the good old days and a steady contributor to our challenges way back when LUGNuts was just a fumbling rookie. Now I'm happy to see he has joined this challenge with his Camel1 AND his signature backdrops!
Keeping up with
Lego911 is like a full time job. Luckily I'm currently self unemployed so I didn't miss a beat. We start off with Agent Janus' Land Rover 110 (both the CAD and real brick version)complete with microcopter!
Dull government bureaucrats in Australia just love the Holden VR Commodore Executive. It even sounds like a bureaucrat's car. At least when the dull, tired, boring bureaucrat gets tired of being...um...dull, tired and boring, they can do wicked burnouts in this baby!
It turns out he have dull, boring government bureaucrats here in the US too (boy do we ever!)but here they favor the '91 Caprice 9C1 in battleship gray. Before the fame and glory that comes with being a secret agent,Janus had to start somewhere and this was his preferred ride to smoke baddies.
Every secret agent needs a sexy yet deadly exotic villainess. Enter Cassandra and her turbo rotary powered MX5 Miata Mk III! Both fig and car are sultry and dangerous...yet alluring...proving once and for all that I never learn from my mistakes. I just keep falling for those badass villainous types!
Speaking of badass, one of my fave entries of 911's is this specially modified Desert Blaster. You gotta give mad props for posing this MOC amongst sand and sky. It just really adds to the story and feel of this great vehicle.
When 911 builds for a challenge, he also considers every member of the main character's extended family. Agent Janus' father, Wing Commander Steven Conroy from the USAF flew for the RAF during WWII. (talk about international!)He also drove a 1949 Ford Tudor Police unit. 911 paid homage to me and my old police build with this new MOC...(awwwww, ain't that sweet)...incidentally I had to destroy my police car this month in order to build my Janus vehicle so strangely it all comes full circle here. What's old is new!
With another dedication to my old work, (my head is soooo huge right now!) 911 builds another '49 Ford but this time a taxicab for Conroy's beautiful French wife Aurelie Domonique of Bordeaux used to gather intelligence from Soviet spies. It makes sense too...you wouldn't believe how many secrets I've given away to cabbies. They just have a way of making ya talk.
And I'd totally spill the beans for that sexy hench-mistress Cassandra who appears again in this MX-5 race. 911 tells us that no agents died in this encounter, though another agent in one of the other MX5s was badly injured in a crash after being shot by Cassandra. Eh, for her, I'd take a bullet!
Then we get introduced to Janus' support team called Agent Force and their Agent Rapid Delivery and Recovery Truck or AaRDvArk. This modified Agents set is chock full of new goodies and can carry any of Janus' fave vehicles.
Did you know in the 1960's Dr. Nothing chief Henchman went by the name of Mr. Oblivion? I didn't...and I came up with the name Dr. Nothing (cuz Dr.Zero was already taken)but that's part of the joy of laying out a loose challenge like this and encouraging everyone to expand upon the guidelines already given. He drives a sinister Mercedes-Benz W110 190 Saloon. He's also Cassandra's father. (swoon!)
When an agent comes to full term and no longer needs to drive a gov't issue POS he has a fave special car...in this case its the sporty 2000 Jaguar F-Type Prototype Roadster in subdued dark gray and flashy yellow and green racing stripes.
Janus caught the racing AND secret agent spy bug from his parents. Once again Wing Commander Conroy plays an important factor when we catch a glimpse of his Ford GT40 LeMans Racer.
With plot twists worthy of any Ian Flemming James Bond novel we finally get a look at Janus' mom, Countess Aurelie Dominique and her 1958 Facel-Vega HK500. I'm in awe...both the car and the fig are stunning! Maybe I'm not so good at this secret agent thing but for her, I'd give away all my secrets! I still sleep with a teddy bear and my bank pin number is 1234. What more would you like to know?
Are we still on Lego911? Holy crap! Ok, so Agent Janus has a love interest. (Don't we all...Cassandra) and she is a Russian-American living in London and her name is...Natasha. (Say, wait a minute! I smell another nod in my direction!) Being a staggering six feet tall, in her long skirt and flimsy halter top, she serves as a nice distraction for both agent good and bad guys alike. And this towering gal drives a tiny Smart car. Smart, ain't she?
Secret Agent work is not all about suped-up Aston Martins and Lamborghinis yanno? Sometimes its all about making a narrow escape on a tiny foldaway scooter while still sporting a tuxedo. Its true. See.
But just in case you thought Secret Agent work was all about suped-up Lamborghinis, 911 throws in this entry...a Lambo modified for use in the snow. Some people like 4WD...some swear by snow tires and chains...while still others insist on caterpillar traction and skis!
When Agent Janus needs a truck, he gets a truck. Like this green Ford F-150 suitable for hauling big loads, like a blow up dingy. (Insert your own joke here!)
And when Janus needs to blend in with the locals on the streets of London his preferred ride is a bright red Mini Cooper with the glorious Union Jack on the roof. A rather punk rock car if you ask me. God save the Queen! Bloody hell then! Right-o! Bollocks! That's my best punk rock impersonation. You youngins should discover The Sex Pistols if you haven't already.
Ok, phew! Lego911 is done and we move onto
The Big Rafalski. It was bound to happen...great Janus fig...AWESOME story line and an invisible Jeep Hurricane concept vehicle. OK, cool idea but we wanted to see more. We waited. And waited. And waited. Crap! Now they're rolling the end credits! What the hell happened here? What could have been the coolest agent car ever turned out to be like when they ended the Sopranos finale mid-sentence and fade to black. We want more, damn you Rafalski! Luckily the concept Hurricane fits well into the new What A Concept challenge. Will The Big Rafalski pull through?
But it turns out in Rafalski's world Agent Janus and supporting cast are also racing enthusiasts as we see here. I'm digging the off-center stripes!
Nathan Proudlove shows us that Agent Janus doesn't have to be exactly like James Bond...in fact here she's a sultry looking female albeit with a depth perception problem. Here she careens down the road on a Ducati Monster. Watch out for that tree, Janus!
Nathan brings back the one-eyed Agent Janus fig and this time she sports an aviator's jacket and a styling '65 Triumph Spitfire convertible. I can just see the wind blowing through her Lara Croft hair as she races by. Oooops, she didn't see me trying to thumb for a ride! Probably for the best.
If anyone is a trendsetter it's Steve (
kwycstix) Walker. (gasuntheit!) he started everyone on the whole gov't issue POS craze...which I can only assume stands for Poopypants Oh boy Spaghetti! Long before Agent Janus was a world renowned secret agent, he was a bureaucrat's errand boy seen here with his nondescript black sedan.
Then in an effort to outdo Batman's Tumbler, Janus gets a little wild with The Roller. With Kevlar inflatable tires the good agent can easily roll over Dr. Nothing's mine fields.
Next we have Janus' sleek black supercharged mobile arms depot complete with a deadly Brickarms arsenal. (Now we're talking!)
Next Agent Janus ups the ante in his BMW prototype and grappling gun...suitable for mind blowing and death defying stunts amongst an amusement park Ferris wheel where he shows good guys have no bounds when it comes to heroism when he rescues Dr. Nothing's ex-mistress. Is her name Cassandra by chance? Be still my beating heart!
Agent Janus easily deals with Dr. Nothing's henchmen...and a few small spruce trees in his 4x4 Brute shown here.
But Dr. Nothing retaliates in a big way with his menacing rig! Hidden within its walls is a miniature version of the Planetary Disintegration Device he calls Much Understated Disintegration Device (MUDD).
Even in the world of one builder, there was no rule in the challenge saying that Agent Janus couldn't change sexes or time periods. Here we see a sultry female Janus posing for pics as Miss January. That's because kwycstix (gasuntheit!)knew that Janus also meant January. But did you? He was also a Roman God with two faces...perfect for a secret double agent, eh?
Who is Agent Janus?,
Dylan Denton asks. With no figs to speak of it turns out Dylan didn't even answer his own question, but based on the famous Back To The Future DeLorean we can only assume Agent Janus is the crazy haired, wild eyed Doc. Brown...or his sniffling, ever confused sidekick Marty.
Next Dylan submits a decidedly cool Dune Buggy but with no fig he still hasn't answered the question of Who is Agent Janus. PS...he states that he might add guns to this later.
Proving that what monkeys see, monkeys do,
Lardydooty/Phil ACDC Rocks/Ozzy Ozbourne (pick a name and stick with it!) follows Dylan's misguided lead with a figure-less entry...a sort of generic black sportster. We find out later Ozzy is not doing so well in Algebra so lets encourage him to hit the books before he hits the bricks. And something tells me he's not really the Prince of Darkness.
So take notes from Ralph "
Mad Physicist" Savelsberg on how to have fun with a challenge. You insert your own namesake into an awesome back story...i.e. Dr. Nothing as the Mad Physicist, then throw in a sultry redhead in a black sack dress, then stir in a lime green Lamborghini and a generous portion of Dutch wit and you have the formula for LUGNuts success. Your results may vary.
When the economy is in a pinch, even secret agents feel it. That's why in
J4ke's world Agent Janus drives a Volkswagen Scirocco...and why not? It's a cool little fuel efficient car AND happens to be Jake's first LDD'd 10-wide car. He's rather pleased and so are we.
Everything is just bigger in Tim Inman's (
Rabidnovaracer) world. Here he submits a 26 stud wide beast, the Mercedes Benz SL65 AMG Black Series. This baby is chock full of awesome spy gear like machine guns, rockets, missiles and smoke and oil for defense. Also freaky big are the Agent Janus fig and his sexy assistant Natasha...another nod to my apparent affinity for Russian mail order brides. A word of advice...always learn the Safe Word in Russian. You youngins and wholesome types...should never learn what a Safe Word is. You'd be better off not knowing.
obxcrew shows us the The Aston Martin DB5 in light gray...a classic James Bond secret agent car. He cites Tim Gould and Ralph Savelsberg as inspiration. (don't we all?) its a tricky 5-wide without door handles. Nice!
Proving he's hell bent on having the only Janus figure with white go-go boots AND a first name,
Lino Martins achieves both with this '63 Ford Thunderbird. This baby is chock full of spy gear including rotating license plate, razor wire, long range missiles, ejection seat and a Brickarms arsenal big enough to take down a small country. (Yeah, you heard me, Monaco! You think you're tough? Think again!)Sleek, deadly,high performance,stealthy and black...and the car ain't bad either!
Speaking of sleek, deadly and black, we all know KITT from Knight Rider...and
Firas Abu-Jaber has delivered the iconic car in a style only he can pull off! Suddenly my 8634 Agents set seems pretty boring in comparison. The whole scene is full of details not to be missed...just look at that amazing scanner light! And how does this fit in with our Agent Janus challenge? Firas says...Janus IS the car! Nice.
Newbie
MetalGearAddict takes us to Dr. Nothing's exotic Pacific Island lair and Agent Janus follows in this 1943 Willies Amphibious Jeep. He got the inspiration from James Bond's Dr. No and figures that's where I got my inspiration. Yes, you're spot on. My original script said Dr. Zero (based on Dr. No) but that name was taken so I went with Dr. Nothing. And now you know.
And just like his namesake inspiration, Dr. No, Dr. Nothing is one sinister dude! later he steals Janus' amphibious jeep and outfits it with the Planetary Disintegration Device.
Sometimes Agent Janus needs help to get him out of bad situations. Enter his lover, the beautiful Adalwolfa. She speaks eight languages fluently, kids. I barely botch up English. Cripes, this means Janus needs to learn eight new Safe Words now.
In the event that Dr. Nothing's shenanigans takes you from the Pacific Islands to the desert of Egypt, Janus and Adalwolfa are well prepared with their Desert Utility Vehicle or DUV.
Even back from the dead,
Raphy proves he's still got some kick to him with this supervan called The Eliminator. (shhhhh, don't tell ZZ Top!)It has a radar screen and hand grenades. My dad's Aries K wagon doesn't have radar screens and hand grenades. It doesn't even have a paint job anymore! Did you think I was going to go this whole challenge without cracking a joke on my dad's Aries K?
Raphy then kicks it up a notch with this Yellow Jacket GT. (shhhh, don't tell those incessantly annoying bees!)This is probably the only car in LUGNuts history with indestructible functions. Should you wrap it around a tree or drive it off a cliff, the car will magically reformulate to its proper configuration. The same can't be guaranteed about the careless student driver.
Mdrn Mrvls shows us that a high society Agent Janus drives a standard British Town Car. In spite of having a paint job closely resembling that of my dad's Aries K and has to do volunteer community service (also like my dad! HAH!),this Agent Janus is rich as evidenced by his top hat and gold Rolex. He's very happy giving back to a community that gave him so much.
Last but not least,
Andromula submits this restyling of the silver Agents car but this time a retooled and armored Ford Shelby Mustang. Dr. Nothing has a lot to worry about now!
Alrighty guys(and girls!)you've all done a great job once again! Now lets see how you do when asked to build far out concept cars. Be sure not to miss the progress of the new challenge called...What A Concept!
