Johnny Thunder

John "Johnny" Samuel Grant Thunder (born May 12th, 1983) was an archaeologist and very famous explorer, well-known for discovering such things as the tomb of ancient Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the lost legend known as the Amber Room, as well as the hidden pirate treasure of William Weston. Along the way of these journeys, Johnny met friends such as pilot Harry Cane and Lego City Police Department officer Will Martin, but he also met the love of his life, reporter and journalist Pippin Reed. Assisting him as well was Johnny's mentor and father-figure, Charles Kilroy.

Early life
Johnny Thunder was born as John Samuel Grant Thunder on May 12th, 1983 in Sydney, Australia, to Joseph Thunder, his father, and Martha Freeman-Thunder, his mother. The former of the two, Joseph, was an experienced adventurer in his own right, and had gone on many expeditions with Professor Charles Kilroy, as well as black market antiquities dealer Victor Bains, the intimidating and ruthless father of Samuel Bains. Unfortunately for both Johnny and Joseph, Martha died shortly after giving birth to her son, leaving her husband a widower. After this, Joseph retired from treasure hunting fully in order to take care of his son. This went relatively well up until Johnny was 10 years old, in 1993.

By this point, Joseph had racked up so much debt towards Victor Bains that it was getting too dangerous to be close to Johnny anymore. Fearing for his child's life and not wanting to lose anyone else, Joseph contacted his old friend Charles Kilroy, requesting that he take a flight to Australia to come and pick up Johnny and bring him back to the place that Charles called his residence: Lego City, Wyoming. Joseph left the house, and reached the mountains of Eastern Asia where he lived in refuge for the rest of his life, while Charles did as instructed and took Johnny back with him to the United States. These events led to Johnny looking up to Charles as a father-figure.

Life in America
From that point forward, Johnny lived with Charles, eventually becoming a rookie unpaid worker/helper at Charles' Lego City-based museum in 1996, at the age of 13. Two years later, in 1998, while Johnny was overlooking a 398-year old painting of old and obscure warlord Sir Henry Brighting. While looking over it, Johnny discovered what appeared to be a map hidden in the textures of the picture. This was his first true encounter with the world of archaeology and treasure hunting. However, after Johnny reported this to Charles, the painting was taken away for more professional examination. In 2004, 1930s-era explorer Jake Raines passed away due to natural old age. Raines was a huge hero and inspiration for Johnny, especially regarding his findings in the Egyptian deserts in 1934. 3 years after that, in 2007, Charles Kilroy finally retired at age 58, leading Johnny to become the new curator and overseer of the museum.

First encounter with Sam Sinister and discovering El Dorado
Late at night on May 15th, 2008, Johnny was about to close up the museum when it was broken into by private collector and son of Victor Bains, Samuel Bains, who had acquired the nickname "Sam Sinister" by this time. Sinister stole several objects from the museum which were apparently related to the lost golden city of El Dorado. Johnny later tracked down exactly what Sinister stole, and headed off to South America to beat him to the treasure. Over the course of the next 14 days, until May 29th, Johnny headed to South America and actually did manage to reach the treasure before Sinister, retrieving artifacts from it and bringing them back to the museum in Lego City. This was the first of Johnny's many major adventures over the next 9 years or so, and the beginning of his true explorer/archaeologist career.