Owen Lam

Owen Lam is the "hippest" member of the ClueFinders. He has the title of Team Supplies and Nutrition Officer.

Appearance

Owen is eleven years old and in the sixth grade, making him the second youngest member of the team. He is Asian-American and wears his black hair in a bowl cut. His signature outfit consists of a green shirt, light grayish-blue shorts, orange tennis shoes and sunglasses with purple shades.

Outfit Variations

In The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures: Puzzle of the Pyramid, Owen wore a light reddish-orange shirt, green shorts, and brown sandals.

In the original release of The ClueFinders Math Adventures Ages 9–12: Mystery in the Himalayas, Owen wore a dim green sweater, a brown scarf, long blue pants, and light brown boots. In the newer release, he wore an almost identical outfit, except that his scarf was dark gray, and he wore a blue shirt under his sweater.

In promotional/case artwork, Owen tends to be depicted with purple shorts and blue shades. On the case artwork for The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: Secret of the Living Volcano, Owen is depicted wearing scuba-diving gear consisting of a black wetsuit with red accents and a yellow oxygen tank, although in the actual game, only Joni wears this.

Personality and Character Traits

Owen is the most athletic member of the ClueFinders, and some of his favorite hobbies include surfing and particularly skateboarding. His other biggest interest is food, and he is especially fond of pizza and evidently sub sandwiches. He also likes coffee, as shown in The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures. He speech often contains slang, and he is particularly prone to using the word "dude." According to his profile, his life's ambition is to be the first person to skateboard on Mars, and he has an extensive autograph collection. Owen also loves gorillas, according to Joni's log book in The ClueFinders Real World Adventure Kit.

Owen is shown to goof off and cause trouble sometimes, such as when he was juggling ancient artifacts while the ClueFinders were supposed to be helping Professor Botch. In the book The ClueFinders: The Mystery of the Backlot Banshee, he is described as a daredevil. In some of the games, he also has a tendency to brag, such as in The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures where he brags about having saved Leslie's life, and in the The ClueFinders Real World Adventure Kit, where he says he'd gladly brag about the ClueFinders Club being awesome. However, his jocular nature doesn't keep him from being a smart and reliable teammate. He is particularly good at making accurate guesses as to what actions the ClueFinders should take, and his lucky hunches have helped the team solve all of their mysteries.

His personality (and method of speaking) runs especially counter to Leslie's, and the two of them frequently bounce off of each other. This is because Owen apparently finds her superfluously elaborate form of talking annoying (despite usually being easily able to understand her) and she dislikes the way in which he translates her complex words into layman's terms. However, it has been shown, as in The ClueFinders 6th Grade Adventures: Empire of the Plant People, that the two of them can get along when they need to, and even work well together. They also seem to be on much friendlier terms in the books The ClueFinders: The Mystery of Microsneezia and The ClueFinders: The Mystery of the Backlot Banshee.

In the later games, Owen is instead paired with Joni, whom he seems to have an easier time getting along with. Owen and Joni are both more excitable and impulsive compared to Santiago and Leslie, who are more cautious and calculating. However, sometimes Joni can also get exasperated with Owen when she feels that he's goofing off too much during a case.

Role in the Games

The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: Mystery of Mathra

Owen is first seen aboard the plane that takes the ClueFinders to the Numerian rainforest. After hearing the legend of Mathra, Owen theorizes that Mathra took Dr. Horace Pythagoras to the Lost City. When Joni and Santiago set out to find the keys to the Lost City, Owen remains with Leslie at the camp to serve as backup via Santiago's video phone. Owen is last seen aboard a boat with the rest of the ClueFinders after Dr. Pythagoras is rescued.

The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures: Puzzle of the Pyramid

Owen and the other ClueFinders travel to Egypt to help Professor Botch with the opening of a newly discovered tomb. While inside the tomb, Professor Botch anxiously tells Owen not to juggle the funerary jars, and the ClueFinders are sent home for the day. The next day, the ClueFinders return and see that the place has been deserted, and Professor Botch is missing. Owen and the other ClueFinders set out to rescue the Professor and thwart Alistair Loveless' evil plan. In the game's climax, four Egyptian gods give the ClueFinders special abilities, and Owen is gifted with the power of flight from Horus. This alters his appearance so that he has bright blond hair and yellow bird-like wings. When the ClueFinders confront Seth, the ancient god of chaos, Leslie instructs Owen to fly Santiago up to the pistons that will reverse Seth's awakening and collapse the temple. After the ClueFinders escape with Professor Botch, they revert back to their normal forms. Later, they are all seen together aboard a plane heading home.

The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: Secret of the Living Volcano

Owen and the other ClueFinders go on an oceanic expedition aboard Captain Clark's ship. When a sudden tsunami causes a shipwreck, Owen and Leslie end up trapped in some kind of chamber, isolated from the rest of the ship's crew. They contact Joni and Santiago with their video phone and explain the situation to them. While Joni and Santiago explore the island to search for them and the other crew members, Owen and Leslie try to investigate the mysterious nature of the CrypTiles in their chamber.

The ClueFinders 6th Grade Adventures: Empire of the Plant People

The game opens with Owen and the other ClueFinders playing with a Frisbee in Joni's backyard. Joni's neighbor, Ms. Rose, comes to greet the ClueFinders. Owen and Leslie both greet her in return, and after she leaves, Leslie remarks that she has an endearing personality, to which Owen agrees, and says that she reminds him of his grandma. Suddenly, Owen and Leslie hear Joni and Santiago yelling, and go to investigate. They contact Joni with the video phone, and she explains that she and Santiago fell through a hole in the yard and are trapped in some kind of chamber. Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap set out to investigate and rescue their friends.