In 2012, the popularity of the drama Reply 1997 led to a renewed interest in 90s idol groups/fan culture; this in turn gave Moon Heejun the idea of creating a show featuring some of these idols on which they could reminisce about the 90s. And so in 2013, Heejun was able to recruit four other former idols to join him, and 20세기 미소년/Handsome Boys of the 20th Century was born. The group was made up of H.O.T’s Heejun and Tony An, Sechskies’ Eun Jiwon, g.o.d’s Danny Ahn, and NRG’s Cheon Myeonghun. They then went on to form the project group 핫젝갓알지/HOTSechgodRG (H.O.T + Sechskies + g.o.d + NRG), under which they covered NRG’s debut song “I Can Do It” (aka  ”May I Love You”).

The first season ran from April 16th to July 9th. During this season, the group created HOTSechgodRG, recorded a song, filmed an MV, held a fanmeeting, reunited with other members from their original groups (Heejun brought Lee Jaewon, Tony brought Kim Jaeduc, Jiwon brought Jang Suwon, Danny brought Kim Taewon, and Myeonghun brought on Noh Yoomin; plus S.E.S’ Bada also joined them), and attempted to care for a toddler. They also took on the challenge of competing on Immortal Song 2; they covered Park Namjung’s “Days with Rain,” with which they won several of the battles before being defeated.

They were renewed for a second season (August 27th to November 19th), which saw them go on a MT, do a superhero themed photo-shoot for Nylon magazine, travel to Guam for three days, go on a bike trip, and put together their own drama parody. The group continued to garner much praise in the later half of 2013 and announced that they were preparing for a Christmas concert (which was to be called Legend Back). Unfortunately, Tony encountered some legal trouble and had to withdraw from the group and the public eye. The concert was canceled as they felt they couldn’t go on without Tony, but two spin-off shows were created (under the new title of 미소년 통신/Adonis Communications) and ran until the end of the year.

The remaining members split up: Heejun and Jiwon went onto Eunhee Clinic, a show on which they offered advice to rookie idols (J-Walk were also guests), and Myeonghun and Danny became DJ godRG, hosting a faux radio show which focused more on 90s nostalgia.

In early 2014, things grew quiet for the team, but in May, it was announced that HOTSechgodRG would return for a new show in July.

On July 19th, Where Is my Super Hero (WISH) debuted on OnStyle and followed the boys as they attempted to win over the hearts of young women and hit 69,950 likes on their Facebook page in order to hold a guerrilla concert. They unfortunately failed within their given time frame, but nonetheless, they held a mini-concert/fan-meet, at which they also briefly reunited with Tony.

In 2015, HOTSechgodRG made few television appearances, but Tony did make a public comeback, so hope for a five member HOTSechgodRG return was high.

The first half of 2016 did not produce any activities. Though finally, in July, it was announced that the boys (minus Heejun) would film an episode of Jiwon’s Plan Man program.

90s nostalgia is still strong in Korea, so HOTSechgodRG surely are not done yet, and who knows what the boys will be up to next…