Imperial Guards: Bluecoat and redcoat uniforms

[Dreamweb]

The blue were just sailors. Every ship in the British Royal Navy carried a crew of 'Red-coat' soldiers proportional to the total population on board

I'm curious - were the reds in command of the blue? Or on the contrary, were they just cannon fodder?

As for the Spanish army - since I have only one set with Spanish minifigs (The Armada Flagship), I used them as officers (or maybe just soldiers?). I also used some other cool torsos (from Ninja and Castle sets for example, and some of origin unknown to me) for another Spanish soldiers, and I filled the army with ordinary seamen all of which have this torso:

I'll post some pictures of my Spanish army when I have some more free time.

[Sting]

I would love to see your Spanish army.

I just wish Lego would make the same quality and type of Pirate sets they used to. Obviously they won't be the exact same, but what they have now is just ridiculous.

What do you guys think is the chance we could see Lego developing new and good Pirate sets within the next 5 years? The next 10? the next 20?

[Mister Phes]

It would be really great if they read Suvie D's survey results and saw how many AFOLs wanted Pirates to return then got to work on it right away... I shall dream on.

Just wait a minute here! Many say that LEGO won't go to great lengths to applease AFOLs, but they're quite happy to churn out themes for minority age groups like 0-12 month olds. Why can't they do the same for AFOLs. I.e. create a theme intended for AFOLs (who are apparently 30% of the market now - or so I read in another thread). Someone going to tell me the 0-12 month olds cover more than 30% of the market?

[metallifreak44]

In regards to the command structure aboard British Man-of-War, there was a Captain and 3 Lieutenants to the Red-Coat Army aboard each ship. The Captain reported directly to the Admiral who was in command of the entire vessel. Although the divisions between soldiers and sailors were different, and predominantly the sailors were in charge, no one of less authority than the highest ranking officer in command of the ship - be him Captain or Admiral, could tell the Infantry (Red-Coats) what to do. But if it was something really petty, like a Red-Coat Sergeant was not where he was supposed to be, a Commanding Lieutenant (Blue-Jacket) could give him orders because disobediance to any higher ranking Officer no matter where they came from was considered treason and was severely punishable. If what I said makes sense...

[Mister Phes]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Man O Wars come after the golden age of Piracy in the Caribbean?

[metallifreak44]

I think they did. But I know that they had the same crew structures since the beginning of Naval exploration. So same kind of dealey.

[Bondy_the_champ]

Hi there to clear this up, upon the transition from the blue to the red the catalog of mine states that governor broadside (blue) was unable to fight off the pirates so admiral woodhouse (red) is there to finish the job, because these are both english names and they both get along i'm proposing that they are both english navy

[Mister Phes]

Ahhhhhhhh Bondy, you are indeed a champ!

Is this the 1992 LEGO Catalogue? As I recall in the Australian version it read something along the lines of "Admiral Woodhouse thought Captain Broadside was a fool by the way he dealt with pirates" so their relations weren't exactly friendly even if they were on the same side.

Is it possible you could scan that catalogue page?

[Dreamweb]

I always wondered why ADMIRAL Woodhouse's flagship was smaller than CAPTAIN Broadside's :) And yes, it also appeared to me that these two guys didn't like each other.

[Mister Phes]

I thought it was because at the time the Caribbean Clipper was designed only the larger sized hull base was available. Then in subsequent years LEGO designed a smaller sleeker hull base which was obviously used for Imperial Flagship.

[Dreamweb]

Still seems strange, after all wide hull sections didn't cease to exist and it's a pity Lego didn't release more soldiers' ships with wide hulls, but the small size of their ships is a popular subject anyway.

[Mister Phes]

As we've mentioned in other threads it would have been nice if LEGO made an Imperial Ship (like a Frigate) the same size as the Black Seas Barracuda or bigger!

[Dreamweb]

Just a question:

The Soldiers had Governor Broadside as their leader, the Imperial Guards had Admiral Woodhouse. Was there ever mentioned what was the name of the Imperial Armada/Spaniards' captain? I've heard the name Cortez somewhere but it might have just been made up by some afol, I'm looking for an official name.

[Mister Phes]

Don Cortez is the name of the treasure Captain Red Beard and Captain Kragg are competing for in the hideous 4+ line...

Maybe the answer lies on the inside flap of the Imperial Flagship box. I presume somewhere is a paragraph of text explaining who is on the boxes front flap (the bit that lifts up at the front). As I don't own a 6280 box I cannot check, problem is different regions would have different boxes too. Some without the text and others with...

[languages]

Red and Blue coats are both British arnt they?

[Mister Phes]

They can be if you want them to be...

[Dreamweb]

Don Cortez is the name of the treasure Captain Red Beard and Captain Kragg are competing for in the hideous 4+ line...

So the guy I've seen use the name just messed it all up.

So no one knows the Spanish leader's name? I need it for a poll I'm planning...

[Mister Phes]

To my knowledge there were no official Imperial Armada mini-figure names. Ask this creature where he got Cortez from. Maybe he's confused or maybe he knows something I don't - which rarely happens when it comes to Pirate LEGO.

[TalonCard]

To my knowledge there were no official Imperial Armada mini-figure names. Ask this creature where he got Cortez from. Maybe he's confused or maybe he knows something I don't - which rarely happens when it comes to Pirate LEGO.

This is an ancient discussion, but the 1996 Pirate issue of Mania Magazine states that the Armada Admiral was found orphaned as a baby by Islanders. No one knew what his name was, so he's just known as the "Admiral". There was actually a contest to give the Admiral a name, but I don't remember what name ended up winning--I'll have to check my later issues. My favorite? Don DeLego. :-D

TC

[Mister Phes]

In the Pirate Forum there is no law preventing the revivial of an old topic providing you've got interesting information to contribute! It seems you know interesting facts that I've never heard of before, so I'm wondering what part of the world you're from? And that's this Mania Magazine?

[TalonCard]

In the Pirate Forum there is no law preventing the revivial of an old topic providing you've got interesting information to contribute! It seems you know interesting facts that I've never heard of before, so I'm wondering what part of the world you're from? And that's this Mania Magazine?

Great! I'm from the good 'ol US of A. The Mania Magazine was part of a LEGO club you could join in the US and Canada. I think there's a gallery of old cover scans somewhere on the net...

TC

[Scouty]

You can try Peeron for old scans. As well as Brickshelf. ( but i'm not sure they still do scans?)

[john cleese]

if you take a look at the flags. The blue flag has four fluerdelise which are symbols associated with france and french colonies, as is the white cross. Where the red striped flag of the red coats has a british royal crown. I beleive this provides us with enough proof that the red coats and blue coats were intended to be british and french respectively.

[TalonCard]

if you take a look at the flags. The blue flag has four fluerdelise which are symbols associated with france and french colonies, as is the white cross. Where the red striped flag of the red coats has a british royal crown. I beleive this provides us with enough proof that the red coats and blue coats were intended to be british and french respectively.

More important, I think, is that both the blue and the red flags have the same crossed cannon/crowns on them. It's pretty clear that LEGO intended them both to be on the same side, since the catalogs show sets like Lagoon Lock-up near the Imperial Trading Post, and Governor Broadside of the blue soldiers has been linked to the Imperial Guard-era sets. Which side that is, is up for debate. In my mind, it's pretty definite that the two forces are allied, and that rather than being definitely French or British, they are from an unspecified Lego equivelent of England or another country in Europe, and aren't intended to be any more historically accurate than the coat-of-arms in the castle sets. Of course, some of this stems from the fact that I don't have enough Imperial Guards or soldiers to stand against all the pirates on their own... :-D But, as always, the great thing about Lego is that you can make whatever you want out of it!

TC

[john cleese]

More important, I think, is that both the blue and the red flags have the same crossed cannon/crowns on them. It's pretty clear that LEGO intended them both to be on the same side, since the catalogs show sets like Lagoon Lock-up near the Imperial Trading Post, and Governor Broadside of the blue soldiers has been linked to the Imperial Guard-era sets. Which side that is, is up for debate. In my mind, it's pretty definite that the two forces are allied, and that rather than being definitely French or British, they are from an unspecified Lego equivelent of England or another country in Europe, and aren't intended to be any more historically accurate than the coat-of-arms in the castle sets. Of course, some of this stems from the fact that I don't have enough Imperial Guards or soldiers to stand against all the pirates on their own... :-D But, as always, the great thing about Lego is that you can make whatever you want out of it!

TC

well that might be true from a pratical point of view but if you took the box for the imperial flagship along with the box from the carribean clipper to a historian and asked him what he thought, i'm sure he would say the bluecoats were probably supposed to be french. That or (Who the hell are you! Get out of my office imediately!) i suppose it would depend on his mood. (forgot to mention this before but minus the cannon and crown the bluecoats flag looks like quebecs flag, which is why i thought the bluecoats were french in the first place.)