David Thomsen

Even though the next non-licensed Pirates theme is 2-3 years away at minimum, it's still possible to speculate on how the new parts, innovations and building styles of today might affect the future of the theme. With the reviews for POTC Silent Mary just coming out, I thought that would be a good place to start. Weaponry: The previous POTC sets all had the classic brown guns and rifles, but the guns in Silent Mary are all pearl dark grey (or something similar). It could just be a new look specifically for Silent Mary and/or any future POTC sets, but it's possible that, after 28 years, grey guns are going to be the new normal. Headgear: The 2015 Soldiers didn't have tricorns, but the ghost soldiers on the Silent Mary did, so I think it's entirely possible we will see tricorns on the soldiers again in the future. Also, I don't see why we wouldn't see the balding bandanna look from the Scallywag Pirate used again, maybe in other traditional bandanna colours like white, blue and green.

The 'Pirates theme getting worse' topic has been floating at the top of the Pirates forum for quite some time now... basically I just wanted to start a topic where people only talk about the things they like about the modern Pirates theme, and what they look forward to in the future. So I'll start I guess... Modern bricks! One example is the 'brick' brick used in the 2015 Soldier sets. While I have fond memories of of the printed brick pattern in sets like Sabre Island, nothing beats actually building those patterns out of proper Lego pieces. And while I had my reservations about the new bandanna piece, I admit it adds some variety to my pirate headgear. And then there's things like bottles and telescopes, which didn't exist in classic Pirates. Modern torso back-printing! I really appreciate this extra detail. Faster updates! Some of the classic torsos from 1989 were still being used five or more years later. Not so with the updates between 2009 and 2015 Pirates, where all new torsos were being used. (And mostly new faces, I think). Modularity! I really enjoy being able to connect several of the 2015 sets together to make larger sets. D2C sets. Okay, there has only been one of these so far, the Imperial Flagship... but the scale of it totally makes up for not having had the BSB as a kid. And I don't care what the haters say, I love every part of my IF. Even if the next Pirates line is in 2021 or something, I'm looking forward to seeing what new innovations and ideas between now and then keep things fresh and new. Who knows... maybe we'll get a female Pirate captain, or an all female Pirate crew. The future's so bright, I have to put on my sunglasses.

Whenever I visit this thread I am reminded of ...

True. If the keywords are Millennium and Falcon then it could be any kind of MF. But at this stage they might as well have a banner on their website saying 'UCS Millennium Falcon Coming Soon But We're Keeping It A Secret For Now'. I'm no longer waiting for confirmation. I'm waiting for pictures.

I thought you were trolling, or that it says this for every search query, but you're right! I am as excited as my wallet is terrified. This is definite confirmation.

I wouldn't discount them doing one of the smaller Creator sets, they've been trying new things with the theme lately. They used to only do houses, recently they've done a few other things like the sea plane and the camper van, and now they're doing a space shuttle. It wouldn't surprise me if their next experimental is in non-City themed sets, like Space and Pirates. And the camper van had a fabric awning, so it's possible that they might have a sail or two in a Creator set. Just randomly speculating, a set could have this combination of builds: A one-sail, brick-built-hull ship with a small island A shipwreck A small harbour building, with the pillars of the dock made out of the sloped hull pieces, turned around so that the sloped sides are hidden underneath the dock. The sail could become some kind of awning Regarding an Expert Themed ship, there's the Imperial Flagship which I think was an 'Advanced Model' rather than a Pirate set. And I think the Advanced Models got rebranded as Creator Expert? But I doubt they'd do something like that again if it's not paired with an actual Pirate theme, the way the IF was.

I'm really hoping we get some meaningful information on the 4th of May... at the moment it just seems like a feedback loop of people sourcing people who sources this very forum... the only thing I really trust at the moment is that 'several trustworthy people have suggested there will be a new UCS Millennium Falcon later in the year'.

Thanks for hiding, I look forward to seeing it for the first time in my hand A couple of other torsos from the series might also be useful, like the striped Frenchman top could be used for a pirate, and the gourmet chef's top could be used for an army.

I'm not really sure this belongs here, but I couldn't think where else it belongs... While most of the S17 Collectible Minifigures have been revealed, one is still blacked out and hasn't been revealed yet. At first I was bemused by this, but now I've come to actually be excited... it's been so long since I bought a set where I wasn't intimately familiar with all of the parts, and it'll be a nice change to buy something and actually see it for the first time in hand. My request is that the front page news preserves this secrecy, and I don't get the surprise spoiled by seeing it on a news article one day. I have a feeling this would be in keeping with the wishes of the Lego company as well. (Obviously I don't think it would need to be enforced that all discussion of it is behind spoiler tags, since it would be my own common sense to avoid places where it might be discussed. But it's hard to avoid front page news)

I feel like it's unlikely that the Islanders will be in the first year of a new series of Pirate, it'll always be Pirates versus Soldiers in the first year, and then maybe Islanders or Conquistadors introduces in the second or third year. And for the last decade we haven't got past the first year of Pirates I also wonder if 'Islanders' isn't seen as a little un-politically correct by now. In the 90s I didn't question it, but every time I talk about 'Islanders' now I'm aware I have some friends who would throw me some serious side-eye if they knew about it... having the one-off CMF in 2013 is one thing, having a full Islander theme is another.

I will laugh so hard if it's just a playset of the interior, with no outer shell

I had sort of intended this topic as 'speculation of future sets based on current developments' and it seems to have turned into a general Pirates wishlist theme, which is still cool because there hasn't been enough of that lately Anyway I'm just looking at some of the new images of 'Summer' sets (Winter in my case) and I noticed a couple of things... There's a new Machete piece in the City Jungle sets. ('City Jungle'?). I'm almost certain this will be in future Pirate sets, as a Pirate substitute for the old cutlass. It's much better than the weird tooth piece they gave to the pirate dwarf guy in the Imperial Flagship. Also a couple of set have a giant venus flytrap, which I think would go really well in an Islander set. Actually, now that I think about, these City Jungle sets would pretty great for Islanders, if you take away all the modern vehicles...

At this point I'm honestly baffled that people are still expecting a reveal... I see no reason why they would create all this drama and mystery around this one figure if they plan to reveal it before the release anyway. And yeah, as soon as the first AFOL opens one, every AFOL will know what it is. But for every AFOL who learns what the figure is the minute one is opened, there'll be a hundred kids who get the excitement of seeing it for the first time in their hands. And I think that's awesome.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense that it would be a 'mystery figure' only until the release. It'll be a mystery after as well. I wonder if it'll have a separate fold-out minifig checklist, the other fifteen will still have mystery the figure blackened out and only the mystery minifig itself will have a picture and assembly instructions. To be honest I'm actually kind of excited by it. I haven't bought a set in so long where I haven't pored over the set pieces and instructions in fine detail before I even got my hands on it. I'm tempted to avoid this topic from now on, and just let myself be surprised when I open the actual packet.

Strangely, I'm more inclined to believe strong rumours than what Lego actually say about whether there are any plans...

I watched this video (and even got mentioned in it because I gave them a donation) and at 3:18:40 they are making the sails and he uses a "new piece that he's never seen before" that becomes part of the mast. I can't make it out in the video (it's small and black) but I wonder if it's a new piece specifically designed for the construction of ship masts? I haven't been able to find a good picture of this new piece anywhere. If they stick with the grey guns it would make sense to continue to give black swords to the pirates, because if the guns and the swords are all grey, it might look somewhat dull. I think grey guns and black swords would have to be given to very 'dark' pirates though, compared to the colourful pirates we normally get. But we've had dark themes like Monster Hunters before, so maybe 'dark' pirates could be a thing. I also wonder if these ragged sails could be used for a shipwreck set of some kind. I doubt they'd use it on another pirate ship, it would take the specialness away from this one.

Huh you're right. People so often discuss actual upcoming sets here, I'd completely forgotten that it's a 'rumours' thread.

I wonder if there should be another thread made about "wild speculation about sets that haven't even been confirmed yet"

What happens in August? The sets are available now.

Hi I've been waiting for the right Technic sets to buy, just as a token Technic set or two for my collection, and I really like the way they've created a homage to set 8860 out of sets 42057, 42061 and 42063... but I can't find the official instructions anywhere! I can't find a reference to it anywhere on the Lego Technic website. Does anyone know where the instructions are?

This link has some more pictures, one of which has the Modular Modern Home seen from the back. There are no pins or holes on the back, and the things sticking out of the side of the building would prevent it from attaching to anything that way. Maybe the doors can be swapped around? They're very similar builds. I dunno. If they are 'modular', I find it unlikely that they will be modular in a way that interests me, if they can't be made into whole buildings.

Of course, the one I am most interested in is the one still blanked out As a collector of Pirate/Space collectible minifigures, none of the rest interest me... only the retro spaceman's retro gun. I feel the figure itself won't fit with my Space collection? Also the figure has that subtle gender bias. If we're getting a male and a female version of a figure, the male will come first. If the character is a one-off, like this one will probably be, it'll always be 'traditional' gender for that minifig.

Brickset has some new high quality images of most of the upcoming creator buildings, and they seem to confirm that the buildings will have open backs and don't have the ability to fold closed. This is sad for me because I'm really only interested in enclosed buildings. However, very good for my wallet since collecting minifig-compatible Creator sets was getting out of hand. It's possible that the smallest build of the Family Villa set is small enough to have enough bricks to make it an enclosed building, but I'm not interested in buying a Creator set just to make the smallest build... Curiously, the 1st floor (or 2nd, depending on how your country counts floors) of the main Family Villa build has solid grey behind the windows giving the impression of an enclosed space, but this grey wall does not appear to be brick built.

If they released a 'broken' ship and included instructions on how to build a 'complete' ship out of two sets, that would be the most diabolically clever way to entice me to buy two copies of the ship because I'm not interested in incomplete ghost ships....

I don't think they'd be smaller when folded closed, just differently shaped. And obviously they've been made to be viewed the way they were presented at the fair, so might not look so interesting folded closed, with features on either side of the buildings. I'm fairly certain at this point that the Family Villa and Poolside Holiday sets can be folded closed, but I'm still worried about the Modern Home. There just doesn't seem to be enough wall area to make a complete building. I miss the old Creator houses too, like the Modern Town House, which I also didn't get because Dark Ages. I was hoping that the Family Villa would be more like one of those houses, but I think they're focussing too much on features at the expense of substance. I'd quite like a more solid house, even if it is more plain.