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Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of 'Behind the Helm', the new interview series from Classic-Pirates.com. I'm Connor Hicks, aka Captain Zuloo, and over the past few weeks I have been on the lookout for some of the most interesting personalities in the LEGO Pirate community in the hope that we can dig up their pirate-y stories.
C-P: Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Eurobricks Global Moderator and MOC Expert Rick Bewier, known as Captain Green Hair on the Pirate forum. Welcome to the Show Rick.
CGH: Hello Connor!
C-P: So to start the ball rolling, where did your LEGO hobby start?
CGH: LEGO for me started when I was about 6. I remember getting the Black Falcon fortress from my grandparents and it was my first large set. Throughout childhood I never had many other toys, I always asked for LEGO for birthdays and Christmas.
C-P: Would you say you have favourite theme? If so, what is it, and why?
CGH: Well, LEGO has many great themes like Trains, Town, Castle and some pretty cool licensed lines as well.
They all have certain aspects that I like, but my favourite theme has to be Pirates. When they came out in 1989 I went to a LEGO show in a local department store and I saw this big ship there. Ever since that moment I have been building bigger and bigger pirate ships. As a child I never had prefab hull pieces, all was brick built. I regret I have no pictures of any of those models.
C-P: A shame indeed. So how did you wind up on Eurobricks? What do you do there?
CGH: Well I found Classic-Pirates.com first. When I saw that they were discussing my ship The Denise, I decided to join and reply in the thread. I kinda flew through the ranks being made a Fellow within 6 months, and just shortly after I became a moderator as there was a shortage of staff then. At the time we had a lot of spammers and members that were just too young to be here. So we had a few very busy weeks making the forum more organized. We still work on organizing the forums better and upgrading the quality level of posts made in discussions held in the various theme and other forums.
C-P: Ah yes, the Denise was a lovely ship. Are you working on any MOCs at the moment?
CGH: Currently I am working on the Dutch VOC ship the Prins Willim in minifig scale. I have started almost a year ago and I will need another year the least to finish her. The plan is to display her at LEGOworld 2010 in Holland.
Then there is always my project list, which is just too long to write down.
C-P: I wish I could be there, but Holland is just a little too far from Down Under! Do you look up to anyone in the LEGO Pirate community as far as MOCing goes?
CGH: Slyowl and Sirnadroj are very good at creative use of parts and making lively scenes, I really enjoy their work.
I also think we have some of the best shipbuilders in the world on our forum like Teddy, Errorist and Phred.
C-P: Indeed we do. Some of the ships our members are producing now-days are unbelievable! Do you have any particular activities you enjoy outside of the LEGO hobby?
CGH: Riding my motorcycle, sailing, swimming, painting, beer and hanging out with friends.
C-P: Ah, a real pirate! Well, maybe without the motorcycle bit. What do you think of the Classic-Pirates.com blog?
CGH: I think you guys are doing a good job at keeping it updated. I must admit I don't use it that much as I'm always on the forum anyway, but when one is a regular reader of the Classic-Pirates.com frontpage and not the Pirate forum, they wouldn't miss out on much!
C-P: Thank you very much! I'll pass the compliment onto the team! So where did you get the inspiration for your famous sigfig?
CGH: Well the name came first, so I just needed a pirate with green hair. I also like that big scimitar, so I was glad when I found 1 in chrome silver and that I no longer have to knit wigs with the now used green joker hairpiece on the 2009 version of him.
C-P: And finally, where did your username come from?
CGH: One time I was sailing when I fell overboard. When I came out of the water I had some weeds in my hair.
Then one of my shipmates called me ''Groen Haar'', which means Green Hair in Dutch.
C-P: Hahaha, well that is an interesting tale to tell! Well thank ye very much for taking the time to be interviewed Rick, I'm sure we all learnt something from you. Good luck with your future MOCs, and keep us all posted!
And we'll see you guys in the next episode of 'Behind The Helm'. Yargh, all the best!
Great interview!
We'll discuss this on the frontpage further in the Yard. 
. I like where our name came from, you're clumsy fool Green Hair 
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