Returning to Lego Pirates after 25+ years... just wanted to share my e

[Banjo]

... excitement! (seems my topic title was too long!)

I'm a longtime lurker at Eurobricks, pretty much the only Lego site I visit. At 37, I'm old enough to have had Lego pirates ("Classic Pirates") as a memorable part of my childhood... I only had the earliest sets they made, but one of my favourite Lego sets was the "big pirate ship" (which I only now know was the "Black Seas Barracuda"). Like many others, once I'd got older, my Lego remained in an old chest and was moved around from house to house, to finally the garage, and left there, forgotten.

I came out of my Lego "dark age" several years ago thanks to Heroica and Alien Conquest, two themes I discovered by chance and that made me fall in love with Lego all over again. I've bought other sets since, but when Lego released the 2015 Pirates wave I was hit with a shocking amount of nostalgia. Buying them, building that pirate ship (the "Brick Bounty"), assembling "bluecoats" with the backpacks and seeing those shark and cannon pieces just brought back *so* many memories for me. Even though I felt the sets were slightly underwhelming compared to some of the recent elaborate modern sets I'd bought from other themes (Star Wars, AC, Galaxy Squad, LOTR), it was nonetheless amazing to have brand new Pirate Lego in my adult hands!

Of course, it didn't take long for me to discover that I'd missed out on a whole ton of older Pirate Lego stuff since I was a kid... I was so sad especially that I'd not come out of my "dark age" earlier to discover the Imperial Flagship, the even older Islander and Spanish sets and even the impressive ships of the POTC line. :(

Though many of those were likely too old, rare or expensive to track down, I knew I needed more Pirate Lego than the current sets, so I set out to see if I could at least get hold of some of the 2009 "Pirates II" wave.

Well, thanks to the miracles of Bricklink, yesterday I opened up several parcels to reveal good-as-new, mint-in-box Loot Island, Kracken Attackin', Cannon Battle, Pirate Survival, Soldier's Fort, and Battle Pack, as well as the 2011 (I think?) standalone Battle Pack. The "collector" in me feels rather guilty opening these wonderfully well-kept old sets up (is that odd?), but so far I've had *such* fun building those I have. I do wonder now though if I should have done some kind of "review/unboxing", from a less typical perspective, or at least taken photos?

Regardless, it's so interesting to see the improvements and changes in the 2015 sets compared to these, particularly as many of the new sets are somewhat "updates" of the 2009 ones. I'm not sorry I got the older sets, though... the castaway minifig in Loot Island is my favourite Pirate figure so far, and having only ever owned "bluecoats" as a kid, the attraction of completely new "redcoats" was huge enough that I've ended up getting doubles of some of the smaller sets just to "army build" them and pit them against my 2015 bluecoat forces! :)

Now I'm strongly thinking about tracking down the last couple of 2009 sets, including the ship ("Brickbeard's Bounty"), though I'm not sure if it will be worth the expectedly-high price; from what I can see, the 2015 "Brick Bounty" is actually very similar but superior in most ways (especially sails/masts/rigging). I would *really* like to get that Imperial Flagship... but I don't know if I have much of a chance nowadays. Do other Pirates fans here know if it's as expensive and rare to find (boxed) as I anticipate?

Oh, and yeah, I got all these "MISB" even though I'm building not reselling them, because early on in my emergence from my "dark age", I thought it would be cheaper to buy "used" sets I'd missed, only to discover that nearly every time what I bought was in worse shape than the remains of my own childhood Lego, so I decided that it was worth spending the extra to meet my own (probably excessive) standards of quality... as well as to best recapture the feeling of opening a "brand new set" even if it's from many years ago. The downside is obviously that I'm already a lot poorer now! :(

Finally, for those who've bothered to read my excited rambling this far (thanks!), I got another parcel today that made me feel like I was eight years old all over again. I didn't know Lego did "re-releases", but it seems they DID re-release my beloved childhood favourite: the "Black Seas Barracuda"! So yeah, I bought that too for probably way too much money, and now I'm looking at that gorgeously retro, sealed box and wondering if it's considered a crime in the eyes of Lego fandom to open her up and revisit my childhood by building that beautiful baby...? :)

(sorry for the long post!)

Edited July 30, 2015 by Banjo

[Alfadas]

Great you are back in Lego.

With that Black Seas Barracuda, do whatever seems right to you. It's not up to us to decide. It's your set now, do whatever you want to do with it.

[Banjo]

Great you are back in Lego.

With that Black Seas Barracuda, do whatever seems right to you. It's not up to us to decide. It's your set now, do whatever you want to do with it.

Thanks. :) And I think I already know when I ask myself "what's the point of spending all that on something and then shutting it away in a cupboard?" It's not like I'd ever sell it, anyway! :) But maybe I will take photos.

Besides, I can't wait to crew it with the new 2009/2015 minifigs; seeing those old "classic" faces on the box seems almost odd now, given they were all we had when I was a kid.

[cullmancreations]

That's awesome that you are getting back into Lego. One of my first Pirate ships was the Armada flagship. If you can find any of the 2009 ships or potc ships at a decent or low price don't hesitate to pick them up. With the imperial flagship or potc sets your probably gonna have to buy them used unless you want to pay quadruple the amount of its retail price. take some pictures of your Black Seas barracuda as well with all the figures

Edited July 30, 2015 by cullmancreations

[Banjo]

That's awesome that you are getting back into Lego. One of my first Pirate ships was the Armada flagship. If you can find any of the 2009 ships or potc ships at a decent or low price don't hesitate to pick them up. With the imperial flagship or potc sets your probably gonna have to buy them used unless you want to pay quadruple the amount of its retail price. take some pictures of your Black Seas barracuda as well with all the figures

Thanks, Cullmancreations! It's not just back into Lego, but back into Lego Pirates that excites me the most here. I already adored the few licensed SW and LOTR sets I had, and (as mentioned) everything about Alien Conquest, but that's all "new stuff" to me; "modern Lego" clearly designed at least in part for "adult fans". Lego (System) Pirates is something *so* memorable from my childhood that it feels extra special to be building these again. :)

I suspect I'll end up paying too much for a boxed Flagship, given my afore-mentioned past "used" experience and how frankly amazing it looks... but the PotC ones, since I have no real attachment to the movies other than "they were fun", so would gladly just get parts or good condition sets... I now kick myself for not picking up the last PotC ship when I saw it in shops here a couple of years ago!

If I do get the Brickbeard Bounty, though, from the images I've seen of it I am *very* tempted to swap the sail/mast construction with the one used for the current Brick Bounty (as I picked up a spare of that ship cheap)... would that solve the 2009 ship's most glaring "issue" and thus make it worth sailing alongside my BSB and BB?

Edited July 30, 2015 by Banjo

[Poltergeist]

Some of the old pirate sets were the first sets that were actually mine (I still have them)! And I'm excited to get the new pirate sets (soon, hopefully). I defanatly understand the excitement.

[Banjo]

Thanks, Poltergeist! Yes, I am stupidly excited about returning to this myself!

Even with limited time due to an early start for work, I *still* spent last night building my smaller, newly-bought 2009 sets: "Cannon Battle", "Soldier's Armoury", and "Kracken Attackin"... such FUN! I'd heard that the older cannons didn't fire, so was pleased to discover that was obviously a pre-2009 "issue" (though does that mean my BSB will need replacement cannons when I open it?).

On building the 2009 sets so far, I find it interesting how much the 2015 Pirate sets feel like a "re-release/updating" of these sets, though, compared to being totally different like the 1980's sets I remember as a kid (e.g. BSB, that neat baseplate-mounted Imperial "fortress" I remember owning, etc.). Is that normal these days for Lego themes beyond things like updating a popular licensed icon (e.g. Star Wars X-Wing) or very standard item (e.g. police station or fire station)?

In any case, I had enough fun with those sets that I'm now off to buy "Shipwreck Island" and "Brickbeard's Bounty" if I can find them too! I still really want that 2010 Imperial Flagship but when I saw those prices... yeah, that might have to wait a bit! :(

Sorry to bombard you far more veteran Pirates fans with "rookie" (I'm betting) questions, but I was wondering:

1) Are any of the much older 80's-90's sets *really* worth tracking down, especially the smaller ships? At a glance, I personally find the few I've seen (like the white "Armada" ones) pretty crude looking, but I'd really like a smaller vessel that fitted in okay beside the newer ones and the BSB if something nice like that existed.

2) As I mentioned before, am I going to want to "fix" my Brickbeard's Bounty's rigging when I get it? I've read it's rather wobbly and looking at pictures, it looks rather awful (flexible tubes?) compared to the Brick Bounty's design. I just want to know if I should earmark a set of masts from a second 2015 Brick Bounty for the job! :)

[VintageLegoEra]

Welcome to the Forum and to Lego after long time :)

My Self, i came from Dark age in 2014 after a loong stop ( 20-25 years )..

Well, i raised with Lego in 80"s and therefore, i am only collecting the Vintage ( Castles and Pirates )..:)

These are my Best Themes..

But, then Lego came up in 2010-2015 with nice Pirate themes and i Grab them All...;)

As for the Castle,,,Lego made them Worse and Worse year after year so i am not collecting these.

So Show us your Collection bud...So Exciting to see what Vintage you have!

Regards

[dr_sarcophagus]

Love the original post. I'm a few years older so I missed the pirate theme before entering the dark ages. I've always loved ships though, so their is a Brick Bounty in the top shelf of the cupboard waiting for one of the kid's birthdays or Christmas....and when it finally disintegrates I intend to moc it into a proper ship with tumbledown as per the frigate tutorial somewhere here. You also raise some very good points about MISB. Lego pieces scratch very easily so I think it's worthwhile getting MISB or risk getting something assembled from pieces in their kid's lego bucket. For me though, I can barely justify the prices for new sets at discount let alone old MISB sets heavily marked up - and here lies the quandary: My Haunted House and Fire Brigade modular is starting to become worth far more than I would ever pay for it. Reason says I should sell them if I'm not prepared to pay the price they are worth. But I don't want to sell them. I want to build them, display them for a bit, then tear them down and sort them into my parts collection to make other stuff, then one day build them again, but maybe a bit different. I feel that the high prices makes it harder for me to enjoy it properly.

[Ckubrick2]

to the op:

Great post! I am exactly your age and going through exactly the same thing. Bought the whole 2015 pirate wave but felt incomplete and inadequate. I did break down one day and pulled the trigger on an Imperial Flagship at a good deal, still super expensive thou. You probably will too, the allure is intense. It arrived 3 days ago and I will be building it next week! The POTC ships look amazing, but once I bought the IF, because of its price, I cannot buy any more legos until next year. As far as old sets, my research indicates that El Dorado Fortress 6276 and Imperial Trading Post 6277 is what I really need to complete my pirate theme, very intense sets with 6277 having a small bay on it! I will get them someday. Anything pirates in the aftermarket is soo expensive.

[blackdeathgr]

Love the original post. I'm a few years older so I missed the pirate theme before entering the dark ages. I've always loved ships though, so their is a Brick Bounty in the top shelf of the cupboard waiting for one of the kid's birthdays or Christmas....and when it finally disintegrates I intend to moc it into a proper ship with tumbledown as per the frigate tutorial somewhere here. You also raise some very good points about MISB. Lego pieces scratch very easily so I think it's worthwhile getting MISB or risk getting something assembled from pieces in their kid's lego bucket. For me though, I can barely justify the prices for new sets at discount let alone old MISB sets heavily marked up - and here lies the quandary: My Haunted House and Fire Brigade modular is starting to become worth far more than I would ever pay for it. Reason says I should sell them if I'm not prepared to pay the price they are worth. But I don't want to sell them. I want to build them, display them for a bit, then tear them down and sort them into my parts collection to make other stuff, then one day build them again, but maybe a bit different. I feel that the high prices makes it harder for me to enjoy it properly.

to the op:

Great post! I am exactly your age and going through exactly the same thing. Bought the whole 2015 pirate wave but felt incomplete and inadequate. I did break down one day and pulled the trigger on an Imperial Flagship at a good deal, still super expensive thou. You probably will too, the allure is intense. It arrived 3 days ago and I will be building it next week! The POTC ships look amazing, but once I bought the IF, because of its price, I cannot buy any more legos until next year. As far as old sets, my research indicates that El Dorado Fortress 6276 and Imperial Trading Post 6277 is what I really need to complete my pirate theme, very intense sets with 6277 having a small bay on it! I will get them someday. Anything pirates in the aftermarket is soo expensive.

I totally feel you both :P

[DOOM!]

One of my favorite vintage Pirate sets was the Eldorado Fortress. If you don't have it, It's worth a look.