TalonCard Posted July 22, 2016 Ahoy! So I apologize if this is commonly known and has just managed to escape my notice all these years, but there appears to be a pre-Pirates LEGO set featuring Pirate models--and it's way older than I even thought possible! That's the 905 Doll set from 1963, me hearties. Now, it's not a full-on Pirate set--it's a bunch of bricks with many possible figurine builds--but the Pirate Captain is prominently featured on the box, and you can build another Pirate to boot, so I'm claiming it. Thanks to the All Sorted podcast; I may not have known about this otherwise. And yeah, it may not be related to the minifigure Pirate theme...but on the other hand, the Pirate Captain has a black jacket. And an eye patch. And a peg leg. Coincidence...? TC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Littleworlds Posted July 22, 2016 Very interesting find! As for the similarities to the captain redbeard minifig: I think there are very few coincidences when it comes to character design by TLG. They seem to know very well what they are doing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capn Frank Posted July 22, 2016 Nice find! That is awesome. I found that set Bricklink. No one has any for sail. Bricklink has the Box packaging as set number 1905, and the tubed packaging as set number 905. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tezclatipoca Posted July 22, 2016 Nice find ! I didn't knew TLG made a pirate figure like this in the 60's ! Of course the similarities to old captain redbeard are no coincidences. The designers chose to put on such a pirate character all the pirate stuff they thought tipically piratey : the pegleg, the patch eye and the hook ! So they granted the poor captain of all of these infirmities all togetther ! Just to be more "Pirate" ! I am not surprised they did the same in 1963 on this brickbuilt pirate. I'll say more, they kept the hook out. Perhaps because, back in those times, it would have been difficult to have a good brickbuilt hook. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aanchir Posted July 24, 2016 Neat! It's interesting to see how many LEGO themes have their roots in the days before the advent of the minifigure. For example, Western sets using brick-built or "Homemaker"-style figures predate the actual Western/Wild West theme by decades, and that theme's "Fort Legoredo" clearly alludes to the much older "LEGOREDO Town" area of LEGOLAND Billund. Looking at that doll set, the "Oriental Man" and "Oriental Lady" figures arguably wouldn't see any sort of minifigure equivalent until the Orient Expedition theme, since the Ninja theme did not include civilian characters. What's more, the "Oriental Lady" most directly calls to mind the "Kimono Girl" minifigure from Minifigures Series 4 in 2011. And there are both male and female Ballet Dancers — it wasn't until this year that we saw a minifigure ballerina, and still no boy ballet dancer minifigure! Many aspects of this set seem extremely dated, like the only dark-skinned character being a "Native Girl", but overall it's interesting how varied the figures suggested in this set were, particularly in a set and an era where the selection of shapes and colors was so limited. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TalonCard Posted July 24, 2016 Neat! It's interesting to see how many LEGO themes have their roots in the days before the advent of the minifigure. For example, Western sets using brick-built or "Homemaker"-style figures predate the actual Western/Wild West theme by decades, and that theme's "Fort Legoredo" clearly alludes to the much older "LEGOREDO Town" area of LEGOLAND Billund. Not only that, but the 6765 town set had lots of signage indicating that it was, in fact, the same LEGOREDO town (or at least named after it) as the theme park attraction! Dunno why it ended up being called "Gold City Junction" or "Silver City" in the US and UK, but it seems to have stuck. TC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheLunabrick Posted August 1, 2016 Thats really cool! I didnt even know that that set existed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted September 10, 2016 Been away for far too long..... working on a series of LEGO books... The 905 Pirate set tall box (as well as the 1905 Sears exclusive canister version) were introduced in 1963... and this was the very first set to include any green LEGO elements... namely small plates that were introduced by USA//Canada Samsonite LEGO.that year. This set (the 905 square box version) is the only source of the 10x10 black baseplate. When LEGO small plates were introduced in late 1962, this was the first attempt at producing a LEGO figure set, back in the days before Maxifigs and Minifigs. The closest thing to these large figure sets produced elsewhere were the extremely rare 321 Clown Set introduced in Denmark in 1965, and Japan in 1967. They were not good sellers, as I doubt the 905/1905 Samsonite versions were either. The rare ($1000) MISB 321 Clown Set... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The lego fan Posted October 30, 2016 Intrusting find! I have never seen or heard about this before-they are weird yet pretty cool. There are so many LEGO related things that few people have heard off. The Lego fan. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TalonCard Posted June 7, 2019 Upping as it's relevant to LEGO PIrate history. :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kelceycoe Posted June 8, 2019 Yes thank you. This helps alot in pinpointing the source of the Pirates line. They reused this pirate with more details in the World Show 8 I do believe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TalonCard Posted June 8, 2019 Neat! You think he's the same as the blue coated pirate in the gundeck scene, or from somewhere else? TC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Phes Posted June 9, 2019 20 hours ago, kelceycoe said: They reused this pirate with more details in the World Show 8 I do believe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
