Your Dream Pirate Sub-Theme

[Mister Phes]

Since he was Portuguese why would he made a good addition to the Spanish? Saying such things may offend the Portuguese!

[ZeekyBoogeyDoog]

I think what I would like to see most is something along the lines of Athos' merchant theme, and also a massive Spanish treasure galleon. That would be kick-megablocks.

[john cleese]

You know its gotta be space pirates for me. ;-)

Edited October 19, 2007 by john cleese

[Sir Norman Ray]

....

Shoot that man.

[Col. Whipstick]

The truth of it is there's no shortage of Portugese or Spanish names... most the Dutch ones are a little less known as they were the least succesful of all the western europeans.

However, if we talk about Magellan and using him as the Portuguese head in the South Pacific the same way I've put Vasco Da Gama in the lead for the Portugese in Southern africa then the perfect Dutch counterpart would be Abel Tasman.

Jan van Riebeck was the first to land at the Cape of Good Hope and establish the Dutch there but Abel Tasman was the Dutch explorer who put Tasmania, large parts of Australia and the south Pacific on the map. Really the Dutch found the Antipodes first and Australia was called 'New Holland' but the Dutch made no real effort to settle it. I wonder who to consider as the Lego Dutch leader of the New Amsterdamn colony in N. America...

[Capn Frank]

...

I wonder who to consider as the Lego Dutch leader of the New Amsterdamn colony in N. America...

Woudn't it be henry hudson, who the hudson river is named after that runs through new york city?

I read about him when i read about the exploration ship the half moon replica.

and based my Halloween Contest MOC off that ship. X-D

P

Edited October 19, 2007 by phred

[Shadows]

I'll take just about anything suggested here, including conquistadors, Aztecs, and even the whole South African idea (wouldn't sell for crap in the US though).

I'm still trying to figure a way to encourage my Zorro theme, but it can't be part of pirates no matter how much I twist it. It could, however, be a great sub-theme of a Spanish sub-theme. If the whole ill-fated Studio line was around, I'd suggest just that, but it isn't and it didn't work anyway.

Based on real Caribbean history, very little of it is appropriate to aim at children ... slavery, conquest, disease, destruction of native populations, you name it. That's why the basic Pirates vs. Imperials worked, and it's the only way it can work again. I don't know if the Dutch would inspire enough interest to sell well, but the old torsos in green would, as long as the story was kept fairly open. To be honest, almost any uniform design would sell, as long as the pirates are piratical enough and there are big ships.

Now the issue. Cannons. There is no chance we'll ever see the classic cannons again. I don't think flick missiles (even if they used a trans technic axle and tried to make it look like it was just the ball being shot) or those blasted technic things are even close to tolerable.

But this is a dream thread, and dream we must. As I said, I'll take any of it. At least they could now include a decent Blackbeard with the new dwarven beard design. *y*

[Col. Whipstick]

Woudn't it be henry hudson, who the hudson river is named after that runs through new york city?

I read about him when i read about the exploration ship the half moon replica.

and based my Halloween Contest MOC off that ship. X-D

P

Dude, Henry Hudson wasn't Dutch :-P He did temporarily work for the Dutch though but he'd do the job if we wanted to represent the English taking over New Amsterdam and turning it into New York which is what happened. Had to check the date there, wanted to be sure I was using the word English correctly. lol

Willem Verhulst seems to have been the name of the Cheesehead (Colonial slang for Dutch) that founded New Amsterdam but he's not the kind of well known explorer/governor name that we want for feature lego characters, in other words he's no John Smith or Magellan, probably just a paper pusher.

Here's the link to the history of the city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amsterdam

Edited October 19, 2007 by Col. Whipstick

[Col. Whipstick]

I hear what Imperial Shadows is saying about the marketing of newer themes but I have a few opposing points.

1. Lego if anything is extremely international and it's not necessarily reliant on US sales which is good because I've heard some staggering statistic about how many American kids don't know that Canada is north of them 8-

[Mister Phes]

....

Shoot that man.

I think Mr Cleese was aiming that comment towards me in aid of teasing. We've had past conflicts about him introducing futuristic themes into pirates.

Lego if anything is extremely international and it's not necessarily reliant on US sales which is good because I've heard some staggering statistic about how many American kids don't know that Canada is north of them 8-

[Col. Whipstick]

And this is what's important - screw reality and dream up whatever you like!

Didn't I just say something along those lines anyway? X-D

[Mister Phes]

Indeed you did and since I strongly agree I reaffirmed it.

[Col. Whipstick]

Cool beans or cool bananas... depending on which side of the Panama canal you are.

Being our governor of Australasia what about a scenerio in your waters? No Portugese or Arabs but plenty Dutch, British and French influence that way... What if anything else could make a distinctive theme for the south Pacific theatre? The Polynesian culture is already well enough represented by The Islanders, how about Oriental Pirates from up north, have we every considered them... After all it's in southeast Asia that piracy is still strong today.

An MOC of Tasmania as a penal colony could be fun, maybe I just wanna see pirates fighting over a bowl of grog. X-D

Edited October 19, 2007 by Col. Whipstick

[Mister Phes]

I'm not the least bit interested in seeing any aspect of Australian history depicted in LEGO form.

Even though there some escaped this penal colony you refer to and became pirates I'm more interested in what was happening in the Caribbean.

[Scouty]

Since he was Portuguese why would he made a good addition to the Spanish? Saying such things may offend the Portuguese!

But Magellan sailed for Spain when he sailed around the world! :-) . And I'm Portuguese 8-| !

[Captain Roger]

I'd like a French army

[Col. Whipstick]

I'd like a French army

That just reminds me of an old British/German joke... What do you call 10 000 Frenchmen with their arms in the air? Answer: An army :-P

[Sir Norman Ray]

That just reminds me of an old British/German joke... What do you call 10 000 Frenchmen with their arms in the air? Answer: An army :-P

I cheered at that.

But, in all honesty, the French did continue the fight, Resistance, Free French forces and such. It's just the Great War sapped French morale, over a million soldiers lost and a large chunk of their country destroyed/occupied by the Enemy. So be fair to them.

[Mister Phes]

I'd like a French army

Some will insist Governor Broadside and his blue coats are the French so we already have a French army.

But as I love to mention (and will again and again) I'd rather consider Broadside and his men to be British therefore leaving the possibility of an entirely different French sub-theme in the future.

[Col. Whipstick]

More French? Nah...

that's the last thing we need :-P

We're all agreed on the subject of green imperials though whoever they represent and the Iberian conquistadors were not developed enough as a concept.

Beyond that in terms of distinctiveness most seem to vote Dutch and Portuguese as a priority. Here's another unknown use for your bluecoats... Scotland had it's own little, highly unsuccesful colony in the New World, prior to the union with England. Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_colo...of_the_Americas

So depending on the date of your colonial scenerio one could have independent Scottish and English forces with Welsh baggage handlers :-P Anyway the bluecoats do use the fleur de les which although always considered French is known to have featured in feudal Scottish rigalia owing to the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England back in the long gone days of the hundred years war... So when Mr Phes maintains that both red and blue could be British forces, this is another reason I'd offer to back up his argument.

[Mister Phes]

And the only reason I maintain that arguement is it leaves the possibility of a proper French sub-theme. The French torso designs should have some red in them!

[Col. Whipstick]

And the only reason I maintain that arguement is it leaves the possibility of a proper French sub-theme. The French torso designs should have some red in them!

Yeah, the red epilets tend to take that responsibility and I'd find too much variation on the torso design maybe a bit overkill. Rather than changing torso design I'm more inclined to changing the overall colour. We're able to do that because of the library - how I made those green troops but it's a crying shame the only epilets are red, brown, blue, yellow and white... Had lego made green and orange ones we could develop a kind of code fo representing the nationalities. As it stands we're reliant on yellow epilets depicting rank and i'm fond of it being that way and the red/blue reversal, to me it creates a real kind of antithisis between the imperials. Most people rightly believe that all reds with yellow epilets would make good British troops and all blues with red epilets good French. That it stands as red with blue epilets was lego's answer to the blue imperial but it's a more ambigious design in terms of nationality as is for that matter the blue imperial with yellow epilets. Headgear is a great way to really designate nationality. The helmets are very much Spanish, Portuguese and English (not British), the troopers hats (forgot the name) are very British and French but not so applicable to other nations and the tri-hat (forgotten that one too) serves all nationalities as does the bandana. The admiral hat is a mark of authority likewise for all factions.

[Col. Whipstick]

NO!!!!

Was creating bitmap images of pirate figures so that the colouring etc would be easy to change and display and my laptop froze while i was saving so just lost an entire day's work on it all! Aw man, should I really start recreating all of it?

[Col. Whipstick]

I don't know if this is still worth posting in but on the subject of Dutch Imperial troops I scowered the internet high and low and battled to find uniforms specifically for the Dutch and/or their colonial forces, I did however find this photo on a website that suggest some sort of colonial theme park somewhere or other and they guy's wife is posing dressed in period clothes amoungst some employees who are apparently 'Dutch soldiers' and the uniform looks like what we may have spoken about.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2802644

[Opproperaar]

Cool beans or cool bananas... depending on which side of the Panama canal you are.

Being our governor of Australasia what about a scenerio in your waters? No Portugese or Arabs but plenty Dutch, British and French influence that way... What if anything else could make a distinctive theme for the south Pacific theatre? The Polynesian culture is already well enough represented by The Islanders, how about Oriental Pirates from up north, have we every considered them... After all it's in southeast Asia that piracy is still strong today.

An MOC of Tasmania as a penal colony could be fun, maybe I just wanna see pirates fighting over a bowl of grog. X-D

Now that's a great idea, seriously, the South Pacific, perhaps even the trade routes to Japan and China, you could do an overlap between the samurai/ninja theme and pirates perhaps? that way, today's spoiled youth could have fun while learning a bit at the same time. X-D

I'd love such a theme, I'm so sad I didn't collect the Islanders when I had the chance.

Edited November 3, 2007 by Hairy Ruben