It's a shame that Lego abandoned the concept of the mid sized hull.

[SteamSewnEmpire]

I really miss those pieces - the ones used on ships like the Renegade Runner. They really provided a strong starting point for smaller ships like brigs, without going the full 16w option.

Sadly, because of the color swap (another decision I will never fully understand), these pieces have lost a great deal of their utility (unless you pinch your nose and ignore the color clash). While I get that one of the reasons that Lego walked away from the mid sized hulls is because they simultaneously dumped Pirates the first time, it's not like they stopped making ships. In fact, if anything, the current large hull pieces are dramatically overused across various themes, resulting in a kind of unfortunate homogeneity to a multitude of sets.

I dunno. Part of me just hates blowing 5-600 pieces on a lower hull that should by all rights cost just 3 or 4 (and look better doing it, too). But I also wish so much that Lego would stop teasing castle and pirate fans and just commit again (couldn't they afford to take a year off Police? Maybe? You know, hold off on the Sky Commander's Mountain Sheriff's Refuge of Solitude for a fiscal year?).

[Mister Phes]

8 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

You know, hold off on the Sky Commander's Mountain Sheriff's Refuge of Solitude

Uhhhh... what is Sky Commander's Mountain Sheriff's Refuge of Solitude?

[SteamSewnEmpire]

8 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Uhhhh... what is Sky Commander's Mountain Sheriff's Refuge of Solitude?

Tongue-in-cheek reference to whatever police base comes next.

[Jack Sassy]

Yes, I agree. Mid-sized hull pieces would be good, maybe could be updated (make it one part instead of two needed to be combined, although I don't really mind). It's possible that Lego aren't making a new line because either it's overused, innapropriate to children, not profitable right now or can't find a good set designer.

[Brickander Brickumnus]

Actually I'm happy they ditched the mid sized hull.

I don't like them at all.
Putting cannons across these pieces is very crampy and looks unatural.

I would prefer if LEGO made 18w of 20w hull pieces.

Or cut them in half for more flexibility.

 

 

[Aanchir]

I can sort of understand why LEGO hasn't introduced a newer equivalent of those hulls… after all, part of LEGO's financial plight in the 90s and 2000s stemmed from how many parts they were introducing like that which they weren't really getting much use out of even back then. So that probably gives them a lot of incentive to try and get as much use as they can out of existing pieces, rather than introducing a second family of hull pieces.

Additionally, LEGO also has a lot more parts like curved slopes, wedges, SNOT brackets, hinges, domes, etc. for building brick-built hulls at that sort of scale than they did back in the Classic Pirates days. I mean, just look at how they built the hull of this year's Creator Pirate Ship or this year's version of Destiny's Bounty).

However, having tried to come up with a brick-built equivalent of those 12-wide hulls myself (with the desired end goal of trying to come up with a modernized Cross Bone Clipper sort of like the Barracuda Bay version of BSB), I recognize it's hard to achieve quite that same streamlined form factor using existing bricks. So I can definitely also relate to your frustration. Wish I had a better answer than that!

[Chmashdehjare]

Interesting topic.  I was just heading here to start a new one and found this.

I'm building Pirates of Barracuda Bay currently, which is my first ever Pirates set and first ever set with a ship. I’m early on (just finished bag 2 which brought in the first bottom hull pieces). I’m used to Technic or Modular sets so large pieces like the hull pieces are uncommon or don’t exist at all.

it made me curious how other Pirate ships have been built up. I had been wondering if all ships have the same base but I’m guessing from the other posts in this topic that the answer is no. So now I’m wondering if there is a commonly used build platform for Pirate ships or if each one was unique in hull formation.  I’d love to pick up some of the older Pirate ships but too much $$$ for my budget but now I’m wondering what the cost to bricklink them would be.

Have any of the previous Pirate ships been purely brick built instead of the integrated hull pieces?
 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Chmashdehjare

[azog]

On 10/31/2020 at 11:55 AM, Chmashdehjare said:

Have any of the previous Pirate ships been purely brick built instead of the integrated hull pieces?
 

Actually you're in luck if you want a pirate ship with no molded hull! The new creator 3-1 pirate ship is entirely brick built! Sadly it's the only one that's brick built unless you count the merchant ship in Imperial Trading Post!