[ENTRY] Fort Broadside

[Alexandrina]

In its original incarnation, the beloved Pirates theme ran from 1989 to 1997. Barring a pretty horrible Jack Stone wave in 2004, Pirates sets would not return to the line-up for over a decade, before 2009's sets hit the shelves.

But what if they did?

For my entry into the Eldorado Fortress competition, I tried to imagine what it would have looked like if Lego had given Pirates a revival in 1999. This, for context, is one year before Knights Kingdom ended a mini-hiatus of Castle sets and brought more explicitly named characters into the world. I present Fort Broadside, flagship set of the 1999 line.

Inspired by both the sets of the classic Pirates line and also late-90s large sets such as Fort Legoredo and Flying Ninja's Fortress, Fort Broadside represents my attempt to bridge the gap between the latter-day Pirates sets we knew in real life and the sets of the first reboot. Excluding minifigures, it contains 788 parts; this would put it as the second-largest set of 1999 excluding Technic, Dacta and Basic boxes, as well as the third-largest Pirates set to date (after the Black Seas Barracuda and Skull's Eye Schooner). In short, while a big set, it's not out of the realms of possibility for a flagship set.

There are nine minifigures in the set, which is a sizable chunk but not excessive for large sets. These include a return for Governor Broadside, as well as the brick debut of his daughter Camilla. There's also an officer and three soldiers; I consciously chose to break from the Pirates tradition of giving the soldiers generic smileys, as by 1999 this was no longer standard practice for the Lego group. Two of the three faces used were in the standard rotation at the time, and in fact both were used for cavalry in the Western sets. The third is a custom design which is in the style of 1990s face prints. Crucially, all of the soldiers have the generic smile as the underlying core of their face.

There are also two pirates and a maid. The pirates are there for obvious reasons (someone for the soldiers to fight); the maid is there to be something different. Almost all of the minifigures can be made with genuine Lego. There are exceptions: the aforementioned face print with the brown moustache was a custom design so sadly doesn't exist, and the Scala wine bottle was somehow never made in trans-dark green(!). In addition, nothing of Camilla can be made in real life except for her hands and the flowers. The torso is a custom recolour of the standard female bodice of the 1990s in light yellow, with her red belt added, and her skirt is a slope of the same colour. The face is a custom design (though to be honest I'm tempted to just give her 3626bp02 instead) and the hair is a recolour of Qui-Gon Jinn's in orange. Both orange and light yellow, while uncommon colours, were in production in 1999 (orange having been introduced for the X-Wing pilot torsos in Star Wars).

Structurally, Fort Broadside is a semi-modular design built on three baseplates. They're hinged, meaning the model can be folded into an almost-square configuration as seen in the above image, or held almost flat as in the top image. This modularity was directly copied from Fort Legoredo (and in fact my original plan was to have the fortress spread over four baseplates rather than two; this, as you can imagine, quickly became far too big). Unfolding the baseplates gives access to the fort's interiors; these include but are not limited to a storage for cannon balls, a map room for Governor Broadside and Lieutenant de Martinet to study in, and multiple stands where muskets can be clipped. Play features include the obligatory cannon and crane. There is also a jail cell beneath the cannon, which holds a very disgruntled pirate. He's almost impossible to see in this configuration, but unfolding the baseplates moves the rocks out of the way to reveal a secret entrance.

Throughout the building process I was conscious of using period-appropriate bricks, and pretty much everything here is achieved through regular bricks that you could have had to hand in 1999. The exception is the eight big sloping panels at the front of the fort. Although the mould was in use in 1999 and appeared prominently in large sets, it was never actually made in white. Although I reason that there was nothing stopping Lego from making it in white if a set demanded it, it does unfortunately mean that the fortress cannot be made with real bricks. There are also a few instances of 1x1 bricks with clips (which wouldn't be released until 2008) which I didn't realise was an anachronism until after I'd done the renders and was compiling a parts list. This is prominent in my list of changes to make.

I also sought to recreate the feel of classic Pirates sets, though I made a few conscious changes to the aesthetic to match what I imagined a 1999 wave would do:

• I used tan pieces rather than yellow for sand. The last Pirates sets to include sand were released in 1996; by 1999, through first the Western and later Adventurers sets, tan bricks and plates were becoming commonplace. It made sense to me that Lego would use tan for the sand rather than yellow.
• I made liberal use of 1x2x5 and 1x3x5 bricks. These weren't unheard of in Pirates sets but were far more common in large sets around the turn of the century.

So why post if it isn't finished?

To solicit feedback. And to make sure that I get something out. If time gets away from me in the coming months, at least I've got something. And of course I want to be able to action any criticisms/suggestions people have, especially people whose formative years with Lego were the golden age in question. I got into Lego a few years later, and while I have built my share of classic sets, I quite often catch myself defaulting to a piece which didn't actually exist in the 90s (like less-chunky frames for jail cell doors, for instance).

I do have a small list of changes I already know I want to make, mostly stuff which I either noticed during rendering or which is trivial:

• When making the custom face prints I used the wrong image size, meaning Camilla and the soldier's faces are too chubby. If I get round to it I'll redo them to be the right size, but this doesn't affect the quality of the build.
• The previously-mentioned 1x1 bricks with clips need to be replaced with plates.
• I forgot to make an opening for the map room; once the model is built, it's currently inaccessible without dismantling a wall. This is true regardless of baseplate configuration.
• I hate the crane mechanism I used. I was working off an Eldorado Fortress remake, but I can't figure out how to use regular string in Studio so the actual crane is a ham-fisted way of getting something.
• There is a sliding rock mechanism inspired by Rocky Reef, which allows access to the secret entrance to the jail cell (as well as some hidden treasure) but right now the dock juts out one stud too far so the rock piece can only slide one stud along before getting stuck.
• The palm tree is rigid. This is laziness on my part; I realised after I'd made it that I had to rotate each connector individually, and put it on the "do later" list.
• There are yellow panels in the lower portion of the build. These are inspired by the classic Pirates look but there's no other yellow and they look odd on their own; I intend to either change them to white or add more yellow detailing.

Big fans of the Pirates lore might notice that Bo'sun Will Cavendish is not present in this set. He was in the original design, which was to be four baseplates long and include a merchant boat/tavern. When I realised how big all this would be, I downsized to the core focus, and got rid of the excess minifigures. He does appear in another set I've been half-heartedly working on from the same imagined wave, but whether that'll get finished is another matter.

[iragm]

Oh wow, I love the amount of thought and detail you've put into this!!  The custom torso and faces look great and very in-keeping with what might have been present in 1999.  I would contrast this set to 6093 Ninja's Flying Fortress.  Please take my comments with a grain of salt, as this is my absolute least favorite era of sets and designs: I find they lack the simple charm and clever parts usage of the late 80s sets and the intricate details of modern sets.

Color: I like the use of tan for sand, and I think it's fitting with the era.  There's a stray yellow corner wall brick in there, not sure if that is intentional or not, but I would add more yellow details like the early 90s Imperial sets had.  My only real suggestion with the color is that this suffers from "wall-of-white" syndrome.  I might suggest making a red brick pattern/sticker to put on the sloping panels.  The red is a very strong color, but I think it works, and the red arch rhymes nicely with the castle wall panels with a brick window.  Gray or yellow would be alternatives to consider for the railings and other details.

Design: This looks pretty cool overall!  Especially in the closed configuration, it looks very formidable and imposing.  I would like to see a bit more sand and/or water around the base; things tend to look better when there are hints about the kind of the terrain they are in.  The palm tree and rocks are great; a bit more of that would be good.  I love the shape of the opening in the tallest tower (arch with the slopes under it), it feels like the design of the original Eldorado.

Practicality: I only see one hinge on the side.  Lots of good play features, the dock and crane are cool.  The design is a bit closed in, and would be hard to play with (especially the bottom levels); it feels more like a MOC than an official set.  Again, contrast to 6093 and see how open those towers are.  I'd love to see what the interior of this looks like.

How it fits as a 1999 set: Sets from this era tended to feature thick bases, look at the Ninja and Rock Raiders sets.  I don't like those, but if you're going for 1999 period accuracy...  Also, I think you might be able to capture the feeling you're going for here with less.  If you cut out four of the sloping panels from the length of the set (2 from the front and 2 from the back in closed configuration), it would still having the imposing look but would be smaller overall and more visually interesting to look at.

 

Overall, this looks great and I'd love to see more!

[Alexandrina]

2 hours ago, iragm said:

Oh wow, I love the amount of thought and detail you've put into this!!  The custom torso and faces look great and very in-keeping with what might have been present in 1999.  I would contrast this set to 6093 Ninja's Flying Fortress.

Thank you for the feedback! 6093 was definitely on my mind when I was designing this (I now have the instructions saved on my PC despite never owning the set)

2 hours ago, iragm said:

There's a stray yellow corner wall brick in there, not sure if that is intentional or not, but I would add more yellow details like the early 90s Imperial sets had.  My only real suggestion with the color is that this suffers from "wall-of-white" syndrome.  I might suggest making a red brick pattern/sticker to put on the sloping panels.

Yeah, I built from the bottom up so when I was putting in the yellow corner walls it was with every intention of having a lot of yellow. Not sure what happened but I'll definitely seed more into the build. I also thought of decals for some/all of the panels, and that's something I'll work on for version two.

2 hours ago, iragm said:

Sets from this era tended to feature thick bases, look at the Ninja and Rock Raiders sets.  I don't like those, but if you're going for 1999 period accuracy...

I did toy with the idea of going for thick bases but I'm a sucker for the baseplate. 1999 still seems to be in the transitional era between baseplates everywhere and big bricks everywhere. Adventurers sets still had baseplates rather than big bricks, as did a fair few Ninja sets. I might experiment though - bricks as bases might add a bit of modularity.

2 hours ago, iragm said:

I think you might be able to capture the feeling you're going for here with less.  If you cut out four of the sloping panels from the length of the set (2 from the front and 2 from the back in closed configuration)

This is helpful feedback too. I wasn't sure if they were perhaps too plentiful - perhaps my gut instinct was right all along!

[Eggyslav]

One thing you could do to improve the look, is to make the string on the crane hang down, instead of making it stiff and straight like that. I know how hard that can be in Bricklink studio, as the bending tool isn't the easiest to work with, but it's worth it..

[zinnn]

Honestly, not my cup of tea, looks too simple and plain for my personal taste. Even the fist wave of Pirates sets was a wee more detailed. I do like the shape of this building though, I'd love to see it a bit modernised though.

[Eggyslav]

8 minutes ago, zinnn said:

Honestly, not my cup of tea, looks too simple and plain for my personal taste. Even the fist wave of Pirates sets was a wee more detailed. I do like the shape of this building though, I'd love to see it a bit modernised though.

Bruh, it's supposed to look like that, read the description.

[Horation]

A very large fort-maybe a little too much

Theme

A great job here, this really feels like a 1990s set! With excellent play features, but can we please get inside pics? The waterside red door is weird, and while I understand the desire to make a bigger fortress, might I recommend removing the black door and connecting walls, and using the extra parts for a prefab hull ship? It would look really nice as a big playset, but the current design works, too.

Build

A lovely white build, but it could use some colour, try to add some prints to those walls and maybe make the rockwork more realistic? Can I ask why you went with that tall of a fort? I think a single watchtower would pop out more in an otherwise small set than in an enormous build like this. The use of ladders (which isn't 2020s tech) is a nice touch. 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Horation
typo

[thewatchman]

Wow; this is actually pretty cool for an era themed fort, kind of reminds me of the Napoleonic era theme they were going to produce!

pros:

 good simplified building style, that can’t have been easy to replicate.

colour choice seems era appropriate, weird combinations like white roof and red walls is startlingly correct 

weird jankieness that is common in a lot of later pirates sets is here too.

cons:

 doesn’t outwardly yell pirates at me

 i feel like a bigger dock would fit better

 pretty great effort though!

[Rogue Redcoat]

Overall the set looks great albeit the set is a tad large for my liking. anyway here are some suggestions, first the color of the walls is a bit bland you might want to add a bit of dark red to break it up. Secondly, could you add a working winch, and some guns for the fort? The rest looks great like the tree and the minifigs and so do the red roofs, I look forward to any updates but for now, Happy building :)

[JeffBuilds]

I love the size of this set, and how it's made with pieces from the time, but the coloring for it looks... incredibly plain. Too much white. I would say make the large slanted wall pieces along the bottom the (Good) Dark-Grey stone-textured pieces from the Ninjas wave... make the first floor dark grey, or at the least, swap out one of the 1X5 Window panels with a printed one that has the exposed brickwork print on it...

 Any of the printed 1X5 window panels would give it more character. 

On top of that, it needs a little more color, like Yellow, which was prominent in a lot of the Classic Pirates Imperial fortress sets. 

Barrels. At least two or three barrels on the dock and in the fortress proper for pirates or imperials to hide treasure or supplies in.

And maybe one or two more minifigures for something this size. (I just skimmed the notes, and saw the project was even LARGER! and had at one point included Will!) I'd say throw in Captain Redbeard and Bosun Will.

 

What you have is amazing! Fantastic at half the size! it just needs a little more detail.

[Mazin]

Wow, that's some huge entry, by both number of pieces and words used in description ;) You do realize that You've written more text for this entry than most people will read in a year, right? ;) and this says a guy who writes too much ;) 

But then i must admit i envy Your impressive knowledge about Lego of that era. Stunning research! I know nothing about Lego bricks, and You're a profesor here, but maybe You should approach this project with more fun in Your mind, rather than being so focused on wether those pieces are proper or not :) I mean, when You create Lego with classic looks, it should be more about giving them a classic vibe, pieces don't matter that much to be honest. Like with the new Eldorado Fortress, a lot of people criticize it, my eyes can spot some modern parts too, BUT there's a kid in me who wants to buy it as much as if it was available in a toy shop back in late 80s/early 90s :) 

But back to on Your design... my first impression is that it looks much better when it's walls are confined into that square and You should probably use it as Your first picture, cause that would draw more people into it. First photo is the most important one in a presentation, others are just a bonus. And the photo You currently use is kinda weird, mainly because of that line breaking rules of the physics, tho i understand it's program's fault, not Yours. 

With castle itself i think it's an impressive work, and i guess a lot of folks would want to buy it, for those pieces at least or to be able to say that they've added it into their collection. I ike those battlements and ref roof and terrace. BUT it kinda looks like a remake of Eldorado to be honest, it needs something that would instantly make it a legit original set. And it needs more life on those wals, especially lower parts. Right now it;s a proper fortification, surely pirates would have nightmares while thinking how to get into it, but Lego sets are meant to be toys, and it could need more areas that could blow kids' minds. And to blow those minds maybe some of those walls could be blown? Like they do often with modern sets, where with a push of a button a piece of building can fall down. Or maybe, like i suggested in another entry which had a similar type of build, maybe this fort could be still being build? Or maybe it could be even a bit run down being damaged by a hurricane or something. They could have bullet holes here and there, or cracks from an earthquake. Or "garbage" could be used during construction, like they actually used to do, and so certain not fitting pieces would be vissible in the structure, perhaps even skulls it workers had to deal with a real tyrant. I know that all of this i've said wouldn't make it a proper unconquered fortess then, but it's like with defending locations in modern computer games - there;s always plenty of ways to get in, always causing defenders to have to run from one corner to another to repel an attack. And historically most of fortresses or walled cities had strong parts and weaker undefendable points, so maybe that's the idea You could follow to upgrade it.

Or it at least, You could try to bring more colors into that white hell ;) I mean, it's too monotonous right now. I'd add grey bricks here and there, or sandy ones, or red ones, if available, to make it actually look like something build by workers' hands, where some parts are different then others, loosing more or less white plaster here and there. Actually, You've even used one piece of yellow with red bricks in the castle's couryard. So why not use more of them? Also plants or vine could be added to wall as well, to make it both visually more eyecatching and to be perhaps even be used by pirates to get in. Also those walls could have some protruding elements, that invaders could use to mimic Assassin's Creed moves and climb up ;)  

You have some lanterns by the gate, perhaps more of them could be fixed into walls, so that soldiers could be able to guard them better during the nigh, as it would be easier for them to spot if there's anyone trying to approach them.

You also said that there are certain rooms inside this facility, and that they are accesible when this structure is dissassembled. As it would be cool if You could post pics of them, i'd say that it would be also better if those rooms could be reachable even when the fort takea the the form of a square. I woudlnt like to have to keep turning those walls to be able to play with all the features waiting for me inside. 

Maybe there could be more cannons installed into those walled-in areas, ha? Or if You think one cannon is enough and it should stay were it is, than maybe windows could make a different. And if installing windows wouldn't be wise due to safety concerns, they perhaps muskets could be fixed in those places, so that just their sight would scare the hell out of intruders :) 

Anyway, You said You want suggestions from us, and that You will keep working on it, so here;s few words from me, hope i didn't dissapoint You and hope You will make it even better. Can't wait to see how it turns out :) 

[durazno33]

The profile of this build is good. It has varied heights and levels. It would make an impressive piece for kids to play with in a battle against a pirate ship.

One thing I don't understand is why you have the "red entry way" in the lower level? Wouldn't that just allow for enemies to enter through the wall? Why not put another door there or some half height crenulations? 

Also why for such large fort is there only one cannon? I would recommend adding at least one more.

You also have 4 of the blue imperial flags. I think it would look better with only one large flag and either one small flag or 3 small flags so that there are an odd number. Generally odd numbers are more aesthetically pleasing (think the Rule of Odds).

[The Reader]

Dear @Alexandrina , You did a great job with your MOC!

I like and appreciate your logical, almost scientific approach. I fully agree with your findings. I myself call the years from the mid 1990s on the "Years of the Battle of the (base)plates". We saw - even in the same (sub)theme - sets coming with baseplates, with raised baseplates, with plates or with big bricks (8x8, 8x16, 12x24 etc.). Just take the four Adventurers' subthemes or the Ninja sets mentioned by you. So I have the same starting point as you, but I think TLG would have come to an other outcome for your MOC:

Fort Legoredo covers more space than volume -> baseplates are used

Flying Ninja's Fortress (set 6093) is more a modular wall than space or volume -> big bricks are used

Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins (set 5988) covers space (32x64) -> baseplates are used

Your MOC covers space (32x48) AND volume. In this case (at least for my understanding) TLG used to take raised baseplates, see sets 5986 (Amazon Ancient Ruins), 7419 (Dragon Fortress) or 4990 (Rock Raiders HQ). So my guess is that TLG would have used the raised baseplate "Baseplate, Raised 32 x 48 x 6 with 4 Corner Pits" for your MOC. The one from set 7419 would perfectly match to your MOC:

 

 

 

You could easliy build the brown main gate, the red framed back porch, the towers, the main building and the crane on it. The only feature it would lack is the possibility to fold it open.

 

It would be fun to try it and build your MOC with real bricks on this raised baseplate. I have this raised baseplate but unfortunately I lack the „piratish“ bricks and panels …

Edited September 4, 2023 by The Reader

[Alexandrina]

On 9/4/2023 at 9:01 PM, The Reader said:

Dear @Alexandrina , You did a great job with your MOC!

I like and appreciate your logical, almost scientific approach. I fully agree with your findings. I myself call the years from the mid 1990s on the "Years of the Battle of the (base)plates". We saw - even in the same (sub)theme - sets coming with baseplates, with raised baseplates, with plates or with big bricks (8x8, 8x16, 12x24 etc.). Just take the four Adventurers' subthemes or the Ninja sets mentioned by you. So I have the same starting point as you, but I think TLG would have come to an other outcome for your MOC:

Fort Legoredo covers more space than volume -> baseplates are used

Flying Ninja's Fortress (set 6093) is more a modular wall than space or volume -> big bricks are used

Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins (set 5988) covers space (32x64) -> baseplates are used

Your MOC covers space (32x48) AND volume. In this case (at least for my understanding) TLG used to take raised baseplates, see sets 5986 (Amazon Ancient Ruins), 7419 (Dragon Fortress) or 4990 (Rock Raiders HQ). So my guess is that TLG would have used the raised baseplate "Baseplate, Raised 32 x 48 x 6 with 4 Corner Pits" for your MOC. The one from set 7419 would perfectly match to your MOC:

 

 

 

You could easliy build the brown main gate, the red framed back porch, the towers, the main building and the crane on it. The only feature it would lack is the possibility to fold it open.

 

It would be fun to try it and build your MOC with real bricks on this raised baseplate. I have this raised baseplate but unfortunately I lack the „piratish“ bricks and panels …

Thanks for the compliment! I actually agree that a baseplate is probably likely - honestly a big factor in my decision not to use raised baseplates was the fact that Stud.io doesn't really have much of a selection, and I don't own any that would be suitable for the theme so I couldn't build it physically either.

I might reconsider this, as and when I get hold of an appropriate baseplate!

[The Reader]

On 9/5/2023 at 10:13 PM, Alexandrina said:

Thanks for the compliment! I actually agree that a baseplate is probably likely - honestly a big factor in my decision not to use raised baseplates was the fact that Stud.io doesn't really have much of a selection, and I don't own any that would be suitable for the theme so I couldn't build it physically either.

I might reconsider this, as and when I get hold of an appropriate baseplate!