Shooting vs Non-Shooting Cannons? Red vs Brown Captain Red Beard Heads? Treasure Chests with/without Slots in the Back? And more....

[kelceycoe]

Is there a "code" to cracking the black handle vs the cross-canon symbol on non-shooting cannons here in the US?

 

I remember owning Black Seas Barracuda, Forbidden Island and the Fort Eldorado in 1989 (I was 5). They all came with shooting canons. But in 1990 I was certain my Shipwreck Island came with the black handle cannon and Sabre Island had the new non-shooter with the logo resembling the Imperial's crossed cannon logo.

 

Does anyone remember what their sets had and about when you bought/got them?

For example:

• Almost all of the sets released in 1989 had the shooting cannons here in the US and throughout North America.
• Sometime end of 1989 into the beginning of early 1990s we get a black handled cannon that has been disabled (it could technically still shoot if you flick it but that wasn't its intention). II am guessing the third production batch had these since I got my Black Seas Barracuda in October 1989, likely Forbidden Island then too, and my Fort Eldorado at Christmas 1989 (it was likely bought early since I think my aunt/grandma bought it for me) and from the pics I had it looked like the cannon was normal.
• Also, sometime before September 1989 the flags were stickers. Does anyone remember how long the sets had stickers because I never had flags with stickers yet my cannons were still the shooting variation. Or were the stickers dependent in another country?

 

I am unsure when I got Shipwreck Island and Sabre Island. But I recall a black handle with a brown cannon holder so I think my Shipwreck Island had my black handle and my Sabre Island came with the cross-cannon non-shooting cannon (which would make perfect since as the Imperials logo is the crossed cannons).

 

All I know, based on the Lego catalogs / minisheets for 1989 and 1990 and the Sears Holiday Wish Book, here in the United States we only had the 4 main sets available to us before all the smaller sets came in 1990.

 

I do know and gathered it from reading here on the forums, Captain Ironhook had both Captain Red Beard's red head and his own brown head: When he had a pegleg he had red hair but in sets he actually had legs he had brown hair.

Personally I always thought Captain Ironhook was a shipwreck version of Red Beard. I guess I never read the boxes as I thought it was a money grab to entice us to buy more Pirates since we were thinking we were getting more Red Beard toys.

 

Do we know why/when the treasure chests were changed from no slots in the back to having slots in the back?

 

I recently rebuilt my vintage Lego collection from 1980s into the early 2000s and I ran into so many interesting things.

 

Did you know the dark gray 1x8 flat plates in the Pier Police set from 1991 had solid studs on the bottom? That was my only set with those solid studs on the bottom.

 

I am also trying to figure out which 3 brown 1x8 studs had a common hollow stud as there were two variations of hollow studs on these parts before they became solid in the later 2000s.

 

I only have the Legoland 3D Witch to compare with all the Western sets so hopefully that mystery will be even easier to solve.