The Strange Case of Those 1991 Yellow Boxes that Became Purple in 1992

[kelceycoe]

As many of you know, I have been frantically trying to gather as much information as possible about vintage Pirate Lego sets, mainly here in America because we had sooo many changes in product design (boxes) and availability (cannon types). Not to mention, as we near the 40 year mark, we are faced with a serious problem: Not too many unopened MISB original sets exist and the ones that have been opened and logged have likely been lost to time or simply their contents weren't logged.

This information is helpful especially to both buyers and sellers in knowing what they are facing. Some sets, like 1989's Buried Treasure, went through differences over the years - The 1989-1991 versions contained treasure chests without slots and thin-hinged lids as well as solid-stud heads, while the 1992 version - impossible to know if you have it even if you have the box unopened - changed to the 1992 changes of hollow stud heads and slotted chests. Not to mention I read that someone's set did not come with any inserts but a 1992 copy actually came with the 1992 Pirates leaflet as well as a Club leaflet, for example.

Not Piratey, but I also found one 1991 set (6509) with a 1991,1993 copyright on the box that complied with the ASTM F963-92 toy standard, not the 1986 one the early Pirate sets did.

 

Anyway, on with this show, so to speak...

In 1991, The Lego Group continued to use the same yellow packaging as they had been doing since 1978  (the older LEGOLAND white with five-color flag had been started in 1966, although Brickipedia claims LEGOLAND would be started s a theme in 1969). However, something was missing - these yellow boxes were known to fans as "blue-on-yellow" and, you guessed it, the blue LEGOLAND logo had been removed for ALL 1991 Pirate sets introduced that year. This is very strange and I consider this another transitional period. For the record, I have not examined if Europe and other regions' sets reflected these changes, so unless I say otherwise, everything I am talking about is simply about American packaging.

BUT in 1992, one of the worst things that could happen to Lego Pirate packaging happened - the boxes were now purple and branded with the SYSTEM logo and crappy Pirates logo (But PURPLE? That's unforgiven!). Now I have been researching to see when The Lego Group "went wrong" so to speak with drastic changes and this is definitely the beginning (more on this topic later as I am still trying to narrow down the facts). Not only this, but in this year all of the minifigure heads were now hollow AND the treasure chests had slots in them (this was a great move since the originals wore out very fast and easy). Additional color note: Castle kept the yellow; Town got Blue; Space got Black and Paradisa had Pink.

So I am using this time to list all of the Lego Pirate sets released first in 1991 AND THEN REPACKAGED IN 1992. Also worthy to note, any Pirate sets released in 1989 and 1990 retained their same blue-on-yellow LEGOLAND packages with their original copyright dates: Here in the USA, only Black Seas Barracuda, Forbidden Island, Eldorado Fortress, and Caribbean Clipper had a 1989 date on the box while every other 1989 set released here in the USA in 1990 had a 1989, 1990 date - as far as I can tell. We already know both Shop at Home and Club members were given opportunities to buy all the other sets (minus the comic) in 1989 here in the USA BUT I have yet to see concrete evidence to what their packaging looked like (and it is only a guess they used the 1989, 1990 date - assuming they were even actually released at all).

(Note all of my photos are in albums so follow them and you can see more of the boxes)

Also, note the box art on the yellow 1991 boxes below reflect the new cannon changes since none of the 1990 boxes included changed box or instruction art.

I have NOT investigated most boxes for sets produced/released for 1993-1997 so I am unaware if any of those had any changes but I hope to report back with any if they did.

1991 Yellow Box - 1992 Purple Box Comparison: 

6234 Renegade's Raft :

 

6259 Broadside's Brig:

 

6267 Lagoon Lock-Up

6273 Rock Island Refuge

 

Edited September 18 by kelceycoe