REVIEW - 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner

[Lorentzen]

Did you guys notice that "Steve" the rare trader guy has a wrong minifig head on the picture on the front of the SES box? He's got Redbeard's head, and not the brown bearded face

[Captain Blackmoor]

A wonderful review Lorentzen! It has just been

[Dreamweb]

I voted above average. It's a good ship but...

The colours are a bit messed up. In this case less would've been more.

The captain's cabin's design looks rushed compared to what we had in BSB. I couldn't care less for the rudder mechanism. I'd remove it and put some extra stuff in the cabin.

For some reason I never liked rotating cannons, the classic design with wheels would've worked much better.

It's still a classic set but it just doesn't deserve as many points as BSB... THAT was a masterpiece, this is just a good-looking pirate vessel.

[Captainkiwi]

A great review for a great set.

[Skulls_Eye_Schooner_Sailor]

Did you guys notice that "Steve" the rare trader guy has a wrong minifig head on the picture on the front of the SES box? He's got Redbeard's head, and not the brown bearded face

Yes, and it has a thinner beard than RedBeard too. Hmm...

Wow, Brickmoor... err, Blackmoor is just now seeing some of these reviews.

I agree about the gun port doors. Mine actually had green lanterns, but I had no problem with that as I think they go with the doors nicely.

[allanp]

Great review. For me the 6286 SES is the best, number one lego pirate ship of all time.

I think the colour scheme is great (even the blue table!), the parts are great, the build is great and the anchor raising/lowering arrangment to be more interesting and realistic when compared to a winch. I love that the rudder atually works via the wheel and pretty much everything about it. Just wish I could get a decent one cheaper than they are currently going on bricklink like you did

[Capt Horndog]

EDIT

Edited January 29, 2011 by Erdbeereis
Got rid of the pictures

[prateek]

Why? At least write something, instead of quoting the whole review.

[Capt Horndog]

Whats the deals with the cannons with the emblem and fuse hole?

[andika]

Thanks for the review and pics, I remember back then in 1993 this set was around 300RM (in my country's currency) and of course, I can't afford it though..

Unfortunately I have always thinking that the Imperial Soldier/Guard should have a bigger ship back then, in fact they are "Imperial" they ought to have a bigger ship than the pirates, anyway it's just a thought though nevermind that..

[Lorentzen]

Maybe someone should edit the post a few lines above, so we don't have to load ALL the pictures again here on page 3.

Thanks for all the positive comments and the interesting views on the ship's design and color scheme.

The new QAR cabin area looks very much like the SES cabin which is kind of cool and a great tribute to SES (although unintentional).

I hope to find the time to spice up this review even more, as there are still some pictures I am unhappy with.

Edited January 29, 2011 by Lorentzen

[Erdbeereis]

Definitely. I'll edit it now.

[Lorentzen]

Whats the deals with the cannons with the emblem and fuse hole?

Those are the US non-shooting cannons. In the rest of the world the cannons could shoot

Apparantly US children can't be trusted with dangerous toys.

[Blackknight112]

great review, of a great set

[Runamuck]

Now that the review has resurfaced I might have a chance to throw in a few comments about the biggest pirate ship I have.

I love the Skull’s Eye Schooner. It was THE pirate ship I admired in the catalogues. I did know from pictures that the Black Seas Barracuda did exist, but at the time I though the sails were odd compared to the SES and the Renegade Runner who both had the same types of sails.

The review is very informative and illustrative. I agree on most parts.

For some funny reason I never liked the figurehead (and it’s even worse on the Red Beard Runner, couldn’t they have used half a skeleton instead?).

Personally I think that this is the best battle ship, most cannons that can be pointed out to one side (unless those brick build ones are dummies) and largest crew. We will have to wait and see if Queen Anne’s Revenge can change that opinion; it at least seems to have more cannon ports.

I have for some time had the funny idea of giving the big ships different functions.

The Black Seas Barracuda is a prestige ship because it looks so good.

The Skull’s Eye Schooner is a warship because of its better cannon distribution and large crew.

The Red Beard Runner is an old and somewhat battle worn reserve ship that holds some personal value for Captain Roger Redbeard because of the level of customisation.

[Admiral Byrd]

I absolutely love the design of this ship. I wanted one so badly as a kid, but never got one. When I got back into my old Lego Pirate sets a few years ago, purchasing a SES off Ebay became priority #1! lol

I do agree that the colors are just a little "off" though. For some reason the BSB has a better look to it. But I do enjoy the functionality of the SES and I like the black and white sails more than the typical red / blue / white sails.

This is an outstanding ship though, and a fun one to mod with different colors, ect... 5/5 for me.

[Captain Roger]

BEST PIRATE SHIP EVER!!!!

and probably best pirate set!

i have argued about why is the best ship plenty of times in this forum, so this time i only say: i have voted 5

[BrickPerfection]

Anyone care to fix the title? It is supposed to be "REVIEW", not "REIVEW"!

As a set I always wanted this as a child, but now much prefer the BSB.

[josykay]

BSB and SES are two fantastic ships. But the BSB is a little better designed.

First of all it is very obvious, that SES is a pirate ship. Not very clever, if you want to come close to an enemies ship for boarding.

In Addition BSB is the only ship of Lego, that is fully armed. Every other set contains only half the cannons, the ship should have, so you have to switch the cannons. Sure, you can buy more cannons, but SES cannons do not have weels... thay are built on a turntable!

BSB has some kind of deck! Even it is just 2 studs wide, it can used for puting walking/ fighting minifigs on it! SESs Deck is the cannondeck, so the sailors have to cross a wall, that is higher as an minifig. Not very good for bording a ship or to abandon it, if it is going down!

However, the steering mechanism is very nice! As much as its working crane. But all in all I think, the BSB is a little bit superior. If BSB scored 10/10, SES scores 9,9/10! SES is a very nice ship and a "Must have" for every Pirate fan!

Sadly after the SES, the pirate ships were not designed very well. RBR looks very strange because of the colored hull, the damaged sails and the stern castle... and the BB is just a low quality BSB copy with terrible yards!

Edited February 13, 2011 by josykay

[Runamuck]

Personally I have always preferred the cannon setup type on the SES.

Perhaps it’s something about realism/partial look vs. playability/functionality, as I have always enjoyed being able to point as many cannons out to one side, and the BSB does as far as I know not have the cannon ports to make this a possibility.

[the pirate on the left]

hmmm its nice but i think it would be cool to see that ses vs imperial flag ship both have for canons but one is a lot taller then the other but i think both of them put to gather would not stand a chase agents the queen ans revenge being that it has five cannons but other thane that it's a nice ship

[FlyBoy]

Always wanted one as a kid. Now that I'm able to I'm tracking down all of the LEGO pirate ships. Just bought a complete one of these off Bricklink (and of course by "complete" the seller actually meant "missing some pieces with some other pieces swapped for different colour ones"; I was able to compensate with pieces from my own collection). Have to say I love the design of this ship. I haven't built my BSB yet (also advertised as complete, and also missing pieces...) so I can't compare it to that, but my only real comments about this ship is the relatively spartan cabin and only 4 cannon for an 8 gunports.

Otherwise, great set. The build was very fun.

[Song Dynastry]

That's my first pirate ship. My parents bought it for me when I was 9 or 10 years old. I could not help myself opening it while I was in the car. I have rebuilt it for three times. I really love it.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Great review! I always like getting a new magazine (or add w/ new set) back in the 90's and seeing these sets in a layout TLG made

[SBCMayor]

Well, I finally broke down and bought the Skull's Eye Schooner. As I've done with a few of these older review threads, I'm reviving this thread with a few thoughts and pics of my own. 

I wasn't sure if I would ever get this ship given the price on the secondary market combined with just not liking this as much as the BSB. With that said, I've always liked the idea of having at least 1 each of the first and second wave pirate ships. And as I stated in another thread, I think I may have liked that idea more than the SES itself. I did find this copy for less than most on Ebay. I paid $460 USD for mine, and it was near complete (I'll get to what it's missing momentarily). It did not come with the box or instructions. Thankfully, the instructions are available right here! As for the price, it may sound like a lot, and it certainly is, but I feel like I went cheap on mine. Other complete or near-complete but without box/instructions range about $550-575. I think a complete copy with box and instructions can easily run north of $675 USD and again, buying on the secondary market there's always a risk of the actual condition not being all that great. 

The person who sold mine did a horrific job packing it. The ship was just placed in a box with some packing paper fully assembled. Needless to say, it was not fully assembled when it arrived. Assembled or not assembled, that wasn't the worry for me, since I didn't mind building it from the start. But the way it was packed was a mess. I had to go through each piece of packing paper to make sure I didn't lose any pieces in the folds. Also the pieces were filthy, which is not uncommon for a vintage set. I took the ship completely apart and washed all the pieces, laying them out to dry before putting it all back together. 

When I saw how it was packed I had some concerns, but after cleaning the pieces and inspecting the sails I concluded I once again got lucky on another vintage set. Many of the white pieces have some yellowing, as you'll see in the pictures. But those are pieces that I can easily replace. The most important thing is the pieces are all in very good condition, and of course so are the sails. 

I was hoping by building it and seeing it in person I would fall in love with it. I'm glad I bought it, and I do like it, but it will never compare to the BSB for me. More on that later.

Some pics: 

Overall view: 

Even though I have voiced some criticism for this ship, I do think it's awesome in its own right. Most of my criticism comes from direct comparison to the BSB. This ship is infinitely better than any pirate ship Lego has made since, and I'm including the Imperial Flagship and Barracuda Bay in that, as well as any of the POTC ships. There is just something about this first generation of pirate ships that just rocks. And even though there are some features on this ship I do not like, I think the overall design is spectacular. I love the sails. I'm not crazy about the color scheme, and I may swap out the red along the cabin structure for white or black. I felt like whoever designed this ship with these colors must have been an Atlanta Falcons fan with all that white, black, grey, and red! But as far as the basic shape and design, this really is a remarkably well-done set. 

Stern: 

Mine is missing the two blue lanterns. That was the only thing this set was missing, and likely had something to do with why this set was less than similar copies available when I chose this one. The blue lantern pieces are actually pretty rare. Since I am planning to make some modifications to this one anyway, I don't mind eventually color swapping in some black lanterns. Also, note the yellowing on the white bricks. I will replace a lot of those and I think the influx of new white pieces is really going to breathe new life into this classic! 

Quartermaster: 

My copy was NOT missing this guy, and that is another reason why I chose this copy over some of the other ones available. I may need to double check that the tricorn hat is color appropriate for this minifigure on this set, but that'll be an easy fix. 

Gun deck: 

My copy is not a collector grade copy by any means and because of this, I have no qualms about modifying it to my liking. This is the biggest area that I intend to overhaul. I really do not like the swivel guns. With that said, I think this ship will look incredible with 8 guns so that'll be a project I take on in the coming weeks or months. I am also going to install a deck above it, similar to the BSB. I'll share a few pics once I've completed it, as well as refreshed some of the white pieces! 

Ironhook instead of Redbeard: 

I actually have appointed Captain Ironhook to command this ship instead of the original Captain Redbeard. I know this might sound like sacrilege but I've actually built both captains a decent fleet, with Redbeard's ships all featuring the red striped sails and Ironhook's featuring the black striped sails. This specific minifigure is the one that came with Enchanted Island. Most other Ironhook figures do not have the peg leg. Since he's different from my other Captain Ironhook minifigures I picked him to command this ship, and by default, the entire fleet! 

Ironhook's fleet: 

It's actually a pretty solid fleet especially for a guy who started out with just the Renegade Runner! Now he has 2 of those to go with his SES, and the BSB and IF I've modified. These guys along with their frenemies in the red striped fleet are going to keep the both the Bluecoats and Redcoats alike working overtime! I really think the black sails make for an awesome looking fleet, 

Overall I am glad I went ahead and added this ship to my collection. It is the last major purchase I will make. I definitely recommend to anyone who is considering purchasing this on the secondary market, really decide what is important to you. For me, I was okay with it missing the blue lanterns as long as the overall condition was solid and it had the quartermaster minifigure. The sails show a little age in their coloration, but are otherwise in great shape too, so I feel I did well on this one. But if you are looking for a cleaner copy and want the box and instructions, you may need to be willing to pay over $600 USD, and honestly, you might need to be ready to go closer to $1,000 USD. 

I've always wondered if seeing this ship in person and being able to do a side by side comparison with the BSB would sway my opinion of it. I've had it for a little over a week now and so far it hasn't. But I still consider it a "must-have" for any avid collector of vintage Lego. I am looking forward to making the mods I want to do to mine. Again, that's one of the beauties of focussing on a balance of cost and remaining "lifespan" in the sets: I don't feel pressured to maintain every set in its original form. 

I'll keep reviving these older review threads. Even though the discussions are all several years old, I still enjoy reading them and seeing what others have to say. I hope we can keep the discussions going!