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Captain Pirate Man

Ranking the Pirate Ships 1-15

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Yes, the top 3 are pretty much a given. Honestly I feel the top 5 are pretty hard to argue against. Even if people have a soft spot for the CC or original IF, it's hard to argue they are better than the QAR or BP.

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51 minutes ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

Yes, the top 3 are pretty much a given. Honestly I feel the top 5 are pretty hard to argue against. Even if people have a soft spot for the CC or original IF, it's hard to argue they are better than the QAR or BP.

They are cool sets but I personally see POTC as a separate theme to Pirates.

Maybe because I'm a Classic Pirate fan in the main.

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Technically yes, POTC is a separate theme. But NOT including them would have led to a lot of "where is the black pearl" type of comments. Same goes for the Sea Cow. I have zero interest in that ship, but NOT including it would have led to backlash.

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2 hours ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

Technically yes, POTC is a separate theme. But NOT including them would have led to a lot of "where is the black pearl" type of comments. Same goes for the Sea Cow. I have zero interest in that ship, but NOT including it would have led to backlash.

Yeah I understand. They are definitely cool sets and I can see the interest in them when there are no other Pirate sets being released.

I think they "missed the boat" with the early classic Pirate stuff where they could have had some better and bigger Imperial vessels to rival BSB. They really should have released a bluecoat ship of a similar size to the BSB in the 1991 follow up to the launch range.

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I watched your video last night, and I spent the past couple hours Messing with LDD so I had a file with every pirate ship Lego made in one file aside from the Lego movie one.

I decided to figure out my ranking...

1) Metal Beard's Sea Cow - Glorious insanity and detail and I am a big fan of the movie.
2) Black Seas Barracuda - lovely sweeping lines and angled deck
3) big Imperial Flagship - wonderful but a bit boxy
4) Skulls Eye Schooner - not really keen on the cannons that slide back and forth
5) Redbeard Runner - I don't know I just get a kick out of that goofy skull on the back...
6) Queen Anne's Revenge - if it had the cabin fully enclosed it would be higher.
7/8) The Brick Bounty - This or Brickbeard's Bounty are almost interchangeable I think I like the way the rear hull is done on this one though.
8) Brickbeards Bounty - as above.
9) The Black Pearl - Kinda meh.
10) small Imperial Flagship - My favorite small ship, and the only Lego Pirate Ship that actually has the ships wheel turn the rudder.. it just doesn't get much higher as most of the large hull ships are just that much better.
11) Armada Flagship - The colors just seem weird, it does have a collapsing mast play feature like Redbeards Runner though
12) Caribbean Clipper - The smallest of the big hull ships, also the barest. It feels a little bland. It is the only one with bottom hinging cannon port covers.
13) Renegade Runner - The only Pirate Ship without a ships wheel... oh well :)
14) LOTR Pirate Ship Ambush - Is this a real pirate ship? O.o It just feels like a couple bricks attached to the pre-fab hull parts.
15) Crossbone clipper - eh the color palette and other things just seem a bit off

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13 minutes ago, clm said:

10) small Imperial Flagship - My favorite small ship, and the only Lego Pirate Ship that actually has the ships wheel turn the rudder..

The Skull's Eye Schooner rudder is turned by the ship's wheel as well.

Interesting discussion to rank the ships, but it seems a bit skewed due to years between designs and introductions of new parts over the years.  I personally find it hard to compare designs from the 1990's to today's designs on a level field because of new parts.  The old sets would be even better if they were redesigned today.

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Why yes.. you are right, it has been a while since I have that one assembled... Still waiting on getting some hull parts to dedicate to it :)

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2 minutes ago, Slegengr said:

The Skull's Eye Schooner rudder is turned by the ship's wheel as well.

Interesting discussion to rank the ships, but it seems a bit skewed due to years between designs and introductions of new parts over the years.  I personally find it hard to compare designs from the 1990's to today's designs on a level field because of new parts.  The old sets would be even better if they were redesigned today.

It's interesting to note though that despite not having the newer parts a lot of people still rank the likes of BSB and SES above the newer ships! ? 

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The classic pirate look is just hard to beat!  Some parts would still be the same today, with mostly differences in the detailing.

If LEGO made more ships with detailed design, I have a feeling that the BSB and SES would be valued mainly for nostalgia.  As it is, the newer ships from the Pirates theme are lacking in number and have overly simplistic designs, so the strongest ship designs still come from classic pirates.  The design is good on the PotC ships, but the reference is very specific, not as general as the classic "insert your own pirate ship story".

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I do think it is most of the older ships had more interior spaces and multi levels where as many of the newer ships seem to have evolved into an open tub with maybe an enclosed cabin on the rear. It is somewhat a give and take between play-ability and overall design. The only one that never gave up any to either of those was the big imperial flagship, although it did that at a cost to part count and overall price.

Modern simpler design or vintage more complicated design.. *shrug*

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Despite the age of ships like the SES and BSB, I stand by there rank on my list. Outside of the IFS, you are hard pressed to find any other Lego ships that are more impressive or just plain beautiful than those two. The QAR is really the only one that comes close. But the bare bones hull and "broom closet" captains quarters makes it inferior to the other two imo. If the level of detail was put into the QAR that was out into the BSB and SES, then yes I do think it would be superior.

Edited by Captain Pirate Man

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love your ranks here! I couldn't agree with you anymore! I do think thought that the Black Pearl is a better "pirate ship" than the queen ann's revenge but thats just my personal opinion. Great Video! Really loving the new Audio! ;)

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I feel like this thread could really potentially hurt the Ship's self esteem. It's not very uplifting to be ranked 15th out of 15.

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With the Crossbone Clipper and Armada Flagship the main problems are the awful multicoloured hull pieces. Either have them all black or all brown or a mix of brown and black not bright colours and certainly not white!

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5 hours ago, azog said:

love your ranks here! I couldn't agree with you anymore! I do think thought that the Black Pearl is a better "pirate ship" than the queen ann's revenge but thats just my personal opinion. Great Video! Really loving the new Audio! ;)

Thanks Azog,

I have a multigrain digital recorder (because I'm a musician as well) and I have been using that to record all the audio on my newer videos. It does create an extra step during the editing process. But I'm just trying to keep people happy. ?

4 hours ago, Actor Builder said:

I feel like this thread could really potentially hurt the Ship's self esteem. It's not very uplifting to be ranked 15th out of 15.

??

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4 hours ago, The Imperial Soldier said:

certainly not white

Just curious, why not white?  Many historical ships were painted white above the waterline.  Black also works well for ships coated in pitch.
If it is a personal preference, then I understand, but you could replace the hull components using brown and dark gray from the Imperial flagship.  I think many ship builders were actually glad to get hulls of these colors instead of always having brown ships.

Bright colors were also added as details on many ships, but I agree that the hull pieces should be one color and the bright colors could be added with additional plates and bricks.

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14 hours ago, Actor Builder said:

I feel like this thread could really potentially hurt the Ship's self esteem. It's not very uplifting to be ranked 15th out of 15.

??

 

No problemo. If you enjoy it, feel free to subscribe to my channel ? I plan on doing more videos like this in the near future. I'm not going to say WHAT they will be, but more "rank" videos are in the works. ?

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That's an awesome rating. Thanks a lot. I enjoyed it very much. I have got ships 1 and 3 of your rating. I won # 1 when I became All Russia LEGO champion. And I bought #3 used a couple of years ago.I recently combined them in my LEGO project.I'd like to know your opinion if you don't mind. And # 3 of your rating is surely a legend.

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4 hours ago, Staslegomaster said:

That's an awesome rating. Thanks a lot. I enjoyed it very much. I have got ships 1 and 3 of your rating. I won # 1 when I became All Russia LEGO Kimchampion. And I bought #3 used a couple of years ago.I recently combined them in my LEGO project.I'd like to know your opinion if you don't mind. And # 3 of your rating is surely a legend.

Sounds good. I'll check out your stuff. Where can I find it?

Edited by Captain Pirate Man

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4 hours ago, Staslegomaster said:

That's an awesome rating. Thanks a lot. I enjoyed it very much. I have got ships 1 and 3 of your rating. I won # 1 when I became All Russia LEGO champion. And I bought #3 used a couple of years ago.I recently combined them in my LEGO project.I'd like to know your opinion if you don't mind. And # 3 of your rating is surely a legend.

Where can I check out your stuff? I would love to see as well

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On 15.11.2016 at 0:38 AM, Captain Pirate Man said:

Sounds good. I'll check out your stuff. Where can I find it?

Please use my links. And what do you think about big pirates 2004? Their ship isn't in your rating.

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