Brick Fanatics Issue 10 has exclusive Pirate interview!

[TalonCard]

Ahoy all,

Brick Fanatics just put up issue #10 of their magazine for pre-order. It looks like they're creating new photos based on the classic Pirate catalog images, and they'll have an exclusive interview with the lead designer of the original theme! It's supposed to ship late September/early October. I can't wait! 

 

[Tazakk]

looking forward to this. the preview art they posted is pretty and definitely has that old catalog vibe

[Mister Phes]

These are very lovely artworks indeed!

[Ultimo]

It brings back the memories of hours and hours spent looking at the early 90s catalogues!

[TalonCard]

Brick Fantatics has posted a nice article online about the firsts of the Pirate theme ahead of the actual issue. They've even linked back to discussion threads on this forum, so you know they've done their research.  This article also promises never-before-seen concept art for the Pirates theme in this issue, so that's something else to look forward to.

There are also several classic Pirate images I had never seen before, sourced from another great web post on Rambling Bricks. Most are just variations on images I'd already seen, but there's a Japanese LEGO magazine from 1989 with a Pirate themed cover that I don't recall seeing before.

TC

[TalonCard]

Update: I visited LEGOLAND and the LEGO House for the first time last week, and my only consolation for having to leave Billund was that this magazine was waiting for me.  I'd definitely recommend this issue to all Pirate fans; it's a pretty cool article.

A few interesting facts:

- The theme was pretty much ready to go as early as 1986, but LEGO held off on releasing the sets because the Castle line was selling so well that they didn't have the capacity to make more sets.

- A Western theme was developed in tandem with the Pirates, but didn't see release in the 80s. (This might explain the early Western prototypes with bison and such that we've seen pictures of.)

- Early prototypes for Pirate hulls were designed to float in water, before the idea was dropped.

- The crocodile was designed early on for Pirates, but didn't make it to market until after some of the elements were re-used in Castle dragons.

- The ramp-and-pit raised baseplates were a huge pain to design; they had to be printed on a piece of flat plastic and the only way to make sure they looked good after the plastic had been molded was trial and error. (!)

There's only one piece of never-before-seen concept art; a simple but extensive sketch of all the original 1989 sets together--pretty neat to see, but nothing particularly earth shattering. The original pictures are nice, but fairly small scale.

I also picked up Brick Fanatics #3, which has a small piece about how the ad agency Advance put together the marketing materials for the 1989-1992 Pirate sets. Very cool behind-the-scenes stuff. Here's hoping Brick Fanatics has more behind-the-scenes Pirate content in the future!

[Mister Phes]

On 10/16/2019 at 2:57 PM, TalonCard said:

Update: I visited LEGOLAND and the LEGO House for the first time last week, and my only consolation for having to leave Billund was that this magazine was waiting for me.  

Well it's a hard life but we're glad you're up to the task of reporting back

[Dreamweb]

On 10/16/2019 at 5:57 AM, TalonCard said:

A few interesting facts:

That is indeed some very interesting information, thanks!

On 10/16/2019 at 5:57 AM, TalonCard said:

The ramp-and-pit raised baseplates were a huge pain to design; they had to be printed on a piece of flat plastic and the only way to make sure they looked good after the plastic had been molded was trial and error.

Well that would certainly explain the inconsistencies in the look of this particular item - the stone pattern, the level of water on the sides, etc.