[MOC] Forbidden Island

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

Hello everybody, 

Here I present you my latest creation/recreation: forbidden Island. The first pirates cove released in 1989. 

Following the new pirates of Barracuda Bay style, with my own twist on the amount of details and techniques employed, I tried to update that set, restyle and expand it. I added some natives structures like in the bay, a bridge, lookout mast and a small cave where some chests are stashed. There's a prison with a bluecoat skeleton, some cannons and a shack, were pirates can plot their new plunder. 

Main overview: 

 

From here there's a clear view of the dock and the crew unloading their loot. On the right side, underneath the bridge, there's the wreck of a small dinghy. 

From this perspective, underneath the bridge, there's a small cave where a couple of chests are hidden away.

This is the interior of the cave area.

Here, front and center, you can see the wreck of a dinghy with its oars in the carcass of its hull.

View of the back of the main island. On the left side, now overrun by plants one can still see the entrance and floor of the old temple, of which the scattered stones were collected and reused to build the prison and on top the wooden structure. 3 cannons protect the building.

One can even still see the remnants of the old pier that gave access to this section of the island.

View of the main structure with a prison underneath and a shack made out of reclaimed pieces of a shipwreck. Its main mast used as a lookout place, and 3 cannons guard the island and its inhabitants.

 

 

Here you can better see the remains of the temple and its statue. For this purpose I chose the other style just because it looks more ancient, almost like Easter Island statues. 

Here there's some better view of the details of the temple's floor. 

View of the interior of the shack with weapons, table with map and lamps.  

Other side with a view over the fireplace. 

Interior of the prison, with bluecoat skeleton, wooden bed and chains. 

Edited November 2, 2020 by Elusys Ra Arwal

[Captain Dee]

This would make an awesome play set from every direction. I love it. There's so much to look at and study and so many good play features. 

How does the cannon barrel attach to the carriage?

[Verodin]

Absolutely love the open and detailed layout and the 'fuller' coconut trees. My compliments on a beautiful creation!

PS, since I took apart the original Barracuda bay island last week, I have lots of pieces lying around just screaming to be rebuild into something. And this is just a perfect build for that. Any change of a partslist/instruction/model that I could spend my cold and dark evenings with?

[neonic]

For the rest I can only say one thing: cool.
Looks very colorfull and lots of details and I like the two parts connected with the bridge.
Palmtrees looks great too, and all those vegetation. the Little rocks in the water is a great idea too.

the Only thing I 'mis' is the railing on the bridge 
 

 

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

16 hours ago, Captain Dee said:

This would make an awesome play set from every direction. I love it. There's so much to look at and study and so many good play features. 

How does the cannon barrel attach to the carriage?

I am happy you enjoyed every detail I put in. For the cannons, you can check my thread on the Renegade Runner here: 

 If you scroll down there's a post where I illustrate the building process. 

7 hours ago, Verodin said:

Absolutely love the open and detailed layout and the 'fuller' coconut trees. My compliments on a beautiful creation!

PS, since I took apart the original Barracuda bay island last week, I have lots of pieces lying around just screaming to be rebuild into something. And this is just a perfect build for that. Any change of a partslist/instruction/model that I could spend my cold and dark evenings with?

Thank you! The coconut trees are of 4 different types and built using different techniques, so they give a more natural and less standardized look, even if they are homogenous.  As per using Barracuda Bay pieces to build this, unfortunately you can't because this is all custom made and this set alone has 3k pieces which are not the ones included in that set, although on Facebook a guy posted recently some pictures of a forbidden Island almost identical to the original one, but with the parts of the island itself.

Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/the7sea/posts/189914326004371

6 hours ago, neonic said:

For the rest I can only say one thing: cool.
Looks very colorfull and lots of details and I like the two parts connected with the bridge.
Palmtrees looks great too, and all those vegetation. the Little rocks in the water is a great idea too.

the Only thing I 'mis' is the railing on the bridge 
 

 

I know about the railing. My idea was to put those studded strings on both sides of the bridge to make the railing, but any kind of string or tube etc. isn't well implemented in studio and it is PIA to move them around and make them work! I thought about adding some sort of clip on top, but I haven't found anything interesting or nice-looking. If you have any suggestion, feel free to share! 

[Merlo]

Words haven't been invented to describe how amazing this looks :)

[CaptainMoore]

I like both your recreation and Piraten's one. Yours is a more a tribute to the original as a completely new model.
This is a great creation. I really fell in love with your trees.

[Greycoat]

This is amazing, thanks for sharing!

[Fraunces]

Great remake! All the small details and other ways of showing the same subjects in the BB is just great, really creative.

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

On 11/3/2020 at 5:31 AM, Merlo said:

Words haven't been invented to describe how amazing this looks :)

This is too good of a compliment, thank you! I'm really happy that you liked this creation.

On 11/3/2020 at 10:14 AM, CaptainMoore said:

I like both your recreation and Piraten's one. Yours is a more a tribute to the original as a completely new model.
This is a great creation. I really fell in love with your trees.

My first approach to the set was going to be similar to Piraten's outcome, as in updating the old set with new pieces and some small additions (which he did very, very well!), then I remembered I was not supposed to make a set that needs to be sold by LEGO, so I started seeing what I could do to improve it and what didn't make sense in the original set: we don't have stairs that go right in the water for no reason anymore. Also, what's the point of having stairs + bridge to go to the main building, when you can just have the stairs connected to the building itself, since you're on the same island. I know that it gives an exotic look and sense of adventure, but there's no logic to it. So I thought it would have been better to create two separate islands which are connected by a bridge, and also more palm trees!

On 11/3/2020 at 3:13 PM, Greycoat said:

This is amazing, thanks for sharing!

Thank you for stopping by!

7 hours ago, Fraunces said:

Great remake! All the small details and other ways of showing the same subjects in the BB is just great, really creative.

Thank you! It took a while to insert all the details, though it is also very relaxing to make it rich and interesting. Especially when everything tells a small story on its own and enriches the whole output.

[Fraunces]

22 hours ago, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

Thank you! It took a while to insert all the details, though it is also very relaxing to make it rich and interesting. Especially when everything tells a small story on its own and enriches the whole output.

I understand completely what you mean. Rock on mate

[victorycount]

Wow, this is probably the most beautiful pirate island I’ve ever seen!  cheers and congratulations to that.

[Pic10]

This is so nice.

Your creation is an absolute joy to look at: the trees, the cave, the wrecked boat,... If this was a set I would buy it for sure!

Have you considered submiting it to LEGO Ideas?

Congratulations on the good work.  

[Mister Phes]

On 11/2/2020 at 12:13 PM, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

Here I present you my latest creation/recreation: forbidden Island. The first pirates cove released in 1989. 

Well now! This is a fanastic update!

We'd be interested in featuring this MOC on the Classic Pirates Instagram at some point in the future.

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

On 11/6/2020 at 11:37 PM, victorycount said:

Wow, this is probably the most beautiful pirate island I’ve ever seen!  cheers and congratulations to that.

Thank you very much!  

11 hours ago, Pic10 said:

This is so nice.

Your creation is an absolute joy to look at: the trees, the cave, the wrecked boat,... If this was a set I would buy it for sure!

Have you considered submiting it to LEGO Ideas?

Congratulations on the good work.  

Thank you! I considered for a moment the LEGO Ideas submission, but then some other users on here published there some pirate-related ideas and they were not accepted because they were overlapping with the pirate bay, so that is why I didn't post it there. I should come up with a completely different idea to submit there, but I don't think this one is the right one. 

6 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Well now! This is a fanastic update!

We'd be interested in featuring this MOC on the Classic Pirates Instagram at some point in the future.

I'd be very happy and honored if and when that happens. Feel free to post on instagram or elsewhere my MOC! Thank you for considering it! 

[Mister Phes]

22 hours ago, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

I'd be very happy and honored if and when that happens. Feel free to post on instagram

It could happen next time we're to post a pirate hideout MOC.

But do you happen to have a verison of the below image in a 1:1 aspect ration.  I.e. the width is the same as the height.

This is because Instagram refers images 1080x1080px - plus the MOC is "cut off" at the top and bottom.

The Instagram presentation would be better if the entire MOC were visible.

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

3 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

It could happen next time we're to post a pirate hideout MOC.

But do you happen to have a verison of the below image in a 1:1 aspect ration.  I.e. the width is the same as the height.

This is because Instagram refers images 1080x1080px - plus the MOC is "cut off" at the top and bottom.

The Instagram presentation would be better if the entire MOC were visible.

Unfortunately what I have posted on here is what I got from studio rendering, so if you like this one in particular, I can make a new one and cut it square, but I think the image will be quite small. Anyway I'll post it here and you decide.

[Corydoras]

Whoa, that's impressive. Shame it's digital. How exactly did you connect the flags to make the tattered sails? Wouldn't they fall apart at the slightest touch IRL?

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

4 minutes ago, Corydoras said:

Whoa, that's impressive. Shame it's digital. How exactly did you connect the flags to make the tattered sails? Wouldn't they fall apart at the slightest touch IRL?

Thanks and I know, I wish it could be built, but right now I don't have the finances to buy the pieces for this because it would cost me at least €2-300 and I am already saving up for the bay, plus it is a bit larger than the bay, so I wouldn't have enough space even if I had the money to buy them both! The sails are just for show, they're all overlapping flags. You could build it, but that would mean cutting and gluing to make them. If I had this built, I would use some old cloth, dye it with coffee or tea, stain it, shred it and then put in place. That's something I am going to do on the bay...

@Mister Phes here you go:
 I have made two types of renders, one which is 1:1 = 1080x1080 and one that is 4:3 = 4096x3072. I think you should use this larger one because once posted on instagram you can cut the sizes down to square and not lose details, since the smaller one suffers from that, it is less crisp and you will see it in the following photos.

1080x1080

4096x3072

1080x1080

4096x3072

 

[Mister Phes]

On 11/10/2020 at 4:57 AM, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

@Mister Phes here you go:

Thank ye - this is workable

[Ayrlego]

This is really brilliant work! I think it perfectly updates one of my all time favourite pirate sets (I didn't own it as a child but my younger brother did!) and you have captured the Pirates of Barracuda Bay style really well. Bravo! Really well done!

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

16 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

This is really brilliant work! I think it perfectly updates one of my all time favourite pirate sets (I didn't own it as a child but my younger brother did!) and you have captured the Pirates of Barracuda Bay style really well. Bravo! Really well done!

I'm really happy that you like this renewed version of the island. It was one of my first sets after BSB. I really liked it when I was little and I still find it somewhat more evocative of adventure compared to the bigger Rock Island Refuge set. Before they announced the bay, I was working on an improved RIR, I built just some parts of the baseplate out of bricks and I've made it more rocky. I also wanted create a proper dungeon etc, but I never finished it... 

[nimitstexan]

On 11/2/2020 at 12:10 PM, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

I As per using Barracuda Bay pieces to build this, unfortunately you can't because this is all custom made and this set alone has 3k pieces which are not the ones included in that set, although on Facebook a guy posted recently some pictures of a forbidden Island almost identical to the original one, but with the parts of the island itself.

Well, still, this would be an awesome (if expensive) build if the parts list/instructions could be made available.

[Ultimo]

22 hours ago, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

Before they announced the bay, I was working on an improved RIR, I built just some parts of the baseplate out of bricks and I've made it more rocky. I also wanted create a proper dungeon etc, but I never finished it... 

Haha the Rock Island Refuge was always my number one! If you ever finish that build, I would be really curious to see how you pull that off. And based on this Forbidden Island MOC, my expectations would be really high

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

3 hours ago, Ultimo said:

Haha the Rock Island Refuge was always my number one! If you ever finish that build, I would be really curious to see how you pull that off. And based on this Forbidden Island MOC, my expectations would be really high

This is all I did back in jan 2019... basically I made it the same size of the original base, but out of bricks, I was adding also a sort of "hidden" little stairs + trail to go up the hill, beside the slope on the side.

although I wasn't completely happy with the result. The sand part was just at a very early stage, trying out colours and position and also I was trying to keep it at the minimum possible because my intention was to build it. I wanted to fuse into it also skull island, but the regular set, not a remake. It is very difficult to make it nicely detailed and keep the brick count down! Then I got busy with other things and it is sitting there for the time being. I think I will make it from scratch and in a different way, probably way larger so I can insert more details and keep it just digital because I wouldn't have the space to place it, let alone the money to make it!