New Rumored Pirate Set in July 2023

[TeriXeri]

8 minutes ago, General Magma said:

Signs are pointing towards it being a direct remake of Eldorado Fortress.

Could be interesting, LEGO has been doing more larger hinged ramps and such in sets, so replicating that raised baseplate doesn't sound weird anymore.

Question is if they'll do a textured ramp (small tiles on a plate), or using big (possibly printed) 8x16 / 6x6 type of tiles for the smooth look.

This year, Star Wars UCS 8x16 info tile is a print ,and that Friends Community center also comes with a big 8x16 artwork print.

Edited May 15, 2023 by TeriXeri

[RichardGoring]

43 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Could be interesting, LEGO has been doing more larger hinged ramps and such in sets, so replicating that raised baseplate doesn't sound weird anymore.

Question is if they'll do a textured ramp (small tiles on a plate), or using big (possibly printed) 8x16 / 6x6 type of tiles for the smooth look.

This year, Star Wars UCS 8x16 info tile is a print ,and that Friends Community center also comes with a big 8x16 artwork print.

Harder to pose figures on a sloped tile, but could lead to more interesting play features with a smooth surface. Hmm...

[TalonCard]

3 hours ago, General Magma said:

Since the Barracuda Bay set is meant to be a continuation to the pirates line and supposedly aged up some of the characters, shown by adding some gray to Redbeard's beard,
might they do yet another slightly different version of him in this one, as this is an actual remake?

I could see them going any which way with this one. The conceit of Barracuda Bay was that Redbeard's ship wrecked when he was on his way to Eldorado Fortress for a final showdown over the ancestral treasure that was the focus of the original 1989 storyline, essentially retconning all of the previous pirates sets as taking place during the little story in the original Black Seas Barracuda box. So it would actually make a lot of sense for his next destination to be Eldorado Fortress to find out what happened to the treasure in the intervening years.

If they wanted to straight up reuse the Redbeard from the Barracuda Bay set, they could definitely do that. (He's a great figure, after all.) They could also redesign him to be slightly older too. (There was some joking among the designers that if they were to continue Redbeard's story he'd be Graybeard instead.) But it's also been long enough since the Bay was released that they might just go back to the classic version in some way. The Space minifigures from the Galaxy Explorer and Blacktron sets are very close to the original figures, while the Castle remakes have been updated graphically but still in the classic style. I'm intrigued to see which direction they take these.

 

42 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Could be interesting, LEGO has been doing more larger hinged ramps and such in sets, so replicating that raised baseplate doesn't sound weird anymore.

Question is if they'll do a textured ramp (small tiles on a plate), or using big (possibly printed) 8x16 / 6x6 type of tiles for the smooth look.

This year, Star Wars UCS 8x16 info tile is a print ,and that Friends Community center also comes with a big 8x16 artwork print.

I'm hoping for a textured ramp so that minifigures can be posed on it. The original is iconic but the ramp is pretty useless from a playability standpoint since minifigures pretty much slide right off. Unlike the Castle and Space themes, wheeled vehicles were uncommon in pirate sets so you could maybe roll barrels or cannon down the ramp, but that's about it. If it is a large single piece I'd like to see it used to access any hidden areas under the fortress.

[Yperio_Bricks]

I'd think they could do the rocky cliffs like in they did in the 21335 Motorized Lighthouse. I don't know if it consumes to many parts but the rocks look good for a Lego set.

Speaking about the ramp leading up to the fortress, well, i think a plated ramp would look best.

Even as a kid i was always under the imperssion that the raised baseplate was hard to play with because you could not attach other builds easily. For the same reason i hated the big hole in the center very much

[General Magma]

I also hope the fortress is fully enclosed rather than having an open section in the back like a lot of sets tend to have nowadays.
I think the ramp will be studded so it can actually be used for something, I've seen some MOC remakes of the set that tackle this quite well with slanted plates.

Edited May 15, 2023 by General Magma

[Sir Dano]

1 hour ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I'd think they could do the rocky cliffs like in they did in the 21335 Motorized Lighthouse.

No thanks! Adult collectors sets shouldn't have BURPS in them.

[Aanchir]

5 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Could be interesting, LEGO has been doing more larger hinged ramps and such in sets, so replicating that raised baseplate doesn't sound weird anymore.

Question is if they'll do a textured ramp (small tiles on a plate), or using big (possibly printed) 8x16 / 6x6 type of tiles for the smooth look.

This year, Star Wars UCS 8x16 info tile is a print ,and that Friends Community center also comes with a big 8x16 artwork print.

I figure they'd probably include at least SOME studs on the ramp surface so minifigures can be attached securely for display. Plus, the simplicity of big single-piece parts with printed textures would likely clash with the level of textural and brick-built detail elsewhere in the build.

While big printed pieces DO still exist, such as the examples you mentioned, sets for older buyers tend to use these for literal representations of flat graphical details applied to uniform surfaces (like murals, billboards, road/sports field markings, flags/sails, or digital screens), rather than representations of three-dimensional textures or details.

Compare how the Lion Knights' Castle opted for fully brick-built walls with occasional cracks, half-timbering, crawling ivy, etc. rather than the more traditional "printed wall panel" approach.

In the case of Eldorado Fortress, it also helps that there are so many tile shapes and sizes today that can be used for an irregular flagstone path. Just take a look at the stone podium texture in 71411 The Mighty Bowser.

[Yperio_Bricks]

9 minutes ago, Sir Dano said:

No thanks! Adult collectors sets shouldn't have BURPS in them.

I am no collector, so i'll be fine if the throw in some BURPS Also, i did not come across one since i left my dark ages and would be nice to have one or two so i could try and see what i could do with them.

[Aanchir]

4 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I am no collector, so i'll be fine if the throw in some BURPS Also, i did not come across one since i left my dark ages and would be nice to have one or two so i could try and see what i could do with them.

Terrain built from BURPs and other panel/frame pieces is most useful if you want to maximize interior space (either for hidden mechanisms of some kind, or for caves and stuff). A pretty straightforward LEGO Pirates example from my childhood is 6248 Volcano Island — in which an island with both a treasure cave and an "eruption" function fits comfortably on an 8x16 baseplate. If basic bricks, slopes, and arches had been used instead, it would have either meant making the entire island larger or the cave interior smaller (and thus, less "cavernous").

And I could certainly see the appeal of adding basements and tunnels and stuff to a structure like Eldorado Fortress instead of just going with the original set's "large hill with a single big pit in the middle" approach. Imagine if perhaps pirates imprisoned in the island's jail have already begun digging an escape tunnel while the guards are distracted! Or if But that sort of stuff is also possible without BURPs if you're willing to let the cave/tunnel exteriors take up slightly more space, something the Lion Knights' Castle set shows quite brilliantly.

For my part, I have no aversion to BURPs, but I get why they have a reputation among old-school AFOLs for being overly simplistic and cutting down on actual building. And so while I don't think there should be any hard rule against them in 18+ sets (consider the one used sideways as an uneven stone slab in 21338), it makes sense for designers of those sets to use them sparingly.

[Yperio_Bricks]

I had BURPs as a kid but when my mom sold 99,9% of our childhood Lego 15 years ago or so they were all gone Nowadays i don't get why they are hated so much. Maybe it's just a meme at this point... But they have enough studs so they can be easily covered or customized. I even think that the old BURPs are superior to the new ones with less studs like the 54782 wall element in the A-frame cabin. At the end it's just a matter of taste i guess.

Comming back to Eldorado Fortress. If they'd build the mountains like in the lighthouse it would be fine for me. My biggest concern are the minifigures anyway and to be 100% honest, they are a deal-breaker for me. While i am aboard the Eldorado hype train, i hope for more detailed minifigures (like in PotC, LotR or even Indiana Jones, etc.) without yellow necklines

We'll see...

[Akbalder]

For the minifigures, I hope that they won't include faces with expressions like they did on the lion knights castle (smilling, blowing, getting out of breath...). The ones from Barracuda Bay were great.

[General Magma]

I do wonder how the red bricks on the white walls will be done, I'd be fine with either tiles or printing. 

[TeriXeri]

19 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I figure they'd probably include at least SOME studs on the ramp surface so minifigures can be attached securely for display. Plus, the simplicity of big single-piece parts with printed textures would likely clash with the level of textural and brick-built detail elsewhere in the build.

Yeah that's what is more likely, I was purely just speculating some alternative ways how LEGO could do a printed huge tile to simulate the very flat baseplate ramp original, but never imagined it would be the go-to way to do it.

An hidden cave entrance somewhere in the rock section could lead to areas not seen in the original, perhaps under the theoretical ramp section, leading to an underground section that's originally part of the big baseplate gap. 

Lion Knight Castle,  and an alternate build on the 3-in-1 Castle used a stone that rolled sideways to enter cave areas, but this is the Pirates theme, so a breakable cave entrance section seems more fun, as Pirates / Soldiers have cannons.

The original has a grate over the central big gap, so that could perhaps be part of a secret passage via a side cave/dungeon/prison/storage room, into the central courtyard, in the original , that "room" isn't really used, beside theoretical play function as an extra storage/prison pit.

 

And then of course, without restrictions of a 32x32 baseplate, the entire set could be hinged , or split in the middle, to fold open for access, or have a wider display mode (Lion Knight's Castle does both, it splits in 2 , and then each section folds open)

Edited May 16, 2023 by TeriXeri

[Renny The Spaceman]

On 5/15/2023 at 3:10 PM, TalonCard said:

If they wanted to straight up reuse the Redbeard from the Barracuda Bay set, they could definitely do that. (He's a great figure, after all.) They could also redesign him to be slightly older too. (There was some joking among the designers that if they were to continue Redbeard's story he'd be Graybeard instead.) But it's also been long enough since the Bay was released that they might just go back to the classic version in some way. The Space minifigures from the Galaxy Explorer and Blacktron sets are very close to the original figures, while the Castle remakes have been updated graphically but still in the classic style. I'm intrigued to see which direction they take these.

I feel the figs will be the updated style akin to barracuda bay or the castle remakes, I think LEGO considers Classic Space unique in how they try to update it's figures as little as possible (probably as unlike with castle and pirates they still make new figures intended to fit with the OG sets for it so it'd be weird if they also did modernised ones for the Galaxy Explorer)

[CvS]

8 hours ago, Akbalder said:

For the minifigures, I hope that they won't include faces with expressions like they did on the lion knights castle (smilling, blowing, getting out of breath...). The ones from Barracuda Bay were great.

I agree .
Or just classic faces.

[PxChris]

On 5/15/2023 at 11:16 AM, Sir Dano said:

No thanks! Adult collectors sets shouldn't have BURPS in them.

Couldn't disagree more! BURPs are a very useful piece when used correctly.

[Alexandrina]

On 5/16/2023 at 1:07 PM, Yperio_Bricks said:

I even think that the old BURPs are superior to the new ones with less studs like the 54782 wall element in the A-frame cabin. At the end it's just a matter of taste i guess.

I'd go so far as to say that I don't consider that element a BURP.

For me the BURPs are the original two and the really big one used in among other things the lunar research base. The other rock panels feel too flimsy to me in how they rest on the base.

[Yperio_Bricks]

24 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

I'd go so far as to say that I don't consider that element a BURP.

Me neither. I guess my wording was not precise enough 

I just mentioned the other rock piece/wall element because it was mentioned before. Without the studs the wall element would not even look much like Lego (to me). Anyway, i think the designers will create some good looking rocks that most people will be happy with. Fingers crossed

[Sir Dano]

10 hours ago, PxChris said:

Couldn't disagree more! BURPs are a very useful piece when used correctly.

Sure, as support behind everything where you can't see a trace of it.

 

2 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I'd go so far as to say that I don't consider that element a BURP.

That's because it is'nt.

This is a BURP:

 

This is a LURP:

 

This one never really earned a name but I call it the TURP:

 

[RichardGoring]

2 hours ago, Sir Dano said:

...but I call it the TURP

[Mister Phes]

8 hours ago, Sir Dano said:

This one never really earned a name but I call it the TURP:

Terribly Ugly Rock Piece?

[Sir Dano]

1 hour ago, Mister Phes said:

Terribly Ugly Rock Piece?

Third Ugly Rock Piece or Tiny Ugly Rock Piece, but hey, that works too.

[andabottleofrum]

Based on the lego dashboard seems like launch is pushed back to 2024, which is a bummer :(

(source: Jozef from the Classic pirates facebook group)

[General Magma]

47 minutes ago, andabottleofrum said:

Based on the lego dashboard seems like launch is pushed back to 2024, which is a bummer :(

(source: Jozef from the Classic pirates facebook group)

Could be a placeholder date. What does access mean here, reveal? Wouldn't make sense to reveal it six months prior.

[TeriXeri]

Brickmerge still has the set listed as 7/2023 

https://www.brickmerge.de/10320-1_lego-advanced-models-lego

 

And consider even LEGO City and Friends sets that are supposed to release in 2 weeks from now, are still not on LEGO.com, I'll just wait and see what happens :)

Edited May 18, 2023 by TeriXeri