[ENTRY] Short Pork Island

[Yoggington]

Presenting Short Pork Island.

This is a modernisation loosely inspired by the Islanders sets of my youth. An older brother had pirate ships sure, but even the famed Black Seas Barracuda and it's fancy cannons stood no hope against our spears when we were small and plentiful. I say 'loosely' because this build had a bit of a journey - starting as a re-do of Enchanted island - but ending up as something else. Read the thread to get the gist.

Short Pork Island is a heavily forested isle with (mandatory) ruins and treasure to catch the pirate's interest. A large foreboding statue features front and centre - with a smaller cute piggy sidekick at it's right hand. Is this a tribute to King Kahuka or some deity? To the rear of the Island features an Islander tree-hut, modernised to a six-sided palm tree design, replete with throne & shields & drum and food.

I am a sucker for a good mechanical feature in a build, and in here we feature three main play features;

1) On the front of the stone statue you can tug one of the ears to drop whatever you've loaded up out the mouth - skulls, pineapples, jewels.

2) Turning the splat gear buried in the sand turns both the large staue, and the smaller pig statue roundaways to reveal a much more sinister pair of bone statues.

3) The ribcage of the larger statue opens at the front as a place to lock away captured scallywags.

 

I hope the minifigs here speak for themselves for the most part. The tricorn pirate has a double-sided face - the backside is a shocked expression. Perfect for being jailed or having pineapples rain down upon him. The more folically-challenged scallywag is the torso with the large duck tattoo on the back.

It should be noted that King Kahuka's pride and joy piglet is known as 'the Pig Kahuna'.

 

Original Opening Post:

I am a slow builder at the best of times. Even with two months here, there is little to no chance I finish in time :D

However, with everyone so trigger happy on the feedback, I reckon this is a unique chance to get input as I build this out. (Plus after seeing Dannyboy's excellent version, I wanted to highlight that I have indeed been chugging away here)

The original set for reference:

 

My first thought here was that an islanders remake would be the best thing to do in this competition. You might tell by the old pieces here, but this is in fact a set I had as a child in the 90s, so it's nice to revisit with some modern bricks & techniques. Between Barracuda Bay and Eldorado fortress getting glow-ups of late, why not complete the trinity and give the Islanders some love? (God knows Lego are highly unlikely to ever revisit this particular theme for sensitivity reasons)

So the first thing I wanted to try pull off was a rope bridge made from roller-coaster track pieces. This is what I came up with:

It's a bit unusual in that for the foot-planks to work out, then the smooth sides need to face internally. Not ideal but it all slotted together nicely after some weeks of trying.

I think it's important for the play-feature to persist. You need to be able to topple the whole thing obviously! How else would Port & Starboard get perilously close to the waters! So I've done that, on a pretty big pivot piece so as not to put too much pressure on a single pivot point while keeping the whole thing nice and sturdy in case the nephews test it's limits.

Due to the use of those A-frame pieces, it was very tricky to keep the studs on-grid. I'm hoping it's correct, but I'll have to test-build later in stud.io to be sure.

 

* * *

A few table-scraps now, to show the way my though processes work.

I'm working towards the main chieftain hut. I think I'd like to have it six-sided instead of four, so I'm borrowing heavily from the excellent pagoda build from the Spring lantern festival set. I've figured out a way to reverse the studs in a pretty compact manner so maybe we'll have a boat-roof?

I've also been playing with flipping these rock-face pieces to give some nice overhangs that could create more of a claustrophobic river area. With how much the bridge dips, the cliffs need to be tall.

 

* * *

Last but not least, the part of the build that is most complete is the big statue. I've gone with a chunkier revamp than on the old set, taking advantage of the modern palette for some nice detail and pops.

You may notice it's on a pivot. Well of course we want to scare the pirates! We can spin the whole thing like so:

There are a few more play features in here. I had to laugh earlier when I saw how closely Danny & I had re-created the cage. I went a little more skeletal, but they are certainly similar:

Last but not least, I've doubled down on the skull motif - we can load up the top of the statue with (three) skull heads, then pull the ear out to send them plummeting down into the river below.

This was achieved thanks to the new 1x2 with single stud brick. We can now make a much easier 3/4/5 diagonal on the vertical - more pics of that on my flickr.

 

* * *

Obviously this is far from finished (will it ever be?), but it's better to get any feedback you might have to give now before anything is too committed.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Yoggington
Setting OP

[Rogue Redcoat]

These parts of the set look great so far, my only suggestion do they make that part of the bridge in brown. Sounds like your are just like me except that I have not even started yet!

[Oky]

Good start. Your approach for the bridge is interesting, although it’s odd how the rocks that it’s attached to rotate with the bridge. Due to this bridge hanging a lot lower and therefore needing a lower pivot point, that is probably unavoidable though.
I love the new statue. Those door rail plates create a great pattern!

[thewatchman]

That idol statue is INCREDIBLE I love the earrings, and all the detailing!

[Yoggington]

On 7/18/2023 at 6:34 PM, Rogue Redcoat said:

These parts of the set look great so far, my only suggestion do they make that part of the bridge in brown. Sounds like your are just like me except that I have not even started yet!

Thanks. Unfortunately the coaster pieces don't come in brown. The likely options are the dark red or black (or LBG?). I figured the dark red could tie in with the future chieftan hut, which will end up dark red or regular red.

I've actually made some progress since posting these as I feel like I owe you guys an update, so maybe posting is the trick to make yourself accountable to work to the deadline? :D

 

On 7/18/2023 at 7:29 PM, Oky said:

Good start. Your approach for the bridge is interesting, although it’s odd how the rocks that it’s attached to rotate with the bridge. Due to this bridge hanging a lot lower and therefore needing a lower pivot point, that is probably unavoidable though.
I love the new statue. Those door rail plates create a great pattern!

Thanks. Yes I agree on the whole rock swivel being a bit odd, but you're spot on that the height of the pivot kind of dictates the rest. There's a stability issue as well - the whole thing needs to be one piece on the pivot. So unfortunately I think it has to work that way.

I'll do what I can once it's in place on the cliffs. Maybe a distinction between the cliffs that don't move and to make anything forward of the pivot to be part of the structure.

 

On 7/18/2023 at 11:30 PM, thewatchman said:

That idol statue is INCREDIBLE I love the earrings, and all the detailing!

Cheers mate. Comments like this are helpful for motivational reasons! :D

[thewatchman]

2 hours ago, Yoggington said:

Cheers mate. Comments like this are helpful for motivational reasons! :D

More than welcome, I absolutely love the detailing on the back side, seems really accurate to real life and a good lego design.

[Yperio_Bricks]

I love that new statue!

[Horation]

A nice start, now some thoughts :

The statue is really, really good, I mean you even managed to get play features in there! The details are nice, but I'd try to fill the gap under the statue's neck but above the skeleton jail ; a pirate might climb out! 

I like the bridge and the chief's hut, but I will warn you not to make the whole thing too large, as you might get carried away!

[iragm]

The statue is amazing, easily the best islander statue I've seen.  Actually, all the techniques you've got at play here are really impressive.  I like the bridge and I think it's off to a good start, although I would go with black instead of dark red (without seeing the rest of the design, at least).

I am really looking forward to seeing more!

[Marooned Marin]

On 7/18/2023 at 7:28 PM, Yoggington said:

I am a slow builder at the best of times

Just keep at it, and don't trouble yourself with this conpetition!   My projects usually take 6-9 months (or more)...

If you bring the same level of attention to details to the rest of this build, this could very well be the most awesome Islanders MOC of the decade.

As for feedback and ideas, you can avoid those A-pieces and use good-old ball&socket if that helps. Here, the image is worth many many words.

 

[Yoggington]

5 hours ago, Marooned Marin said:

Just keep at it, and don't trouble yourself with this conpetition!   My projects usually take 6-9 months (or more)...

If you bring the same level of attention to details to the rest of this build, this could very well be the most awesome Islanders MOC of the decade.

As for feedback and ideas, you can avoid those A-pieces and use good-old ball&socket if that helps. Here, the image is worth many many words.

 

I hadn't thought of b&s joints. That's somewhat perfect fit, but I'm not loving the aesthetic. Although, you may have sent me on the wrong tack for another few weeks with the suggestion :D

 

9 hours ago, iragm said:

The statue is amazing, easily the best islander statue I've seen.  Actually, all the techniques you've got at play here are really impressive.  I like the bridge and I think it's off to a good start, although I would go with black instead of dark red (without seeing the rest of the design, at least).

I am really looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers. Once I've a red hut in place, I'll try out the black in stud.io and see how it looks. Unfort I've no black coaster pieces in my collection. It's always the close-to-hand ones that get tried first :D

 

On 7/20/2023 at 2:37 PM, Yperio_Bricks said:

I love that new statue!

Thanks you very much sir/ma'am!

 

9 hours ago, Horation said:

A nice start, now some thoughts :

The statue is really, really good, I mean you even managed to get play features in there! The details are nice, but I'd try to fill the gap under the statue's neck but above the skeleton jail ; a pirate might climb out! 

I like the bridge and the chief's hut, but I will warn you not to make the whole thing too large, as you might get carried away!

So I certainly want to fill in that neck gap, but I'm waiting on a bricklink order to do so.

Saving this comment till last, as the part about too large is the best advice in thread. I've changed tacks a little based on it :o I'll set the bridge etc aside for now, and just work on a small island with the statue. My goal is to finish one island at a time, and not worry about recreating the whole thing unless things go swimmingly.

So some progress pics before I bugger off for a week.
Firstly my aim is to actually have the rotation all on a set of splat gears. I've set it up like so:

The second larger gear is to house a totem pole of sorts. Same idea of statue on one side in LBG, and skeleton army on the reverse in white.

I wanted them to have matching rotation speeds, hence the gear sizing. As a bonus, with this layout, they will shift in opposite directions. Not critical, but a nice touch and looks well in person - adds an element of surprise to the pretty slow rotation that the weight causes.

As a birds-eye view that looks something like so:

* * *

Then this image shows you what the gear looks like in the beach.Maybe it should be a seaweed green instead? (Purple, azure or green are the only available options)

You can also see me playing around with totem-pole options. I imagine this ends up much taller and slimmer. Maybe like faces from the new Indy set.

* * *

On the reverse of the island, you can see what I'm thinking in terms of vegetation, with maybe a bone-fence leading to the main angle of the ribcage?

[JeffBuilds]

This already looks incredible. You've put more thought and play features into this in development than the LEGO Designers put into the original! I can't think of any possible way you could improve on this redesign at this time until a later date when you can show us how you negotiate the raised baseplate design!

EDIT; I apologize, I was under the wrong impression that this was somehow a remake of Enchanted Island, hence why I inferenced Lego Designers making an original copy of the set.

Looking at it now, after the revisions, and the name, it's an amazing original set, with well engineered play features, that captures the spirit of Classic Pirates and Islanders!

Edited August 26, 2023 by JeffBuilds

[Rogue Redcoat]

It looks great so far I love all the Islander heads, I can't wait till it's finished!

[Mister Phes]

And time is ticking to complete entries...

Less than 2 weeks remain!

[iragm]

I hope you get this done, it's shaping up to be great!

[MstrOfPppts]

I love the statue design from both sides! Although a bit MOCish too parts intensive details for a set, but I'd say it's a pass.

Hopefully you can make it till the deadline. Forget about rebuilding the whole thing, make it as a new more modern style set of the islanders.
Finish the part with the statue add some figures and call it done! It'd be a shame not to see this finished.

[Lyichir]

Wow, this already has some wild techniques going on!

I feel like it's almost a little TOO complex—the attachment for the bridge is quite bulky and I can't help but wonder if it could be simplified, and the technique with the alternating rail plates is similarly quite dense. But that's just my personal preference, and there's no denying that what you have so far has style.
 

[Yoggington]

Thanks for the comments guys & gals. That gave me the reminder bump I needed to not just let this deadline breeze by :D What little lego time I've had has been aimed toward building with my nephew. Unfortunately the bin-limo won't qualify here.

4 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

Hopefully you can make it till the deadline. Forget about rebuilding the whole thing, make it as a new more modern style set of the islanders.
Finish the part with the statue add some figures and call it done! It'd be a shame not to see this finished.

This is going to be my approach here I think. I'll be cutting the scope of the piece right back so that I have something for you all for the deadline.

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

I feel like it's almost a little TOO complex—the attachment for the bridge is quite bulky and I can't help but wonder if it could be simplified, and the technique with the alternating rail plates is similarly quite dense. But that's just my personal preference, and there's no denying that what you have so far has style.
 

The bridge is both my favourite part and the bane of my build, that damn connection has me stumped. Especially considering one side should attach to a tree.

I do have a neat tree and hut built, I'll post a few progress pics soon. New scope will be the statues and the hut & tree. So less a remake and more a new thing.

[Yoggington]

Okay, a bricklink order arrived an between that and bump comments here, I'm making some progress.

I've abandoned the bridge until post-competition. So best to start with an overview of the new look and where we're at right now:

Some re-arrangement for the single island layout, but glad to have a solid sturdy biscuit of an island that has all the cogs inside, and is sturdy enough to can be picked up one-handed with ease. Even the wobbly looking tree hut is very firm, with an axle running right up from inside the curved beach piece. (i.e. nephew-proof) 

I might squeeze one more bricklink order in, so long as I shop local. So if you have piece-feedback, now is good. The tree-trunk is where the most obvious colours need correcting. Hopefully these images give a better breakdown of how it's all constructed to give the neat off-grid angled branches.

The tree is sturdy top-to-bottom and side to side thanks to the internal construction. And I'm hoping that by using the rounded pillars on the round base we get away from any hint of squareness.

The six-sided hut up top began life as the Spring Garden pagoda, and you can still see the remnants in the support structure, but it's since moved far away. As dense as the roof looks, it's actually pretty elegant. Again, a picture is worth a thousand of my words.

From top to bottom then (though I realise now this doesn't show the side branches):

It needs some decoration inside. I intend to put a King Kahuna throne in. Open to suggestions of other items.

 

Lastly I kind of breezed over this last time, but I'm quite proud of it. It's a variation of how the Friends Botanical Garden set squeezes in two trees so snugly together. Add to that the ol' hinge plate on the cheese slope angle, and you can get a neat sloping beach with angle palm trees.

 

I would hope in the next week to finalise all of this. And build a catamaran :o

The other big task is to do something better with the placeholder-smaller statue.

Smaller tasks include the throne, a bit more density to the forest so the hut doesn't look out of place (but not too much!), close the skellington neck, and possibly a small cave with treasure in.

 

 

Thanks for reading this far. As a reward, have a flower tablescrap:

 

 

[MstrOfPppts]

I guess it might be a bit late for this upgrade, but I'll still mention it - I think that the base should be green to make it a bit more like a jungle. Or at least some more green would be appropriate for the amount of trees ...

Otherwise I like your entry. Unfortunately you had to skip some part, but I'm glad, for it looks much more likely you'll make it to the deadline!

[Yoggington]

2 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

I guess it might be a bit late for this upgrade, but I'll still mention it - I think that the base should be green to make it a bit more like a jungle. Or at least some more green would be appropriate for the amount of trees ...

Otherwise I like your entry. Unfortunately you had to skip some part, but I'm glad, for it looks much more likely you'll make it to the deadline!

That is an excellent call. I was struggling with making it junglish without overcramming plants in. A bit of green base in could do the trick.

[Rogue Redcoat]

You are a crazy good builder @Yoggington I envy you :) other than the bridge not being there it looks perfect except for the fact there are no minifigures :(

[durazno33]

Looks like you have a good start on this. I'd love to see where you go from here. Just a word of caution against having to have everything perfect. I organized a large diorama for the LUG I attend and this guy worked on a part  a bit at a time for 3 years trying to get all the greebling just right and never finished. In fact he was still working on it at the display with parts he brought.  You have a lot of great details so hopefully you have time to get it all completed with the same attention to detail that you have had up to now. 

[Yoggington]

2 hours ago, durazno33 said:

Looks like you have a good start on this. I'd love to see where you go from here. Just a word of caution against having to have everything perfect. I organized a large diorama for the LUG I attend and this guy worked on a part  a bit at a time for 3 years trying to get all the greebling just right and never finished. In fact he was still working on it at the display with parts he brought.  You have a lot of great details so hopefully you have time to get it all completed with the same attention to detail that you have had up to now. 

Oh for sure I suffer from that. Part of the reason I wanted to enter here was to force myself to work to a generous deadline. Not long left now D:

I don't worry so much about the greebling as the way the pieces fit together in sweet spot ways, but it's definitely the same issue.

On 8/21/2023 at 1:05 AM, Rogue Redcoat said:

You are a crazy good builder @Yoggington I envy you :) other than the bridge not being there it looks perfect except for the fact there are no minifigures :(

Well you are in luck. As I await the final Bricklink order to arrive, last night's job was to go through my minifigs to pick out the selection that will come with the set. Here's what I landed on.

Three Islanders;

One big kahuna in King Kahuka, plus a male & female to bulk out the numbers and allow for a smattering of population. I like the monkey kid (?) hair here, as there are a few turquoise bits of detailing elsewhere in the set so it links up. The drums go with the skellington throne.

 

For Pirates, we have these two scallywags who've been washed ashore;

I love that bald headpiece so much I had to use it. Worth looking at the backs here too. I do wish the brown shorts had a bit more cloth in the rear, but it's good for comedy value.

The double-sided face is good for the when you don't need the alternate 'arrrgh-I've-been-locked-in-a-ribcage' expression.

And of course, the massive duck tattoo.

[Rogue Redcoat]

They look great, can't wait for the final updates :)