How did you become a Pirate LEGO Fanatic?

[Axle]

My love for pirates has half started this year half,..... 5 or 8 years ago.

Well, at first my cousin just gave me a box of all his Lego.

It was mixed with pirates, castle, town, basic and bricks.

me and my brother split all the bricks in half.

I got Captain Redbeards hat, an imperial and that guy with the blue jacket with red and white stripes on it.

then when the re-release of the Barracuda came out I wanted it so....

But... I never got it. Cruel Fate! :'-(

Then towards easter of this year when I broke my arm, I had a look at the pirate forum here and got obsessed on the sets. But still didn't get some.

Then in july I got into them again.... and out.

But........ Now I'm getting the Barracuda for Christmas now so nothing will stand in the way of me getting more Pirate sets!

NOTHING!

Except maybe the Indy sets X-D .

[radar92]

I started in lego in the early 80's I was starting to fade abit when the line came out. I just loved the theme, my first set was CC, I built and rebuilt it till I drove my Grandmother nuts. Then TNT remade Tresure Island which just sealed the deal. The Soldier sets are the only series I collected all of. I got a few little pirate sets, but notheing of significans. I mostly just build, but with the Pirates I would play mock battles. I actually kept all of the set built even when I moved away from regular building. I just loved the look of the sets.

I never really had dark ages, just dimmed every so often. I eventually started doing L gage(wifes faults :)). I never realy found point in time or location I was happy with for the trains. I also tried to intergrate the castle and pirate stuff. On the last attempt it more or less took over. Starting with just a 4 base plate square to fill space it grew. With a bit of research I found a time where the pirate theme bricks could coexsist with trains. It also compliments my love of artillery and military (I was a redleg).

I have now started building an army, finally got extra parts to make the CC larger. Now I just have to wait for my girls to get older and start having some battles.

[Lord Of Pies]

I only started collecting Pirate Lego recently, having previously (and still am) interested in Town, SW and other sub themes of those two. I think when I was a lil' child, I had some old Imperial Gaurd sets, so sometimes I find an odd shako in my spares here and there, which is a nice surprise! Anyway I think my first set, which is still intact, was 6247 Bounty Boat, followed about 3 months later by Crocodile cage, Smugglers Shanty and another set which name escapes me. More recently I have purchased various soldiers and guards, islanders, 6260 Shipwreck Island, Black Seas Barracuda, skull Island and Many others! Who knows how many more sets await in the future!

I do not really know why I did not like the Pirate theme as much as I do now, I never really noticed them all that much before. Of course I still like other themes like City and Star Wars, but not as much as Pirates. *wub*

[Siegfried]

That's a great story, thanks for sharing it. To my embarassment I have to admit that Pirates was one of the things that made me lose interest in Lego; I saw the varied printed faces as wrong for some reason.... :-$

I think I'm over it now. :-D

[Dovchenko]

I was once a new Lego Fan. I enjoyed everything up until 2006, in which some newer themes, idea, etc. most certainly did not appeal to me. On that same year, going to my usual lego specialty store around the GTA and looking for bargains and any old sets. I was very mad at myself, buying sets such as KK II and even a little bit of Exo Force, as well as Dino Attack and old Studios off of Bricklink. I had missed an AT-AT from 2003, almost every Episode III set, and anything else that nowadays may be worth 300$ or more. I had struggled to purchase old Technic from MY actual childhood in 1998 and beyond, but it was a dead end.

Then, behind glass, I noticed an old and banged up looking box. Don't get too excited... next to an ARC-Fighter complete was a sealed box... King Kahuka. The small, 10$ set. To me, it was like the BSB. Instantly excited, I asked for it. Due to my curiosity, I ended up getting it. The catalogs... they seemed ancient to me! The set had odd pieces, not as glossy as before, dusty and particularily old. However, it was an impressive set.

2007 has, admitedly, brought out an uncontrollable rage. My only 2007 set (though I bought several SW 2006ers) was Pridak, which had streaked paint, a terrible build, and airy pieces. He was the last straw before I decided to quit LEGO, for good. I began packing my 3 metre-long boxes to sell to someone, though I knew I wasn't going to get a very good price. I had some semi-rare sets on me. It is still unsold, sitting there. My King Kahuka went in there, and unfortunately, he is lost now. I don't want to rebuild him, because out of so many pieces, there's bound to be a similar looking 2007-style piece. I wanted the original ones, and I realized, this would be an impossible mission.

About a year or so later, I'm heavily interested in Pirates. They are an extremely attractive series, almost a beautiful art. I don't know which I'll collect, however. That will take more time.

There are still 2 Star Wars sets I need:

Y-Wing UCS

Death Star II UCS

And then, I'll collect pirates. However, I may pick up some smaller ones on the way.

[Mister Phes]

To my embarassment I have to admit that Pirates was one of the things that made me lose interest in Lego; I saw the varied printed faces as wrong for some reason.... :-$

You must be really bloody old then :-P

I knew someone who shared the same thoughts as you do. As a kid he was a big fan of LEGO during the 70's but then 80's came along and themes began popping up with their specialised pieces and he was disgusted! For him this was the beginning of what some refer to as "juniorisation".

What do you think of pirates and their varied printed faces now, old Sinner?

[Sir Norman Ray]

THIS BLOODY WEBSITE!

I'm serious as well. I had always missed the old LEGO, but this site? It wasnt just the the straw that broke the camels back, it also started a large legal battle involving the High Court, EU Courts and God himself on the fairness of camels.

[Captain Zuloo]

Fascinating.

It is a strange tale indeed. I love Pirate Lego but I love some other themes alot too... I have never seen someone so devoted to only one theme.

Pirate Lego is the Best! Yeah other themes are cool to but I think LEGO is using too many big pieces nowdays so I would only ever buy Lego on e-bay.

Regards, Captain Zuloo

[Mister Phes]

THIS BLOODY WEBSITE! I'm serious as well.

I'm glad we've shown you the true AFOL path X-D

Pirate Lego is the Best! Yeah other themes are cool to but I think LEGO is using too many big pieces nowdays so I would only ever buy Lego on e-bay.

Interesting, but what made you come to the conclusion that Pirate LEGO is the best? How long ago did it happen?

[Captain Zuloo]

I'm glad we've shown you the true AFOL path X-D

Interesting, but what made you come to the conclusion that Pirate LEGO is the best? How long ago did it happen?

As I am in class at school at the moment, just wait about an hour and I'll tell you.

Regards, Captain Zuloo :-$

[Tanotrooper]

it all happened some time ago...

When I was 5 or 6, at christmas, we had a small "party" before the holidays. Everyone had bought (read: parent's had bought) some small gift. We had to sit around some tables, and a gift was given through, and it stopped when the teacher stopped clapping. Luckily for me, I heard that my gift "rumbled" *sweet*

Back at my grandma, I opened the box. It was my first pirate set ever:

It had a Spanish helmet, and a pirate *sweet* I looked at amazement at the alternate models out of that small set and built them. I loved the flintlock pistol and cutlass. But what I loved the most, is that you could switch the headgears, and make the skeleton the pirate and the pirate the Spanish soldier! I also had a lot of fun with stabbing the cutlass through the chest of the skeleton :-D

I received the same set at a birthday party again.

That year was about 96/97/98 wich was the last I saw of pirates.

A few years later in 2004, I was standing on the playground like Napoleon, not knowing it myself. My teacher said I looked like Napoleon, and I began to search who this person was. I even dressed up later on for a "show-and-tell" about Napoleon. I wanted these Napoleonic soldiers in LEGO... I had some kind of idea book laying around with red soldiers in them. Later on I found out there were blue too! I didn't trust the internet back then, so I painted an Imperial soldier myself with Napoleon. I sanded a top hat to represent a Shako :-D

I then went to a flea market and said, I'll find a lego pirate set there! 2 hours later, I had 2 small sets with me.

More on this tomorrow, since I got to go asleep now X-D

TT

[Captain Zuloo]

About 12 years ago, my uncle bought me a present from England after being gone for about 4 months due to Australian millitary purposes. He was a Lego fan too so suprisingly enough he got me a Lego set. As pirate Lego was readily on the shelves of toy shops around the world at the time, he bought me the crossbone clipper. I still have it now on my bookshelf fully built.

After that as the years progressed, I recieved and bought many other Lego sets of different themes, but they just weren't me. When I saw the redbeard runner and the amarda flagship at a specialty Lego shop in Adelaide, I bought the right away.

Those purchases were closley followed by others such as the Eldorado Fortress, the Black Seas Barracuda, Sabre Island, etc. As my pirate/ navy fleet grew, my Lego collection felt more self reflective.

I think the great thing about pirate Lego is that it gives the builder the ability to live the dream that every boy once had- to be a pirate.

Ever since that first pirate set I got, I have been Captain Zuloo in my heart.

Regards, Captain Zuloo

[The Daphne Blue Strat]

Well, I got my first Pirate set (which was also, I think, my very first Lego), the Renegade Runner, when I was four, I believe (my mum's got photos, of course...). I LOVED that thing...I got a few of those really tiny sets (the ones with, like, one guy and a 4x6 plate) and built my crew a little bit.

I love Lego, so I "collected" (read: opened, built, then dumped into tote boxes) many sets over the mid- and late-90's: Castle, a few Space, one of the Wild West town-ish sets, some random City, and a couple various Star Wars sets.

Spring 2002, happened to get a Lego catalog in the mail (I'd been subscribed for a few years); thumbed through it, as I usually did, and found...PIRATES.

I saved up every penny I could lay my hands on, borrowed (pleadingly) from my parents (and my little sister...boy, was I desperate!), and finally scraped together enough to score the Red Beard Runner. I was in love all over again.

So much, in fact, that it would only be about six months before I traded some old, unused Train track for ANOTHER, MISB Red Beard Runner.

I was so tied up in building and re-building my ship(s), and trying to invent my own Pirate wargame, that I failed to notice the appearance of another Pirate set in the catalog (or maybe my parents confiscated that particular catalog issue)...

...Christmas Day, 2002, I crawled under the tree with the rest of my family and pulled out The Black Seas Barracuda.

Maybe my parents hoped this gift would dampen the embers somewhat...rather, it fanned them into flames. I have spent the last five (egads!) years finding as many ways as possible to modify and expand upon my fleet...until January of this year.

I was reading Les Mis

[papataz]

When I was a kid, my mother couldn't tell one brand of building blocks from another... Also, consider the fact that in communist Yugoslavia (that was the country I was born in, later, after some pretty nasty stuff it got broken into several smaller countries) LEGO was considered some sort of exotic plaything - only a few of mu relatives and friends had authentic LEGO bricks, those with relatives working in West Germany or Iraq - and you'll see why I got my first ever LEGO set at the tender age of 19, back in 1997. It was a Castle set, Bat Lords Catapult.

That was the year I started attending University in the capital city, so money was pretty tight. Still, I managed to collect all the small Castle sets that and the next year, and several Ninja sets the year after....

And then I got married! Aaaaand, the money got even tighter! :-D

So, to cut a long story short, all I have now are some knockoff Enlighten sets - 1696, 1733, 1747, 6236 and 6237 to be exact. So, not only am I once again collecting only the smallest sets, this time around they're fake! :-D

However, I still buy genuine LEGO stuff whenever I can afford it - Castle stuff for me and City and Tiny Turbos for my son... And I'm looking forward to the day when I'll be able to buy original LEGO pirates again - even if it'll be the tiniest sets again! :-)

[Admiral Blockbeard]

Well my story is one that many i think will identify. i grew up playing with my brothers space lego building space ships, then i went to his friends house who had a large collection of castle, robin hood and the alike... i was instantly biten by a castle bug, i started dreaming over catelogs my brother had of the black dragon castle. Some years passed with me only dreaming over the catelogs and making do with my brothers collection, i myself i had been given two sets of lego buckets, full of the normal brick and windows, finally one christmas every thing changed, i got a two small sets, they contained one row boat four soldiers and a few pirates, castle in my mind very quickly become obsolete. next birthday i was rewarded for my endless hours spent playing with pirate lego by a set with islanders, another pirate captan and row bot as well as an islander canoe, unfortunatly that to this day remains the extent of my real lego pirate collection. In 2001ish i saw a return to the love of castle in buying nearly every set in the king leo knights kingdom then again alas i went into the dark ages until late last year i was diognosed with cancer and found myself with too much time on the net... thinking my castle might be worth something on ebay i typed in lego and there it was... a picture of the bsb, my heart flattered instantly i bid on her with my limit only $100, i quickly lost, not to fear, i then turned to google which lead to wikapedia which i think you should know has a link to eurobrick forums under pirate lego!... now im hook line and sinker in love with lego again, as a consequece i spent about $500 on i am ashamed to admit a fleet of enlighten boats, 8 in total plus an extra 110 men and guns and shiny swords. Enough bricks to make some impressive mocs in the future. Now i spend my time split between my uni study and this forum. i plan to be a citizen ASAP, however im sticking to pirates for now...

A special thanks to Mister Phes and Phred, if i had not seen your pure passion for pirate lego in my internet wonderings i may still be wondering looking for that special something to fill in that lego hole...

also Cpt Zuloo, im from Adelaide too, im wondering where i may find this Lego specialist store, i have never encounted it before...

sadly i must add, the founds for my first brick link just got sucked up by a $300 speeding fine over the easter break, sigh, shoulda stayed home building lego.

[Francis Marion]

'Twas the summer of 2007 and I was out of school

I sat at home, many a time

With nothing left to do

I tried castle men, I built meself a castle

This obsession, it failed horribly

With all minifigs set aside

And there I was again...

A sad tale of a lad from Castle

But, Hark! I saw the pirates

In their multi-faced glory, I saw one thing

first to the computer, and the small boats

And the figures came next, ten came first

More and more pirates came

To Eurobricks, steadily watching

My numbers at twenty, and two weeks spent on LDD

My pirates complete, and then a small dark age

The two months spent, I returned to Eurobricks

But, alas! I have not a ship and only a tower

I came here, and have remained ever since!

[Francis Marion]

Didn't anyone like my poem? :'-(

[MoonCheese]

I was 6 years old and had a bunch of Lego out that my dad and I were playing with. The sets were a mix of Pirates and Castle (including an off-brand set, as I recall. Shame on me!) plus a wall we had made with black and white bricks. Anyway, we started role-playing with the minifigs telling stories and we went with Pirates rather than Castle for some reason...I think because we had more Pirate figs and we had a few boats. From there, we bought a lot of Pirate sets to grow the Lego world.

[rom11a]

Reading this thread makes me feel bloody ancient.

My first Lego set was a garage/petrol station. It seems to be a combination of two sets listed on Peeron it had a VW Beetle and a Petrol Tanker. If I still had the Beetle it would apparently be worth about 150 US dollars a ridiculous price!

My then teenage uncle gave me all of his Lego which amounted to about a biscuit tin's worth of bricks.

In those days Lego used to sell small pocket money sized boxes of about half a dozen different bricks and I got one a week for years, plus god knows how many sets that were just thrown into the box my dad made for me. It had a different compartment for each colour, not that there were that many different colours available at that time!

Minifigs weren't even dreamed of then so we made men out of a white 2x1 brick for the head on top of a a coloured one for the body. At that sort of scale you could make some pretty huge models. The castles I made were built using a minimum of 2x8 bricks for the walls, so they were a lot more realistic than the (what I consider <insert that tiresome argument>) system stuff that came along later.

Lego then produced the first of the minifigs without separate arms or legs, then eventually the minifig as most people know and love them. The only drawback to their introduction was that you would need a vastly greater number of bricks to build something on their scale.

This meant that the good old box of bricks was consigned to history and I stopped actually buying Lego for a while especially as Lego started producing the <insert that tiresome argument> special bricks. I finally relented when the Pirate range was released. The minifigs and ship hulls made up for the not even one stud thick walls that were used for the Imperial fort and the island tower. I bought loads of stuff purely for the minifigs and thus acquired the beginnings of an army.

With the birth of a daughter I couldn't really justify buying Lego for a few years, until a visit to Legoland Windsor with her nursery school. I saved some cash and thought I could splash out on a load of Pirate sets only to find that they had scrapped the range. I had missed out on the introduction of the Red tuniced soldiers and the anachronistic morion helmeted 'Spanish'.

My daughter got into the cowboy theme for a while, but the arrival of further children on an erratic but sort of regular basis put paid to further Lego purchases, meaning I missed out on the Legends re-releases as well.

I am now scouring eBay and bricklink for odds and sods to put into the collection to be able to build more pirate ships for my son who is obsessed with the whole idea. At the same time I am trying to find more 'Blue coat' Imperials to build up my Fantasian Army at the same time.

[Oli212Lego]

I started looking at these Pirate forums *sweet*

Then i realized that i *wub* Pirates.

[filefolders]

Well I always had LEGO, and I got my first pirate set back 'round the turn of the century, maybe '98. It was the Armada Sentry. My LEGO purchases really increased around age 10 or 11 when I was very interested in space and started buying Star Wars LEGO. LEGO actually got me into Star Wars. A couple thousand plastic bricks later my sister's ex-boyfriend foolishly gave me his LEGO, including two small Pirates sets. I found this forum and saw what I missed out by being born a few years to late and fell in love with Pirates. Yesterday, I bought the Imperial Flagship form Medievalego's bricklink store and am eagerly awaiting it's arival.

Hurry up stupid post office.

Edited April 11, 2008 by filefolders

[ukdevilz]

I fell in love with the lego pirate theme when i was four years old. My mother bought me the '6267-Lagoon Lock-Up (Soldiers Tavern)'. I remember playing with it for days on end! I asked for the '6271-Imperial Flagship (Sealion)' for christmas and collected a few more sets which i played with. As i grew older I lost interest and used computer games, had girlfriends etc.

In 2006 I found this forum, and it brought back all the old found memories. I now collect lego pirates! Spend hours on ebay searching for the perfect in a box +instructions sets.

Unfortunatly these days lego hasn't produced anything decent since the 'star wars' theme!

[Bob_st]

I can`t recall how my fascination for this theme began. I don`t even remember my first LEGO set. But what I do know is that this is my favorite theme. Since i was a lttle kid I dreamed about pirates ships and battles but it wasn`t until 1996 when I got my first "large set".

It was the biggest set I owned, so it was my biggest pirate set as well. I already had some pirate sets, and I even lost some parts before that but I think this as my fresh start. The Imperial outpost really blew me away!!. Then I started to collect LEGO sets, specially from the pirates theme.

Well It`s been a while since I got my last set but I hope I will be able to buy more from now on. I still don`t own the Black Seas Barracuda, but i`m not losing hope...

[Ratshot]

When my Mother got internet back in August, I started researching the history of Lego and dicovered Pirates, I just fell in love with them. After buying some bluecoats on ebay I just couldn't stop. It was like I had an epidemic or something. It got so bad, my parents had to intervine Im now limited to 4 Ebay deals a month......it really sucks, but it is for the better.

Edited May 17, 2009 by Broadside

[matt w]

as a child i collected the castle lego - i have a lot of the 80's castle sets boxed away in storage with my parents

when the pirate sets started coming out i wanted them, i've always been fascinated with fighting sail - reading books on nelson and trafalgar, reading the alexander kent bolitho series etc

so to be able to fight out some battles at sea appealed to me - unfortunately as a child i never managed to get any really large ship sets and so had to construct my own (thinking of them now they werent that bad if a little blocky and mutli coloured )

many years on i have refound my love of the fighting sail and wanted to build a MOC of a nice ship of the line - at first i had considered just buying a wooden kit, but lego started calling

so now i'm back - buying up as much as i can to help me get my new model under way

all the best

Matt