2013 LEGO Pirates rumors and discussion.

[Faefrost]

Id like to point out that the announced (or still just rumored?) exclusive new Bilbo minifig looks perfect for an 18th century civilian, with his cravat and waistcoast. Though I dont suppose this will be of much value given the nature of the figs distribution. I think the Frodo and Merry torsos would work just as well, if you dont mind flesh triangles on the torsos...

Mind flesh triangles? Heck I know this will be see as blasphemy in some quarters, but it has almost gotten substantially easier to populate a Pirate MOC or theme with a diverse crew of Fleshies, than it is to put together a full compliment of Lemonheads. Between the huge assortment of PotC minifig parts, plus things like PoP, and the Hobbits and Dwarves from the LotR stuff, and a few specific figs from Indiana Jones and Harry Potter, you have a vast army of differing parts to flesh out a vast grungy pink Pirate Crew and a Good company of Red Coats. Complete with distinctive facial hair.

[KotZ]

Mind flesh triangles? Heck I know this will be see as blasphemy in some quarters, but it has almost gotten substantially easier to populate a Pirate MOC or theme with a diverse crew of Fleshies, than it is to put together a full compliment of Lemonheads. Between the huge assortment of PotC minifig parts, plus things like PoP, and the Hobbits and Dwarves from the LotR stuff, and a few specific figs from Indiana Jones and Harry Potter, you have a vast army of differing parts to flesh out a vast grungy pink Pirate Crew and a Good company of Red Coats. Complete with distinctive facial hair.

I see your point. There's a great deal of variety amongst the fleshies when you consider every theme and many can be great Pirate figurers. Personally, I'll mix the figures, just adding to the variety even though it looks ugly at points, although I do try to keep them in seperate areas. Add different clothing from other lines (some work well, mainly female minifigure parts) and there's even more diversity.

[Faefrost]

/Sigh!

We need one of these in White now

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=30381

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I84VBoGrdoI

I cannot unsee an Assasin Creed's hooded dude minifig swinging between my pirate ships now

[TalonCard]

I don't play video games, but I really want that one now...

[Sebeus I]

/Sigh!

We need one of these in White now

http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=30381

I cannot unsee an Assasin Creed's hooded dude minifig swinging between my pirate ships now

Agreed, Oh man, I want that game, I was a bit dissappointed that it wasn't possible in AC III to sail freely (while they said it would), I might just pick up my Idea of building the Aquila after all.

I already have my Assassin minifigure by the way but I could indeed still use a white hood.

(I use the white ninjago torso along with a POTC sabre holder)

This game will defenitely get more people into lego pirates, that's for sure .

[yys4u]

http://www.hothbricks.com/2013/03/lego-minifigures-character-encyclopedia-premieres-images/

Found this via another forum, thought I'd relay it here. Toy Soldier could have some uses in a pirate setting

[Grimmbeard]

Yes, cool new shako design! The musket and torso are obvious yeses as well.

Not a huge fan of the blue pants, though.

[Brig. Brick]

http://www.hothbrick...emieres-images/

Found this via another forum, thought I'd relay it here. Toy Soldier could have some uses in a pirate setting

The first think when I see this minifig: RISK!... Lego RISK!, the second... military band... the third (and most sadly)... nutcracker, Disney version!

but this minifig doesn't mean an improvement to pirates, I mean, the shacko is great, but the armies are black

also, about the "assassin's creed" thing, that game wont help too, for more popular it could be, because its rated "M"... far from the Lego costumer's age... sorry guys, this is just a dream like Skyrim to Lego medieval

The true, (sadly) is that the lego release the topic as fashionable as they coming at the big screen... and the result is that PotC collection spend as many time in the shelfs as the comets in the sky, and in the same time, TLG still kills theirs collections in favor of licenced... nothing against licenced, but TLG wont figth one licenced collection againts one their own (adventure vs Indiana Jones, classic pirates vs PotC, castle vs LotR)

so, for a new pirate release... wait for Disney, to make a new pirate movie

[Str0ngbad]

I generally agree with you but they are doing Castle and LOTR at the same time this year. I bet there will be a nod to the pirate community within a year or so.

[Grimmbeard]

If they do pirates again it'll probably be more geared to younger children, the way the new castle is going to be.

[Faefrost]

If they do pirates again it'll probably be more geared to younger children, the way the new castle is going to be.

It depends. I don't think that they have the flexibility with the Disney licenses that they have with the WB LotR license. As we saw with the CuuSoo Modular Western Project, Disney has some fairly strong no competing products clauses in their licenses. Lego most likely has two active Disney Pirate themed licenses. One targeted very young, Jake and the Pirates Duplo, and one PotC geared older. PotC may be inactive at the moment, but we don't know that the license is finished. We will not see any true Lego in house Pirates until that one has formally and legally expired.

[Grimmbeard]

Don't quote ne on this, but I'm pretty sure it already did expire, at least thats what I saw on here a while ago.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Grimmbeard

[Bobsy]

It depends. I don't think that they have the flexibility with the Disney licenses that they have with the WB LotR license. As we saw with the CuuSoo Modular Western Project, Disney has some fairly strong no competing products clauses in their licenses. Lego most likely has two active Disney Pirate themed licenses. One targeted very young, Jake and the Pirates Duplo, and one PotC geared older. PotC may be inactive at the moment, but we don't know that the license is finished. We will not see any true Lego in house Pirates until that one has formally and legally expired.

Licences cost money - a lot of money. While they're active LEGO will be trying to squeeze every last drop of profit from it in order to make the expense worthwhile. If the PotC licence was still active we'd have sets on the shelves right now.

[ManInATopHat]

If only they'd do another "Master and Commander" Movie! I do believe, however, that Lego is WELL aware of the wide interest in Pirates. If they don't do more sets for PoTC, they'll most likely make some attempt at another Pirates. It's a good theme, and it deserves a nod after such a long time.

[Captain Becker]

Well Pirates is one LEGO's classics, and they have said that Pirates are coming back, but they are taking a break from it. They didnt say the time when it was gonna come back or how long the break would be. (I think its another 10 years or so if luck is so terrible). Then became POTC Theme and as some rumours told it didnt sell that good. So yeah, my hopes are very high up that atleast 2017 Pirates would come back, but I have my doupts on that aswell.

Captain Becker

[Brig. Brick]

Well Pirates is one LEGO's classics, and they have said that Pirates are coming back, but they are taking a break from it. They didnt say the time when it was gonna come back or how long the break would be. (I think its another 10 years or so if luck is so terrible). Then became POTC Theme and as some rumours told it didnt sell that good. So yeah, my hopes are very high up that atleast 2017 Pirates would come back, but I have my doupts on that aswell.

Captain Becker

completely agree with you, captain!

The fact is, the summer in USA is near by, so, the summer movies: superman, ironman and the El Zorro... eh ups...!... The Lonely Ranger will fulfill all the spaces in the lego shelfs, and on dicember... The Hobbit; all licenced; in the internal collections... chima and castle

then, in the next wave, it would be Star Wars: the revange of the sith army (forget the law of only a master sith an his/her student )

so, my pirates friend-lovers, it will be some time till we can see another ship sails for the lego store

Edited March 13, 2013 by Brig. Brick

[Faefrost]

Licences cost money - a lot of money. While they're active LEGO will be trying to squeeze every last drop of profit from it in order to make the expense worthwhile. If the PotC licence was still active we'd have sets on the shelves right now.

Not necessarily. I keep going back to that great business lecture about Lego, how they nearly fell in the early 2000's, and how they rose again. The one thing that stuck was when he described how in 2002 only Star Wars, City and Harry Potter made money... And how Harry Potter only made money in the years it had a corresponding movie. That's the key. If there is another PotC movie in the pipeline, Lego will see more profit from sitting on the license for a year or so, then releasing more stuff to tie with it, than they would from releasing off year waves to sit on shelves. But this all depends on how well the last waves of PotC did? If they didn't do great than Lego may simply move on and let the license expire. But I suspect that even with license costs the PotC line was more profitable than the 2009 line.

[Jack Bricker]

If I may put in my two cents I would say that Lego was scared away from POTC by poor sales figures. I mean the pirate ships were well done but, some of the other sets were lacking in my opinion in terms of completeness and playability. I mean how many times does a kid want to play the same mermaid attack over and over again. Now during the 90s Lego was producing pirate sets that had complete forts islands and different factions. Consequently, the sets were a lot more appealing in my opinion and they are still very collectible today. I do however have a gut feeling that Lego will release another Pirate line in the next two years or so. :)

[Grimmbeard]

Not necessarily. I keep going back to that great business lecture about Lego, how they nearly fell in the early 2000's, and how they rose again. The one thing that stuck was when he described how in 2002 only Star Wars, City and Harry Potter made money... And how Harry Potter only made money in the years it had a corresponding movie. That's the key. If there is another PotC movie in the pipeline, Lego will see more profit from sitting on the license for a year or so, then releasing more stuff to tie with it, than they would from releasing off year waves to sit on shelves. But this all depends on how well the last waves of PotC did? If they didn't do great than Lego may simply move on and let the license expire. But I suspect that even with license costs the PotC line was more profitable than the 2009 line.

I do think they'll make a few sets at least when the next movie comes out. It'll be a popular movie, and kids like pirates, so they'll probably make some. I doubt they'll launch a lot of sets at once, since the original POTC wasn't greatly successful, but they'll probably experiment.

[Mister Phes]

If I may put in my two cents I would say that Lego was scared away from POTC by poor sales figures.

Do you have any market research data to support your poor sales claim?

[ManInATopHat]

If I may put in my two cents I would say that Lego was scared away from POTC by poor sales figures.

I would have to disagree. LEGO stopped producing PoTC because they had no more sets to make, is what I've heard. I've also heard that they will be producing more sets with the release of another movie.

[Grimmbeard]

I would have to disagree. LEGO stopped producing PoTC because they had no more sets to make, is what I've heard. I've also heard that they will be producing more sets with the release of another movie.

I wouldn't say they had no more sets to make. Look at Star Wars. Sure there are more movies (just 2 more), but they've been going strong in sets since the 90s. There are definitely many more scenes, ships, and minifigures that TLG could make for POTC.

[Brickington]

If I may put in my two cents I would say that Lego was scared away from POTC by poor sales figures.

Do you have any market research data to support your poor sales claim?

I can't say for myself if I know the correct answer to whether or not LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean sold well. However, I read the 2011 Annual Report article on LEGO.com and found an interesting little paragraph. The paragraph states:

Sales of licence based product lines in particular were well above expectations in 2011. This was the case with, for example, with LEGO® products based on Star Wars™, Harry Potter™ and Pirates of the Caribbean™.

What caught my eye was the fact that the TLG included the Pirates of the Caribbean. Which leads you question the statements that say that the LEGO Pirate of the Caribbean did not sell well. You can find the full article here. Now I have not the actual Annual Report, but you can find the report here if you want to find the specifics. If you are looking for LEGO Pirates of the Carribbean, the 2011 one is the one you're looking for. Sadly, I myself can't give you the answer to the question, as I have not found adequate information to support a statement. But as I said, I reccommend you to take a look of the Annual Report if you haven't already done so.

I wouldn't say they had no more sets to make. Look at Star Wars. Sure there are more movies (just 2 more), but they've been going strong in sets since the 90s. There are definitely many more scenes, ships, and minifigures that TLG could make for POTC.

Here I believe you are right. I do not believe that I need to so evidence that TLG has released many parts of the series and many times TLG has released remakes of sets already released.

Anyway, I hope you all find my post helpful in anyway it can be.

Edited March 16, 2013 by Brickington

[Grimmbeard]

I can't say for myself if I know the correct answer to whether or not LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean sold well. However, I read the 2011 Annual Report article on LEGO.com and found an interesting little paragraph. The paragraph states: Sales of licence based product lines in particular were well above expectations in 2011. This was the case with, for example, with LEGO® products based on Star Wars™, Harry Potter™ and Pirates of the Caribbean™.

Wow, I'm surprised that they sold well. (Maybe they didn't and their expectations weren't that high?) I don't know. I wonder than what the reason for ending them was, unless the license did in fact expire.

[Mister Phes]

What caught my eye was the fact that the TLG included the Pirates of the Caribbean. [...] You can find the full article here. Now I have not the actual Annual Report, but you can find the report here if you want to find the specifics. If you are looking for LEGO Pirates of the Carribbean, the 2011 one is the one you're looking for. Sadly, I myself can't give you the answer to the question, as I have not found adequate information to support a statement. But as I said, I recommend you to take a look of the Annual Report if you haven't already done so.

Thank you for your considered response Brickington!

I have perused the 2011 Annual Report and all it offers is the same information as the article, I.e. "Sales of several licence-based product lines were considerably above expectations in 2011. This applies to LEGO products based on Star Wars™, Harry Potter™ and Pirates of the Caribbean™."

Which leads you question the statements that say that the LEGO Pirate of the Caribbean did not sell well.

Indeed, I've not found any official data to suggest poor sales of the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Though I postulate when some people observe Pirate LEGO sets not selling at their local toy retailer, they conclude this is consistent with toy retailers nationally and/or globally.

A highly erroneously assumption, however.