A LEGO Pirate Timeline...

TalonCard · February 8, 2013

Hey all,

I've been working on a timeline of all the different LEGO themes and stories in the format of the Star Wars Timetales and Star Trek Chronology and naturally the Pirates section is quite extensive. I thought I'd post a bit of it here to get some feedback. I've tried to include everything I could find--books, comics, audio dramas, magazine stories, etc. I have not included the LEGO Maniac comics, as they seem to be the fantasies of the Maniac himself. I haven't gotten to the computer games or the LEGOland stunt shows yet. I have opted to use primarily the US names, but only for internal consistency. Let me know what you all think!

c. 1500-1520 AD

The Conquistador learns of the newly-discovered Aztec Empire, and goes there in search of gold. The brave Aztec Warrior, an Eagle Knight, defends his country from those who wish to take the gold.

The Conquistador and Aztec Warrior bios on LEGO.com.

Montezuma, leader of the Aztecs, dies. His Golden Mask is lost.

Helena Skvalling bio on LEGO.com.

c. 1518 AD

The Imperial Trading Post at Port Royal is established by a powerful ocean-going empire, and becomes the hub of all trading activity.

Story from the US 6277 Imperial Trading Post box. It had been the center of trading activity for “centuries”. This set was called “Port Royal” in the UK, linking it to an existing location in the Pirates storyline. It is located on the island of Sabatina and is not the same as the historical Port Royal in Jamaica. That Port Royal was also founded in 1518.

c. 1600 AD

Ninja (1998)

Hamlet was first performed around this time. It would later be performed by the Thespian, who does not appear to be from this time.

c. 1620 AD

Time of the Musketeer.

c. 1664 AD

During this time the ancestors (or, at least, antecedents) of the LEGO Pirates of the Sea capture gold from the Spanish, including the legendary treasure of Don Cortez, and hide them on islands all across the Tropical Sea. These pirates include Captain Snarlface and the Blackheart Cousins, John and Brian.

After capturing a particularly large treasure, Brian and John Blackheart bury it on Shipwreck Island and carve a map onto a gold medallion. They then split the medallion between the two. John vanishes in the jungles south of the Tropical Sea, while Brian attempts to raid Port Royal. He is captured, sent to Europe, and condemned. Another crew member receives a twenty year sentence.

Backstory from the US Pirate boxes, the “Golden Medallion” comic, and the 4+ Pirate line. The old pirate in the comic says that the Blackheart cousins were active “fifty years or so” before, which coincides with the historical first Golden Age of Piracy.

c. 1684 AD

Brain Blackheart’s shipmate serves the last year of his sentence, and becomes a shopkeeper in Port Royal.

“The Golden Medallion”

c. 1695 AD

Pirates (4+)

The brave and generous Captain Red Beard commands the pirate ship Hurricane in a number of adventures. His crew includes the young Jolly Jack Crow, ship’s cook Harry Hardtack, and the loyal Cannonball Jimmy.

Red Beard is in possession of half a map to the legendary treasure of Don Cortez…unfortunately the other half belongs to his greedy brother Captain Kragg. Kragg operates out of Skull Island, and will do anything to get the gold. His small band of pirates includes First Mate Drake Dagger and the lazy Scurvy Dog.

This theme is a prequel to the main Pirates line by virtue of the fact that the Captain Red Beard figure has two hands. By the time of the classic pirate sets, one hand would be replaced with a hook.

1700 AD

“A Kidd’s Cool Treasure”

September 22 – The Skull’s Eye Schooner puts in at St. Mary’s Island, off the southeast coast of Africa. The pirates trade a barrel of sugar for a monkey named Coco.

September 27 – The pirates spot a merchant ship. Flying the Jolly Roger, they intimidate the crew into surrendering. The pirates capture a cargo of gold coins, jewels, silk, and spices.

September 29 – En route to St. Mary’s once again, the Skull’s Eye is blown off course by a storm. The ship begins to take on water, and the pirates are forced to bury the treasure on Skull Island before the ship sinks. The parrot Squawks deserts the ship.

October 31 – The pirates return to the island, only to discover that the Islanders have beaten them to it. The captain vows vengeance against the Islanders.

(SHORT STORY – LEGO Mania Magazine – September-October 1995)

Red Beard has a hook at this point, but does not seem to be the captain of the Skull’s Eye Schooner, or its first mate.

The husband of Bessie, proprietress of the Keg and Cutlass inn on Forbidden Island, and father of Anne, future crew member of the Black Seas Barracuda, attempts to attack the Governor’s flagship in rowing boats. He is captured and hung.

Date unknown, but sometime before “The Golden Medallion”.

1714 AD

Pirates (1989)

A group of European settlers, led by Governor Broadside, have colonized a large island in the Tropical Sea named Sabatina. Settlements on Sabatina include the long-established trading center of Port Royal, defended by the mighty Eldorado Fortress, and Fenzance on the other side of the island.

The settlers begin to discover buried chests of Spanish doubloons, making them unexpectedly wealthy. The surrounding islands become known as the Treasure Islands, among them are John Silver Island, Shark Island, the Island of Fogs, Pirate’s Hat Island, Black Reef island, the Island of Skulls, Skeleton Island, Emerald Island, Hook Nose Island, and the Island of Ruins. Broadside dispatches the Caribbean Clipper to retrieve the gold, and bring it to Eldorado Fortress for safekeeping.

Captain Red Beard is the first pirate to hear the news, and is disturbed. The pirates’ own ancestors had buried this treasure, and the pirates had been attempting to find it for years. He readies his ship Black Seas Barracuda, and sets off from the pirate’s nest of Forbidden Island to reclaim the pirate treasure, braving high winds and storms.

Backstory from US set boxes 6274, 6276, and 6285. Sabatina and the islands of the Tropical Sea are from the Ladybird books. Some of the US set names and European catalogs suggest that the setting is the Caribbean rather than the fictional Tropical Sea—it’s possible that the Tropical Sea itself is somewhere in the Caribbean. The US boxes specified the 18^th century as the time period for the Pirate sets, while the 1990 Netherlands catalog supplies a date of around 1715 for the 1990 line. All other dates are based around that year.

“Aboard the Pirate Ship Dark Shark”

Captain Red Beard orders Will and Rummy to drop anchor, but his peg-leg becomes entangled in the chain and he falls into the sea!

When the pirate crew retrieves him, they find that the Captain’s hook has a shark attached to it. After the crew is stumped as to how to remove it, Will gets an idea.

He ties a rope to the shark, and the other end to a cannonball. The canon is fired, and the shark sails high over Eldorado Fortress—and away from the Captain! “Hurrah for Will!” the pirates exclaim.

(COMIC – Bricks ‘n Pieces Magazine – Summer 1989)

Jimbo, a young boy, stows away on the Black Seas Barracuda. Red Beard allows him to join the crew.

“Will and the Gold Chase”. Some time before “The Golden Medallion”.

Governor Broadside’s spy discovers a monkey with half a gold medallion—a clue to the lost Blackheart treasure! He writes to Broadside, saying that he will send this clue on one of the governor’s galleons.

Just before “The Golden Medallion”

“The Pirates: The Golden Medallion”

In the Tropical Sea, the Black Seas Barracuda attacks one of the governor’s ships. Captain Red Beard and his bo’sun Will lead the boarding party. Aboard the Imperial ship are Governor Broadside’s sister Prudence, and his niece Camilla. Camilla becomes concerned that a captive monkey, Spinoza, is frightened by the fighting. She goes to comfort the animal, but one of the pirates spots her pearls and tries to take them.

Will rescues Camilla from the pirate, and the two are instantly smitten. Red Beard scolds Will for fighting his own men instead of the soldiers. The pirate captain calls for the Lieutenant De Martinet, leader of the soldiers, to surrender. He refuses, but his men see they are outnumbered and comply. De Martinet quickly follows suit.

The pirates plunder the vessel, but allow her to continue to Sabatina. First Mate Rummy brings back a small chest, which contains papers and a letter for Governor Broadside. Rummy is disappointed—he had hoped it was rum. Red Beard orders Will to throw the chest overboard. On seeing Will gazing after the departing ship, he urges Will to forget Camilla—and is promptly hit on the head with a piece of rigging by Spinoza, who had jumped over to the Black Seas Barracuda during the fighting.

Red Beard attempts to shoot the monkey off of the rigging, but then spies a piece of gold around its neck. Will volunteers to get the monkey down—and spends the entire night trying to coax the animal down.

The pirates arrive at Forbidden Island and go to breakfast at the Keg and Cutlass, where Bessie the innkeeper greets them. She and Red Beard reminisce about the old days, when pirates were brave. Red Beard complains that kids today can’t even catch a tame monkey.

Just then the ship’s cabin boy Jimbo interrupts, with Spinoza perched on his shoulder. Red Beard orders Jimbo back to the ship, and examines the gold piece around the monkey’s neck. It’s half a gold medallion—with half a treasure map carved into it! Red Beard wonders where the other half of the map is, and Will speculates that the letter they threw overboard might have had the answer. He is then immediately blamed for throwing important documents overboard.

The other side of the medallion has a skull above two crossed pistols. An old one-legged pirate recognizes the symbol as the mark of the Blackheart Cousins, John and Brian, who he used to work for. He explains that the cousins captured a great treasure, scratched a map on a gold medallion, and broke it in two. He speculates that they have John’s half. Brian was captured after attempting to plunder Port Royal. He was never heard from again, but his old shipmate may still be living there as a shopkeeper. Red Beard decides to set out for Port Royal to recover the second half of the medallion.

Unfortunately, their plans are overheard by Captain Foul and his henchman Culverin. Foul decides to keep an eye on Red Beard…

Two days later (a Tuesday), Will and Red Beard are dodging Imperial patrols while searching for the shopkeeper. They find him selling bananas. The shopkeeper explains that Brian Blackheart was thrown into the deepest dungeon in Eldorado Fortress before being sent to Europe and condemned. He has also heard a rumor that Brian hid something in the dungeon…but that prison is only for condemned men and prisoners being sent to Europe.

After interviewing the shopkeeper, Red Beard and Will run into a group of soldiers, and Will is captured. Red Beard realizes this could be his chance to get at the other half of the medallion, and decides to wait it out.

Will is brought before Governor Broadside, and, in spite of Camilla’s intervention, is sentenced to hang at dawn. He is thrown into the dungeons, and manages to locate the second half of the medallion. Camilla arrives with some food, and the two almost share a kiss…before Red Beard blows a hole in the dungeon with stolen gunpowder.

Will escapes, and Camilla, fearing the wrath of her uncle, goes with the pirates. Red Beard identifies the island in the map—Shipwreck Island! They arrive at the Black Seas Barracuda, only to find that it has been taken over by Captain Foul. Red Beard’s parrot Popsy escapes, but Camilla and the pirates are captured. The next day, Foul forces Red Beard to surrender the medallion, and he sets Will and Red Beard adrift on the Castaways Raft.

Meanwhile, Broadside and De Martinet capture Popsy, who lets slip that the treasure is buried on Shipwreck Island. Broadside orders the Caribbean Clipper be made ready to sail.

Will and Red Beard find themselves caught in a hurricane, which lands them on Shipwreck Island. Hearing Foul’s voice, they find Foul’s crew forcing the Barracuda’s crew to dig up the Blackheart treasure. The two pirates seize some weapons, and soon the two pirate crews are fighting over the treasure.

Just then, Broadside appears, delighted that the pirates have saved him the trouble of digging up the treasure…and reducing their own ranks. Foul immediately attempts to form an alliance with Red Beard, but before the two can come to terms, a volcano erupts, forcing everyone to flee the island.

Broadside, Camilla, and the soldiers escape to the Clipper, while Foul and his crew return to their own ship. Red Beard refuses to abandon the treasure, but is knocked out by Spinoza’s well-aimed coconut.

Later, outside the Keg and Cutlass, Red Beard is inconsolable over the lost treasure. While he orders more rum to drown his sorrows, a peddler approaches Will with a map to Captain Snarlface’s buried treasure, also hidden on a volcanic island. Fed up with treasure hunting, Will pushes him into the sea.

(COMIC BOOK – LEGO Publishing - Per Sanderhage – 1989)

“The Pirates”

Captain Red Beard has obtained a very promising treasure map, and so the pirates set sail from Shipwreck Island. Will tries (and fails) to lock Spinoza in the hold. Rummy soon spots Governor Broadside’s Caribbean Clipper, which opens fire. During the brief but intense battle, Spinoza escapes the hold, steals the treasure map, and leaps aboard the Clipper. Broadside returns to the Eldorado Fortress with the monkey and the map.

Furious with Will for losing the map, Red Beard casts him adrift on the Castaways Raft. He then attempts to sneak into the Fortress, but trips over a barrel and is caught.

Red Beard is sentenced to walk the plank—offshore of the volcanic island where the treasure is hidden. Will has arrived here as well, and manages to rescue Red Beard. When the Governor and his men go ashore to find the treasure, the pirates follow them.

Suddenly, the volcano erupts, and Broadside and the soldiers flee to the Clipper. Red Beard and Will manage to reach the raft with the treasure in tow—but find they’ve nowhere to go!

(SHORT FILM – ADVANCE – 1989)

This film appears to have been released on home video to advertise the then-new Pirate theme. The plot shares many elements with the Golden Medallion comic, but is set after as Spinoza appears. One can assume that Red Beard managed to obtain Captain Snarlface’s treasure map in spite of Will’s efforts to prevent it.

“Find the Pirate Map!”

Will and Rummy go ashore on a desert island where a treasure map is hidden on the White Cliff. They take different paths to the Cliff, encountering dense jungle, large swamps, and an ambush by Captain Foul.

(GAME – The Golden Medallion Comic – 1989)

This game was printed in the back of the “Golden Medallion” comic, and was designed to be played with the two figures included with the set.

Governor Broadside holds a birthday banquet with fireworks.

“Pirates #2: Captain Red Beard’s Birthday”

1715 AD

“Pirates #1: Will and the Gold Chase”

Governor Broadside gives Camilla a golden heart-shaped pendant, which she wears everywhere. One day, she loses it while boating. She is so distressed that Broadside issues a reward to whoever finds the pendant. Fishermen search for it with hooks and nets, and pearl divers arrive from a far-off island to try to find it, but to no avail.

Will hears about the lost pendant, and remembering their brief encounter during the hunt for Blackheart’s treasure, wishes he could find it for her. One night, a fishing boat approaches the Black Seas Barracuda, and the ship’s cook Flashfork asks Red Beard for money to buy fish. Red Beard gets out the key to the ship’s money chest. Before he can unlock the chest, Spinoza grabs the key and jumps into the fishing boat.

The pirates decide to go after the key. Will knows that the fishing boats usually take their catch to the markets in Port Royal. The pirates decide to disguise themselves and the ship to sail into Port Royal.

The Barracuda becomes the Skylark, and they arrive in Port Royal. Will and Jimbo question the fishermen, who identify the boat Spinoza stowed away on as belonging to Old Binnacle. Binnacle doesn’t come into Port Royal, they explain, preferring to sell his fish to the islanders.

Will returns to the Skylark, and attempts to explain this to Red Beard. The Captain smells gold, however, and refuses to listen. He leads the pirates ashore to the fish market, where he trips over some barrels, revealing his disguise.

Pursued by soldiers, the pirates return to Skylark, taking a barrel of fish with them. They escape from Port Royal, and change course for the islands. The pirates find Old Binnacle, and retrieve Spinoza from his ship.

With the key safely in hand, the pirates prepare for a supper of fish. Will is cleaning his when he discovers Camilla’s missing pendant in its stomach. The Captain was right about the gold in the fish market after all!

Will packages the pendant, marking the box with an anchor to match his tattoo. He then sends the package to Eldorado Fortress. Camilla knows who sent her back the pendant, and is very careful with it from then on.

(STORY BOOK – John Grant – Ladybird Books – 1990)

Red Beard loves fish in this story; he previously said he hated them in “The Golden Medallion”. Will’s anchor tattoo is mentioned for the first time; it is not seen at all in the comic book. Using the American name Black Seas Barracuda instead of Darkshark in this summary undermines the Darkshark/Skylark joke, but I’m trying to reduce confusion.

“Pirates #2: Captain Red Beard’s Birthday”

Captain Red Beard is annoyed at his crew, as none of them appear to be at their posts. Little does he know that they are crowded in the hold, planning a surprise birthday party for their Captain! Of course, they are also anticipating the wonderful food and drink at the party.

A few days later, Will and Rummy visit the Keg and Cutlass to get the supplies for the Captain’s party. Unfortunately, Bessie informs them that Foul and his crew cleaned her out while having their own celebration not long ago. They visit Magpie’s General Store, hoping to buy some food, but Foul has emptied Magpie’s shelves too.

Will comes up with another idea: Governor Broadside is greedy enough that he’d be sure to have plenty of supplies for a party. All they have to do is trick Red Beard into going to Port Royal, and then they can sneak ashore and nab the goods.

The pirates tell Red Beard that a treasure ship is due at Eldorado Fortress, and the Captain orders the crew to get underway. The Barracuda lurks off Sabatina for three nights waiting for the fictitious treasure ship, and Red Beard’s mood turns bad.

The next night, Will, Rummy, and Jimbo row ashore and creep up to the Eldorado Fortress. They smell delicious turkey, but can’t climb up the walls. Jimbo decides to send Popsy up to take a look, and the bird overhears de Martinet’s report to the Governor.

Reinforcements have arrived: including Dragoons with (of course) their horses. Broadside notices Popsy, and angrily closes the window. She repeats what she was able to hear to the pirates: barrels are waiting on the quay with enough food to feed a hundred. Will decides that this must mean supplies for the Governor’s birthday party—coincidently, Broadside and Red Beard were born on the same day!

The pirates return to their ship, where Will informs the captain that the treasure ship has been and gone, but its cargo is still sitting on the quay. Will, Rummy, and twelve other pirates go ashore armed and ready to take the cargo. The soldiers guarding the supplies surrender after realizing they are outnumbered. (By two!)

The pirates quickly take stock of the supplies, which have been loaded into wagons. They find one box for the Governor…but the others are full of shirts, boots, and boot polish. Will finds the next group of wagons are loaded with something else, but before he can tell Rummy, Captain Foul and his crew spring an ambush—Foul had followed them from Shipwreck Island!

Will calls a retreat back to the boats, and the puzzled pirates abandon the wagons. Foul and his men find only hay in the wagons…and barrels full of tar, which they soon end up covered in.

Back on the Barracuda the pirates reveal everything to Red Beard, who is angry that the treasure was a lie, but laughs at Foul’s mistake. Red Beard is presented with a birthday present: a specially carved wooden leg, which he promises to wear only on special occasions. And as it turns out, the box for the governor contained a large birthday cake—as it turns out, Red Beard has the nicest birthday any pirate could wish for!

(STORY BOOK – John Grant – Ladybird Books – 1990)

Published as “Captain Roger’s Birthday”.

“Pirates #3: Adventure on Shark Island”

At Forbidden Island, Red Beard and Will add up the loot from their most recent voyage. It comes to exactly three doubloons—two of which are fake. Disappointed, the crew visit the Keg and Cutlass, where they spend the doubloon on one bottle of rum (and twelve straws).

Just then, Captain Foul and his crew arrive from a highly successful voyage, a fact that they rub in the faces of Red Beard and his crew. A brawl ensues, and Bessie is unable to stop it. Her daughter Anne has an idea—she tells Foul’s pirates that their ship is under attack. Foul’s crew abandons the fight and head toward the docks.

When Foul discovers the ruse, he decides to teach Anne a lesson. A day or two later the pirates trap Anne with a net and imprison her in a barrel hoisted atop the main mast of their ship. They sail to Shark Island, and send a ransom note via Popsy demanding one thousand doubloons to Red Beard.

Red Beard declares that his crew never pays ransoms (and as Will points out, all they have are two fake doubloons!) But Will insists they rescue Anne and two days later the Barracuda arrives at Shark Island. Will and Jimbo go ashore, and spot Foul’s ship—and Anne’s barrel! Will and Jimbo return to the Barracuda and explain that only Spinoza can get to Anne’s barrel. He plans to send Spinoza up to the barrel with a line of rope, which Anne can use to climb down.

Popsy is sent with a message explaining the plan, and that night Will, Jimbo and Spinoza navigate a small launch through the rocks near Shark Island. They board Foul’s ship, and everything goes as planned. But when it comes time to leave, Spinoza is nowhere to be found!

Spinoza has made his way to the captain’s cabin, where he snatches a bag of gold coins right from under Foul’s nose. He then hides the bag in one of the ship’s cannons, and rejoins Will, Jimbo, and Anne. Culverin spots the escaping boat, but Foul’s ship runs aground during the pursuit. Foul orders Culverin to open fire…blowing the bag of gold right into Will’s boat!

Red Beard and the crew cheer when Anne arrives safely on the Barracuda…and cheer even louder when they see the money. Red Beard orders the crew to make sail to Forbidden Island, where there will be roast beef and jam roly-poly all around…double helpings, even!

(STORY BOOK – John Grant – Ladybird Books – 1990)

The name of Foul’s pirate ship in the Ladybird Books is Barracuda, which would cause confusion if one assumes that Red Beard’s ship is the Black Seas Barracuda and not the Darkshark.

The unlucky Captain Jonah of the Hesperus mistakes Port Royal for the pirate’s nest at Forbidden Island. He barely escapes alive, but his pet jackdaw Diogenes goes missing.

One week before “The Royal Visit”.

“Pirates #4: The Royal Visit”

Captain Red Beard is enjoying his afternoon tea when he suddenly finds his serenity interrupted by an incoming cannon ball. He rushes on deck to find Broadside’s massive flagship Ironram bearing down on the Barracuda, with Broadside himself ordering the pirates to prepare for boarding. Fortunately, Red Beard manages to lose Ironram in the fog.

That evening, Red Beard demands to know how Ironram could have snuck up on them. He discovers that Rummy was asleep in the crow’s nest, and Will was reading in his cabin. Red Beard is furious. A few days later the pirates return to Forbidden Island, and find all the pirates in a bad mood. The King is planning a state visit to Port Royal, and Broadside is to receive him in full dress uniform. Unfortunately, he’s missing his badge of office and believes one of the pirates has taken it.

The Governor is stepping up efforts to harass the pirates, and with good reason: without his badge Broadside could lose his head! Red Beard realizes the pirates must help him find it—or they might lose a bad governor and get one that’s even worse!

Red Beard calls a meeting of all the pirate captains, and they agree to halt their piratical activities until the badge is found. One captain is missing: Jonah of the Hesperus. With Anne’s help, Will realizes that Jonah’s pet jackdaw has been missing since his owner’s escape from Port Royal. After consulting his books, he tells Red Beard that he knows where the governor’s badge is.

Three days later, the crew of the Barracuda find the Hesperus anchored in a sheltered bay, where the crew is making repairs after a close shave with a whale. Captain Jonah tells them that Diogenes has returned, and Will takes a look inside the bird’s barrel. Sure enough, Broadside’s badge is inside. Will explains that one of his books had a poem about a jackdaw who stole a diamond ring.

On the day of the royal visit, Anne disguises herself as a washerwoman and smuggles the badge into Eldorado Fortress with the Governor’s laundry. The Royal visit is a great success—the King even gives Broadside a medal! Broadside goes back to governing, and leaves the pirates to their own devices.

(STORY BOOK – John Grant – Ladybird Books – 1990)

The poem Will refers to is likely “The Jackdaw of Rheims”, though this may be an anachronism. The Ironram appears to have supplanted the Caribbean Clipper as Broadside’s flagship by this point.

The King hides a treasure worth millions of dollars on a desert island in the Tropical Sea.

Story from the 6271 Imperial Flagship box. It seems likely that he would have used the state visit as a cover while hiding the treasure.

“Pirates #2: The Governor’s Treasure”

Governor Broadside obtains a treasure, and the pirates set out to steal it.