Andy-Roo

Congratulations to all the winners! I am impressed by the amount of creativity and skill that these contests bring out, and I found it helpful to have this sort of inspiration in my own builds. I appreciate all the feedback and all the good vibes from everyone who participated! Cheers!

Nice to see a build like this done to fit within the "classic" era of lego pirates. Even without newer profile bricks etc, I think a build like this could benefit from some additional shape or contrast. Instead of a flat wall, the gate house by 1 or 2 studs or give the wall something that breaks it up from being one solid piece. I know in many forts a straight plain wall is what we see in real life, but it seems like the most visually appealing builds give more variation in shapes. The other thing that could be done is a repeating shape around the canons, or a support structure etc. That would also give some visual variation.

Great little build! You can't go wrong with the "overside" henchmen fight scene! Makes me think that Steve could have used some gunpowder just about now...

I think this build maximizes the amount of detail one can fit in 200 pieces. This build feels very full, as well I like that you were able to help build the scene with the background elements. This is well thought out and a good execution!

Great build of the ship, and the details are very well thought out! I like the story and the way of displaying this. Well done!

Great little build. Very effective for 200 pieces and the lighting and photography really bring this to life! Well done!

Great build! Props to your daughter on a job well done as this is very recognizable and a good mini build of such an iconic set. Great use of colors to really help stay true to the original. Some good part usage all around!

Great merchant ship! It's great to see more boat of this slightly upsize scale from the official lego sets. The smooth accent lines of the red and yellow work well, and you used the curved slopes very skillfully here. It's great that you were able to fit in a place for canons that didn't feel out of place. I thought that worked well! I like the shape of this and it still feels true to the original. A great interpretation of the merchant ship! The coast guard ship itself is nice in how the hull is constructed, but that canon feels a bit massive for that size of the ship. It is obviously more threatening but it would be interesting to see the smaller ship with a few fixed brick built cannons or some swivel guns.

Great build! I like that you were able to capture all the details in this scale and this was instantly recognizable! Clever use of the shoulder pads armor for the boats. Works really well!

A very skillful build and the rockwork is impressive on how it all fits together. The only thing that would be good would be some sort of contrast to help the build stand out. It seems that the rockface is supposed to be part of a larger mountain but perhaps a combination of some dark grey sections and some foliage would help accent this.

Great ship, and it seems like all the details are masterfully placed with intention. No filler. Everything feels like it belongs and it is all very cohesive. Rigging and sails are wonderful as well! This is good inspiration! I hope to create more ships and builds like this are good motivation to revise and learn new techniques.

Great concept and I like the literal and metaphorical layers to this! Build is well *executed* and It keeps on getting better the more you look at it. Photos are great as well!

Great build, and good attention to detail! I like that you went with a modular approach and that it fits nicely within Sleepless Night's Lagoon Lockup MOC. I've been looking at that and this might help motivate me to build that MOC as well. It would have been nice to see a few more photos, and to include the upstairs as well. A closeup photo from the perspective of a minifigure would be great in a build like this.

Thank you for your insightful feedback! This was a fun build and was my first original ship MOC so I wanted to push myself to go beyond modifying an existing design. It was a good challenge to balance out the proportions, detail, as well create the sails! The "figurehead" was meant as greebling. I use the chicken and frogs to give that front of the ship shape, I thought of it more as a carving, or the kind of details you'd get in crown molding. Just wanted something to match the end of the ship and with the limited pieces I had in gold, that's what I went with. I liked what it did to the profile of the ship at a distance, but unfortunately up close, most people will spot the chicken and the frogs.

Excellent build, story and craftsmanship! I like the modular nature to the build and the attention to detail especially when it comes to playability. Everything was used in the story which helped highlight the build. The only thing that would be nice to see is some additional texturing of the grass plates and the floor of the caves to match the level of detail of the rest of the set. Great job all around!