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TalonCard

Fun Pirates stuff at miniland.nl...

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Hi all,

I've been lurking for a bit now, but I've been gone for awhile so I apologize if some of this has been posted already. The site miniland.nl has been posting scans of LEGO Club magazines from around the world, some of which I've been meaning to scan and some I've never seen before! Here are the Pirate highlights:

Bricks 'n Pieces Autumn 1989

This is the magazine of the UK LEGO Club. This issue has pictures of a touring LEGO World show with a Pirate theme. Does anyone remember going to see this?! There's a massive island fortress with some Caribbean Clipper variants docked, and a secret Pirate cave that can hide the Black Seas Barracuda. If I'd been taken there as a kid I never would have left. ;)

Bricks 'n Pieces Summer 1990

News of a national (British) Pirate competition called Escape from Shark Island. The brick-built pirate figure from

makes an appearance. Shark Island was the subject of one of the Ladybird books. It would be nice to see if the competition forms from the shops had more story details; the magazine story is pretty vague. There's also a Governor Broadside keychain I hadn't seen before; he's wearing a tricorn in place of his usual bicorne.

Bricks 'n Pieces Summer 1992

There's a brief piece on Pirates here, but it has some interesting details. I think this may be the first time I've seen Admiral Woodhouse named in a contemporary official source. Backstory here: Woodhouse built the stronghold at Port Royal (Imperial Trading Post), and Ironhook is an "old friend" of Roger (Red Beard) called in to fight the Imperial Guards. This is interesting as Red Beard and Ironhook are fighting against each other

, but they are pirates, after all. ;)

The image used of the pirate in the red barrel is aparently an old prototype picture, since the ones used in the sets were always brown. We saw this picture before in a 1989 issue.

There's also a cartoon "spot the difference" game featuring the Imperial flagship, a schedule for the Pirate tour, and a Pirate poem competition...

Bricks 'n Pieces Autumn 1992

This one features a Pirate cover, with a brick-built scene, apparently from the aforementioned tour, showing De Martinent and Broadside stranded on a raft. (The characters are in blue and red coats respectively--I keep telling you people they're on the same side, but the feud continues... ;) ) It's interesting that the characters from the 1989 launch are still around at this point. There are more pictures of the tour displays inside--I wish we had more! Apparently they were interactive--visitors could animate the scenes with push buttons.

Also in this issue are the two winners of the Pirate poem competition. Michael Porter's Aboard Darkshark [black Seas Barracuda] gives a surprisingly accurate summary of the characters introduced in the comic and book series. Adam Robert's contribution tells of Jake the Peg, a slightly more interesting character whose replacement limb is made of LEGO rather than wood.

,Bricks 'n Pieces Spring 1994

This issue has a lot of information about the Indigo Islanders, with more background than I'd seen before. Here the Islander leader is called Chief Quextil, which is probably an alternate name for King Kahuka. The story in the first couple of pages also mentions his cousins, who've had encounters with the Pirates before, though, so I prefer to think of Kahuka and Quextil as cousins--it gives me an excuse for all the Islander chiefs I have running around! ;) The story has a cliffhanger ending, inviting yet another competition to finish it.

There's a nifty Islanders shirt on the back page--I'd love one in my size!

Bricks 'n Pieces Summer 1994

Here we have a continuation of the Islander story, but it's one written by the magazine staff as opposed to one of the competition winners. The conflict between the Pirates and the Islanders is settled quite anti-climactically--it turns out Red Beard isn't so bad after all; he just has to act tough to keep up the piratical image. (Quite a complex character, Red Beard.) As it turns out, Chief Quextil shares a birthday with Red Beard...this is interesting as Red Beard sharing a birthday with Governor Broadside was a plot point in the Ladybird book series. What can be made of the fact that three faction leaders share the same birthday?

There's also a cute MOC of a giant Imperial Guard minifig, a nifty Islander patch, and a "Beano Competition"...which apparently means something different to UK readers than it does to US residents...

Bricks 'n Pieces Autumn 1994

This issue has a few pictures of a "Treasure Hunt" exhibition in Dublin, which promises all kinds of information about the Islanders...if only someone had visited the exhibit to document it! :( Interestingly enough, the exhibition has little to do with Pirates, and instead focuses on Professor Stanley and his assistant George, 20th century treasure hunters. Apparently island life changed little in 200-odd years.

Bricks 'n Pieces Issue 2 1995

Not much for Pirate fans in the next couple of issues, but this one has a bit about the new (tiny) wave of Pirate sets. No new info here, but it's interesting to see the UK names of these sets, which have since faded into obscurity.

Bricks 'n Pieces May/June 1996

This is a full-on Pirate issue, and supplies some much-needed names for the Armada characters. Captain Valiant is the green shirted figure, while Sergeant Speedy (oh dear) is the red shirted soldier.

Bricks 'n Pieces August 1996

Mostly a Western issue, but it reprints the Pirate comic from the September-October 1995 Mania Magazine. Apparently Bricks 'n Pieces was a few issues behind here.

Bricks 'n Pieces October/November 1996

Features the winners of a Pirate flag contest and a small pirate section with short but astonishingly accurate descriptions of Captain Hook and Long John Silver. (Looks like someone actually read the books!) Also has a rediculous segue into the Robin Williams character from Jumanji, as a video of that film was the Pirates-related prize. (No one wanted Cutthroat Island, I'm guessing.)

LEGO Mania Magazine Winter 1994

The first issue of the relaunched US LEGO Club magazine was Pirate themed (as it should be) but focused mostly on the Islanders. The short comic is worth checking out--Red Beard is after the Islanders treasure. (Apparently he got on better with Kahuka's cousin Quextil than with Kahuka himself!) Unfortunately the comic is the only thing from that issue on the site.

LEGO Mania Magazine September-October 1995

Fortunately this issue is presented in its entirety, as it has a short story about the Pirates and a Pirate comic!

LEGO Mania Magazine November-December 1995

This issue has a brief bio on Red Beard and an expose on missing Islander Christmas gifts. (Which Red Beard had absolutely nothing to do with...) Red Beard also shows up in the comic.

LEGO Mania Magazine March-April 1996

This is one is all about Pirates! There's a bio on the mysterious Armada Admiral, a comic, and names for every figure from the Red Beard Runner.

LEGO Mania Magazine July-August 1996

Red Beard makes a brief appearance as a victim of Rob N Hood's time-thefts. The following issue would state that Red Beard is the great uncle of Flatfoot Thompson from the Western theme.

LEGO Mania Magazine November-December 1996

There's a brief reader-submitted story about the Pirates and the Armada.

That's pretty much it for the Mania Magazines. The divers in the May-June 1997 comic are exploring the wreck of the Cross Bone Clipper, which Red Beard apparently sunk himself for unknown reasons. Non-Pirate related but amusing is the cover blurb from the March-April 1997 issue: "Twist off to Roboforce!" That sounds...inappropriate.

The Netherland's LEGO Club magazine has lots of features that don't appear in other countries, as far as I can tell. The issues are tough to navigate, but there are some nice black-and-white pictures of the 1989 Pirate line that I don't recall seeing anywhere else. Each issue also appears to feature a prose story of some length, at least one of which features Pirates. I can't tell if these are reprinted non-LEGO stories or if they are about the LEGO themes and characters...perhaps someone who reads Dutch can translate?

TC

Edited by TalonCard

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Wow, I remember those UK-based Bricks 'n' Pieces mags from the early 90s...even then I thought they were a bit 'low-budget' in the writing and presentation, but they had some genuinely cool and inspirational stuff in there and I have a lot of nice childhood memories associated with them. Shame I never got around to going to any of the events they advertised though...things like the Pirates exhibition would've been a lot of fun!

Being the strange sort of child I was, I actually kept quite a few of them so although they're not in particularly good condition I've considered buying/borrowing a scanner to upload them for sharing with fellow fans. I found a box full of old catalogues, Lego Club mags and adverts...I doubt they're valuable financially speaking, but are fascinating from a fan's point of view.

And those adverts...the stop-motion ones always impressed me. Thanks for sharing all this...it's brought the memories flooding back! :wub:

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Martin, I know how time-consuming scanning can be, but we'd love to see them! In the meantime, if you want to share story and character information (about any themes, but particularly Pirates) I'd be really interested in hearing about it!

TC

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Excellent round TalonCard! :thumbup:

,Bricks 'n Pieces Spring 1994

This issue has a lot of information about the Indigo Islanders, with more background than I'd seen before. Here the Islander leader is called Chief Quextil, which is probably an alternate name for King Kahuka. The story in the first couple of pages also mentions his cousins, who've had encounters with the Pirates before, though, so I prefer to think of Kahuka and Quextil as cousins--it gives me an excuse for all the Islander chiefs I have running around! ;)

This is the first time I've ever seen the King Kahuka minifigure referred to as Cheif Quextil...

Not sure Kahyka and Quextil need to be related, but it does stand to reason there would be more than one tribe in the Indigo Islands and thus more than one leader.

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Interesting fact: the January-Febuary 2007 US LEGO Magazine issue features a mention of Captain Brickbeard by the Aquaraiders two years before his minifigure debut....

TC

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This is absolutely fantastic! I have for ages wanted to study some of the various old LEGO magazines for information about pirates.

In particular I have searched a lot for pirates that were actually named:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=50788

It’s nice to see a few more names spread out through these magazines that I haven’t seen before. Maybe I should update my work, I know I’m also missing a few character from some ports of the Pirates of the Caribbean video game.

Maybe a few of us could try and work together on a guide to named pirates similar to the “A guide to the Pirates Minifigures” articles complete with sources, fictional depictions and actual figures.

I wonder if there is also a place out there that has scans of the Ladybird pirate books.

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It looks like there isn't much in my box of old stuff that isn't already scanned and uploaded, but I'll see what I can do. If nothing else, it's useful reference material for comparing the different names of things between the US and UK. Some of the old catalogues that came free with larger sets of the time (as opposed to the catalogues printed for each country and available in shops etc) had a slightly different format in that, instead of a photo+set title+set number+description they had set titles in several languages instead of the description. I quite liked the descriptions in the UK catalogues, but it was interesting to see what they were called in different countries.

The original Pirates' ship is known as 'Black Seas Baraccuda' but in the UK we called it 'Dark Shark'...in France it was apparently called 'Requin Noir' which, according to my hazy memories of high school French classes, suggests that BSB's name was similar in France and the UK!

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Thank you for bumping these threads TalonCard and keeping the discussion alive. :thumbup:

However, not to undermine the good work Kelceycoe is doing, I'm wondering if we need individual topics for each issue of the magazine.

Perhaps, we could consolidate all discussion of LEGO Maniac Magazines in the one topic, rather than having a dedicated topic like Lego Mania Magazine Winter 1994 Issue Found [Pics] which probably won't get a huge response.

But this is by no means criticism towards your efforts Kelceycoe, you're doing a fine job, it's more of a forum management issue in determining what will yield the best discussion.

 

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I understand. I only posted that one as its own topic because its currently known scan is incomplete and its a Pirates issue about the islanders.

Personally this forum is in need of a lot of pinned topics so we can scan through the archives and update broken links. The Master Index is hard to read... and I was on a computer with 28 inch screen lol

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4 hours ago, kelceycoe said:

Personally this forum is in need of a lot of pinned topics so we can scan through the archives and update broken links.

This forum needs a lot of things...

Once upon a time we had crew maintaining the indices and moderating the forum properly.  But I got busy for two years and have only returned in the past month to discover no one is manning the ship!  Not sure what happened to everyone else at this point.

So at the moment, it's just me managing the forums and I don't have time to even look at the indices right now because all of my resources are focused on a very big improvement to the forum's design...

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