Col. Whipstick

There's plenty of stale, moldy old, maggot infested grog around Eldorado Fortress, perhaps that's worth wasting on the scurvy sea-dogs afterall my men have taken to eating only coconuts brought by Islander girls in their skimpy undies! X-D

First and foremost I love Indy, always was a huge fan of the original films and remember watching them vividly as a child. I remember buying the box set on DVD the day it came out and I've read Indy books etc. It was probably my love of Indiana Jones that inspired me to collect so many Adventurers sets. The art decor, style and design of those sets was fantastic. Admittedly where it all seems to have gone wrong is in the very late 90's before Lego started going mad with licenses and it relied on creating themes that were at best only loose associations to media franchises. Now, back then along came a man who brought us something really different, not just another re-invention of castle, pirates or town - Johnny Thunder of Brisbane gave us a cheeky smile and commanding Aussie accent to let us know he was the downunder version of Indy that was every bit the emminent adventuring archeologist that is American counterpart was. That he was chosen as Australian speaks directly to the parallels lego were attempting. Likewise Johnny Thunder's sidekicks - Miss Pippin Read and Dr Kilroy themselves reflect a kind of Marion Ravenwood and Prof. Henry Jones. Then there's Lord Sam Sinister - certainly a token refference to the likes of Belloc etc. The different locations and characters featured during the adventures of Johnny Thunder went above and beyond what we associated of Indiana Jones. Then Lego inevitably got the license from Lucasfilm/Lucasarts and the Star Wars range was born, Harry Potter was hot on the heals and ever since Lego seem to have gone license mad. In each case however the license themes seem to have been revivals of age old lego system themes - Harry Potter was a reinvention of Castle, Star Wars of Space and one should have seen a POTC attempt which would have revived the Pirates. Now, Indiana Jones has reinvented Johnny Thunder and the Adventurers, it may be a different franchise but it's the same era, look, feel and design, the problem is - it's just too close. Had Lego ever seen that down the road Star Wars and inevitably Indiana Jones were in the pipeline Johnny Thunder would never have been. So what now for our hero? In some small ways he's a bit more than Indy, he's a good part Crocodile Dundee or Alan Quartermaine - having that colonial edge of Australia and Africa but as fearless, bold and brave as Johnny Thunder was in the late 90's and the early 00's is he just doomed to play second fiddle to the man with the big Hollywood status? I can see in another year or two members of this site will feature both men together in various MOC's as their paths must inevitably cross like two English speaking adventurers must out of something from a Wilbur Smith novel. Or will they both compete for 'fortune and glory' to quote the famous Indy line from The Temple of Doom. I'd hate to see Johnny simply get old, fade into the background and start doing museum tours but I can't help but feel that Indy is going to make ancient history of the stuntman who has played him in so many amateur Indy lego films.

Wow... those sets look fantastic, been a huge Indy fan for a million years. It's interesting to see that Lego are doing with Indiana Jones the same thing they did with Star Wars - that they are making sets based on the original movies as well as the newer films.

No... the new film is set in the 50's as the've wanted to keep with Harrison Ford's age and now the soviets are the token bad guys. The think is... Lucus Arts made an Indiana Jones PC game called Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine about 7/8 years ago and that was set in the late 40's with Indy having to fight the soviets so it feels a bit like the new film is actually drawing from the game.

This sounds very interesting... Yeah, lego getting official license from Bond wouldn't work. There's enough espionage styled tv shows and films out there and it has always been a hugely popular genre even though it's faded some since the glory days of the Cold War but nonetheless well worth a lego theme. My only thought is this, isn't espionage as a general idea a bit old for most the kids? It doesn't have the colour and flair of things like pirates or castle or town. It would be awesome to see MOC's of James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan and the like!

That's probably because half the pirate people who would vote are hardly bothered enough to come here. X-D Actually all this aside I think it's a shame that Adventurers, Western, Vikings, Castle etc all have to share the same forum. When I was growing up Castle was the biggest, bigger than space, pirates or town and yet it seems to only hold a parking lot space here.

Is that it? That the best you've got gunslinger? I'll have to make sure we give you a good dose of grapeshot! For a kick off when the hell was school last educational??? And how can you continue to suggest that western is more creative when clearly as I've pointed out Pirates are more versatile and mean a lot more to the rest of the world for those of us not born in Montana. :-P We have more posts because we're more popular and that is that good sir! Now run along... I think you're missing an episode of Bonanza. :-P

That's it! *throws down gauntlet* You have all insulted the Pirates forum for the last time... Consider this a declaration of war! :-P Pirates are way way way better than western because western is pretty much limited to use in half of the US for about a century so historically your figures are considerably limiting in their use. True the 'Indians' can be used to cover the several hundred years of their culture and can even be used in conjunction with some of the pirate fractions to emphasize early European colonization of North America. At a stretch the 'cowboy' type figures can be used to represent some other colonial areas of the world during the 19th century such as Southern Africa and Australia where the landscape and lifestyle resembled the wild west. Anyone who says western is more versatile propably hasn't picked up a good history book in... well, forever. But now consider all the pirate factions... The Armada figures can represent almost any European army from 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Thereafter the Soldiers and Imperial Guards (Blues and Reds to you illiterate, bean chopping, whiskey stained cowboys) can be used to represent any European or early colonial government forces including the British Empire, France, United States etc throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Our pirate figures are way more colourful and variable in design than the western figures and as far as bad boys go our own bad guys - the pirates are way better at being bad than yours are. Then add the islanders into the mix - they are hugely versatile and can be used to represent a native populace of the entire southern hemisphere and all of Meso-America. They can be used in conjunction with the Johnny Thunder stuff easily. In fact, most of the pirate stuff is historically compatable with the ninjas, the native characters and sets from the adventurers and the 'Indians' from western. And all that isn't even considering how beautiful and original our ships look in port or out on the high seas. Our fortresses aside from being militarily more formidable have an abundance of tropical flora and fauna that takes you on holiday when you spend your time with Pirate lego, whereas western lego sets only accentuate the local Saloon as your most spectacular models and likewise the atmosphere is less than impressive. I'd agree that you need a bit more money to make Pirates look better but in the end it's simple, Lego Pirates is way more visually appealing and our following proves it. Just look at Eurobricks... western has to share a forum with castle and adventurers, whereas Pirates has it's very own. Our post count is twice that of this forum and that isn't shared. So it's simple... why don't you all go drown your sorrows on whiskey and beans in your smelly little saloons, or go make a camp fire and smoke the peace pipe - anything to help you forget that Pirates kicks western butt any day of the week! :-P

What programme do you use to superimpose MOC images onto these backgrounds Phessy? I see so many backgrounds that look great but I'm still working out the VCR...

Holy Bananas!!! *wub* That looks incredable! It's like a Tudor styled Isenguard. That must have cost a fortune in pieces and I can't imagine how many hours and hours that must have taken to complete! Well done, it's absolutely fantastic. ;-)

Hmm.... remind me to never upset Sir Norman Ray *shudders at the thought of that horse's head* Glad you liked it, who was next... oh yes - Norrington. *starts to fondle perfectly brillcreamed 'tash in thought*

Well here's the really interesting part, I posted these flags here absolutely ages ago and there was no comments, zip, zero, zilch, nada... I think you get the idea. Then lastnight as I meant to at the time I thought about sharing this thread with the Western people over there in 'that other forum' because they might have more use for it. In reality though I still think American flags are appropriate to our time period, whilst not Golden Age they are certainly Napoleanic Era. As for the reasons of being unpopular - I put it down to the usual anti-American psychosis one finds throughout the western world and particular from European insecurities that there haven't been almost any reception to these flags originally. Though I expected some of the American members of the forum themselves to say something and as it is here, if something doesn't get more than 3 replies on it's first day it's usually on the second page and out of sight/out of mind by day two. Also, some people will have a bee in their bonet about the Confederate flags regardless of the fact there is no political agenda behind what I put here but rather historical variety. One wonders what the response would be if I created a 'Swastika flag'. I think it's safe to say especially given the name - Eurobricks that the majority of the members here are European so American flags aren't going to be half as popular. Given the amount of members from the colonies however one wonders if we shouldn't rename ourselves 'Worldbricks' or 'Planet Brick' or something.

Whilst this is one of many flag threads I have posted in the Pirate forum I felt it unfair not to make mention of these flags here where the western enthusiasts might find some good use for them particularly as early American history is pertinant to the Pirate era but for the most part it belongs here. There have been numerous threads on flags - British, French, Spanish, Pirate etc should you be tempted to look those up. These flags were created on MSPaint according to the dimensions of the official lego pirate flags and once opened with MSPaint and printed out they should fit perfectly. Admittedly the edges are a bit pixelated but apparently that is easily solved with programs such as Adobe Illustrator, just ask Mr Phes about how to do this. For the American flags, please visit the original thread in the pirates forum here: American Flag Thread

Did I hear right? A catapult in the 16th/17th/18th and 19th centuries? *wacko* Perhaps it's an appeal for Lord of Pies to have his own personal catapult to pelt the pirates with whipped cream pastries should they try to sail past. But this begs the question... why waste perfectly good pie on those scurvy, mangy, mutt-faced villians!

C'mon... who can take the cowboys and indians seriously? P, leeeaaase! It's shocking this poll is as close as it is, perhaps I need to get more Pirate enthusiasts to invade this forum and show the westerners who's boss! :-D

I still haven't got a copy of AOE 3 and it's over 2 years old! Never played Civ 4 yet or Sid Meier's Pirates etc. So many great games but they are all very time demanding nowadays, the price or system requirements aside. I have played Shogun Total War and Medieval Total War a fair bit and those were great fun so this does indeed look fantastic. One of the real pluses of the Total War series is that unlike strategy games such as AOE here one will be able to command a full battlefield of up to 10 000 troops. Talk about recreating your Waterloo!

Okay Tiny Pies, as you have requested I've added the two flags of 'Black Bart' to this thread.

Amusing but a little too late... Here is the flag, all finished for you Sir Norman Ray. I had many different ideas about where to go with the design and colour but opted for this design which A - Includes the 3 swords on the Arms of Essex as well as the shell you requested. I ended up using a sort of compounded red and blue which gives the flag a strongly British feel though with some little effort I can remove say the blue for a kind of canvass or something else. Anyway hope you're satisfied, took a couple hours to do.

But you are indeed educated sir. I think this is a case of the British catalogues versus the rest of the world. Most mine was bought in either England or SA so I can't recall which catalogue was which though I tend to think the sets in SA were imported so it's hard work regarding the titles. To me ITP will always be Port Royal too and the BSB was always The Dark Shark.

There you go... Certainly is an improvement from the first film. Your frame rate is really good, nice to see a fluid and more audable film. Plus it was amusing to see pirates blowing themselves up and always fun to see one of the flags in action. Good job Axle *y* There's always room for improvement but there's only so much you can concentrate on at any one time, sure the films will get better and better.

I find I think better with a pillow on my head, or that might just be me looking for excuses to stay in bed... I'll have to ask that other Col. Whipstick... the evil twin you recall. *Hears the theme tune to the twilight zone somewhere in the background*

Isn't nuance such a cool word... Finally I have an excuse to wear a tie when I say it. X-D

Okay folks, I'm back from Oxford and have the time so I've taken into account everyone's requests and will get started asap. First in line - Sir Norman Ray, then I'll think of something for you Norrington, there are many symbols that unite European countries. Mr Tiber, I have done and will be posting Dutch VOC flags shortly along with British East India Co. ones. We will have to think of something for you. I also have a request from Tiny Pies for specific pirate flags so I'm backed up with orders.

Yep, natural tones would be best. In fact if you can pick up some material called 'Calico' it would be great though it might be a bit thick. Even Lego themselves wanted to go with the natural canvass look when one considers The Sea Lion.... known to most as the Imperial Flag Ship.

I want to say this game looks really cool... I really want to say this is great because I'm a fan of strategy games, the Total War series and ofcourse anything involving European colonialism. I really really want to say I want a copy now... So why am I not saying it's cool to have yet another game that's up our collective street? Because it's yet something else I'll have to bloody well budget for! |-/