Mazin

Very cool review. I actually like this set even more now, after Your presentation. it does look much cooler than on the box... which is unual ;) My only suggestion is too keep the music down a bit, it was too loud at the beginning of the video and created conflict with Your narration, tho later it seemed ok. Love that idea with moving a minifig on the stick btw, and wouldn't mind if You'd do a tutorial for it :) Unless it's already there among Your clips, will go trough them and check. Anyway, hope to see more of Your stuff. Oh, and i have to dissagree on one thing with You - pink and yellow are ok for me ;) Perhaps that boat would fit better in Paradisa or some other moderns themes that would profit from pastels and 80s vibes, it's might seem a bit of place for some, but the table itself was ok, as it corresponded nicely with black bricks :)

wow, those are realy nice :) and honestly, at first, seeing the first pic, i thought You've simply uploaded more of Your AI generated images, christmas-themed, but it seems they are all classic builds :)

I guess new colors would depend on what kind of factions Lego would be willing to create with them and what kind of stories to tell. I went with yellow as it's does look great and original on some old pictures, as You've shown, and it was also the third color of Soldiers from Crimson Pirate, which i believe had some serios impact on our beloved Pirate franchise. With black it's always kinda associated with darker, schwarz-characters, bad guys or some brutal good guys, elite guard, mercenaries, etc, boys that do their job well, but don't nececarily care who's innocent and who's the enemy. So here i would mix those two ideas, to create a new soldier/pirate faction, like what if Empire would decide to recruit some former pirates into their own ranks, supply and get them into those black uniforms, so that they would get rid of all the sea dogs... only to discover that in reality they want to whipeout all the competition to rule the Carribean by themselves. With shakos... i guess unprinted could be simply used for privates and printes one for officers/sergeants/corporals... and that's because i like and own both versions, so i'd prefer to keep them in the universe ;) With types of print on uniforms, i voted for classic 80s/90s design, but honestly, even tho i'm very sentimental, 2009 is the one i would pick if i would be running Lego. Classic one seems little outdated when combined to all the changes that we've witnessed in the business and 2009 is a good mix of classic feeling and new printing possibilities. 2015 and 2023 try to be too many things in my oppinion. Anyway, i'm glad that my proposition to do a poll with colors got picked and sparked such an interesing discussion :)

Lego was much simpler back then and not so obsessed with details, and so it was common to force kids to simply use their imagination to "magicaly" move their figures from one corner of the set to another, thus, stairs and ladders were often deemed unecessary ;)

He's a Governor! That's how. He just made a proper good use of his powers and AI had nothing to say, but obey ;) Woah! Dear AI, I totally want this for a Lego Pirate Haloween movie!! Preferably even this year since it's halloween tim... oh wait... oh no... this window had closed already. Christmas forces came to town. Guess we will have to wait till the next year :( And speaking of AI inspiring custom made sets... this native guy needs a custom figure now! And it's only the first in the whole wave of wallpapers. We're excpecting delivery every new week... Oh wait, it's christmas season, advent calendars are obligatory! So better make it one per day. Two are already done. 22 to go ;)

As much as i'm not a fan of HP or it's Lego incarnation i'd totally love to get this just for that magical vibe on the box packaging ;)

I realy like those scubadivers (orwhaever/whatever they are) :) Are they Your original creation? Could You throw in some closeup of them?

I'm totally comandeering this idea! ;)

Woa! These two are great! i didn't even notice they were AI generated at first

Thanx! You most welcome :) Barbary pirates could serve as a nice link to other historical themes, if the pirate world would be expanded to more areas of that period, and if they would opt to go that way they wouldn't nececarily even need to jump directly into arabian fashion as there were many christian renegades among those "muslim" cutthroats, with their very own infamous republic of Sale on the northern african coast... So i guess throwing some "european" dressed pirates into that new territory would be a way to play it somewhat safe, for starters, to try the new ground, and possibly exand it into more factions and more orient in the theme.

Depends if You want to go toyetic, kid-friendly way, as in the past, or explore darker sides of piracy, cause there's obviously a lot of potential in smuggling, slave trade, fake lighthouses etc, all those fields that pirates were heavily involved with, but all of which play against the romantic image of pirates as "the good guys". Tho, even in the very first pirates lego comics, it's said clearly that there were "good" and "bad" pirates, and i think it's an obvious route Lego should go, in reinventing the franchise and expandind it. Especially that "bad" vs "good" pirates was always a popular motif in hollywood movies, so i guess this says a lot about what was left out during the creation of lego sets. Also, except from some POTC sets, lego pirates didn't realy try to expolore land, everything was and is connected to the sea, while historically pirates ventured into land operations quite a lot. So there's also some potential. But to keep ideas within the range of classic lego sets and name things that weren't done yet... I think that concealed vessels should be done among first. Pirates almost never acted in a traditional navy way, launching an open attack, they were much more cunning, relaying on deceiving their pray and showing their true face at the last moment. So i guess any ship that could pretend to be a merchant vessel, or a fishing/whalers boat would be a big thing, as it would alow a double play, one as a small pirate vessel, when transformed, the other as a civilian unit. I'm surprised they didn't create a whole line of them actually. Other than that, i always wanted to see a small secret pirate dockyard or careening place perhaps, where a set would allow a lot of playing possibilities, from "constructing" and repairing a small vessel, to launching it, and just using it as a fully operational unit. Just like in other lego franchises, where they had some repair shops for cars, carts, bikes etc Castle had some own small sets like that as well. And so there could a whole line of them withing pirate theme - shops offering steering wheels, weapons, cannons, hats and other clothing accesories, all those places that pirates and sailors would have to go to to quip themselves for new adventures... perhaps with other "unofficial dealings" taking place in the back of such businesses ;) Speaking of a secret rooms, since taverns had been mentioned by others, i always wanted to see something like they did in "Crimson Pirate", with a tavern being a tavern, but, with an extra secret hiding/dealing place, entered trough fake wine barells. But anyway, i'd bomb You with more ideas before or during our last Contest, but i'm kinda burned out since it's end ;)

Black Seas Baracuda is best by few lenghts, it's not just the best ship in the pirate franchise, but an icon of the whole Lego franchise, and one of the most iconic and influential pirate era ships ever.

3 millions, mind You those numbers are in millions

I wanted to mention this earlier, but honestly, during the Contest i didn't even know whether some entries were digital or built. The sole idea for a set and delivery were far more important to me. It's like with drawing and painting realy, these days a lot of people constantly differentiate between digital and "real" drawings, and i don't get that. I don't care if it's done with a pen and paper or if it's done by computers, if it's done with left hand or right hand, if it's done with teeths or feet, it's final "product" that counts. And same goes here... Plus a lot of those digital dudes ( and dudettes ) actually wanted or tried to handbuild those sets later on. Obviously digital builders had an advantage of using unlimited pieces ( or did they? ) and could pull all sorts of magic with photo composition and lighting, packaging etc, but it still not so easy to construct anything with those programs, it requires tremendous amount of skill and time to do what they did, so i'm not very eager to separate them from real-bricks-builders. It's all like looking for differences in the community to me, rather than being happy of all the new possibilities that we have thanxs to those renders. And i remember that a lot of those digital ideas actually even failed to be constructed according to builders' original intentions, because of some limitations, as we've seen it even in one of the winning imperial sets, where both sail and mast in a pirate boat had to be so thick because the Builder couldn't do them differently in his/her software. Same goes for the hungarian guy who did an amazing amazing skull island, but had very uninteresting minifigures, because again, he had problems with doing them in his software. And it'sobvious in both those cases it did cost them losing some points in the ratings, even tho they were still quite popular... Besides, digital build or real, it's not really hands or software that gives anyone an advantage in those contents, it's the ability to create great final presentation - photography, box design, background design, catalog design, web comics etc... all those factors were important in collecting points for many of those entries as it was clear some entries were ignored because of their unattractive presentation, bad photography and lack of any staging, while other got popular because of all the fancy stuff they came with. So if we are realy separating real bricks from digital builds, then it's probably as important to talk about those other factors as well. But does it lead to anywhere?

Went for Eldorado and Black Docks... Eldorado, cause it's like brinding back magic of old sets ( even tho i kinda felt like the remaster was designed by a madman forcing me to take a role of the construction worker to finish the whole thing ) and black for docks, cause that's how i remember them from my childhood days. It's Lego, so toys don't have too be too precise and realistic, and i don't mind wooden elements being black not brown ;) Tho i guess it depends on a set and overall color palette used...

I love those leaves outside the window, simple details, but it incredibly enriches the final effect.

this madness is ruining a lot of other hobbies right now tho, it's not just that scalpers do that to toys, but same for most products i'm interested in, it applies even history books and all other sorts of products no one would consider to be objects of speculation, and this was never the case before... tho i don't even think it's speculation anymore, if someone puts up a new product for double the regular prize or more, especialy that some of these are easily available with large discounts, then they are either targeting some casual buyers, who don't know the prizes and so they might just grab it without knowing there are being scammed, or it's moneylaundering oh yeah, they look usable :) well, the only i would have doubts is the old guy, cause his pink neck would clash with yellowfigures ;) I got mine from the fight with a Cave Troll set, in that dwarf mine that got run over

i'll check it out :) i definitely did use LOTR figs for army building too, they were sorta backward because of their equipment of course, still turned up nicely... i don't think i'e used any "normal" skin elements tho, i don't like to mix them with traditional yellow-skins, but i'm not banning mixing both either ;) but they simply don't look well together on a single person

Bluecoats or Redcoats? :) Which ones are You refering too? or both perhaps? :) I've never played nor had any red ones when i was a kid, i dreamed about them when i swam in those catalogues, but i think my time of collecting legos was already over at the moment they were coming in. But i got myself first few reds when i turned 30, and i did that especially because of this Forum, as i needed some new "characters" for my lego comics during the legendary Redcoats vs Bluecoats contest ;) And me and my friends used to bring bags full of our toys to each other homes too!. With every kind of toys, not only Legos, but also Gijoes, He-Men, toy cars, depending on what was the fashion at a time, or which franchise did we want to play with, often mixing all... I miss those times too. Tho probably a lot of elements got lost this way, my parents even used to lend my Legos to neighbours' kids when they were sick and i wasn't home, cause hardly anyone could afford those bricks and for a while i was the "rich kid", and i'm pretty sure some stuff didn't return to me... Oh, You should try santas from minipacks :) i made few soldiers by using them couple of years ago, soldiers or militias, can't be sure, but i always had this urge to make irregular troopers, by making "uniformed" units from nonarmy figures, like whenever i had few bandanas, torsos and legs in a certain chosen color that would be my way to raise my forces in numbers ;)

So POTC does count :) still, i'm not sure about those civilians when it comes to official Lego sets from the regular line. Were any minifigs oficialy marked as civilians/merchants/some-sort-of-neutrals? Or are there any minifigs from that era widely considered as "neutrals" by the fandom? I mean, every fan probably had/has his/her own approach. I would constantly turn some soldiers into pirates, some pirates into soldiers, make new factions out of both, or mix them with other Lego series... still, this was me. But fandom tends to turn certain anonymous toys into almost quasi-oficial characters with full bio, so i wonder if that's the case with some of those neutraly looking figs... :)

Nice picture! Did You do it all by Yourself? Looks very atmospheric :) So who are those "other' BTW? Maybe it's because i'm sick, or maybe i've depleted all my Lego knowledge during the last Contest, but nothing comes to my mind. Or are You reffering to factions from POTC? Or maybe some minifigs count as merchants? ( like those in the Imperial Trading Post ) PS. Since You've mentioned Yellowcoats, and we've seen few attempts by fans to introduce other xxx-coats into the Lego Pirates world, maybe this could be a good idea for Your next poll? To ask folks what color would they prefer for new army factions, should they be green, or orange, or purple... etc.

Wow :o that's solves it then ;) I'm surprised that people were so reluctant tho, says a thing about our members ;) I was sure that since so many people use software to build from bricks they would like to play games too :/ Tho, 10 years is a lot, maybe something has changed since then. Still, turning down a chance to win anything is weird :/

Yeah, me included ;) I have some Lego games, but i've been unable to play them do to problems with equipment or lack of it ;) Still, it's always a way to give more prizes and one that could be taken under consideration. IF it would be gelally and technically doable of course...

I wanted to ask about this a bit earlier, but things turned differently in this thread and i kinda forgot my idea, but i was thinking that maybe, just maybe, there would be a way to raise the number of prizes by giving away keys to digital products? Lego games on Steam/Epic/GoG come to my mind as first. I admit, I have absolutely no idea if Lego group can even give them away, and some of those games might be actually more expensive than regular Lego sets, still, it seems that allowing access to digital products for more people might be somewhat easier for them than processing all the adresses-local shops-delivery related problems. I might be wrong on this, but by logic i think it would be just faster, easier and cheaper for Lego to award those games ( or other digital products ) for free to more people, rather than giving away even few physical products. And a digital game is still a prize many would opt for.

I don't know about others, but just wanted to say my Eldorado gift has arrived yesterday. So thank You again for honoring me this way, thanx for all the fun time and possibilities this even created for me and for all the kind words :) Already jumped into the constructing phase, took me quite some time to build the vessel from Imperial Trading Post, then took an even longer while to finish first part of the Fortress itself :) So yeah, hopefully i will be done with the whole thing before Christmas ;)