Mazin

HERE ARE MY FINAL THOUGHTS AND REASONS WHY I'VE DECIDED TO RANK THIS SET AS THE 4TH PLACE IN MINI SET BUILDING CATEGORY sddsfgh I've decided to nominate it because it's one so briliantly obvious set no one have ever thought about. A mini supply pack containing nothing but treasure! How cool is that? How is it that no one has ever come up with this simple, but magnificent idea. After all, what are Pirates after all, and what are they mostly associated right after their looks and their ships? Tresure! Diamons, coins, golden argifacts, chests overflowed with all this shiny stuff and even more hidden in caves or available for those eager to complete a marathon of traps. And i honestly must admit, as much as i loved classic Pirates i always had this feeling that there could be a few more coins provided, that all those chests didn't make much sense since they were almost empty, and every little coin lost during plays was a good reason for mourning. Now this is the set that can fix it. As it provided not only great amound of valueables that can be used for all sorts of scenarios, but it gives bragging rights for those who will claim it! After all, gold and diamons always were and will be wanted, whether they are part of the real world, or movies, or cartoons, or comics, or games, or toys... Still, there was some confusion whether this set should be allowed into the Contests as there's no build in here, it's just a bunch of sellected stuff that could be thrown into a package together. And that's why it lands only on the 4th place in my own selection.

HERE ARE MY FINAL THOUGHTS AND REASONS WHY I'VE DECIDED TO RANK THIS SET AS THE 3RD PLACE IN THE MINI SET BUILDING CATEGORY dfgfdg I voted for this craft simply because it's a completely unique and lovebable craft and that's what i was looking for in this Contest, that our talented builders will take inpsiration from examples provided by Mister Phes or will dive into the world of other classic themes to look for inspirations, as even Castle sets provided some interesting boats. And Carribean should be populated with plenty types of sea charriots, whatever their purpose would be. Now someone could argue that why would even need this kind of canoe, since we already have a canoe for the Islanders, even tho to me it's more like a dugout, thus, making it a unique thing in the franchise. And it's the fact that it's a new construct that counts, that with few bricks not resembling anything we could build a new sailing craft, that is visually appealing, and would provide lots of fun everyone's Lego Pirates collection. Not to mention that obtaining King Kahuka himself is always a good selling factor, even tho we would probably get tired after a while, as you can't fish forever. And that's why it's ranked 3rd in my votes. As it's more of a great cheap bonus pack, that could go be grabbed with few others miniboxes, rather than a set of it's own. Tho, with that turtle and that shell, and all those fish, who knows? Maybe they would provide great story anyway. Most importantly, collectors would have to get it, even only to aquire that new amazing boat. And i think there's still potential to make it better, as it could become a model example to build new similar boat based on this design, like extended versions.

HERE ARE MY FINAL THOUGHTS AND REASONS WHY I'VE DECIDED TO RANK THIS SET AT THE 2ND PLACE IN THE MINI SET BUILDING CATEGORY As with all other sets i've nominated my goald was to pick those sets that could provide a great playability, even without any others sets around, and that would enchance the Lego experience when combined, not to mention looking legit enough to pass as the legit Lego set. And this one got it all, it may not be anything new, the raft itself is sorta weird and how many times have we seen the shark-pirate-raft lineup, right? But still, should Lego Pirates return this dish a classic and seems almost as obligatory set to be reintroduced with every new year. And it's just great, it's simple, it's cheap, but how appealing, and i i think it would guarantee lots of fun to it's kid owners. You can play with the new intruiguing pirate, battling with the shark, protecting his craft with a rudder, or throwing contents of that case at it. He could also eaily use his raft as a mini hideout , thatn to does barrels and palm leaves, that he could turn into a mini roof or a simple umbrella, to protect him from either the sun or rain. And lastly, there's a parrot, a pink one, and i think that what could actually draw fans into buying it. Cause being pink this parrot is a unique character or item within the franchise, and collectors would definitely have to get it, not to mention that i could be an awesome sidekick. Besides, the build is somewhat new, i know it's called a remake, but it's different enough to be an original, thus it's a great unique design within the line.

HERE ARE MY FINAL THOUGHTS AND REASONS WHY I'VE DECIDED TO RANK THIS SET AS THE 1ST PLACE IN THE MINI SET BUILDING CATEGORY With Mini Sets i was looking for something that would not only fit with the classic universe, but that would visually eye catchy and could provide a great playvalue even withing the single set. Now Fortune Idol my not have many of accesoriesa or figures or weapons, but it's still something damn fun! I mean, who wouldn't want to play with this goofy looking statue during their childhood? I feel that everyone would be obsessed with it to the point where it would break it. Simple mechanical feature in such a small set, but how awesome. And a mechincal feature is just one factor, but the other, and perhaps even more decisive one is that this statue could be a great character itself. I mean, i can feel that it got some legs under it, that it's got it's own soul, that it can convince members of every faction to do all sorts of things, that it can trick everyone that will look into it's eyes. It can be everything, it can be funny, it can be deceiving, it can be demonic. Look at those horns, that nose, that plume... Briliant. And thus, i'd like to nominate it for the 1st place in it's categy, even tho it's an Islander set and i always thought about them as of a subtheme to other "real" factions of the Lego Pirates world. Still, it's just the best, and it's unique.

HERE ARE MY FINAL THOUGHTS AND REASONS WHY I'VE DECIDED TO RANK THIS SET AT THE 1ST PLACE IN THE MAIN BUILDING CATEGORY I'e decided to give my own gold to Le Scorpion for one simple reason - Pirates and their opponents were and are associated mostly with SHIPS, Treasures, and Lonely Islands, as it's all about those galleons, frigates and seabattles, cannons exchanging fires and bordages, that we look in pirate adventures, whether they are movies, comic books, games, cartoons, toys. Everything else is just a bonus. Baracuda and Carribean Clipper were THE SETS of the classic Lego, way ahead of Eldorado and other hideouts, and pretty much the same goes with all other associated franchises - POTC, Crimson Pirate, Cutthroat Island, Polanski's Pirates, Pirates of Dark Water, Water World etc. Story can have all sorts of different scenarios, but it's the ship or two ships battling each other that we all look for in those intelectual properties. And Le Scorpion is the closest thing we've got. I emphasize "closest" cause i'd point to the fact that we din't reach anything that could be as good as the original Baracuda or the original Carribean Clipper. Furthermore, if i'd have to guess which ship among entries would get the biggest chance to be greenlighter and become a bestseller i'd go with the Imperial Flagship Remake, but that build was just too similar to the classic version, not to mention that it was always kinda a dull copy of the Clipper to me. The problem is that most of the vessels provided in entries were either Mocs, or oversized, overbuild, overshiny, overarmed, or chose a color pallete that couldn't go well with the classics. They were all impressive builds, but not something i'd like to green light as an official set. A golden ship by a kid could be greenlighted, cause that's some original idea, but it would still need a lot of work... Le Scorpion on the other hand fits very well with the franchise, got the proper look, got the soul, and brings novelty into the series, as there's been plenty types of crafts sailing on the Carribean back then, and this one decided to use it, instead of mimmicking other famous ships of the line. It doesn't have a great number of cannons, it's not big, but it still can provide a lot of fun, it's unique in colors and brings new type of crewmen, all that fit well wiht the franchise and are very appealing. And i'd add it, it still probably wouldnt become the fan favourite, should it be released with the line of legit sets, as it's still only the galley, and i feel we could get more attractive ships or more playable types. Still, the fact that this is the baby that would not only look great as a display piece, the fact that it is a ship and that this is a set i could constantly return into, that it's simplicity and universalizm could help use in all sort of scenarios, makes it number 1 for me.

Nice to see that it succesfully made it into the Index and was saved from obscurity... but i still didn't get the answer to whether the sawfish is included with the set, or is it just a bonus for presentation. And this beast could be missleading to voters. I'm also unsure if it's not exceeding the said number of pieces, with or without a shark.

O kurcze :o Where will those exhibitions take place if i may ask? Maybe i'll manage to attend if it won't be far ;)

thanx for responding and i'm happy that You liked my thoughts, and i perfectly understand Your choices :) I hope You'll succeed in Your quest to make all those additional sets, and that You will share them with us :) and Your nephew got one great uncle :) i always wished for them to give Lego as presents for my own nephews... but i still didn't get any so... i guess i'm saving money and bricks for myself ;)

@Yperio_Bricks@Yoggington thanx guys :)

Hay @Yoggington how did You do this "reveal hidden content" thing? I was planning to add my comments differently, but i think Your idea is brilliant, as it allows to throw in a lot of final thoughts into the post, while hiding it at the same time, to make voting choices stand out for clarity.

Just spread the word that there's free rum for all those joining... we'll explain later that it simply rum-out too fast ;)

Thanx for updating the Index @Mister Phes! It's both very clear and not too excessively categorized now :)

Cool, thank You :)

I didn't want to write in the voting thread, so i'll use this one if i may... @Jack Sassy i think You gave one vote too many in the Main Category ;) There's 6 instead of 5... @Mister Phes One question. Does every vote count the same, and so positions 1-5 in everyone's post gain the same amount of points, irrelevant of what position are they on? Or does it indeed matter if they are classified on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd... etc place?

That's it! Awesome, thank You! :)

Bustard must be realy fast, since our radar didn't catch him! ;)

Thanx, i'll check it out later :) Not to make much of an offtopic in this thread and keep it short, it will be a series about polish corsairs, mainly fighting Swedes in the 17 century in the Baltic, but they will also visit other areas and one of the instalment revolves around Your country actually. You can check some of my pages if You want, i haven't realy updated them in a while, as i try to focus on writing, well, sometimes drawing too, and all those other activities take away a lot of time and attention ;) https://www.facebook.com/KorsarzRzeczpospolitej/ https://korsarzrzeczpospolitej.blogspot.com/

Wow, that's a lot of work! Well, i'm sorta building my own ships too at the time, tho not with bricks, but by words, as i'm trying to finish my history-adventure series, so that maybe they will be ready for Christmas, maybe earilier, hoped for the summer slot and summer is already over, so now i'm realy curious which of us will be done first by that December ;) And 400+ pages sound just like the size of my book ;)

Thanx for reading my thoughts and for responding, glad You liked my insight, can't wait to see what new projects ( and updates ) will arrive from You :)

You're very welcome :) As for colors and Your reflections of knights, well Knights were an entirely different theme, with different rules and different color paulette, they started with grey and black walls and so it was normal to go with them, and they were historically acurate too, BUT, with all that grey and black they also used a lot of colorful elements to balcance it, like flags, colorful outfits for knights, plumes and of course caparisons for horses! And horses themselves brought some color too, often being brown or white, with colorful saddles and colorful pennant's on their riders' lances :) Amd Castle is somewhat associated with dark times, dark ages, after all that's medieval! It was supposed to be grey and deppressing and wet ;) And Pirates started with colorful Eldorado and Baracuda on the other hand. Those were completely different, carribean vibes, sun, vacation, tropics, beaches, palmtress. Even if the Rock Island Refuge seems somewhat out of place, cause it;s dark and depressing, tho it's got a bit of green and brown shades too. I like Your bastion as an idea, but it would be suited better for the neverrealeased Europa theme, with Ancient Regime/Revolutionary France tones, as this structure seems like if some new governor arrived to the colonies and didn't care about local tones at all, creating his version of Bastille instead ;) Now to think of it, i guess the simplest way to make it work better would to b be to balance that grey-black scheme of fortification with colorful uniforms of the garrison. Like we had ideas for orange and purple outfits for soldiers, so i guess that's also something that could be done in the future. Blue uniforms simply blend with the structure a bit ;) But it doesn't change the fact that i realy like this work a lot :)

Yeap, i second that. And it's kinda "if you've seen one of them, you've seen them all" problem. Someone who will stumble upon one set and will dislike it might authomaticaly ignore the "twin" thinking that it's the same. Same with those two soldiers' towers that were built for display as they miss real interior work, they seem identical on the list, but are entirely different after a deeper look into them.

Ooo... :o we're learning something new in here then :) Bad for him tho :(

I thought about that, and almost wrote that, but then i've realized that grouping them by ships etc, might provoke folks to use those groups as a sorta categories and they might feel urged to spread their votes for "best ship", "best island", "best raft", etc and i'm not sure if we want that, i'm more into giving votes regardless of the type, but that's me, i have my own voting ethic... And if all ships are grouped together then i guess some ship maniacs might just pick all their votes only from that sailing bunch, ignoring entries from other types. In other words, i believe that mixing types would force people to scroll down through the whole list and they be forced to note that there are other types of sets, and they might spot some cool stuff this way... even tho the list wouldn't be as clear as if everything was grouped.

Thanx. I've made a note on an idea that could perhaps help with the voting process in the thread about voting rules...

I wonder, do You think it would be possible and wise to perhaps group similar entries together in the Index? Like, we have a couple of real visual "twins" in here, a pair of Rock Island Refuge remakes being one of the examples, not just because they are remakes of the same set, but they are strickingly similar, and i myself constantly mix them together, as I forget that these are two different builds and not two photos of the same entry ;) And with one of them being on top of the Index, while the second one might be placed somewhere in the middle, it might give an unplanned advantage, a pole pisition, to the the first one.