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Well, just got my Bounty and annoyingly enough, LDD was right, you can't place the cannons onto the jumper stud without turning the 1x2 cheese slope around. Ironically if you turn it around the flag has something to stop against and doesn't fold into the cannon port :p Chris

Several ideas, the antennas previously mentioned bars/spears and vertical clips apollo studs and bars windows with certain inserts http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=30045 for example How do you want it to end up?

The thing I like about the new Bounty is Lego tried to differentiate the stern from the bow of the ship hull even if it's a bit clunky looking, although this is because when they dropped separate stern and bows the bow looked and worked fine but the stern was generally hard to blend into the upper areas of the ship. The old Bounty has this badly blended stern in spades where the new one at least looks somewhat continuous (homogeneous?) from base to top at the stern. Even the stern of the mighty Imperial Flagship looks off as compared to any of the classic sterns :/ Chris

So true, just ordered that exact collection of sets from Lego tonight :) Chris

I am no expert by far, the xebec looked interesting so I looked them up. What I was mentioning is it seemed the trailing corner of the rearmost sail on the models and images in google reach towards the end of the extended stern. Chris

I must compliment you, I really like the idea of a musket on a clip better then a stud shooter for the rowboat that TLG uses. Chris

No need to be a Lord Business about it, I want to see how his ship turns out :) That and I like seeing how people tackle the stern with this newer universal bow/sterns... Not the easiest to make look smooth. I like the classic pirate styled ships as much as the overly ornate, realistic, and greebled stuff. I say let the creative juices flow! Chris

Looks awesome, although the rear sail looks a little small for the stern... or maybe it's more ornamental then functional :) Chris

"How much for this 2x4 brick in this wild color?" "Thirty Seven Dollars" "....AWESOME!" Chris

Well raising the cannon would depend on if you feel the prefab hulls are the whole hull or equivalent to just the part above water more or less. I tend to think they represent mostly just the area near to and above the surface seeing as there is no "keel" or otherwise defined bottom but different people have different ideas. Chris

That looks great and I don't think anyone will mourn a couple of standard red 3023 1x2 plates or even miss them :) Chris

the space needle cut is a piece of flex tube that is considered "cut-able" and not one of the illegal connections. If it was a rigid rod then yes it would be bad. :) Chris

You should check the parts in the pirate ship ambush set, it is a very very flat build with not a whole lot to build up the hull sides or rigging. For a couple bucks a piece you may want to just bricklink the hull pieces. Chris

The light gray/blue/black trio has been rehashed countless times through the years that G1 example is only the first of the line. Seemingly every time a new transformers toyline came out with one of the seekers it was almost a given that the other two would be out soon enough and when they didn't materialize they would be recreated by repainting by fans. Rarely they will redeco the trio in another color but due to "nostalgia" it was always more of a exception then the norm. http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Thundercracker_%28G1%29/toys But back to the real discussion ;) Chris

I would imagine it is designed to have the scenes in front of the players instead of to each side, although changing the layout with LEGO is a fairly simple thing... :) In fact on the back of the box it shows the playing field lifts in quarters I bet you can sit it down in the official orientation or the LEGO orientation fairly easily. I would not consider the deviation shown as that big of a deal. Chris

To be fair, the Jie Star printing is really good even if the art it's printing onto the surfaces is somewhat lacking, the sails are cut and printed perfectly but still look like crap even given the quality :). Add to that the fact the minifig printing they have done does not appear to be taken from LEGO where as the Enlighten sets are direct copies of the classic LEGO ones does give them a point in their favor. The clutch as well as the minifigs in the Jie Star set are tighter as well. If they had not gone with the antenna for spars route and done something more substantial there (and gave shrouds that fit) it would have been higher then horrible. As it is for a small hull clone brand ship it's way way to expensive. (And you had to assemble the bow and stern.. with tight tolerances that was a nightmare!) As for the minifigs in the Kazi set.. on a 1 to 10 scale they get a 0.5 The only things I could imagine salvaging from them is 2 heads and their hats. :/ .... but at least Kazi tried to print their 2x2 map tile... Jie Star left it blank... and left the whole back wall off the cabin... so the captain can be shot while trying to read his blank map... ...did I mention the Jie Star has the ships wheel offset to one side? :p Chris

The scary thing is, to do the 87010 in LEGO would require 2 upper and 2 lower black large bow pieces and 4 black large hull centers, those 8 pieces combined are approximately over $150 on Bricklink lol. You might want to buy the Kazi just for the hull pieces to use in a LEGO build heh. Although the clone hulls are fairly easy to tell the difference so far as the clones tend to have a matte texture and the LEGO hulls a semi gloss surface, Chris

I'm planning on getting a few more clone brand sets that I have found to be "interesting looking but lacking any real information" Undeniably most sets are going to be subpar as compared to LEGO. But without information people will keep buying them out of curiosity. And seeing as most sets are rather afordable I figured I could be the monkey that could provide the community with some of the information. I have already posted a couple of instruction scans and LDD mockups of brands in some threads dedicated to those brands. However lacking threads about further brands I figured I should make a dedicated thread about clone brand instruction scans I am making. I don't really want to write any reviews that give any praise to these brands so this will likely just be the scans and LDD files, I may write a bit about any negative aspects of the sets I may find. I highly recommend if you like any of these sets you try to build them out of actual LEGO bricks instead of buying the clones but in the end it is up to you. I will keep editing this post when I get more scans for you. NOTE: LDD files will use transparent red to indicate parts that are not available in LDD not including parts that may actually be transparent red like those used in lamps etc. I am providing these freely just so people can read them if they want. Enlighten 305 Royal warship (modified Armada Flagship clone, built in an earlier LEGO style then the real one) (PDF Manual) https://www.dropbox.com/s/fevj66gt7vctvxn/Enlighten%20305%20Royal%20Warship.pdf?dl=0 (LXF) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/enlighten/enlighten%20305.lxf 307 Adventure (based on but not a direct clone of the Barracuda, nice small hull design with 2 centers) (PDF Manual) https://www.dropbox.com/s/cibogklbuq1xumq/Enlighten%20307%20Adventure.pdf?dl=0 (LXF) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/enlighten/enlighten%20307.lxf 308 Black Pearl (modified Barracuda clone, pointless if you have a real Barracuda) (PDF Manual) https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lxgdcdbu1s3p1i/Enlighten%20308%20Black%20Pearl.pdf?dl=0 (LXF) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/enlighten/Enlighten%20308.lxf Jie Star 30009 Black Pearl (really nasty rigging but decent bricks and minifigs, small hull design with 2 centers) (PDF) https://www.dropbox.com/s/f7pigifa66fqmpu/Jie%20Star%2030009%20Black%20Pearl.pdf?dl=0 (LXF) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/JieStar/30009%20jie%20star%20black%20pearl.lxf Kazi 87010 Black Pearl (low quality throughout only decent as a display piece overuse of the modular building style) (PDF) https://www.dropbox.com/s/nwz0se19uk7ru14/kazi%2087010%20Black%20Pearl.pdf?dl=0 (LDD) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/Kazi%20Black%20pearl.lxf If there is anything someone wants to see I could try acquiring them and getting scans although right now I am focusing on the various different Pirate ships available, next month will likely be the Woma/Brictek large pirate ship... And before you ask, yes I am apparently a glutton for punishment lol. Chris

Those flaws can be fixed easily for a display piece, and I have fixed the masts myself. Although I fixed them without any glue using a small supply of LEGO pieces and axles. The deeper issues are not so easy to fix and would need a fair redesign. For instance access to the cabin. I have mine sitting in the living room in display mode on a shelf One of the clone brands I am eager to get a hold of is the Woma/Bricktek "large pirate ship" and will likely get it next month. But it's amazing how quickly eagerness turns into buyers remorse though, I just received the Jie Star 30009... The bricks are fairly high quality with even greater clutch then Enlighten but the design is.. boggling. Hull is nice and solid with hinged decks for access, then the cabin has no back wall and massive stacks of wedge plates in the walls... finishing up with the worse rigging I have ever seen, I was hoping for a large hull ship at this price but it turned out to be a two section small hull. Plenty of reddish brown though :p Chris

Exactly, I am surprised no one else has scanned any of the manuals, so I guess I will keep being the guinea pig to get the info out :) There is little point in building the 308 in LEGO, but the other two built in LEGO would flesh out a fleet nicely. I do like that the 307 could pass as a merchant guild ship as is due to no Jolly Rogers anywhere too bad the gold sails are printed off center lol Chris

I apologize about bumping the topic, but I do have more information to add and I don't see any reason to make another post for this, keeping the clone stuff in one thread is probably better. I bought these because I was 'curious' and there was no information available... so here is information. I have scanned the instruction manuals for three of the Enlighten ships so far and wish to make them available as well as modeled them in LDD (Yeah yeah once again I know sacrilege) to make them easy to examine. I won't actually review them due to not wanting to praise any clone brands but I will say, for a product of this quality not marking any of your parts with your manufacturers mark is curious. Even the substantially worse Kazi bricks are all clearly marked "Kazi". I will also say... I really really like the 307 "Adventure" they took the basic design of the Barracuda and shrunk it down to fit on a hull that is basically the same size as the classic pirate small hull ships. It is really well proportioned for a classic pirate style ship and more a derivative design then a clone of the Barracuda in the LXF file trans red= the parts are different from the LEGO parts or non existent in LDD. The Enlighten small bow and stern are derived from the LEGO large bow and stern and not from the LEGO small parts. The mast tops are all rotated 90 degrees from what the LEGO ones are. 305 Royal warship (modified Armada Flagship clone) (PDF Manual) https://www.dropbox.com/s/fevj66gt7vctvxn/Enlighten%20305%20Royal%20Warship.pdf?dl=0 (LXF) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/enlighten/enlighten%20305.lxf 307 Adventure (PDF Manual) https://www.dropbox.com/s/cibogklbuq1xumq/Enlighten%20307%20Adventure.pdf?dl=0 (LXF) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/enlighten/enlighten%20307.lxf 308 Black Pearl (modified Barracuda clone) (PDF Manual) https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lxgdcdbu1s3p1i/Enlighten%20308%20Black%20Pearl.pdf?dl=0 (LXF) http://home.earthlink.net/~parrot23/images/buildingbricks/enlighten/Enlighten%20308.lxf Chris

Edit: I bought these kits because I was 'curious' and there was very little hard information about the kits... more are on the way heh. I also got this kit late January for $67 shipped from Aliexpress... It looks ok on a shelf but it really has a horrible design with very low play-ability. Kazi went overboard with the modular build idea to the point some modules are hard to seat onto the correct studs due to the heavy clutch of some of the black pieces. This is most prevalent in trying to attach the stern cabin to the hull. The pieces themselves are varying quality the black pieces being the best the gray lower and the clear parts totally rubbish. The clear parts all stress cracked around the bottom putting them together, and most of the round gray parts show stress marks at the bottom. I only had one black Technic-style pin break on the second build. Oddly the worst pieces were not the clear parts... they were the 1x2 grill mod bricks (clone of LEGO part 2877) they were made from the gray and have almost no clutch and were somewhat distorted. The masts are absolutely horrible and really need a Technic axle run through them from top to bottom, they collapse all the time... It doesn't help that the shrouds are not long enough to clip securely into the clips on the hull or the fact those clips have nothing reinforcing the top of the clip so they pop off with extreme regularity. I guess the collapsing masts could be considered a play feature? :p Talking about play features. Eh... you have limited access to the cannons on the cannon deck that sit far to low to fit through the cannon ports without dangling... the cannon ports are all placed about one brick higher then any of the LEGO ships but the cannon carriage sits on the bottom of the hull leaving the port at least half a brick too high for any of the cannons. There is nothing under the cabin or in the bow like the LEGO Imperial Flagship even though the cabin appears like it was designed to be removable with all the tiles under it. Then there is the cabin without any way to access the interior without something like forceps... Which I guess is ok as the included printed map tile looks like a nondescript black blob, some form of removable roof on the cabin still would have been nice though. They have some (anachronistic) Winchester rifles mounted on the bow railing... about 10 feet in the air which you can easily see is far out of reach for a Minifig in the LXF file. And as for anachronistic... the great swords and crossbows also look rather out of place with the Winchester rifles... The Minifigs are near complete rubbish although I was able to get hands in all of the arms, if you get one just try hand after hand, some should fit as the hands and arms seem to be all over the maps in regards to size. Three of the minifig heads are pretty nice three of them look like the face is printed too small. The hats are all nice though... As are the cutlass as they appear to be a slightly metallic dark gray plastic. The telescope are one area that did not work in the instructions however. In one step you take a plume a 3L bar and a telescope and are supposed to assemble a cannon fuse lighter, you can not assemble it as instructed because the telescope does not have a hole for the plume in the end indicated in the instructions, you can however assemble it if you flip the telescope over. Overall I think the only thing this kit does well is sit on a shelf and look intimidating, it would likely survive any encounter with any other pirate ship due to its full 2 stud thick hull... although it would lose it's masts when the other crew sneezed at it. That and it would not be able to do much damage to the other ships do to only one exposed cannon on the stern actually being able to aim anywhere but straight up in the sky due to raised cannon ports. At the bare minimum if you were to buy it I would recommend reinforcing the lower shroud stays and adding Technic axles through the mast... along with swapping out the clips on the back where the rudder mounts. Would I buy it again knowing what I know now? No, not unless it was even cheaper then I got it for. Although depending on how much black LEGO hull pieces raise to it might be a way of getting some for a moc. P.S. I know it's sacrilege to model clone brands in LDD.. bit it gives you a way to see how bad it is easily? :) PDF Manual and LXF Model, trans red = parts that are not available from LEGO (PDF) https://www.dropbox.... Pearl.pdf?dl=0 (LDD) http://home.earthlin...Black pearl.lxf (basic mods needed on the ship to keep it from collapsing.. green and blue indicating new parts) http://home.earthlin...k pearl mod.lxf Chris

Awesome... but... I still think I am going to wait for double vip points mid-next month :) Chris

Wouldn't that pretty much invalidate the whole "classic" part of the name? ;) Chris

Not so much a horror story as a WTF story, but a week ago I purchased a Metalbeard's Sea Cow set off of ebay. The seller apparently had a few listed and at least one of the past sales appeared to have been received and feedback left so I bought one with a 'best offer' of $225 shipped. A day or so later he had sold out and then another auction showed up with even more, I started getting the hint there was some funny business going on at that point but decided to give the seller the benefit of the doubt. About 4 days after the auction closed a valid tracking number showed up and said the item would arrive the following Monday so I waited... And on that Monday the auction was deleted from ebay along with all of the other ones the seller had sold or was selling.... and the Sea Cow arrived.... from Walmart with a paid invoice of $266.92?!? The oddest thing is under ordered by there is nothing but 0. Like WTF? Chris