Zeya

Don't forget the Spongebob pirate ship! http://brickset.com/sets/3817-1/The-Flying-Dutchman It does seem like they've caught on that sailing ships sell well and are finding ways to slip them into random Lego themes where they can, now. That's encouraging, I suppose. I just want to see them as part of a proper pirate series. I guess we should keep an eye on "breaking news" to see if there are any sets from other themes that might potentially be a pseudo-pirate-ship...

Yes, sorry. It's "Crossbones". Yes, it's a prequel to Treasure Island. Incidentally, I started to watch a relatively recent miniseries of Treasure Island and it seemed pretty good. (Got interrupted partway through, need to start again...) Had Donald Sutherland in it. Here it is: http://www.imdb.com/...3/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Was on Netflix or Hulu maybe, iirc. Ahahaha! I... TO-TALLY UN-DER-STAND. Lol. My wife and I do that accent now. It's like he's channeling Christopher Walken or something. I had just finished Assassin's Creed 4 as well when I watched Black Sails. Such a good game. The ship battles and ship upgrades stayed quite entertaining for a long time.

Black Sails was also discussed in the off-topic area. I weighed in my opinion over there. I did watch the whole series, but I'm afraid only because I'm a pirate fan. I'm sorry to say it wasn't very good. It was very light on action, only maybe 2 or 3 episodes with battles. The rest of the time there's a lot of scheming, but I found the writing to be lacking. Some of the actors aren't so great either. On the plus side... pirates and beaches and sailing ships, so it can't be 100% terrible, right? Right now my wife and I are watching Crossbones (on NBC here in the US, which is one of the core TV channels like BBC is in the UK). Crossbones is really good! Both her and I enjoy this one, whereas she couldn't sit still for Black Sails (and I don't blame her). Crossbones stars John Malkovich, and he's really good; I find the cast to be better in this one and the plot is better too. Might be a while before Crossbones makes it out to other parts of the world (Europe etc), I'm afraid. The show is still airing.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions that it's the mailman's fault. He probably delivers packages all day, and I'll bet he's well aware of the ramifications of getting caught in the act. You mentioned a lockbox though. Does anyone else have access to the lockbox? At any rate, if I were you, I would start having packages delivered elsewhere. (I have mine delivered to work quite often.) Another option is to have them hold it somewhere for pickup, although I don't know if that's easy or a hassle. You could also consider opening up a P.O. box which should be more secure.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Fantastic movie. Wes Anderson is by far my favorite director, and he's really outdone himself here.

You would think that small pirate ships would show up more (granted we don't get pirates too often anyway...) I mean, city gets small vehicles all over the place. Same thing with Star Wars or any other theme really, it's all about vehicles. I actually would welcome smaller craft. I get a kick out of the raft sets and would love small vessels, especially if they have sails and/or rigging. The 2009 line had rowboats, one raft, and then the larger BBB ship. Here's my vote for small/medium vessels as well!

Oh man. I hate to be negative, but I don't like it at all. It's almost the exact same name as the last ship. :( Seems like a missed opportunity here.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of. That's for Windsor, Canada. But also here in California (Anaheim, right by Disneyland), I know I've seen advertisements about themed hotel rooms at that resort. They have Castle and Pirate themed rooms, and this is a relatively new thing (last year or so, I want to say... but then again time is flying by for me).

I was referring to the quote that Mister Phes dug up: #87 ... just pointing out that Pirates isn't the same status as City or Space, but it is still important and fans can expect to see it again one day.

That's great, I'm glad you liked it. I don't completely hate the show; I'm just being critical. I want to see it go another season. Just like pirate lego, I'm sort of "glad to get anything at all". :) I disagree about the dialogue, obviously. I found myself mostly bored with it. It's probably not quite fair to hold this series up against Game of Thrones, but that's an example of a series where I can certainly tolerate many scenes consisting almost entirely of dialogue. For Black Sails, I can't say the same. I somehow just wasn't invested in a lot of the characters. Some of this is the acting, too. I wasn't buying Vane and the main blonde lady's performance in particular. Other actors did a great job like Flint, the first mate, John Silver, even Jack Rackham (despite his awesome 80's rocker hair!). So partly the acting, partly the writing/plot. I think a lot of it comes down to the writers choosing to have the main plot revolve around the economics and hand-wringing about Nassau. That was the main plot: "keep the island for going to s**t so we can maintain our independence from the crown". I found the storyline with Flint and crew to be much more interesting. Also, the other story thread about Flint's lady was kept too ambiguous for too long, to the point where I just stopped caring or even understanding why I should care. (She reminds me of every plot thread in "Lost", except with less action or relevance.) I will say that a lot of viewers, myself included, felt ourselves mostly wanting to see the ship get out to sea, particularly in the middle stretch of the show (episodes 2-6 or so?). Some more action for the ship and crew would have been great. But they squished it all at the very end of the series with just a taste in the first episode. To the show's credit, I can tell that they had a limited budget. I'm sure filming a "on the water" scene gets expensive and probably requires a big film crew. That probably played into why there was such little time on the water. Cheaper to have scenes of people chatting in a room somewhere. Their Nassau set was pretty detailed though... hmm. I too loved the ship battles. I think they were well done. I haven't seen much action like that since Pirates of the Caribbean or Master and Commander. I guess this is what I found myself wanting to see more of. If they do a second season, I think they need to amp up the ship action. More piracy and less political squabbling, please!

Just to update, I have now seen the full season of Black Sails (Starz TV show). It's not that great of a show, I'm afraid. It's generally too light on action. There's some satisfying action in the first episode, and then about 3 of the last 4 episodes of the season. But in between, there's just a lot of mediocre writing and acting going on where people are sulking about a little island town and scheming and whatnot. I think the problem is mostly the writing; it just didn't draw me in and get me invested. They seem to be going for about 75% historically accurate, so I kind of get what they're trying to do with the plot. It's just not working, I'm afraid. Has anybody else watched Black Sails?

I don't think they did. I've quoted an official statement from TLG a couple of times before, but I can't go digging for it now. But the basic gist of what they said is that Pirates is not an evergreen theme like City is. They did say that Pirates would come back again one day and not to worry. I guess this (almost) is the day they were referring to. (Or maybe they were referring to POTC. The statement was made some time in 2009/2010 after the Pirates theme was going away.) But, I'm seeing this as a good sign that they might be coming around about pirates in general. I think TeufelHund nailed it in saying that they seem to find any excuse to have some kind of pirate / sailing ship set. :) It's just so appealing as a product. I'm just hoping there will be other sets to accompany the ship set. I'm so happy about this news, myself! Also, I might add that they seem to keep adding or expanding pirate-themed stuff at the Legoland parks. Here in California there's a Legoland, and one of the new things is a hotel with themed rooms. They have castle and pirate-themed rooms there (maybe other themes too). I think I read this week about an updated pirate section at a Legoland somewhere else (think it was in Windsor, Canada? Not sure.) Point being, there seems to be increased pirate chatter out of TLG in recent months. I think a full-blown theme is a likelihood.

Hey, is that a new logo? I've not seen it before. The logo for the 2009 wave was the word "Pirates" with crossbones behind it. This one is a narrow black flag with a sword under it. I'm so excited about this. Sounds like a pirate ship set is guaranteed at least. My money is on a full wave too. 25th anniversary! Gotta be. Hey TLG, I can't name a ship I can't see. ;) I'm going to need you to take that box away for me. Also, go ahead and show me the crew. That will help the naming process. :P

Oh, and looks like there's another pirate TV show coming this summer called Crossbones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbones_(TV_series)

My wife and I watched the first 2 episodes of Black Sails (third one set to air on Saturday). It's actually pretty good, with some decent production values. I'm liking most of the characters and the plot so far. I hope it does well and we can get multiple seasons out of it. I don't typically watch anything on Starz. I'm used to these types of shows popping up on HBO and Showtime; go figure. My wife is a little ho-hum on the show. But she only pays half attention. Her complaints (and I mostly agree) is that they do the sex scene thing a little to much, and there isn't quite enough action. I think by "Hollywood version", what you mean to say is that the character depiction isn't the super cheesy, cartoony pirate thing with the goofy accents and stuff. They aren't POTC pseudo-comedy characters or Captain Hook style. The dialogue and characters are more "normal" and reasonable. But I wouldn't say that the plots are very true to actual history. It's totally a fictional storyline. I would also echo the violence. You'll see blood and imagery like that. Also to note is a fair bit of nudity/sex scenes, at least one per episode it seems. I'd trade some of that for more swashbuckling or plot development. One last note: anyone notice how Rackham and Vance look like 1980s rockers? They could have done a better job with their costumes there, lol.

Hi Brickviller! I am a hobbyist photographer myself. I shoot with a DSLR, which is similar to your Coolpix P520, except that a DSLR has the key feature of swappable lenses. Anyway, looking at the Coolpix P520 product page, you should be able to take good photos of Lego creations. A difficult point may be "getting in close" for what are termed "macro shots", basically making a minifigure (for example) look like it's right up close to your face. But that camera will certainly do well for a wide variety of photography. You've got a good amount of zoom there, and I'm sure it can go pretty wide, too. Anyway, on to your question. I got a light box recently for Lego in particular. It works pretty well. The key to good photography (from a techincal standpoint) is exposure, and good lighting is key to that. The light box gives you a little setup to put lights around it and photograph small objects inside an evenly-lit environment. You will generally lose shadows, for better or worse. Your MOC will be lit evenly on all sides. It gives a nice "Amazon product page" sort of look. A good look to go for, generally speaking. But more importantly, I want to speak to your core question, which is along the lines of "why does this new awesome camera produce pictures that look the same as my old one?" The answer to that is that your old camera was probably fine, and your new camera is just fine too. If you're not doing something that pushes the boundaries of what your old camera could do, you're going to get about the same end result. The way to improve the pictures you're taking is to improve your skills as a photographer. What you should do is to read a book on photography to learn the fundamentals. You're going to want to learn about exposure and the exposure triangle. Learn about composition. With a bit of knowledge and an artistic eye your photography will go far. You'll learn about framing and composition, focus, and depth of field. You can learn to post-process digital photos to massage a really good photo into a stunning one. A newer, bigger camera is rarely the answer. Don't get me wrong, a lot of us fall into the trap of wanting (and buying) new gear, myself included. And also don't get me wrong: your new gift of a camera is wonderful. Maybe your old one was a point-and-shoot and this new one you can zoom much better with and have more "elbow room" to get creative with. Make sure you read your owner's manual. Learn about the various modes. For still shots like this, aperture priority (A) is a good place to start. If you want everything crisp, you can use a small aperture like f/32, or if you want a shallow depth of field, like to bring focus on a minifig in the front, you can use a large aperture like f/4. Manual mode (M) is ideal for still shots in particular, once you get comfortable with capturing a proper exposure. I'll critique your photo just a bit, and maybe that will help... First, the exposure. It's not too off, but it could be a bit brighter. (But maybe I'm a chronic over-exposer!) You've got a lot of dark bley and a fair bit of black in the MOC, and dark colors can be hard to expose properly, especially with matrix or area metering. You're also set against a dark gray background, which sort of blends in with all the dark colors. With a white sheet / board or better yet a light box, you could improve that and make the composition really pop. The other (easier) way is to add more light to the scene. Natural light is great. But you could also do with simply more light here. The underside of the moc isn't well lit, and it's hard to make out if there are treads down there or what's going on. A better lighting setup is recommended. You can close the window and use a lighting setup. Set up a couple of lamps (or more!) around the moc. One on each side of the camera will go a long way. You don't have to go out and drop a couple hundred bucks on new lighting if you aren't ready for that; you can start with grabbing a couple table lamps and pulling the shade off. Your image looks pretty crisp, maybe some blur. Were you hand-holding or using a tripod? With still life like Lego, a tripod is recommended. If you aren't ready for a tripod, just placing the camera on a solid surface and using a 5-second shutter delay will be okay in a pinch. If you aren't hand-holding (and since this is still life that won't move), make sure you are using the lowest ISO setting available, and don't be afraid to use a long shutter time. On the composition/artistic side of things, I think you've done a decent job of laying out the MOC. I might suggest putting the big flag behind the tank and off the right, because the shiny base is distracting me. You just want people to see the flag itself, not the base or pole really. If there was a way to lower the flag a bit that might be good. The end of the tank gun and the tip of the flag are very near the edge of the frame, and that bugs me a little. You could rotate the top of the tank toward the camera a bit to help. I also think that moving the camera lower (toward the floor) and angled up a bit would add more of a dramatic framing. From your angle, you're up above and that's making everything look small. Notice how Lego box art takes a lower angle like you're down there among the minifigures, etc? I'm honestly not trying to nit-pick. Your photo isn't bad! It's just the way I am with photography; always trying to improve. And by the way, your MOC is great!

The thing with legs is that they generally lack prints and there are a finite number of colors. I store legs, torsos, and heads all separately, generally sorted a certain way. The legs I stack together by color. Printed legs have their own stack. Torsos are the most painful to sort (odd shaped buggers); I've all but given up on sorting them, just keep them in the same bin with matching ones kind of stacked. Heads I try and sort by color and then by facial expression and beard status, lol. Female heads go together. Gray bearded ones go together. Shades of green monster heads go together. Etc.

When I clicked on this topic, I thought I was going to read "I want to sell my whole collection and get every last cent for it". :) But if you're just talking about minifigures, they're the easiest thing to sell. I myself have bought eBay lots of about 100 minifigs. And just like others have noted, I would pick out the figs (or just torsos or accessories) I wanted and then flip the rest back onto eBay, usually making most/all of my money back. But yeah, I say game on with selling the figs. You're going to have some figs that are the really desirable ones, and others that "nobody wants" at least not alone. So what I recommend doing is making a few lots and listing them all at once. Take your photo with the rare/valuable ones in the top row so that the buyers see it first, and the less desirable/average ones in a lower row. If you don't do something like this, you might find yourself left with a bunch of the less desirable figs and have difficulty selling them. Other general eBay tips apply. Each listing should have no reserve, auction style. I dislike "buy it now" and think that drives away buyers. Clear out any buyers with 0 feedback or new accounts made within the last week (there's a setting to auto-block some of that). Good luck!

There could be some copyright infringement concerns here, especially if you start selling this as a product.

Half was just an example, really. I just think you should be getting that batch of Lego for less than BL average prices, for a few reasons. First, what you described sounded to me to be unorganized. That means parting together and a time investment on your part. Also it sounds like it's in used condition. Expect worn prints and missing parts that you might feel compelled to replace. Also the fact that you'd be buying in-person means there's no shipping or handling on the seller's part, no BL or ebay fees (3% or 9% roughly). And then the fact that the seller probably isn't a rabid (crazy!) AFOL means the Lego might not be worth to them what it would to a big Lego fan. Maybe the 50% I quoted is too "cheap"; don't want to rip off your friend, right? But something like 70 or 80% of full BL price would definitely be reasonable. But there are some variables I made assumptions on, such as the completeness of the sets and quality of the bricks.

@Admiral Blockbeard - That's probably mildew you're describing. I had some on one of my sails. I posted images a few posts ago in this thread, if you want to see (it's the smaller off-white sail from the imperial trading post set). I hand washed with laundry soap, which only faded it just a little. I would recommend trying some fabric products form the store, like the spot stain removers. I also might recommend some mildew prevention going forward. I like to toss the silica gel packets in with Lego sometimes, to help prevent moisture.

Bricklink is down right now. But you can go there and search for each set number, then in that entry look for "price guide" where you can bring up data and see what people have paid for that set in the past 6 months (look at used, not new). That should give you a starting point for price. You could expect to buy for less than that, since it sounds like this stuff has been chewed a little. I'd try for half the 6 month average used BL price. I wouldn't say that's ripping these people off. Your average non-AFOL might be happy to offload old dusty bricks with minimal effort. It's only us crazies who piece stuff together and really "take the time"... Have fun! I recently uncovered my old pirate Lego. I'm trying to find the time to write up reviews. Edit: Bricklink came back up now. See for example: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=6260-1 Then click the link at the bottom right "View Price Guide". The average last 6 month sales for used copies is $15. So maybe you'd offer them $7 for that set. Probably best to calculate each set and offer to buy them all from them. Anyway, there you go.

If Lego started printing out lyrics to Lou Reed songs, they really would have a PR problem on their hands!

I wonder if those stickers say something similar in other languages, assuming there are other language versions. I deal with localization sometimes at my job, and there are sometimes (er, often) poor translations and something "slips through the cracks" into the wild. I wonder if this could be the case.

I'm happy for you! I came out of my "dark ages" around the first wave of Kingdoms, due to that line and also Pirates. I had mainly castle and pirates as a kid. I think you'll be happy with 2013 Castle as a newly reborn fan of lego. :)