CappnRob

I adore the Elves and Friends lines for the colorful variety they bring to LEGO, and this really shows what you can do with it!

Absolutely wonderful, makes me nostalgic for classic WoW and WC3 <3

No problem, my lad. Age of Sail history is a big time hobby of mine! Glad to share the knowledge.

Enchanted Island all the way. Awesome raised baseplate, probably the best Islander subtheme set, just rife with adventure and character.

Pirate Chess was nice but Rocky Reef was my first Pirate set ever and is a fantastic low budget retro kit so it gets my vote!

I am admittedly more looking for Chinese/Japanese "far east" aesthetics but I like middle eastern and central Asian looks too. The shirtless swordsman is a good figure for that, love his new molded turban.

Well I don't mind faces looking "ethnic" as long as they're not my only options, lol! Even the Orient Expedition guys are useful if just for angry evil dudes (and in LEGO everyone angry and evil looks unsavory as hell regardless of implied or intended race). The Ninjago movie does have some good civilian faces that I like, too, yeah, I've been meaning to check into them.

/CRACKS KNUCKLES the aforementioned wikipedia link on 18th century naval ranks is probably the best "entry" level way of learning stuff. Mind you this is for the regulated and regimented British Navy, so less formal ships ie merchant marine and well, ofc, pirates, won't be so formal in some ways, but the basic ideas are there - a Captain who runs and often owns the ship (or is bankrolled by an owner who doesn't seafare), a quartermaster who administrates supplies and materials and the like (usually anyway), various degrees of mates who essentially delegate tasks to other crewmen beneath them (and other mates to delegate work further still - on a naval warship these guys would more likely be called lieutenants). You have a surgeon, carpenters, a cook (ideally speaking anyway. sometimes these guys were doing more than one job depending on how cheap the ship is being run!), and you have various deckhands skilled at some sort of menial task or another be it gunnery crew or rigging or whathaveyou and these guys vary in seniority (and the more senior you are, the higher ranking you are, though you're still basically at the bottom of the barrel as a seaman). The most senior seaman is the Boatswain (or Bo'sun), and he's the "big dog" as it were. On naval warships you have midshipmen who are basically young boys and teens with potential for ranking into officership and thus are seen as the "bridge" between the officer's crew and the enlisted crewmen. They oversee the crewmen's work and report back to the lieutenants for duties, etc. Keep in mind all of this is to some degree or another very VERY flexible. Naval concepts were constantly in flux throughout the age of sail as old ideas changed, new ideas came up, and so on. As late as the early 1700s, the idea of an organized navy was still very new, and in only 100 years by the time of Napoleon things were incredibly organized! This is to say nothing of language barriers and differences (in the British Royal Navy, quartermasters were basically just senior helmsmen. It was land army quartermasters that oversaw supplies and delegation of them), so you WILL run into inconsistencies when researching this stuff. I suggest watching the Russel Crowe film "Master and Commander the Far Side of the World". It is an EXTREMELY period accurate depiction of life at sea on board a British Royal Navy warship and you see a LOT of the ranks mentioned in action through the various characters, plus its just a damn good movie to boot! It can really help you get an idea on grasping these concepts more tangibly.

Merchant marine and pirates, really, but cooks and carpenters historically weren't military mean and dressed in civilian clothing on even navy warships, so its sort of a one size fits all deal. I'm looking for variety in the end, lol. I've been considering the Kingdoms blacksmiths, yeah! Pirates lack of civilian figures means always falling back on old Castle to fill in the gaps :P

I'm trying to put together some historial-ish looking Asian minifigues, and I was wondering if anyone had a list of all the minifig heads that could possible fill in this role, particularly with Yellows. I know the Ninja line had some good heads, but I'm trying to upkeep my variety so I want to avoid redundant heads between figures, plus a lot of those heads have sideburns and facial hair, it'd be nice to have some younger looking figures too. I also know of the Orient expedition ones, which make for some good evil guys if you don't mind the vaguely yellow peril inspired aesthetic :P Some hairs to match would be nice as well. Cheers in advance lads!

Skull Island may be nice but Saber Island wins me over because I'm hella biased for that white plaster and brick Imperial Fort aesthetic <3

Hey, I was wondering what minifig parts ya'll might suggest using for creating a ship's cook and a ship's carpenter minifigure. I'm debating between a cloth skirt or printed legs for an apron, but I can't decide what torso I'd like to use. Anyone have any suggestions of creations of their own they'd like to share for inspiration? Yellows and Fleshies are both ok.

Yeah the boat is delightful (and not gimmicky too) and the city corner blew my mind. Still, Ninjago is like 7 years old now, its kinda nuts how long its endured lol.

Imperial Flagship easily for me. It's the modern lego pirate ship for the modern day, a massive hulk of a beauty.

Personally I think LEGO has been on the uprise since the late 2000s when they pulled themselves out of that weak spot they were in. Now in the last RECENT years the themes haven't appealed to me much - Super Heroes, Nexo Knights, Ninjago, etc - but if I was a kid I'd probably think they were super cool. Like a lot of AFOL here I like to create historical LEGO and with Pirates III leaving shelves in 2015 (kicking myself for not grabbing anything then!) and Castle effectively combining with Space for Nexo Knights that's going on strong for a third year now, it can feel a bit lacking in variety that appeals to me. But I just subside by getting what I like secondhand, and some of the new stuff has had great boons. Super Heroes has provided a PLETHORA of diverse faces in fleshie colors which has allowed me to create characters that even 5 years ago wouldn't have been possible. Star Wars is as strong as always too and I've loved them ever since it started back in 1999. I do hope LEGO retires Ninjago and Nexo Knights sooner than later so new stuff can take their place, because boy do I miss me a traditional Space/Castle line, but I wouldn't call this a dark age. Edit: I think the real funny thing is if the damn Disney/Friends/Elves line didn't use those darn Mini Dolls, I'd probably be most interested in them right now! SO many unique parts in unusual colors always makes me giddy and I love minidoll hairs and accesories.... just hate that they're otherwise not really customizeable like minifigs are. Or compatible with minifigs. Gaaaah!

I -love- the Destiny's Bounty just because despite it being a Ninjago set it isn't "gimmicky" or anything - swap out the crew with some more normal looking pirates and you've got a veritible Chinese Junk and I wish I just had 160 dollars to spend on it! Ahhh!

Howdy ho, Eurobricks. I'm actually not NEW new here, I used to come here often and lurk around the Pirate subforum between 2009 and 2011 under the name "Quartermaster Rob", but since then I've forgotten my log in info and changed my Email, so I figure may as well just start over fresh and new! Back then I was getting back into LEGO after having a dry spell in my teenager years, but then I moved to CA and left all my LEGO behind and have only recently gotten some of it back (mostly minifigs), but I'm amazed at how much LEGO has evolved even more in the 6 years I've been out of the picture than it did in the 10+ years between my dry spell and first coming to Eurobricks! I have a lot of colorful characters to share I've created in minifig form and hope to branch into customization work some day, so here's hoping I stick around a bit longer this time. Cheers lads!