Masked Mini

Thank you! It's a lot faster once you've done it the first time! That said, I have another 2-3 hours of building and I'll be stuck at the same spot with the DR hull. Mast placement and decking... There is no way in brick I have enough brown, round, 2x2s to make enough masts for two. Maybe one. I'll try to get the masts started enough to be able to figure out my decking. Tonight will be my last night for a little bit when I have time to build Lego. Burning all the daylight hours taking down barb wire and prepping to put in some serious horse fencing. I'm thinking about custom sails. Might try for Dark red sails but I want these to go to my Soldier factions and that might be too Queen Anne's Revenge. Possibly off white and see if my Wife can't block print the crossed cannon insignia for me if I 3D print the blocks by paint layer with some sort of embroidery hoop holding/locating jig. Long term I want to build a pad printer so I can have an endless supply of classic 'coats and make some green coats. But CNC gets built first. I did fix some mistakes on the front bulk head that I'll need to roll into the blue hull before that gets any further work. Somehow I screwed up my layer count and I'm forcing a connection across a plate difference in height. No wonder it won't stay connected well!! I've been collecting certain technic pins and things to make smaller cannons based on builds I've seen here. The Lego cannons I'll save for the wide hull frigates I think.

I suggest that a lot of that perception has to do with gendered packaging and pre-conceived notions. If it's for BOYS (YUCK!!) then Girls will turn away from it and vice versa. Or they are "shamed" into picking something different by adults. I would be very curious to see the results of a study in non-gendered packaging and marketing for Lego themes. Just neutral colour (classic system yellow?) boxes, usual pictures. No pink, no blue, no other social clues. Let only kids pick sets without adult coaching or comments. My wife and my daughter both often feel … un- or under-represented.. in themes that are not specifically geared to pink social cues. I can't tell you how happy they are to see female heads and hairpieces ESPECIALLY hats/helmets with hair!! in regular "Boy" themes. If lego was to do a pirates run with a more even split of male and female pirates AND soldiers the theme would be a lot more attractive to the female half of the planet. In the classic Pirate (and Castle) sets if there was a female she was there as a Damsel to be rescued or kidnapped. Or be a wench. But even if you were to make her your hero then she is utterly outnumbered by plastic men. Thankfully TLG has been increasing the female fig content in City over the years. And as more than just diversity figures or as representatives of female dominated professions. We have female firefighters and cops, miners and explorers, astronauts and scientists. We just need to add Knights, Forestwomen, Soldiers and Pirates.

yep. Might be my influence but my Daughter builds her own ships off the dolphin cruiser hull and a Orcs hull she picked up second hand for small change...at age 8 and 9 respectively. At 7 we built the Destiny's Bounty together and she hounds me about building more ships with her ever since. Only issue is I've moved on to building freebuilds and I take that way too serious to be a good sport. So she builds her own. And Dragons. Elves and Ninjago Dragons. She was super bummed when Elves ended. Her reception of the Friends underwater pirate wreck was a bit lukewarm because it's such a crappy build, but she did like the concept.

Thank you! I've been absent for awhile. Working a ton of overtime and time critical projects on the Ranch. But! I'm back for a bit. I've had some time to sort more of my bulk bricks and clear room which caused me to develop a building itch. So last night I split hulls and laid up the sister ship to my first MOC. Got her up to and started the gundeck level last night. This go around I have enough Dark red for the stripe so we are trying that out. I took a LOT of pictures of the build trying to make it as easy as possible for anyone else who wants to recreate the hull. Pictures will get uploaded tonight as they are on my phone and I left that at home. Oh and I'm 2/3rds of the way to being able to lay up a 3rd hull of the same scheme. Lucked into another pair of mid sections. But I'm itching to start one of the wide hulls I have.

You are right, it IS plausible. Friends has had a diving/underwater/ocean/pirate twist lately. Elves has been cancelled, leaving room for another fictional theme along the same lines. Also it would not conflict with the Pirate Bay. I'd be totally down for Pirate-dolls. I keep the bricks, my daughter gets the dolls.

Good thinking. In for 4 or 5. It is the gundeals AFOL way.

For me that will probably mean more buying clearance priced sets for cheap parts and more BNP orders. I can't wait to see new Blue, Red and Black epaulettes available in bulk at less usurious pricing. The only downside to my approach is that if we don't support the line it might put the kibosh on Pirates again for another 10-20 years. Despite the fact that it's the (potentially) Nexo part we object to as opposed to the Pirate part. Of course if we grit our teeth and support a Nexo Pirate line and it's successful that will most likely mean more Nexo and not more Pirates.

that's the one!

Let's see. Best Theme - IDEAS / bricklink AFOL Best mini - Blacktron Bounty hunter or Sherry Scratchen-Post & Scarfield Best Set - Dinosaur Fossils (Ideas) Worst Theme - Superheroes Worst Mini - Bear Costume Guy Worst set - Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage 2020 - The Pirate Bay (Ideas)

So kind of what was done to submarines for Capt. Nemos ship? And to an extent his Rolls Royce (?). I can picture that quite well actually, it's been done here and there in pop culture but rarely put on center stage.

You already found where to start! Look through the flickr, download the high res pictures and try to recreate the moc - section by section. The wings look very simple in basic construction and you can see most of the bricks, easy to identify and they only go together so many ways. Build your own, simpler, take on the -605 wings. Then try to figure out how the hinge is built on that moc and try to recreate that. Maybe rebuild the cockpit and pieces of the fuselage you can figure out. Make them work together. Add the Wings to your fuselage. Tear it all apart because it looks nothing like -605. Start over. You will end up building your own -605 and learn what works. At some point you'll try -497 or another ship. Technique will accumulate as you experiment and look at other peoples MOCs. The "Ah-HAH!" moments will increase and the process will accelerate. I got good at reverse engineering other people's builds from pictures. Just try to give credit where it's due. If you can abide the virtual controls then stud.io is a fantastic place to practice as you have literally unlimited amounts of bricks of every type in every color including colors lego doesn't even make. I'm a physical person, Stud.io doesn't work well for me. But try it, it's free. Building there can give you an idea of what bricks you like to build with, export brick lists to shop for. I buy bulk bricks at consignment stores, thrift stores, garage sales, ebay, Bricks and Minifigs stores and last but not least clearance priced sets to tear apart for bricks. Specialty pieces I find on bricklink.com and lego.com's bricks and pieces service.

I dig it! I want one of these pretty badly … I guess I'll try to build a lego one while I wait on production models. Oh! hey... first post! Welcome to Eurobricks!! Way to make an entrance!

BnP is on top of their game right meow! Placed a fairly large order Dec 4th, shipped before dawn on 6th. Don't think I've ever seen a turnaround that fast before!

Thanks for googling that for me. I disliked the new blues and despise the new reds so I can't ever keep the years straight. Hopefully the next round of Soldiers takes either a classical turn, the 2015 blues aren't THAT horrible, or even better copies the Revolutionary Soldier uniform.

look in store terms. often sellers list how they mail things out and what rough costs are. You can also request a quote from sellers for your order. They should reply back with total cost including shipping after awhile. you will want to look for a store in Romania for cheapest shipping. I often buy only from USA stores as Canadians charge a lot for shipping. Very rarely I will buy from EU countries. Sometimes a store in another country has parts so much cheaper that I save money even with more shipping costs though. Bricklink rewards patience and willingness to hunt for a good deal. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=2144#T=S&C=63&O={"color":"63","ss":"RO","loc":"RO","iconly":0} set for Romanian stores under advanced options, no stores in your country have this part. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=2144#T=S&C=85&O={"color":"85","ss":"RO","loc":"RO","iconly":0} 1 store in Romania has 1 piece in DBG.

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=2144#T=S&C=63&O={"color":"63","ss":"RO","iconly":0} Dark blue. Looks like it would look good judging by the picture you linked. In case you don't want to re-color the whole roof to Dark Bluish Grey That depends on you. How much money are you willing to spend on parts? How many do you need? How much money are you willing to "waste" on shipping cost. I will usually go to a bricklink store for a particular part I need, then look through the whole store and buy all the parts they have that I need for the project or like. Make one big order so shipping cost is spread out over lots of parts. Takes some playing around to find the best store for my needs, shipping costs scale with weight, etc etc. I would do the roof in dark bluish grey with dark blue end pieces. But personal taste and all.

Dark Bluish grey? $.72 ea Dark Grey? $1.80 ea I'd go for DBG myself at less than half the cost and substantially larger supply. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=2144#T=S&C=85&O={"color":"85","ss":"RO","iconly":0} set for shipping to Romania.

More to the point... I saw this post yesterday and haven't come up with a work around to replace that part and retain the slope.

Looking at bricklink it doesn't appear this part was ever made in light grey. https://rebrickable.com/parts/33243/brick-modified-1-x-3-x-2-with-curved-top/ This part has been used by MOCs in the following colors but not officially released. Light bluish grey

Okay, i was off a lot on the piece count in my head. I agree with your assessment of 149.99-199.99 unless they blow the piece count waaaay up on the official take of the Bay. Can't see them burning an additional 7-900 bricks on replacing the base plate or adding more stuff. That'd be a BSB and a Armada Flagships worth. Oh. Oh man. That'd be amazing! Yeah. Made it up to tease You guys. I came clean in the fine print. It's what went through my mind at the time. What's the best worst case scenario? We finally get a Pirate wave, 14 whole sets... but Monkey paw. Not a real wave at all, just gimmicks. I thought I read Legoland Billund kicking off Year of the Pirate. Maybe it is all full Legolands? And you are right ofcourse, Legoland isn't really connected to Lego as a whole but we might be able to score some Pirate stuff (at a premium) through their Event. Minifigs and polybag builds maybe. Doubt they'd get anything truly juicy made just for the parks. In other news: The Blue soldiers from the 2009 (?) wave are finally sold out on BnP or Lego pulled the stock. Red Torsos from the last wave are still available. Does anyone know where to source blue, red and white epaulettes in bulk for less than a arm/leg/firstborn? BnP is down to two listings of Dark Green with different prices. Bricklink is $$$ for US shops.

Price wise i'd expect atleast USD$ 199.99, probably 249.99. I think the base ideas model was a bit over 2200pcs right? $0.10/brick estimate as it's not licensed, probably wont have any new molds unless hull, mast or rigging molds are worn out. Expecting the new style on all, sadly. I much prefer the old 80's masts to the new half sided masts but that ship has sailed. The treehouse used a ton of brown bricks, a few hundred more bricks than the ideas Bay BUT no specialized large plastic pieces like hull and masts. Probably comes out similar by weight of ABS which is, I believe, how TLG most likely prices sets as opposed to straight piece count. Treehouse is what 199.99?

So long as the Pirate Bay is under $300 i'm in for one. I absolutely need to mod it with a mini-me and a computer hidden somewhere. Need to print a custom tile with the Pirate Bay logo for the screen. How serious about it am I? Well I bought the baseplate the original model was built on just in case lego decided not to pick it up. I AM GETTING a Pirate bay... if it's the last thing I brick!

I bought some of your sails earlier this year. Top notch stuff guys!