Captain Zuloo

Nice contest IS, if I don't enter, I'll certainly follow it. Cool CRAZY (Edit by Dragonator) idea!

If the speed can be controlled from the dial on the battery box, does that mean the remote control doesn't control speed?

Ship looks great Admiral, so if you have made it better since, I can't wait to see those images. You can find a tutorial on How To Perform a Batch Image Resize here. The Eurobricks standard size is 600x800 pixels, but this looks like a good MOC worthy of the Classic-Pirates.com frontpage, in which case your images would need to be a max of 500x500 pixels. Hope this helps.

Your link is broken mate, but this is the link you're after. Indeed it is awesome, and I reckon it would be costing quite a heap! But thank you for sharing.

Hello Admiral Rodgers, and welcome to Eurobricks and Classic-Pirates.com! To post a MOC in the forum, all you need do is start a new topic (button on top right of forum) and insert your images. To do that, you should see this tutorial. But ensure that you're starting a topic in the MOC forum!

I can't say I really understand my new title 'Phes Junior'. I would be interested to see why (I think) Zorro made it that.

Yeah, I think you should just tell anyone who questions your hobby that they can stuff off because you are an individual with your own tastes. And maybe an admin or mod can move this to the General LEGO news and discussion forum?

Good question Guss. When someone calls me a fag or says I am stupid for playing with LEGO, I tell 'em to stuff off. The greatest construction toy in the world is NOTHING to be ashamed of.

I don't know if you guys did anything, but in IE 7 it just started to work again.

Nah mate. If you have a girlfriend that dumps you because of who you are, you shoudn't be dating them anyway. And maybe you could get your own credit card? Do you have an income?

Although either a sealed classic pirate set has a certain magic to it that you don't get from a used set.

Have we decided if it has Big Ben wheels as suggested earlier? Or is it official LEGO wheels?

It does seem wierd that it's there then it's not. And it certainly sounds as though it's a fire station. But did anyone consider it might be a big silo?

Good point. Although I can see it being a wise move for LEGO to produce more cars. I'm quite sure they would sell like hotcakes. I personallly would buy 3 - 4 and I'm sure there will be some people in the states (because they have money over there ) who will buy about 30 cars. But if worse comes to worst, I'll be willing to buy parts off BL for at least another 2 cars. Did anyone consider LDD?

Dammit! It took me hours to try and download that video from legomilk's link, now you show it on YouTube. Bugger! Pretty interesting video though. I thought that it looked even better than I originally thought in that video.

I wasn't actually home during Earth Hour, but at an Adam Hills show. However for the duration of the show all the lights in the theatre were off except for 1 spotlight. Then he made an old guy take off his shirt and sing happy birthday to another bloke who looked like santa... Good ol' Adam Hills!

Hello and a very big pirate-y welcome to ye all as we set sail for 'Behind the Helm' Episode #3! Today we have the honor of talking to a Eurobricks Fellow. This Fellow is very active on Eurobricks as a Reviewers Academy teacher and he has recently volunteered his time and effort to do some chores aboard Classic-Pirates.com. That's right, it be Shipyard Master, Erdbeereis in question! C-P: Welcome to the show Erdy! Erdbeereis: Thanks a lot Zuloo! C-P: No worries! So, tell us a little about yourself and your interest in LEGO. Erdbeereis: Well, I always enjoyed casually building when I was younger, but mainly around Christmas time setting up a LEGO train around the tree. I really started getting into LEGO in 2007, when I got a set (Creator Highway Haulers) from my cousins in Germany. There's not so many of the usual things like computers and T.V. to distract you, so I had a lot of time to enjoy the set, build all of the different models and such. Seeing all of the amazing things you can really do with LEGO bricks got me hooked, and when I came back home I bought a few more sets. Soon after that, I searched for some LEGO websites, and found a little site called Eurobricks. I joined January 31st 2008 and haven't looked back since. C-P: What was the first set that you bought yourself? Erdbeereis: Hmmm... I really can't remember. But the first set that I got when I really got excited about LEGO was the Aquaraiders Lobster Strike. Those darn lobster legs never stayed on.... C-P: Hehehe. And what would you say is your favourite theme? Erdbeereis: For MOCing, definitely Pirate-type things. Islanders, Imperials, Pirates, any of those are my favorite MOCing areas. However for sets, besides Pirates I also enjoy most lines, but for current themes Star Wars, Agents and Indiana Jones are certainly high up there. C-P: You do a bit of work teaching how to make a good LEGO set review. Can you tell us a little about the Reviewers Academy? Erdbeereis: Sure! The Academy is basically a school, where the students learn to write great reviews. How it works is a student writes a review, and in order to pass that review he or she must earn passes from 3 teachers. If a review is not quite ready to be passed the teachers let the student know what needs to be improved, for example fixing up grammar errors, sharpening blurry pictures, etc. Once a student has passed 3 reviews he "graduates" and earns a bronze badge. If a student reaches a level of 9 passed reviews, he or she too becomes a teacher. The Teachers also work hard keeping the index of Academy reviews, and also the report card in order. C-P: Sounds busy! Yet you still find time to do some work for Classic-Pirates.com. Could you explain what you do for the Pirate blog? Erdbeereis: Well, I write articles for the frontpage, and check over other people's news articles and make sure there aren't any code errors in HTML, spelling errors, etc. The main project I'm working on now is writing pages for all of the LEGO Pirate sets ever released. After that is done C-P with have a great log of info about every Pirate set out there. C-P: Just for those who don’t know, the set pages that are complete can be found here. What do you enjoy doing outside of the LEGO hobby? Erdbeereis: Some of my other hobbies are playing sports like golf, soccer and tennis to name a few. I also enjoy traveling, I visit relatives in Germany every year and often go to Mexico, along with some travel within the U.S. Another thing I love is food, and cooking. Thus the chef sig-fig I have. C-P: And could you please tell us where you got your username from? Erdbeereis: Erdbeereis means strawberry ice-cream in German, and that's one of my favorite things to eat there. It's much better than anything you can get here in the States. So, there you have it! C-P: Ok, well thank you for taking the time to speak to us about yerself, and shed some light on the real Erdbeereis! Erdbeereis: Many thanks for your time Zuloo! Happy building everyone! C-P: Thanks for joining me for this episode of 'Behind the Helm' you scallywags, I'll catch you next time with a special Eurobricks Administrator guest...

I see what you are saying, but I think you are possibly a little harsh on this set. Yes, it is expensive with the PF stuff, but on its own, it's AUD150 for 1,000+ pieces. And some of the poor interiors can be fixed up with a tiny bit of MODing. I don't think you should frown upon a set because it only has 2 cups either. Anyway, I just ordered 10194 Emerald Night as a preorder for April 15! Hooray! And hold me to this - I promise I will make a review in the academy. Happy now Zorro?

Indeed, ban him! Any expected date of completion yet Derfel Cardarn?

Yargh! Hello Pirate fans, and welcome to another episode of Classic-Pirates.com’s new interview program, ‘Behind the Helm’! Today, strap yourselves in as Captain Zuloo slips into his special interviewing armour to delve into the story of Pirate Moderator, SlyOwl. Now for those that don’t know, not only does Sly do a heap of work around the forum, but he is also one of the best pirate MOCers in history. So let’s give him a big hearty welcome! SlyOwl: Hello! C-P: Hi mate. Let's get started! How did you get into LEGO and pirates in particular? SlyOwl: I've been building with Lego all my life (well, since I stopped doing Duplo, at about 3 years old), and have been into it ever since. I guess it was when my parents got my sister and I one of the brick bucket "starter packs" that I got hooked, but it wasn't long before I started getting sets from specific themes. C-P: Ok. What was your first set? SlyOwl: I think that my first Pirate set was 6237 Pirates' Plunder, but I didn't know I had it until recently, as it explained the Imperial Guard and seaweed I had, but I didn't have the box or instructions. I didn't get any actual big sets (only the equivalents of the Impulses of today), except for Pirates' Chest. That had some Islanders, and they immediately became my favourite faction. I'll admit that I diverged onto space and castle for many years after that, but in 2006 I started looking on eBay for old pirate sets, and picked up Enchanted Island, the BSB and SES. That about restored my love of pirates, but now it shares about equal building time with Castle. C-P: So castle is your second favourite theme? Why? SlyOwl: I guess it covers a wider range of factions (Vikings, Ninja, Castle), but also I see it as more expansive: there are more MOCing possibilities with it. Now, I ain't saying that Pirates is limited, but it's easier to build something new without going totally off the rails in Castle. The Castle sets are also a part of it, as sets like Crossbow Attack are much better value to me than the equivalents in the current Pirate range (Cannon Battle), as you get an extra minifig for the same price. As a MOCer, the range of parts (and bulk of parts like 1x2 bricks) are better in sets, whereas a ship isn't as useful for MOCing with, apart from for ships. However, the themes overlap considerably, and there's quite a range of Castle-Pirate borderline concepts that haven't been explored fully, in my opinion. C-P: That’s quite possible. And what do you do for Classic-Pirates.com? SlyOwl: I used to do the frontpage, but now there are others who do the bulk, so I just chip in sometimes. What I mainly do is regulate the forum and index MOCs, reviews etc. in the (very) extensive indices on Classic-Pirates.com. I also do the promo graphics for any contests, and help run them too. C-P: And a very good job of that you do too! Obviously many people in the LEGO community look up to you, who do you see as a role model? SlyOwl: Oh, the standard: Hinckley and Sinner! But also the rest of the staff, and the Fellows on Eurobricks - the small community they have is fantastic. Outside of Eurobricks, Hippotam (Marcin Danielak) and Dunechaser (Andrew Becraft) have a lot of respect from me, not just as bloggers and MOCers, but as people too. In fact, Hippotam is one of those who have delved into the Pirate-Castle borderline area, such as in his Last Journey. C-P: In regards to your latest creations: ‘Tortuga? Aye, Tortuga!” and “Charyblantis”, where did you find your inspiration for them? SlyOwl: I generally have an idea from nowhere in particular, and then as I look for inspiration for the finer details, my MOCs pick up elements from various sources. For example, Tortuga contains a heavy POTC influence, from the Disney Ride as well as the film. Charyblantis was a concept quite familiar to me, but I couldn't find anything which actually matched the idea of being sucked down to a mystical world through a whirlpool, so I'm not sure where that came from. The design of Charyblantis was heavily based on this picture so I guess while the ideas for my MOCs are from ambiguous sources, the elements contained are more directly inspired. C-P: Of these two MOCs, which is your favourite? Why? SlyOwl: It'll have to be Tortuga. It's got a better atmosphere, and I enjoyed building it more. Charyblantis didn't come out quite as I wanted it, and I'd have preferred to tile the whirlpool and not to have used yellow sand. Tortuga is also something I've been meaning to do for a long time (Nassau and Rodrego were early incarnations), and there isn't much I'd change about it, apart from the under-textured red roof. C-P: Well both were awesome! What is the best MOC you have ever made, in your opinion? SlyOwl: That depends on what criteria. If it's new techniques, probably Cheddar Gorge, my first proper MOC, where I unleashed a lot of new stuff. Castaway t' Neverland and Armadarctic go together as some of my "cleanest" MOCs - there's lots of elements that I like - ruined mine, beach shanty, cliff, smooth shore, caves, palm trees... everything. C-P: Awesome. And where do you get your bricks from? Bricklink? LDD? SlyOwl: Bricklink. I've never got on with LDD, and the parts selection isn't all that great. I tend to value sets based on the minifigs and any useful MOCing pieces in comparison to price, and thus I don't buy many. However, I often find that the parts I don't look on as useful come in handy sooner or later, so I should probably reduce my Bricklinking (it's quite expensive because of the exchange rate at the moment too), and go for sets more, even if some of the parts aren't as useful. C-P: What can we expect from you in future? SlyOwl: Um... I'm not really too sure. Currently I've got a small MOC on the go, similar to Tia Dalma's shack in POTC-2, but I don't know if it will develop the way I want it to, and I may just abandon it for another one. After that... who knows? I'll enter contests if they come along, and there'll be normal MOCs in-between. C-P: Well I have no doubt you will complete your MOC with great results. What about as far as Classic-Pirates.com? Where do you think the site is headed? SlyOwl: Well, it's getting bigger and bigger by the day. I can't see any major changes happening soon, so I'll be continuing with what I'm doing for the while. With the Shipyard functioning, it's plain sailing ahead! C-P: And, finally, where did you get your username from? SlyOwl: I needed a name to cover all my Lego internet activity and I just plucked it from the air. I don't particularly like it, but it's going to stay with me. C-P: Cool! Well thanks very much for joining me on ‘Behind the Helm’ SlyOwl! It’s been brilliant talking to you. See all ya seadogs next time! SlyOwl: Thanks, Zuloo!

Brilliant little MOC! 10/10! And such a tradgedy... I really like your use of tiles in the pattern to make the floor along with the chain and the small details like the pressure gauge. Very nicely executed!

Yeah, it probably doesn't look too military like. But I disagree with the statement about going overboard with the SNOT. Your SNOT looks great. I especially like the hole in the sand. Very random looking which I think is the idea. I think you would probably be best to turn this MOC into a thriving city block. But thanks for sharing anyway mate!

Congrats LuxorV! Although I honestly thought you already were a moderator. I guess it's just the professional way you deal with things. Congratulations man!

Ah, thanks for that CP5670. Hmmm... And the Emerald Night is now availible for preorder shipping on the 15th of next month.

Ah yes, Cranium Crag this one is called. I did an article on it here.