Captain Zuloo

Hello, and welcome to episode #1 of Behind the Helm, a new initiative from Classic-Pirates.com that exposes the stories of Pirate LEGO fans all around the world! Today, as Zuloo slips into his special interviewing armour, we are taking a look at one of our very own Classic-Pirates.com staff, our Vice Admiral, Zorro! C-P: Hello Zorro, and welcome to 'Behind the Helm'! Zorro: Hi there, Captain Zuloo, I am pleased to be here. C-P: Good, good! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your interest in LEGO? Zorro: Well, I only recently came out of my Dark Ages, and I refound interest after seeing Bonaparte's big Imperial Army. I already was an armybuilder but used Old Glory minifigs instead, now I changed to LEGO. C-P: Where did you find Bonaparte's army? Zorro: I found his army when Googling for Napoleonic Armies and I bumped into it, that is also how I discovered Eurobricks. C-P: Ah, ok. And were you interested in LEGO before that much? Zorro: When I was in my youth, lets say untill I was 15, which is kind of late, so you could say I have bricks in my blood. C-P: Indeed, most of us true fans do! You seem to show quite an interest in Pirates, what sparked that? Zorro: Well I was interested into Napoleonics and Pirates my entire life, especcialy to the soldiers side of the picture. I do not really know what sparked it, probably the old helmet I received from my grandfather has something to do with it. C-P: Ah, a family piece eh? You are also a teacher in the ever-popular Eurobricks Reviewer's Academy. Could you tell us a bit about that? Zorro: Well, I became a teacher in the Reviewers Academy to improve my writing and picture taking skills. Since then I fell in love with the Academy and I still visit it daily and try to help out as much as I can. Everyone that makes reviews should consider joining, since it is a fun place to be and the input from the teachers is really valuable C-P: You spend a large amount of time doing things for Classic-Pirates.com too yes? Zorro: Yes, absolutely, my job is to see everything gets done, together with my newly appointed Shipyard Master. Once in a while I write an article myself, but I tend to leave that to the now younger generation, since next to Classic Pirates, I also have to co-control the Eurobricks pirates forum, which demands some work as well. It was because Mister Phes took a break due to a lack of time and stress from work that I got my position, so I am doing my very best to do his job him in as many tasks as possible. C-P: Well we all think you are doing a mighty fine job. And with that new Shipyard Master, you cannot fail! What do you think about the new Pirate line? Is it what you were hoping for? Zorro: I was hoping for a new Imperial ship, but that seems to be lacking at the moment, on the other side I am happy with the new soldiers: they look amazing with their double prints and new shakos. So yes, I like the new line. C-P: Well, I guess we can only hope that The LEGO Group will give us an Imperial ship in the 2010 line-up! How do you think the new line will affect Classic-Pirates.com and the AFOL community? Zorro: I can only hope Classic-Pirates will grow even closer towards the both of them. I cannot foresee how that new line will affect the AFOL community though. C-P: And where do you plan to take Classic-pirates.com in the future? Zorro: I hope to reach the 20.000 unique visitors benchmark soon and I also want a good commited team to work on Classic Pirates C-P: Where do you sit on those two? Zorro: We recently passed 10.000 unique visitors per month in January and the team is awesome: that is a success already! C-P: Excellent! And what do you think Classic-Pirates.com can provide the AFOL online community? Zorro: Classic-Pirates.com is the largest and best online library where one can find and discuss everything about LEGO Pirates, and we will continue to grow! C-P: It certainly shows no sign of stopping, that's for sure! And one final question, that I'm sure we have all been wanting to know (or is it just me?), where did your username come from? Zorro: Its actually Spanish for the Fox, since I am called De Vos in Dutch which means the Fox in English. C-P: Ah, very clever. Well thank you for joining me today Zorro and keep up your excellent work with Classic-Pirates.com, the Reviewer's Academy and the Pirate forum! All the best matey! Arrgggh! Zorro: Thank you very much.

Wow, I never thought I'd see this thread again! I think the general thought path when I discussed this with Bonaparte was something similar to the Academy. What are your thoughts?

Wow, it looks as though CGH started a trend with the sturdiness test! Looks great Errorist, brilliant work! I really look foward to the final product. BTW, where did you aquire the bricks from?

Very nice Genaral armendariz! Like Zorro said, very neat that it can be imperial or merchant. Pirate too, I suppose, if you add some flags and figs. The only thing I could think of that could improve this baby is some nice backgrounds. But that's honestly all. Very well done mate!

Remembering that you were probably a kid then though.

This image appears to be a newspaper article on the model. All though my German isn't great, my friend Yahoo Translater and I had a go at turning this: into this: And Sinner, I know what you mean by huge MOCs not being always that great, but I look up to this MOC not in size, but skill. The curvature of the hull is almost as cool as the ones by CGH and Teddy. And the spirat staircases and the general roundness of the ship. I think it's quite a great achievement. Certainly better than some of the LEGOLand buildings. But then, most good AFOL MOCs are.

Prepare to be amazed fellow LEGO fans, as whilst searching Brickshelf, I'm confident that I found the best MOC ever created: The Queen Mary 2 If you can find a better MOC anywhere, I would like to see it. Check out the gallery.

Like I said in a previous post, I think it will be a balance between the realism and the geometries possible with this new track. I think it will depend from person to person. In regards to tram tracks in a street, has anyone come up with a design of building roads around curved track yet?

Ah, very nice. I have all three of these (except the trailer is yellow in my collection). Yes, I was never able to throw my Duplo out or give it away. It's just too...LEGO-ey. This is certainly a nice idea, and I think you have executed it very well. Thank you for sharing matey!

Yes Skip, that would be brilliant!

Hey, I wrote that! Great video General, I really enjoyed it. Well done!

Indeed! SlyOwl, this is brilliant. The level of detail here is astounding! You even went to the extent of putting a guy in with an accordian! I bet this is one of those MOCs that you tell everyone DON'T BUMP IT. Thanks for sharing this Sly, you are a brilliant MOCer!

Very good Sinner! Wow, I must admit, at first glance I had no idea what you were on about when you said this was CAD. But then I looked at the images in the folder more closely, and I was stunned! I didn't think these kinds of images were possible! I mean, this is just so damn realistic! I honestly you guys had lost it until I looked a second time.

I certainly did. Well thank you very much ImperialShadows. Perhaps I'll get a chance to play with making my own ones of these when I get some spare time. But if I do, I promise you'll be the first to know. Thanks

Hey IS, this is really cool. I'm somewhat new to the MCW, so I hope this isn't a stupid question, but are you just using Photoshop with each shirt a layer? Then modifying it a little? Either way, the effect you present to us here is quite amazing at how something so original can come from everyday torsos. Three cheers for ImperialShadows!

Half stud steps? Teddy, you have too much LEGO and way too much skill! This is seriously brilliant. I'm thinking when this is done, it can occupy the Classic-Pirates.com frontpage for a week at least! A day is too short for this baby! Teddy, you rock!

Yes, there were a few problems with the video that were being fixed. However it is now .

Davy_Blocks, Firstly, don't take too many ideas out of this or it will become a SOC* rather than a MOC. However... I don't know how well printing pirate ship sides on water-resistant sticker paper would work, but then you could build a pirate ship? Or maybe you could build a cruise ship. On the P&O cruise I went on, there were a couple of 'themed nights' including a piratenight. So that could give you an excuse to have cannons and pirates running around the deck pillaging and plundering. But really, I think LEGO should just make a pirate waterproof hull. Then this would be easy as MOCing up a cabin and some masts onto the hull and sailing it around your Granny's pool! *SOC - Acronym, Someone else's Own Creation

You don't happen to have a scanner do you Norro? Because the Ladybird book series could be the best contribution possible to Classic-Pirates.com!

Teddy, I am now quite sure that my earlier comment of 'MOC Genius' was not out of place. Is that an open suitcase at the front? Because if it is... You are a magnificent builder Teddy, stay representing EB forever!

I'm really liking your work Logbo! This flag looks very nice, I would like to see one in red though. What program are you using for these masterpieces?

I see no problem with the current PM system. Although there may be a few very rare spam PM's sent, all the users responsible have been banned right? The problem with setting 'Newbie' limits like Sinner said, is that it would make a tedious task for the staff who write EB, and from what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, it would also present problems when something on the board needs to be changed. Or am I way off? Either way, when you compare how many spam PM's in ratio to how many legit PM's you may get from users with <10 posts, there isn't really a need to change anything.

Let's hope not. It's sure nice of you to compile such a great eBay thread, and with it being updated weekly, I'm sure my Pirate LEGO purchases will be made a heap easier. Cheers mate!

No worries Logbo, a great Pirate MOC/Contribution will always be spotted by the dedicated Classic-Pirates.com team. So keep up the great work!

Teddy, your 'MOC Expert' special tag is somewhat an understatment. I think perhaps 'MOC Genius' would be more appropriate. This station is almost perfect in my eyes, only things I can recommend are: The white line at the side of the platform, see if you can't replace it with 1x'?' yellow tiles. The red doors on the track side of the building look a little out of place. Would white look any better? Other than that Teddy, I think this is a great MOC, and I think your efforts could be well spent on some more train MOCs in the future. (When you complete the Victory though.)