PxChris

Mine has shipped and is scheduled to arrive next Tuesday currently. I also just pulled the trigger on getting the cloth sails from Brickstickershop, they're 10% off right now.

I think this one is worth breaking my BDP ban on. I'm planning to get one.

I picked up the Going Merry Pirate Ship a few weeks back and cracked it open to start building yesterday. I picked it up strictly for the pirate ship collection with no knowledge or investment in the theme at all. But I decided that I ought to watch the show while building the set to have some context and background and I've got to say, I actually have really enjoyed the show so far! I'm 4 episodes into the first season of 8 and it's been really enjoyable, enough so that I'm actually considering now picking up more of the sets and/or figures.

My Goonies sets came in yesterday - super stoked!

I snatched three of the Goonies options from the Minifigure factory when I got my set. I am a mega Goonies fan having grown up on the movie in the 80s so I had to go all-in with this one.

I'm excited for it! Expensive, yes, but I'm 100% in on this one no hesitation!

I was really hoping for a more enticing GWP to offset that ridiculous asking price...

Congratulations @BrickPerfection! It's a beautiful looking ship and I hope that I can make room in the budget for it!

Nicely done!

This one is absolutely a white whale for me too!!

Brickset has good scans of pretty much all of the old LEGO Ideas books. https://brickset.com/library/ideasbooks

I love this little fort build! I've kept one displayed with my Pirates collection for quite a few years now! It's definitely worthy of a place next to the other "official" sets.

Not my beloved 4 Juniors pirates!!!! But, in all fairness, the end results are pretty dang fun!

Without jumping into all the detailed you covered... I would have to agree wholeheartedly that the Caribbean Clipper is the superior ship to the Imperial Flagship in practically every way! I've frankly never been a huge fan of the IF even to this day, and I own a couple of them.

For me personally, it will always be the Barracuda and then Eldorado with the 1-2 punch! I never owned a Barracuda as a kid, but I longed after it sooooo hard! As an adult I've owned 3 (I sold one of them, so now I'm down to 2). But as a kid, the first Pirates sets I remember was being gifted the Eldorado Fortress and Caribbean Clipper in the fall of 1989 (it is possible I got one of the really small sets earlier than that) so those will always hold a most-special place in my heart. And to this day, I still think that Eldorado is the best Imperial fort they ever released. Sabre Island will also always hold a very high ranking in my estimation. But all that is somewhat arbitrary because I can say nothing bad at all about the entire first wave of Pirates sets - they're all 10/10 in my nostalgia clouded brain!