Medzomorak

Because it was better around at the time. I've said that as a kid in the early 2000's and I'm saying the same 20 years later. After some number of exchanges in posts now, I'm not really sure what are we arguing about. It is truly 30 years since Pirates has been introduced and we did not get anything, while some of us were hoping to. I guess it is the end of the story, I may go back and by my next Lego set as a used one again from the previous century.

I totally understand that, you make a good point with this memory. BUT. This individual's perception was not accurate at all, as Lego did not abandon anything for its themes. Check out all the Basic sets: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Basic Basic amazingly thrived through the 80's. My older brother left me tons of basic bricks and he had got them in the late 80's as well. I still build with those bricks, bricks older than myself and I hope someday I'm going to leave those to my kids. Themes were not replacements but enhancements. Today's licensed and hybrid themes on the other hand are total replacements of the old ones. On its own it wouldn't be a problem, but we all remember 2009's and 2015's Pirates sets. They were laughable, like Lego wasn't even trying. It's easy to discard Pirates in favor of some messy Ninjago flying laser-crocodile-banana-motorbike-dragon ship if you don't even try to make those Pirates sets anything good. Those last ones were unpretending, stingy and all-together the most hurriedly designed we've ever seen.The same happened with the last castle theme, not to mention those poor alien-space attempts. I've would have hate those even as an 8 years old. I was browsing the catalouges from the 80's when I was 8 and I liked the tone of them a lot. Children are not infantile beings, they are just children.

I have an older brother and four cousins, all of them were schoolboys at the time. They had tons of basic sets containing basic bricks and had zero complaints when the pirates came out. Betting literally any amount of money is just as pretty definitive as my statement. Also I would suggest doing otherwise, because: No, there was no plenty of complaining. I've been reading forums and blogs about Lego for 13 years now and seen zero negative remarks on the classic Pirates theme. Zero. Afols were writing the actual opposite. This is a catalouge picture from 1979: And this is the first pirates pages in '89: So what has exactly happened that could cause 'plenty' of complaints? Nothing was betrayed here. Following your logic everything caused plenty of complaints which was not a standard 2x4 brick. "The first modern minifigures were released in 1978, included in Castle, Space, and Town sets." - according to Wikipedia. And yes, the yellow castle was introduced in 78 with shields and swords. So what would have been the complaints after that? The boat pieces? The sails? The whole historical line were part of Lego since 78. They MADE Lego's identitiy. A brick itself is not the only identitiy. It is just a brick. You don't need a minifigure for that, or a wheel. My grandpa had wooden bricks way before Lego came in. Also Basic Lego bricks sets hasn't been abandoned for Castle and Pirates, we get those sets up to this very day. Of course, the Lego bricks with their studs are the best. But saying that everything else came after is not part of Lego's identity is simply not true. Without any offense, your argument makes no sense to me. My post was not based on a global, scientifically analyzed statistics on people's reaction to Lego's 1989 Pirates theme of course. Evidently. So what are you trying to say? I don't get it. You DID actually hate Pirates in 89? Or you just found a logical backdoor to deny my statement? You just want to point out that 100% of Lego fans could have not liked Pirates, because the correct number is actually 98%? I accept if you think otherwise of course, but I still say the same: these classic themes are the backbone of Lego's identity. And not because they are vintage. I think - just for an example - the 2005 Vikings deserve to be part of it as well. What I am trying to say is that these themes are left behind for licensed ones. Even the Lego movie was about batman being batman. A comic book character... they are not Lego's identity, they belong to Marvel and Disney and so on. I'm saying that as a fan of those products.

Sadly there won't be any of those classic themes, until NInjago goes on. That's just the ultimate abomination, the melting pot of all themes. Ninjas cruising space-pirate-ships with dragons on land rovers against skeleton mechas firing lasers and gatling guns in their castles. It's so everything, it is actually nothing. Every time I go into a Lego store I just can't really decide what am I seeing on the box. I start to think maybe I'm getting old? I realize that I'm actually not. I still examine the sets and take a look at the details. Then I still get the conclusion: The new sets are just truly a mess. Too much of everything, too much individual minifigures, every brick and piece is made to be a unique one. At the end none of them are. It seems Lego was so bleeding out in the 90's financially that they really can't be revisionists anymore. Even the new Jurassic World set is about a T-rex fighting a dino mecha. They just begging out loud to make a sale in every set. I feel for them, it can't be easy to stay competitive in today's online, almost augmented world. Altough when I was a kid (late 90's - early 2000's), me and my friends were always browsing old catalouges all the time (from the 80's and 90's), because we hated the new messy themes. We were filled with awe looking at the old dioramas, the choosable factions. We hated that Lego takes us that stupid and create infantile themes for us. Every time I show these to kids today I just see the truth in their reaction, in their eyes: They know they've been cheated and this is how Lego should still look like. They DO say they were much better than this: I admit, there was some brief success in Vikings and the Fantasy Era castle themes after the early 2000's bottom. Sadly that was just in my dark ages, but I accept those as proper, original Lego themes. Today, TLC does not take their own mission and their own customers seriously anymore. The new pirates themes were poor shadows of themselves. This is the reuslt of cost-optimalization, this is sales-tinkering, this is Lego's new adventure-based identity if not something licensed. And yes, it has been 30 years. And we got nothing as it seems. Nothing any new, not even a single middle-sized nostalgia set with simple smiley-faced pirates to raise the hats. Just a Slave I.

Not really to be honest. No one hated Pirates at the time. It just could not be hated, it was perfect. The figures still had two dots with a smlie, yellow skins, the foundations were still basic bricks with basic colors. Pirates enchanced Lego's identity, just as old school Castle and Space did before. I don't hate Star Wars either. But it's not Lego's success in my opinion. It's a pop cultural monster burning away everything in its path. I loved it as a brand-new theme in '99, but today I just can't celebrate anything after 20 years. Not anymore. But hey, that's just me, of course.

It seems it celebrates 20 years of Star Wars instead. Celebrating an other brand. With the 1478th Slave I. Sadly Lego has lost its identity.

Hey everyone! I'm looking for the vintage Lego Pirates posters in digital forms. Especially these: Now, a couple of copies are available for sale at bricklink but those are physical copies which are creased and banded of course. I'm wondering if there are any digital copies so I could print them myself with my own custom paper settings. Even some properly scanned version would be cool, as I've only found very low-sized pictures online. They would look absolutely cool above any vintage pirates diorama. Many thanks for any assistance!