Palathadric

Well, good of you to post. Because if you hadn't I would probably have never seen the thread, given that it must have been a good number of pages down the list. This is fascinating though!

That's what I said. It would be nice, wouldn't it?

Do you think you could create a new topic where you post all of you past pictures and updates and where people do not post comments so that it would be easy to download in an mhtml document? That would be nice. Like Derfel Cadarn's "Detailed guide to building a medieval village".

The original forestmen, the wolf pack, and the dark forestmen all hold a special place in my heart. Maybe it's because they aren't really a part of the main struggle. They aren't exactly waging major wars against anyone like the Dragon Masters are doing against the Royal Knights, etc. They're just there in their hideaways giving everyone who runs into them a tough time. They were just a minority and it's always easier to feel sympathy and more love for the "Davids" than the "Goliaths", right? I agree with you, I prefer the look of these forestmen to the original ones.

I totally agree. The castles on raised baseplates look far more interesting. The other ones are too low and too squarish, for the most part. Frankly, I have no problem whatsoever with the BURPs. Maybe it is just because they are dark grey and, therefore, look more rockish. It's difficult to get dark grey bricks in sets from that time otherwise. In fact, oddly enough, when I was younger I prefered the Dark Dragons Den over the Fire Breathing Fortress for the very fact that is contained more BURPs. Odd, I know.

Humph! Don't know how that one slipped my mind at the time. Still, that is only one out of four.

Incredible set! Again I will say, I do not understand why Lego only made three sets under this theme. All three were very good, and this one was the best! I love the minifigs. I do not understand why they gave the Dragon Master a grey helmet and an ancient shield, but it's got to have some story behind it, eh? Yes, I definitely think the Black Knights and Dragon Masters are related. Their large shields are exactly the same, and the small shield of the Black Knights is almost the same as the emblem on the torsos of the Dragon Masters, there must be something there, no? What probably happened in this set is that the Royal Knights crushed the last pockets of resistance amongst the Dragon Masters, so the Dragon Masters are allying themselves with the Forestmen as their last resort in their fight for survival. Either that or one of the Dragon Masters did an incredible thing to sneak into the Forestmen's midst and is going to use their catapult against them, while the other Dragon Master is wearing a grey helmet he stole from a Royal Knight to disguise himself... Nah, I'll go with the first interpretation.

You could not be more right there. The castle sets from those times were awesome. Such a shame. The early 90s were Legos best year, in my humble opinion. This set is very, very, very nice. Love it! I'd agree though, that there certainly are some things that could have been made better on it, but for the most part I think it's very nice.

I always liked the BURPs, I don't know why. Maybe because they were dark grey and dark grey pieces seemed a bit hard to come by at the time. I always assumed that the dragon was, sort of, the mascot of the Dragon Masters. The wizard was there to keep him under control so he wouldn't turn on them. I always figured that the wizard was working with the Dragon Master King, and they were fighting against the Royal Knights (the dudes with the lion faces on their torsos), or whatever they were called. I like this set a lot. I think the castle theme declined after the Dragon Masters and Royal Knights themes were discontinued. The new knights never really took the cake. It's funny, but it seems, to me anyways, that when the Lego Minifigs lost their regular smile/smirk faces (whether they were masked by a beard or not), that's when Lego began to decline...a bit. The Dragon Masters had their vicious faces and all, but they still had that smile/smirk underneath their rough exteriors. The new knights look a little...less confident.

I love the sets from the "Dark Forest" theme. I do not know why Lego only made 3 of them. Frankly, I think this one is the worst of the 3, but still it won an "above average" rating. I never owned this one, but actually looking at this review, it turns out that this set was a lot better than I remember it being. I love the minifigs especially from this theme. The fountain is especially nice. I'll admit that they could have done better on the ground floor of the structure, maybe made a secret hiding place or something, or made it more of a cave. PS: The "Dark Forest" men, do not have pirate faces...none of them do.

The great thing about these older sets are that they have an incredible amount of minifigs. A 32-by-32 set having 8 minifigs is quite superb. Frankly, I don't care much for the castle itself. A bit boring, Not bad, but no particularly beautiful to look at or fearsome either. Gave it "average" but it could have also received an "above average" score.

Very nice set because of the monkey Very, very, very worth the cost, in my opinion. What the heck, I may even give this "outstanding" in the rating department...but maybe not. I really like the extra build of the monkey fanning the man!

The incredible thing about this set is how dirt cheap it was back in the day. It has a few nice little things, but it's definitely just the cheap copy of the Renegade Raft. I gave it "below average" rating though.

Awesome review! Incredible length for such a small set. Well done! The first pirate set I've ever had too!

In my opinion the RBR already beats the BB or is at least a tie. If that is the case, then the BSB utterly thrashes the BB. The only thing that the BB has over the BSB, and even that is rather questionable, is the minifigs. The BSBs are just, well, a bit old (Although the dastardly Cap'n Roger definitely downs the other captain any day! ). I am not a big fan of the new Lego minifigs, but actually I think the BB has got some pretty decent ones for the most part, but even so, I actually may give them only a tie over the minifigs, in which case the BSB still absolutely crushes the BB. If you're speaking of the actual ship's crew, then what is a ship of only 4 pirates going to even manage to muster against a ship with 8? By the way, I also think the colour scheme of the BSB tops the BB's. Absolutely! I still think the SES is the best pirate ship ever (especially if it were manned by the RBR's crew ), they're the only one, of the big pirate ships, that has an easy way of moving the cannons about (I don't know why Lego did not make all of the ships have the turntable pieces like the SES has). Then of course, there is the obvious fact the SES has the largest crew.

Darn! It's not Ironhook. I have been deceived! Definitely the best part of the RBR is the minifigs though. I still consider its set of minifigs as the best to ever crew a pirate ship. For the ship itself, I have to agree that the BB is probably the better option of choice as the RBR has a lot of issues, shall I say. Definitely, for the ship itself, though, the Skull's Eye Schooner is the ultimate of the pirate ships...although I haven't seen either the QAR or the Black Pearl, so...

Are you sure it isn't Ironhook? I thought it was a historical shot of him before he became a captain of his own. Or maybe Roger demanded he return after his fruitless scavenging about on the natives' land. Anyway, there is another captain's hat available in the set if you want to make him Ironhook.

Not the greatest of sets, but some nice little extras. Good review though.

Well, let's see...in point form. RBR's sails look cooler for sure: their tattered appearance is nice. The skull pattern also looks a whole lot better, also the fixedness (or whatever) of the BB's sails is not that great. 2 point RBR BB has more sails making the whole thing seem a bit fuller, if you will. 1 point BB All the ropes and stuff around the place makes the RBR look a little more genuine. 1 point RBR I'll take the old shark any day over these modern ones. 1 point to RBR (albeit a small one) The stern of the BB is better, I would say, in every way. 2 points BB The cannon system is really lousy on the RBR. Frankly I don't consider the BB too much better, but definitely a point for BB or perhaps I should minus one for the RBR. 1 point BB The captain's quarters in the BB are quite nice, whereas its opponents are pretty worthless affording no privacy or proper...anyway I'd give 2 points to BB for that entire region. 2 points BB The BB lacks the "old pirate" feel. Definite point for RBR. 1 point RBR The minifigs: frankly this area may make all the difference for me. For some reason I am not particularly attracted to many of the new minifigs. Cap'n Roger and Ironhook far surpass anything their opponents can throw at them. This is not to mention their band of ruffians who are all quite awesome in their own way. Two of the pirates in the BB are decent and two in the RBR are just decent, but otherwise the RBR wins hands down, in this respect, for me. How many points to give them though? 2 or 3? Don't know. Either way the RBR wins, but by not very much. Maybe I should call it a tie. Although, honestly, these are not my favorites as far as the pirate ships are concerned. The RBR's crew, however, may be one of my favorites ever to find themselves on one ship. What's more Cap'n Roger and Ironhook in the same set? Sweet. It's just a shame that the ship itself is a bit below standards, if you know what I mean.