F1stzz

I've already seen a few presentations by various shops worldwide on Insta — not a single one yet has presented the set via splitting its modules apart & leaving it at that, so I rly have no idea why would those in charge of the whole thing in your local shop come up with this thought. Especially considering 10320 already has a couple of great display options initially that allow customers to explore pretty much everything in the set. How do they even imagine a general not-so-into-Pirates-theme public to guess the correct positioning & purpose of each module in both of the initial display scenarios if people haven't seen the pictures of the set beforehand or perhaps have never heard of & ain't familiar with the original Eldorado Fortress? Do they show at least some official promo pics for the set in your local shop, did they put a box nearby, something? Cuz if it just sits there split out with the only info available being a name/pricetag — I honestly don't even know what to say here

You mean they've flopped the product's presentation?

Oh, my bad, so it means "aged version" — makes perfect sense then Yep, they absolutely didn't.

How is this an "older version" if it's "continuing the story"? If it's the older version of Eldorado Fortress, then the storyline should rather be a prequel than continuation. Barracuda Bay was basically a story of 6285 that's got into the storm and was shipwrecked near an uninhabited island — this is indeed the next chapter of the BSB's adventures. I just wonder where did you get the info about 10320 being an older version of 6276, cuz in the manual you've provided the link to there's no additional information given that's not been already available & discussed (story wise, ofc). What I see in the manual is 10320 being talked about in the key of "Eldorado Fortress 30 years later" & 6276 being a prequel. Maybe I'm missing something here, Idk. The amount of photos & videos, & feedbacks in the coming weeks is gonna be massive I feel like I'm gonna be looking through those for months rly, as some of my local sellers have already placed the pre-orders at... ...around the $350-370 mark, lol If my local retailers are gonna do the same in the coming days, I guess the general customer in my region is screwed

The combo on the left doesn't effectively resemble a palm trees trunk, imo. I love what @evancelt suggested tho, I think these pieces could be more fitting to portray other kinds of trees like some old pines, willows maybe, that sorta stuff. But it might rather depend on the structure of the build itself, I guess, cuz the combo on the right looks just fine

Yeah, would've been cool, ngl Yup, somebody's already pointed at that mentioning the lipsticks on officers' faceprints. I mean, that's interesting, bcuz we have the exact thing you're talking about successfully implemented in this set: the female soldier minifig. She basically has nothing to give out her gender except the eyelashes, I believe. If TLG rly wanted to play this part the way you've suggested, they should've been sticking to the same formula they've chosen for the soldier minifig, right? Welp, I'm assuming it kinda wasn't exactly the way they wanted to do things here.

Check out the meaning of the term in detail, you'll get what I'm trying to say here. Well, Idk if it could be considered "lying" when trying to convince yourself that TLG actually had a valid higher reasoning behind f'ing up the white print (yet again), but there's certainly nothing good about the need to explain the "weak white" more than what it really is. This is what I call "justifying the obvious con": when people start to bring up whatever the reasoning they can get ahold of to talk themselves into liking a particular "meh" thing, which is clearly a flaw. But whatever, why am I even bothering — keep on rockin' dat caps, lad. First of all — that's not my problem you don't. It's yours. It became yours the second you've stated that "nobody agrees with me on printing", which could easily be proven wrong simply by looking through this exact page we're on and some of the previous ones in this thread. It's kinda weird to claim that "I'm making it up on the spot" when you have the evidence right before your eyes here & it'd take you an hour at max to check out all the 10320 reviews & convos, don't you think? Not to mention it's just a silly point to be made by a guy who "loves a good argument": "hey, bruh, there's a ~90% chance you've made this all up — not gonna check what people actually have to say about it, I'm out & you're ignored!", lol. It doesn't contradict anything I've said myself. This point was essentially made towards your suggestion that TLG f's up their prints on purpose in order to simulate the wear or for any other potential reason. I just told you what it is in fact, and if you have actually spent as much time & effort on following the convo & trying to receive the clear message as you've spent on redacting expletives, overusing caps & turning your posts into a barely readable mess — I think this discussion between us could've been a whole lot more adequate. If anything, I got my suspicions & conclusions solidified here with your responses & that weak 4ss rage quit of yours — gotta TY for that, I guess. Pirates gotta blast 'em guns from time to time — what's the "pirates life" without some good ol' tavern fight? No rumble's meant to last forever tho, cheers

It clearly shows, man, and I'd say you've succeeded Awesome, can't wait for it Actually excited for that one, m8, completely share your enthusiasm

There are literally couple of guys on this page alone who stated the printing issue is & was the problem all these years. Throughout the thread there are people who openly voiced their disappointment with the printing quality. Out in the wild there are hundreds of them: on Insta, YT, Twitter, Facebook — you name it. This is also applicable for lots of sets, not only 10320. Open your eyes — close the copium valve. I mean... That's kinda what I've said, innit? Except I didn't make anything up. I've quoted literally what you've said yourself, m8, and tried to explain to you why what you're suggesting is in long term a dangerous ground for customers to step on (we've already been walking on that ground for quite a while, but whatever). If simple & obviously customer oriented logic provided in an argument makes you feel offended — well, I apologize for that. Also, quick reminder: the fact that you feel offended doesn't mean you're necessarily right. I think we've already established the fact that it's not only me disliking this particular flaw, but after all — great for you if you enjoy its presence. Great for TLG as well, cuz they don't have to care much then. I just don't think it's great for general customers interests tho, but supposedly it doesn't matter a whole lot. The lesson here is learned well on my part, have no doubt.

Dude, are you rly sure u wanna get me started on this? You've said it'd be "weird" if prints on torsos would be "very white" (which is always a thing, ICYMI, when prints are made with high quality), because PLASTIC TOY SOLDIERS (!) aren't supposed to wash their uniforms every day. You're basically trying to justify the obvious printing defect (the one that company hasn't been trying to fix for years at this point) applying a real life example on a plastic collectible toy (which LEGO is, as I've been reminded several times in similar occasions) — the example that has nothing to do not only with LEGO, but with any collectible models in general. I just love how it's considered "inappropriate" to bring up some real life stuff while explaining the cons of any given product — but it's completely fine to do so when somehow the lack of quality is needed to be justified, lol. If we want to show "the dirty uniforms" — we're including this idea to the initial print design or, if it's not about LEGO, we're creating a model with dirty clothes as a part of its display. Degrading the quality of the print itself is not the way to achieve anything here. The "weak white" is not "TLG trying to imitate the degree of wear", sir — it's "TLG half4ssing the prints on collectible minifigures while making you pay the full price for 'em". The fact you're saying you "like the quality of the existing product" (which is flawed 100%), while trying to gaslight yourself & others into thinking that having defected prints can actually be great as it was somehow "planned & precalculated by the company" — it all just convinces me about my initial conclusion being correct. Such an attitude is indeed the very reason why TLG won't even consider making any efforts to fix the issue — the audience will always find 100+1 reason to justify their lazy arses. P R E C I S E L Y, mate. Now add a fact some AFOLs are willingly jumping in with dozens of explanations to why the white print, which should be perfectly white, looks like it became wet under the heavy rain (the latter could also be used as an explanation, lol) — and we can finally understand why the printing defect is a thing for like a decade now. People just get what they deserve, I suppose.

LMAO 🤣 This, ladies & gents, is exactly why TLG will never solve the printing issues — cuz it'd be weird for some to get a high quality product for their money :>

That one is highly deserved, mate, u can be sure about it Astounding work indeed That's a rly nice compliment to hear in return, for which I'm grateful, m8, TY Oh, I can totally see why you've chosen to follow this route, no problem there, as you've compensated big time with all the natural roping & still left the option open to implement the capstan without any crucial sacrifices or rebuilding needed to be made — that's an indication of a great design overall👌🏻 Yeah, man, THE SAILS Enjoyed everything about your description of the making process, as well as their appearance in a finished product Truly one of THE best looking sets of sails for BP I've seen in a while — you've really nailed it, buddy, those do look miles better than what TLG have provided us with back in the day Uh-huh, so it's basically 6 hulls long — aight, cuz my own BSB is exactly that as well! I have a MOC Your Bricks type of build, although I've upgraded mine to have a third, main, mast and I'm planning to replace the stern with the original 21322 design (already have some FINE instructions by Thrul which would help me achieve that: just imagine this build becoming a three-masted High Seas juggernaut ). Given all that I think I have a great understanding of the model's dimensions & how I could possibly work with it to push things even further in some ways Dude, these pics are giving me HUGE "BP vs Interceptor" vibes, lol, I love it One thing, tho — can I ask you to upload all the pics on Insta too? Wanna add 'em to my "Black Pearl ideas" library Thanks again for bringing such an awesome MOC to the table 👏🏻

A-A-AH, m8, she's finally made it to our harbour — and what a fine model she is I really appreciate what you've done with the stern to smooth out the transitions — looks more harmonious I just love the idea of this model taking the original 21322 BSB design and expanding pretty much endlessly on it in order to make the Black Pearl a great play & display set, couldn't thank you enough for choosing to follow this approach As I've said previously, the captain's cabin appearance both outside & inside is just wonderful, this is exactly how I imagined TLG executing it back in 2011, but oh well — took more than a decade for someone to finally make this one properly, so we could enjoy the looks of the cabin and play with it as well The design of the lanterns is lovely, I find it fitting not only for BP, but also for QAR MOCs, especially if used for recreating the bow lights QAR has 👌🏻 The way you've constructed the masts is what honestly makes me the happiest kid on the block, lol, cuz not only do they perfectly resemble the ones of the real BP, not only the whole thing uses moulded parts for the rope ladders (which I'm a huge fan of) — but the mast design itself represents the perfect blend between 21322 BSB & 4184, and if I see it correctly, with removing some of the top deck cannons it's possible to put a 21322 type of capstan either on the main mast or the front one I can honestly talk all day about everything that's worth an admiration in this build: the creativity behind the figurehead design, those cool railings, all the simple yet elegant staircases, THE SAILS, man, what are those even made of — they're drop dead gorgeous! The bottom line is, I personally consider this very model being THE best multi-purpose BP design to date, which achieves both displayability & playability in combination with truly recognisable aesthetics of the real ship (apart from it being "all black", lol ). Once I finally get to creating my own reimagining of 4184, I'll be 100% grabbing the instructions at the very least, possibly — the licensed copy of this model, and start from there. This is indeed the closest to what I was waiting for being a fan of LEGO playsets, lad, so all the cheers are yours P.S: what about the dimensions tho? What's the size of the whole thing? I can already suspect it being a one or couple hulls longer than 21322 BSB — but what about the height? 🤔

I'm not a jury, but I gotta say this Castaway's Raft remake is as close to the original design as it gets while bringing in a new colour palette & new parts just where it's needed to improve on the OG build (the mast is a clear example here) This is exactly how I imagined my own take on modernizing 6257 looking like, except I'd put some 1x1 round bricks in combination with 1x1 round plates & "tree stamp/wood log grain" patterned round tiles on top of the 1x4 log profile brick to enhance the detailing + probably put a cape cloth with holes & tattered edges from 2015 Soldiers Outpost in place of the regular white flags, but that's pretty much it, lol It really doesn't get any better than this in terms of faithfully recreating the original Castaway's Raft with a modern touch without completely reimagining the model, if we would've got this as a GWP nowadays the community would've been blown away 100%, so cheers for this one, m8

Gotta wait a bit for Tia Dalma's crabs to drag her in Excited beyond the moon, m8

The week's getting a whole lot more exciting

What parts exactly? I've heard people had cracks on dark brown hulls, which I'd consider a nightmare scenario given their aftermarket price

I have this kind of stuff on my mind, btw, with a whole platter of content dedicated to "old school stuff modernized" topic, such as custom minifigs for the "Golden Medallion" characters (& other named ones too), classic crews refreshed as well as some of the classic sets that didn't get an update yet, also something in the area of "what if 4184/10320 was designed by someone who has a clue?" & all that Definitely gonna take some time, finances &, say, proper conditions to make it all work out the best way possible, so when the time comes — hopefully we'd all be happy with the results

She's on her way, aye? Yeah, m8, whatever you've done with the original pic — the whole scene is highlighted much better on a new one, IMHO

At least we're gonna pay €215 for their efforts to set this record, aye

That explains a lot rly, wish you to deal with all the routine successfully & in time

Gotta say it straight — unfortunately, this interview turned out to be a waste of time, except for a question about the whole "skeleton reaching the letter in a crate" gimmick. And I find the answer to that one pretty underwhelming really, as it turns out these features are not even "easter eggs" as some were guessing. The crate with a letter, the whole canal or tunnel, whatever, underneath the Fortress & the skeleton that's stuck in it are all just there for the sake of being there. Such a waste, imo. Take out the skeleton and the pointless "letter in a crate" gimmick — and you'll have the whole tunnel's space to turn into a dungeon or a storage of some sort filled with goodies. All that's needed is to throw some gray plates on top of the azure ones to establish the floor and replace the inner rocky structure with some caged walls or arches to make the space visually & physically accessible. But hey, what do we know about designing 200+ bucks products efficiently anyway :>

It's just me being an over-the-top perfectionist rly, sry if that seemed a bit annoying Looking forward to more cool creations being mentioned here

TLG's jumped anywhere BUT ahead with their take on Eldorado Fortress, m8, actually making your idea much more worthwhile in comparison Quite frankly, 10320 looks like a parody compared to such a well thought out & advanced MOC like yours, lad, so heads up

Dude, I can tell your photography skills are fine, those are not the problem — lack of some proper lighting is tho While I agree with @Mister Phes on the absence of the actual "inn" here, I gotta say your MOC's layout reminds me of descriptions & depictions of Blackbeard's hideout on Ocracoke Island, which imo means you've managed to capture the Caribbean feel perfectly using a basic minimum of details — that's a great accomplishment in my eyes