TheLegoChronicler

Hello everyone! My name is Daniel (TheLegoChronicler). I recently relocated to Wilmington Delaware and am looking to start a new Lego User Group here. Have connected with some other AFOLs in the area and we are looking to start this coming SATURDAY AUGUST 23rd. To start we are going to meet at my house in Wilmington at 6:30. I am just off of 95 in the Baynard Square Neighborhood. I will be getting some Pizzas so you can come hungry. Our first meeting is going to be focused on introductions and talking about options for what we could do as a group. Feel free to bring a project or pictures of your collection/creation to share as well. All are welcome. If you are interested in joining us PM me for the address. So in summary: What: New LUG in Wilmington DE When: Saturday August 23rd @ 6:30 Where: Daniel's House in Wilmington Thanks all! ~Daniel

Came across this article about the old Lego themes. Found it interesting as it appears to be written by a literature student who is not an AFOL. He is starting an analysis of the Lego space factions from a story telling perspective. I wanted to share as I though some other AFOLs out there might be interested, especially those of us who are a bit older and can remember the days as far back as Blacktron I and Futuron when the factions got kicked off. Link is below: http://pendream.blogspot.com/

Saw a similar thread over at the Brickset Forum and it made me curious about everyone over here at Classic-Pirates. So to sate my curiosity I offer the following questions and my answers: Profession (i.e. how do you pay for your Pirate Lego purchases): Civil Engineer, I design water and wastewater systems. Age: 27 Significant Other? Yup, happily married to the love of my life and have 2 young Lego Pirate lovers. Does your significant other support your Lego Pirate habit? Thankfully yes, she is my biggest fan and has been known to offer some great suggestions for MOCing.

Was curious the other day what percentage of my Lego collection was from the pirate theme. My collection currently has 275 total complete sets in it of which 23 are from the pirate theme (all 12 ships and various islands, rafts and other smaller sets). Comes out to: 8.4% Made me wonder if that was about average or if I was abnormal, what percentage (approximately) of your collection is made up of pirate sets?

I salivated over this as a kid, thanks for the great review and pics!

Great work, was very impressed by how you were able to get the masts so tall. Very impressive!

Yeah I must confess that my affinity for the QAR is partially due to the modifications I did to it. I added a hold beneath the front deck, enclosed the captain's cabin and added a galley beneath the back in a manner similar to the Imperial Flagship.

As I have perused the various discussion forums I have been shocked at the, by comparison, scathing reviews directed at the QAR as oppossed to the affection which is lavished on the Brickbeard's Bounty. Is this true? Is the BB truly regarded by this community as being a better ship than the QAR? And if so why? As one who owns and has built all 12 of the official Lego ships I regard the QAR as being one of the better ships and the BB as much more in the middle of the pack. When compared to the QAR the BB is cartoony, has no front deck, has toothpicks holding up the sails, is smaller and contains far less detail. The only thing I see that is better is that the rear cabin is enclosed but its other deficiences outweigh that one plus in my mind. So I am curious, do you like the BB better than the QAR and if so why? Or have I gotten the wrong impression?

All 12 of the official Lego ships: Carribean Clipper Black Seas Barracuda Skull's Eye Schooner Renegade Runner Imperial Flagship (old version) Redbeard Runner Crossbone Clipper Armada Flagship Brickbeard's Bounty Imperial Flagship (new version) Black Pearl Queen Anne's Revenge

I just completed a project to modify set 4184 into a more movie accurate model. I felt that the rear of the ship as produced by TLC was sorely lacking in authenticity so I set out to see if I could, without adding any hull sections, modify the ship so that it looked more like how it appeared in the movie. The following pictures show my results, what does everyone think, an improvement? Not so much? The biggest issue with the factory model was the lack of the cantalevered windows around the back cabin with their decorative supports. I mimicked the movie look by adding windows and using black megaphones. While I was at it I added a walkway from the front of the ship to the back, extended the front deck so that I could add hatches and enclosed the deck to create a hold. The absence of a way to secure the anchor also bothered me so I rigged one of those up as well. I created my own instructions of the improvements so hopefully when my kids are old enough they will be able to recreate my work as I thought it thoroughly improved the ship. Feel free to check out my blog for a more detailed description and a couple more pics at www.thelegochronicler.blogspot.com

Yeah that piece was a bugger. My solution (which will again get me crucified by purists) was to create a sticker and apply it to a regular white panel piece. I used a drawing program and the "magic wand" tool to extract the image, scaled it and printed it onto clear sticker paper. Picture below shows the result. You can tell I used a sticker but the image itself looks great. Shoot me an email if you want to do the same thing and I can send you the scaled image.

I just finished adding a dream set to my collection by sourcing the parts for the long discontinued 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner. I was curious if anyone else had done this (I call it resurrecting a set) with the Skull's Eye or some other ship/set and what your experience with it was, specifically: 1. How much did it cost you? (I was able to beat the 1993 MSRP with the total project coming in at $116.53 in 2011 dollars which is the equivalent of about $79 back in 1993, not bad!) 2. Where did you get the parts? (For me it was eBay, Bricklink and extra parts from my collection) 3. Any special money saving tricks? (I painted a few parts as well as made my own canvass sails and flags which I felt came out really well although purists will have my head for replacing the plastic flag pieces with fabric) 4. Did you make any changes or additions to the set? (The Skull’s Eye is nearly perfect, however, I did feel it lacked a proper way to get from the front to rear of the ship so I added walkways on either side and railings in a manner similar to those which are included on the Black Seas Barracuda) 5. How long did it take you? (Between buying the parts, painting a few pieces and making the sails it took me about 2.5 weeks from idea to final product) I am in the process of writing a set of blog entries (www.thelegochronicler.blogspot.com) detailing how I did it if anyone is interested in knowing and, as this project was so successful, am going to do a simultaneous resurrection of the 5 remaining ships that are still missing from my fleet. The final product is shown below:

Having just acquired the Pearl and already having the QAR I must say that both have their advantages and if you can get both by all means do so (especially as we don't know when Lego may wait another decade or more to release more pirate sets as was the case prior to 2009!). If money is tight though I would consider the following: Black Pearl The best feature of the Pearl is the enclosed rear cabin (which is sorely missing on the QAR). However, due to the absence of a raised hull piece in the rear it is noticeably smaller than its counterpart and looks downright out of place when viewed next to the Imperial Flagship or Black Seas Barracuda. A fitting nemesis for the Brickbeard's Bounty perhaps but otherwise out out gunned. Queen Anne's Revenge The main detractor for the QAR is Lego sacrificed detail for size (the Pearl is a bit more balanced). The downside of this is that the ship feels incomplete, especially on the inside (where is the enclosed cabin and large front deck!). The upside is that it does not look hopeless to pit this ship against any of the classic ships or the more recent Imperial Flagship, especially if you have a spare cannon or two to arm the empty gun ports. My vote goes to the QAR as my favorite aspect of Pirate ships has always been their size, but if I had to actually sail on one I would pick the more realistic Pearl because who wants to ship out on a vessel with no place to get away from the wind and rain! The Lego Chronicler Check out my Lego Blog at www.thelegochronicler.blogspot.com

Hello, My name is Daniel, I am an adult AFOL living in Texas and would be very interested in joining the Classic-Piates.com team. Been collecting Legos for over 25 years now and Pirates are my favorite of all the Lego themes. I currently maintain my own Lego blog (www.thelegochronicler.blogspot.com) where I routinely write about a variety of Lego subjects including new releases, set reviews (which I also post on Lego's website under TheLegoChronicler as well), MOCs, modifications and more. Been doing Lego reviews for almost a year and the blog for over 6 months now and am therfore very familiar with the time requirements and have not found them to be a problem. Some potentially applicable (i.e. Pirate related) blog entires I have done are as follows: 1. Modification I did of the Queen Anne's Revenge 2. Reviews of two of the new Pirates of the Carribean sets: Queen Anne's Revenge, Whitecap Bay and The Mill 3. The start of my current project to ressurect the Skull's Eye Schooner I am great with english (used to be a writing tutor part time), am well over the minimum age and am familiar with a variety of word processing software both online and stand alone. Would love to join the team. Thanks! Daniel thelegochronicler@gmail.com