Banjo

Fascinating idea... did anything ever come of this? Given the 2015 Pirates theme contains no monkeys at all (seriously?), and even more surprisingly no "normal" sharks (outside the limited-edition promo "anniversary" set or the Juniors set with the "old" shark with unpainted eyes), I think some kind of add-on pack would sell really well now. A way for kids to buy a pack containing a shark and a monkey, maybe bundled with a crab, some gold/treasure and maybe even a mermaid or skeleton minifig would be great and wouldn't require any new parts to manufacture.

Was the movie not expected to be a success? That surprises me to hear! I went in thinking it was a "given" that a new JP movie after all these years would do at least quite well? No? Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to have more Lego dinosaurs... although I'm only recently getting back into Lego "big time" now, I did get the Dino sets when they came out (wish I'd bought more than one of each now, but I didn't know how Lego "worked" back then in retiring sets so fast!) and loved them... they reminded me of my childhood playing with Dino Riders toys! I just find the disconnect between the Lego JW sets and the actual film content genuinely strange, given that I can get a wonderfully source-accurate yet still kid-friendly Mos Eisley Cantina, Slave I, or even Arkham Asylum! Given what you said about the non-Lego toyline, I wonder if ANYONE making JW toys got to see the film in advance, or had to rely on the obvious ("it will have Chris Pratt on a motorcycle, 2 kids in a sphere, and the following dinosaurs...") to design their products? That would make sense as to why many characters are missing from the Lego sets and several vehicles are based on "creative license" to say the least. :)

Thanks, Poltergeist! Yes, I am stupidly excited about returning to this myself! Even with limited time due to an early start for work, I *still* spent last night building my smaller, newly-bought 2009 sets: "Cannon Battle", "Soldier's Armoury", and "Kracken Attackin"... such FUN! I'd heard that the older cannons didn't fire, so was pleased to discover that was obviously a pre-2009 "issue" (though does that mean my BSB will need replacement cannons when I open it?). On building the 2009 sets so far, I find it interesting how much the 2015 Pirate sets feel like a "re-release/updating" of these sets, though, compared to being totally different like the 1980's sets I remember as a kid (e.g. BSB, that neat baseplate-mounted Imperial "fortress" I remember owning, etc.). Is that normal these days for Lego themes beyond things like updating a popular licensed icon (e.g. Star Wars X-Wing) or very standard item (e.g. police station or fire station)? In any case, I had enough fun with those sets that I'm now off to buy "Shipwreck Island" and "Brickbeard's Bounty" if I can find them too! I still really want that 2010 Imperial Flagship but when I saw those prices... yeah, that might have to wait a bit! :( Sorry to bombard you far more veteran Pirates fans with "rookie" (I'm betting) questions, but I was wondering: 1) Are any of the much older 80's-90's sets *really* worth tracking down, especially the smaller ships? At a glance, I personally find the few I've seen (like the white "Armada" ones) pretty crude looking, but I'd really like a smaller vessel that fitted in okay beside the newer ones and the BSB if something nice like that existed. 2) As I mentioned before, am I going to want to "fix" my Brickbeard's Bounty's rigging when I get it? I've read it's rather wobbly and looking at pictures, it looks rather awful (flexible tubes?) compared to the Brick Bounty's design. I just want to know if I should earmark a set of masts from a second 2015 Brick Bounty for the job! :)

Thanks, Cullmancreations! It's not just back into Lego, but back into Lego Pirates that excites me the most here. I already adored the few licensed SW and LOTR sets I had, and (as mentioned) everything about Alien Conquest, but that's all "new stuff" to me; "modern Lego" clearly designed at least in part for "adult fans". Lego (System) Pirates is something *so* memorable from my childhood that it feels extra special to be building these again. :) I suspect I'll end up paying too much for a boxed Flagship, given my afore-mentioned past "used" experience and how frankly amazing it looks... but the PotC ones, since I have no real attachment to the movies other than "they were fun", so would gladly just get parts or good condition sets... I now kick myself for not picking up the last PotC ship when I saw it in shops here a couple of years ago! If I do get the Brickbeard Bounty, though, from the images I've seen of it I am *very* tempted to swap the sail/mast construction with the one used for the current Brick Bounty (as I picked up a spare of that ship cheap)... would that solve the 2009 ship's most glaring "issue" and thus make it worth sailing alongside my BSB and BB?

I bought the JW sets recently, but before I'd seen the movie. After finally seeing it though, I now have to say I'm unusually disappointed with the Lego sets here. With every other licensed set I've bought (Star Wars, LOTR, etc.), I've not felt the same level of "that seems rushed/lackluster" that I do with these and I can't help but wonder why. The dinos are great, but the minifig selection is IMO shockingly terrible: no Zara, no Lowery, no Vivian, no Nick the security guard even! Yet we get several unnamed "vets" who have nothing to do with the actual movie?! A "T-Rex Tracker" that belongs in the previous Dino line and again is totally unrelated to this film? A JP1 style Jeep in the wrong colours? A Dilophosaurus also totally absent (okay, I'm not complaining there really, since it's my favourite figure of the sets). :( For all these odd inaccuracies, I can only assume Lego actually had to work off concept art and maybe a rough script this time rather than the actual movie (the fact the iRex is white, as dialog indicates in the movie but far more "grey" in the actual movie, is a big pointer to this). Sure, I'd have loved a "Mosasaurus Arena" set too, but even just the sets we got could be more accurate with no change in size/cost. Give us an alternate Claire without her jacket on (pink tank top) instead of the nameless "vet" with the flare in the T-Rex Tracker set, and replace the silly big vehicle with the ACU troop truck and/or Claire's Mercedes 4WD from the actual movie. Give us that hapless security guard (Nick) who got eaten instead of another "vet" in the iRex Breakout set and/or Lowery. Make the JP1 Jeep the correct colours! Put a beanie on the nameless guy in the raptor pen set and make it the "rookie" guy who nearly got eaten... or give us Hoskins in THAT set (more appropriate) and use his spot in the T-Rex set for a Lowery or Vivian minifig. Lego is usually so fantastic with getting things right and quality control that such inaccuracies here in a big, brand new license just seems disappointing to me. I'm genuinely interested in the story behind why this is the case, especially the generic minifigs. Heck, even the polybag for this theme is glaringly wrong (that's not a Gallimimus by any stretch of imagination). I would LOVE the instructions or even LDD files to Bricklink and build these myself! I actually bought myself the Lego JW game and the whole time couldn't stop thinking how much I wanted to build that JP1 Responder or JP2 Hunter! In fact, so many of those "models" in the game had me thinking "I'd buy that for real in a heartbeat", especially the vehicles and awesomely "Lego-accurate" dinos like the Gallimimus, Stego and Pachy! Lego, why can't I give you money for those figures? :(

Thanks. :) And I think I already know when I ask myself "what's the point of spending all that on something and then shutting it away in a cupboard?" It's not like I'd ever sell it, anyway! :) But maybe I will take photos. Besides, I can't wait to crew it with the new 2009/2015 minifigs; seeing those old "classic" faces on the box seems almost odd now, given they were all we had when I was a kid.

Hi everyone! I've posted a few times sporadically here, but mostly just lurked... but now I want to take a more active part so I thought I'd take the time to make a proper "hello" post (though not as long-winded as my other new post in the Pirates section!). Short version: I'm an Aussie in my late 30's for whom Lego was a huge part of their childhood, but drifted away from it into my own "dark age" until a few years ago. A random buy of a Heroica game set got me curious and interested to buy and build a few other random "regular" sets out of nostalgia, but it was the then-new Alien Conquest theme that made me fall in love with Lego all over again; so *fun* and (for me) mindblowingly different from what was around when I was a kid! After that, I discovered my childhood dream of "Lego Star Wars" actually existed, and the LOTR line was just coming out... and the rest is history. I now own *far* too much Lego at my age, but I love it as much as I did when I was eight years old! Glad to see that I'm not the only "big kid" who feels that way... not by a long shot! :)

... excitement! (seems my topic title was too long!) I'm a longtime lurker at Eurobricks, pretty much the only Lego site I visit. At 37, I'm old enough to have had Lego pirates ("Classic Pirates") as a memorable part of my childhood... I only had the earliest sets they made, but one of my favourite Lego sets was the "big pirate ship" (which I only now know was the "Black Seas Barracuda"). Like many others, once I'd got older, my Lego remained in an old chest and was moved around from house to house, to finally the garage, and left there, forgotten. I came out of my Lego "dark age" several years ago thanks to Heroica and Alien Conquest, two themes I discovered by chance and that made me fall in love with Lego all over again. I've bought other sets since, but when Lego released the 2015 Pirates wave I was hit with a shocking amount of nostalgia. Buying them, building that pirate ship (the "Brick Bounty"), assembling "bluecoats" with the backpacks and seeing those shark and cannon pieces just brought back *so* many memories for me. Even though I felt the sets were slightly underwhelming compared to some of the recent elaborate modern sets I'd bought from other themes (Star Wars, AC, Galaxy Squad, LOTR), it was nonetheless amazing to have brand new Pirate Lego in my adult hands! Of course, it didn't take long for me to discover that I'd missed out on a whole ton of older Pirate Lego stuff since I was a kid... I was so sad especially that I'd not come out of my "dark age" earlier to discover the Imperial Flagship, the even older Islander and Spanish sets and even the impressive ships of the POTC line. :( Though many of those were likely too old, rare or expensive to track down, I knew I needed more Pirate Lego than the current sets, so I set out to see if I could at least get hold of some of the 2009 "Pirates II" wave. Well, thanks to the miracles of Bricklink, yesterday I opened up several parcels to reveal good-as-new, mint-in-box Loot Island, Kracken Attackin', Cannon Battle, Pirate Survival, Soldier's Fort, and Battle Pack, as well as the 2011 (I think?) standalone Battle Pack. The "collector" in me feels rather guilty opening these wonderfully well-kept old sets up (is that odd?), but so far I've had *such* fun building those I have. I do wonder now though if I should have done some kind of "review/unboxing", from a less typical perspective, or at least taken photos? Regardless, it's so interesting to see the improvements and changes in the 2015 sets compared to these, particularly as many of the new sets are somewhat "updates" of the 2009 ones. I'm not sorry I got the older sets, though... the castaway minifig in Loot Island is my favourite Pirate figure so far, and having only ever owned "bluecoats" as a kid, the attraction of completely new "redcoats" was huge enough that I've ended up getting doubles of some of the smaller sets just to "army build" them and pit them against my 2015 bluecoat forces! :) Now I'm strongly thinking about tracking down the last couple of 2009 sets, including the ship ("Brickbeard's Bounty"), though I'm not sure if it will be worth the expectedly-high price; from what I can see, the 2015 "Brick Bounty" is actually very similar but superior in most ways (especially sails/masts/rigging). I would *really* like to get that Imperial Flagship... but I don't know if I have much of a chance nowadays. Do other Pirates fans here know if it's as expensive and rare to find (boxed) as I anticipate? Oh, and yeah, I got all these "MISB" even though I'm building not reselling them, because early on in my emergence from my "dark age", I thought it would be cheaper to buy "used" sets I'd missed, only to discover that nearly every time what I bought was in worse shape than the remains of my own childhood Lego, so I decided that it was worth spending the extra to meet my own (probably excessive) standards of quality... as well as to best recapture the feeling of opening a "brand new set" even if it's from many years ago. The downside is obviously that I'm already a lot poorer now! :( Finally, for those who've bothered to read my excited rambling this far (thanks!), I got another parcel today that made me feel like I was eight years old all over again. I didn't know Lego did "re-releases", but it seems they DID re-release my beloved childhood favourite: the "Black Seas Barracuda"! So yeah, I bought that too for probably way too much money, and now I'm looking at that gorgeously retro, sealed box and wondering if it's considered a crime in the eyes of Lego fandom to open her up and revisit my childhood by building that beautiful baby...? :) (sorry for the long post!)

Thanks so much for sharing this, Jamie! I recently got hold of a reproduction of this set and built it today. When the instruction printing gave me some trouble (black on black plates!) I used your lxf to figure out which parts went where. However, while doing so, I noticed a couple of minor errors in your lxf (I cross-checked with the Bricklink and Rebrickable's parts lists to make sure my set was indeed the correct one), which I fixed and have uploaded here in case others would like to use it too. I hope this doesn't tread on any toes, but I just wanted to make sure anyone else attempting to build this had the best and most accurate chance to do so. IMO, nobody should have to pay ridiculous eBay prices to get a fun little set like this (from an amazing movie, too)... and I *hate* "event exclusive" anythings due to how unfair they are to those who can't travel half the world just to grab a toy giveaway! Hopefully the attached lxf version is correct now, but anyone should feel free to let me know if not, as I didn't pull Jamie's model completely apart to check every single part colour (that was where most of the small corrections were needed). The corrected version is still 141 bricks even after swapping out some wrong parts, which (as Jamie said) should be correct after factoring in Rocket's microfig parts. P.S. Though I've "fixed" it now, I'll admit that I actually preferred Jamie's use of trans blue studs for the engines instead of the "proper" trans red ones! rockets_warbird_fixed_v2.lxf

I just found a bug that prevents an official build: When trying to build official model 7066 (Earth Defense HQ) you cannot place the top two red cones (6188) on each "missile pod". It seems to think that placing 2540 above it prevents adding the top two flick fire missiles on each "pod", but in the real set, it doesn't. To reproduce this error, open the lxf from here and you'll get the "4 bricks have not been placed properly" error. Try and place the bricks, and it won't work. I'm pretty sure this bug wasn't present in at least some earlier versions of LDD?

Thanks!!! Is that the only colour change, though? Aren't the guns black and the round yellow ADU logo parts different from the original red version too?

Thanks for the reply. Lego's online store, you mean? Sadly, I checked my Australian store and they don't seem to sell the magazine. I don't know if it is possible to order from another country's Lego store, is it? Or do you mean physical brick and mortar 'Lego stores' owned and run by TLG? Never seen one of those in this country! Aren't they only in Europe? I think there might have been one at some point in NSW but that's interstate for me. :( Will also try emailing the publisher to find out if their postage is not an error, as it cerainly seems like one!

I've never attempted this via Bricklink before... three questions before attempting, since I LOVE this ADU mech! 1) Does anyone have the parts list in the correct ADU colours shown here rather than the red version? 2) Are the instructions available anywhere or do I just use/reverse-engineer the LXF file? 3) If I wanted to build Vynsane's amazing alternate version, can I use LDD to create a parts list for Bricklink?

Thanks again for the FANTASTIC feedback and advice, everyone. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to comment and help me with this decision. So... guess what I ordered tonight? :)

I've just discovered the existence of this publication and was interested in a specific issue. However, when I tried to order it from the publisher's website, they want to charge me $40 shipping since I'm in Australia! That's frankly INSANE for a single magazine! Has anyone from outside the US (I presume that's where it's published, as it was the default currency) or in Australia specifically been able to buy issues of this magazine without paying ridiculous postage costs? I know I can buy a PDF of the issue to avoid postage, but I really wanted a physical issue (#17) for my Alien Conquest collection. Obviously I will have to go the digital route if there is no other way to buy these at a sensible price, though. Is there another site that sells issues?

Thanks again for the input, folks! Will be ordering tomorrow... now wish me luck building the thing! :D

I saw a Falcon UCS for sale for $4000 yesterday and I laughed. I can't think of ever wanting any set THAT much. It's actually what put the Death Star in perspective for me as "affordable" by comparison, however! I actually really like the "doll house" style Lego sets; the Haunted House was one I debated due to price for a while but adore, and I really want Orthanc! As much as I like the vehicles as display pieces, my childhood loves the diorama potential of the "playsets" like Jabba's Palace, Rancor Pit, Hoth, etc. The SSD is my second-favourite SW ship but I can justify the price of the Death Star for all the figs, bits and "playset features" far more than a static (giant!) ship with almost no interior, I have to say. Plus, I'm a pretty hardcore OT-only fan myself (the PT actually is what got me OUT of Star Wars! LOL!) so anything current (2012+) and OT-related has been bought already. :) Now I wish they'd re-release updates of classic stuff like the Blockade Runner and Slave I! I didn't notice that some of the figs had pupils... that's added good news, especially since I already have the updated Leia and can likely swap out Luke's head for a later one if it sucks. Just checked more pics and Palpy looks awesome! Plus, love that Royal Guard! :) Thanks for reassuring me, folks! Will be ordering tomorrow as planned! Especially since my favourite SW ship is the Lambda shuttle, and my one Lego regret is missing out on buying THAT set. :(

OMG! That baby bug is sooo cute! :) Great review, REALLY makes me want this set! Am I wrong, or does the human vehicle here look a lot like one of the concept models/artworks I saw for Alien Conquest that never got developed/released (dark blue and orange "crawler" tank with multiple guns and "crew pods")?

I think this is going to be my favourite set of the line (I love those brick-bugs almost as much as the mech!). One question: what is the blue mech in the three-mech-photo with the "Evergreen" caption? The mech on the far right with what appears to be a sword? Is it from a commercial set or a custom build? I want one!!!

Thanks for the replies! The "compact size" was something I value! It actually reminds me of the (rather big!) micro machines Death Star I bought on a whim after arguably outgrowing such toys, because it seemed cool. The Lego one seems even cooler, though. Very minor complaint: as a huge fan of the Death Star/Imperial Trooper uniform, I wish we got the new custom helmet seen in the TIE Fighter set, instead of the old "make-do" one! 16 hours?! Wow, that does sound awesome! That's why I find it very hard to buy the Executor, as amazing as it looks fully built (and I REALLY want Dengar!); hours of nothing but grey plates just seems rather dull to me, I'm afraid. But the Death Star looks like real FUN to build! :) It shall be mine. Especially since, knowing my luck, I'd say "oh, I'll wait and see if it goes down further in price later in the year" and it'll finally be discontinued instead.

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, but I was strongly thinking of buying this but it's a HUGE investment, so I was hoping some other AFOL could help reassure me before I go ahead and drop the hammer... I only got back into Lego after buying Heroica and a couple of random on-sale Alien Conquest sets. I fell in love with both, especially AC, and now have a small armada of the line! I ended up buying the LOTR/Hobbit lines and a bunch of random City, Space Police II and Star Wars sets too, and have enjoyed them all (particularly the licensed stuff); Star Wars (original trilogy) has been massively nostalgic for me too, since I was a huge SW fan as a kid and remember making my own "Star Wars Lego" creations with space and knights back in the day... still amazes me to see how far Lego has come! But the Death Star... it looks pretty cool and detailed, but I've got limited space. I couldn't warrant something like the UCS Executor, X-Wing or Falcon price tags as I'd never keep them built. But the Death Star has enough "play value" and cool bits and pieces to make it a neat talking point and display rather than something that just hangs from the ceiling or sits on the table and might as well be a non-Lego model, right? I'd honestly sworn never to spend THAT much on a single Lego set, but I loved the look of it since I first saw it (and nearly had a heart attack at the price... remember I've been away from Lego for twenty-five odd years!) and have been debating buying it ever since. One other thing: I love minifigs, but notice that the ones in this set are the "older" designs... are they that bad compared to the new Lego Star Wars ones out now? I've bought every recent SW original trilogy set (Jabba's Palace, Y-Wing, Echo Base, etc.) but not tracked down the older ones as I've preferred the newer designs in most cases. The Death Star is an "old" design, though, that has just stuck around a long time (a rare thing for Lego it seems!). I've pretty much committed to buying it tomorrow, but am suddenly feeling a bit nervous, and hope I'm not making a big mistake... are there any happy owners of this set, especially those who are also Star Wars OT fans, who can reassure me that this is awesome and not a giant waste of money? :)

Sorry! Deleted and reposted in the correct forum... please delete this thread! (I can't seem to figure out how to delete a post, sorry)

Wow, that's pretty awesome! I bet it'll be a fortune in Australia, and I wish it came with more Orcs... but it's probably my favourite looking LOTR set they've made (much better than the spartan-looking (half a ) Black Gate set, IMO). Plus, Brad Dourif minifig = awesome! :)

Loving this series even more now I've built what I have! Not as much as I adored Alien Conquest (it's what got me back into Lego!) but it's great fun as as close to Aliens/Starship Troopers as TLG will ever go, I suspect. That mech looks awesome! If we're only getting two waves, I'll likely buy a second of each set, I think. At least that's one more wave than my beloved AC got! :( The one thing this theme really needs, IMO, is "battle packs" though. While I prefer the brick-built "bugs" to the bug minifigs, those awesome critters need to be available for army-builders, either in carded battlepacks (buggoid, mosquitoid, 2 humans and a robot?) like they did for AC, or the "handful of figs and a small build" (one for good guys, one for the bugs) like they do for the Star Wars line. Oh, and I'm STILL looking for the Star Slicer and Mini-Mech without luck. The polybag I can understand as those things are super-rare "ebay only" things it seems for Australians. But the Star Slicer being unbuyable from any local stores (brick and mortar or online), even Lego's own online store (!) is baffling to me... US, UK and even New Zealand have it listed to buy from Lego but not here?! Can any fellow Aussies who have the set suggest where I could buy one without paying a fortune in overseas postage?

As a HUGE Heroica fan, I'm sad that it seems the line has gone dead. I couldn't care less about Chima as a theme, but I like the microfigs and will probably buy a copy or two of that game to use them with my MOC Heroica stuff. Ditto for the LOTR game (it actually looks like a Heroica set, too!) though I'll get one to keep "whole" to play as well; I enjoyed the Battle of Hoth Star Wars game so hopefully the LOTR one is fun too (wasn't a fan of the Hobbit game, but again... more microfigs for Heroica!)