Mister Phes

Eurobricks member NathanR brings us some nifty creations which depict an assortment of vehicles and spacecraft from the classic Thunderbirds TV series. He's submitted them to LEGO Ideas so to support and explore them further, Thunderbirds are GO in the LEGO Space Forum!

I just conducted a quick search of eBay and here are what appear to be the covers - so the second cover is the one you've acquired, @kelceycoe?

Yes, indeed these newer sets have indeed kept up with contemporary building trends however, for me that's not enough to justify rehashing what's been done before. I'd rather see these techniques applied to design concepts and thematics which haven't been previously explored. A while back we were discussing possibilities for new pirate sub-themes and we arrived at Merchants protected by the Haven Guard from the Smugglers. Based on that brief description those names probably don't seem that appealing, but each sub-theme explored concepts previously unused in LEGO Pirates. The Merchants for example were influenced by the Dutch West India Trading Company and expanded upon what was seen in 6277 Imperial Trading Post to offer a range of non-military sets... for the pirates to plunder! I found those throwbacks too blatant... The Brick Skull had already been done twice so it was time for something new. But obviously children ages 7-12 were the intended market for those sets so they would most likely be unaware of any throwback.

Many people do that, it's quite normal. Once upon a time I did the same myself, but over time I came to realise I should at least provide a degree of evidence to back my statements, rather than share assumption or speculation. I completely agree with you there. However, back in 2009, there hadn't been any new SYSTEM Pirate sets released in 12 years! There was a rather obtuse 4+ Pirate theme released during 2003 and some Duplo Pirate sets released during 2006. It seemed like the LEGO Group was deliberately skirting around what AFOLs wanted - more SYSTEM style pirate sets! So these sets targeted at a preschool audience helped lower expectations when the 2009 sets were released. We were just happy we were finally getting something closer to the original Pirates. Although, in my opinion, I thought the 2009 sets were a decent return to form, it's more the 2015 sets which felt too derivative because they rehashed too many of the same ideas. However, I will give an honourable mention to 70409 Shipwreck Defense as that set did something with the shipwreck concept which hadn't previously been done in Pirates.

Thank you for sharing, Kelceycoe! How did you acquire your copy?

Ahhhhh... the "good old days!" People driven by nostalgia look back fondly at their childhood memories of a toy, forgetting the aspects they dislike while only focusing on the positive, creating a somewhat artificial bias. But you've got a point, the contemporary is as rarely accepted by older generations and that was no different 30 years ago. However, 30 years ago there were significantly less AFOLs, because, until LEGO forums became popular in the mid 2000s, it wasn't really socially acceptable for adults to admit (even to themselves) they had an interest in LEGO. So there would have a been far less whining as well.

Based on managing an AFOL LEGO Pirates Forum during the release of the 2009 and 2015 LEGO Pirate sets, it did not seem the majority of AFOLs felt they were laughable. In fact, the 2009 pirate sets were welcomed enthusiastically for the most part, I recall the biggest complaint was the palm trees because they were reduced to a couple of pieces. The sets themselves however, were mostly praised. But unfortunately, the 2015 sets didn't have the same impact because the LEGO Group more or less rehashed well used concepts, albeit into flimsier structures. Still, I don't recall anyone describing the sets as laughable, it was more a case of being less satisfied.

It just so happened to be a child throughout the 80's so I can account my from my own personal experiences. Back then, there was no Internet or public forum to express opinions about toys, beyond schoolyard discussions. If you didn't like a toy, you'd just forget about it rather than complain about it to everyone. From my observation, the children of 80's did not have any disdain for LEGO Pirates, they didn't know any different so they didn't have expectations like AFOLs do. However, in the early 2000's I met someone a decade older than me who was interested in LEGO. In the 80's he would have been a teenager, so he developed his LEGO interest in the early 70's. He kept telling me he hated the direction LEGO had taken in the 80's with the themes and their "defined" pieces. He much preferred the older sets which were entirely composed of bricks, rather than fabricated elements like castle walls and palm leaves. So yeah, maybe tafkatb has a point, adults at the time may have indeed complained about Pirates, or any of the contemporary themes of the late 80's, just as my friend did. But this is merely speculation, without travelling back in time and conducting a survey, it's very difficult to ascertain the opinion of the majority.

Eurobricks member DK_Titan brings us the LEGO Castle of Captain Sabertooth, complete with a 4K video exploring every facet of his creation, which is particularly helpful in demonstrating the lighting effects when it gets dark! Discover the illuminating wonder of Captain's Sabertooth's castle right now in the LEGO Pirates Forum!

Be it this one?

Thank you for sharing, Jamesster! The animation is entertaining enough but the soundtrack... particularly the voice acting is very obnoxious! I couldn't watch an entire series of this!

Key ring would imply just a ring without any chain or appendage, like this... What's pictured below on the left is technically just a variation of a key chain... albeit made of cheaper materials. Although, "key ring" and "key chain" are often used interchangeably in some regions..

Besides, the name? Is there any difference between the two?

Yes, he's a character from LEGO universe, who became captain of the Black Seas Barracuda, after Captain Roger/Red Beard. His original character design was based on Ironhook... Of course not - that would be too easy! Well, actually, I did consider merging these two topics at some point, but for now just seeing where this one goes.

Is now a good time to mention Captain Jack Knife?

It's unfortunate but since he was offering his services freely we cannot expect too much from him.

That's brilliant - thanking ye kindly! I shall review these sources in the near future.

I've only seen photos of the other key chains but I think I've got of couple of these 852544 - LEGO Pirate Captain Keychains somewhere...

This forum needs a lot of things... Once upon a time we had crew maintaining the indices and moderating the forum properly. But I got busy for two years and have only returned in the past month to discover no one is manning the ship! Not sure what happened to everyone else at this point. So at the moment, it's just me managing the forums and I don't have time to even look at the indices right now because all of my resources are focused on a very big improvement to the forum's design...

Thank you for bumping these threads TalonCard and keeping the discussion alive. However, not to undermine the good work Kelceycoe is doing, I'm wondering if we need individual topics for each issue of the magazine. Perhaps, we could consolidate all discussion of LEGO Maniac Magazines in the one topic, rather than having a dedicated topic like Lego Mania Magazine Winter 1994 Issue Found [Pics] which probably won't get a huge response. But this is by no means criticism towards your efforts Kelceycoe, you're doing a fine job, it's more of a forum management issue in determining what will yield the best discussion.

He must have discovered it was a larger undertaking than he originally anticipated. How many pages did he get scanned?

The first post would have a lot more value to forum users if it acted as an index to everything it refers to - a present its just a list many of references many people won't be familiar with. However, when it does link to some content it can be very useful For example, I wasn't aware of Bo'Sun Will's Activity Book until just now - so that's very helpful!

Yes, interesting how old topics can become relevant again.,, Anyway, for those who haven't been following the forum, a discussion about Ironhook has emerged in Official Pirate Names (1989-1990 line) topic from this post onwards.