Fluyt

A Monkey Island theme would be great (mainly the first 2 games). You could have the Sea Monkey, Le Chuck's ship, Captain Dread's ship, the Scumm Bar, Stan's Previously Owned Vessels (and also Previously Owned Coffins), Elaine's Mansion, Cannibal Village etc., plenty of set options. And maybe a Final Fantasy or Zelda theme.

I like them all 3, but the spaniards are probably my favourites, despite only owning 6 of them (4 soldiers, 1 red admiral/commander/whatever and 1 green admiral/commander/whatever).

I think the Black Seas Barracuda was called Dark Shark in the UK, if I recall correctly. Don't know in what other countries it is called Dark Shark, or which countries officially knew it as Black Seas Barracuda.

Maybe someone who doesn't really want to sell his army, unless he gets this ridiculous price for it, so he can buy an army twice or trice the size.

Well said, so true . I can't even believe some people would choose BB over RBR (even thought it is regarded as one of the lesser ships of the original pirate line (I actually like it), it is a lot better than BB), let alone choosing BB over BSB.

In the pics it shows "only" 585 soldiers, maybe the pics on BS show the rest. Very impresive army, great find. Seems some of the "governors" have a pirate torso, and not every minifig has red epaulettes.

Very solid set. 5 minifigs and plenty of weapons to go around, adding up to great playability, what more could you want? (aspecially from a set this size) Only I would have liked another cutlass, a musket (instead of 1 of the pistols) and for 1 of the pirates to have another head, but those things are no big deal, it is still a lot better than sets nowadays.

The original pirate line also had a lot of new parts & prints. Like (not a 100% sure on all of these, they're from the top of my head): New pieces (back then): Ship bow piece (large/small) Ship stern piece (large/small) Ship middle section (large/small) Many different sails Rag wrap Bicorne Tricorne Islander hair Islander headgear accesories Epaulettes Shako Gun Pistol Sabre/cutlass Shark Peg leg Cannon Cannon cariage Mast (4 different parts) Rigging (long/short) Crow's nest/mast platform Rowing boat Paddles Crocodile Hook hand Ship's wheel Anchor Compass Backpack Lattice windows Canoe Palm tree (like 5 parts (2 types of palm leaves)) New prints (back then): Heads (major one, since it went from smiley faces to totally different prints) Flags Parrot Torso's (and islander legs) 4 printed baseplates 4 wall pieces Okay, not all where present in the "first wave" of pirates, and some where (later) used in other lines, but still a fair amount where. And no stickers on initial release (only stickers that where ever in the pirate theme where the canoe stickers I think).

Actually, I've experienced the opposite, most of my classic pirate sets I bought 2nd hand where cheaper than they where when they where originally released (but of course misb would be more expensive), and also cheaper than sets of comparable size today (like I got all 3 of my broadside's brig for like 7 euro's or less, while a set like kraken attakin' would probably be 10 euro's, while it has less minifigs etc.). Add to that that classic pirates sets (the full line, I think 1989-1998) are much better than the new pirate sets (well, maybe not CBC, but the rest are better, only 2 new sets I kind of like the design of are soldier's arsenal and the fort +the new minifigs are awesome).

I'd like to have every different torso/head in it (in the form of minifigs of course)+ a telescope, so I don't have to buy the sets, which I don't want. For the rest I don't care. But judging from what was in the castle advent calendar (which was great), they won't put in that many minifigs. Maybe admiral, soldier/luitenant, admirals daughter, pirate wench (or 2 other female minifigs which haven't been seen yet), brickbeard and 2 pirates, maybe a skeleton. And including some small animals/weapons/accesoires. But I think we haven't seen most minifigs that would be in it yet. Most (or all) sets are released in america, save a few promo's/exclusives (which there are more than abundant of made specifically for the u.s.). The rest of the world (unfortunately) would have more worries about sets not being available.

Finally!, a review of this great set It really is awesome, so many minifigs and features, and the ship is huge. Glad I got one a couple of months back . It's imperial flagship (not armada ), the other set is 1788 - pirate treasure chest. I didn't know this piece was fairly rare in the blue colour (but that could be due to me having one from 1788 since my childhood). The yellow latticed panes are also rare (only in this set and IF), as well as the green "cannonflaps", I think they only came in this set. This ship lacking compared to BB, seriously?, The only ship lacking compared to BB is the CBC, and maybe RR. And I prefer Black Seas Barracuda, Skull's Eye Scooner, Imperial Flagship and Red Beard Runner (in that order) over the Caribbean Clipper. But that's just my opinion.

Wow, that's some great army building auctions, I wish I had such large armies. That's actually 9 rare torso's, 5x "steve", 3x "anchor chest tattoo pirate" and 1x that adventurers torso on the lower right (also quite rare I think).

Really?, TLG finally learning?, that's great to hear Thanks for the info . Yes I know the euro is worth more than the dollar, and it has been for a long time. But TLG seemed to think the dollar was worth more, so I asumed they still used wrong exchange rates (it used to be that a set in $'s could be twice as cheap as a set in €'s, like the TRU exclusive indy plane). Luckily they've seemed to change to more accurate exhange rates .

Change the $ sign with a € sign, add 10% to 20% and you're pretty close. Only the impulse sets might be 3€. TLG still doesn't use the actual exchange rate (or they're mixing up $ and € values).

Different types of weapons (swords, guns, cannons), hats, a globe, new hull for smaller ships (slightly larger than the cutter).

I liked the old one better (for pirates that is), you can see the sea at least. The "new" one is the map from Henry Jones' grail diary, so not very "piratey".

If you search well, I think the price would probably be lower, if you do not take shipping costs into account. But it will take some time and effort. The sails would probably the most expensive, next would be the hulls (or instructions if you want them), the rest should be fairly cheap I think, since there aren't really rare pieces in BSB as far as I know. I'm not sure on the prices, but you could check http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18219 to get an estimate for how much they where sold. Why not use BL's inventory btw?

Soldiers fort, BB is more overpriced than the fort. So get BB on sale and get the fort now +you could get some smaller sets with it because it is 50$ cheaper.

I have: ,that's it

Yes, I knew that , but it was kinda strange to not include one, because it did have a rudder, which seems like it can't be used by the crew of the RR as it is now (and since every other pirate/imperial ship has a ship's wheel, even the CBC which is the same size). But not including a wheel was a better choice than not including anchors in some ships.

That's because they're so awesome (well, maybe except CBC) RR didn't even have a ship's wheel, next to not having an anchor, it did have a compass though. I own those 3 ships: BSB and SES, yes they had anchors, RBR (and RR, CBC, IF and the new ship BB), no, unfortunately not (and I live in the Netherlands). I don't think that differed per country. Nope, no anchor (according to bricklink and peeron, I only own the original 6289)

RBR, IF, RR and CBC didn't have an anchor either I think.

But there's a fair amount of shady/suspicious characters around.

Not really, if so, PotC was already a rip-off, if you can call it that, from monkey island. But it's basically a cliché in a pirate story, like a lot of recurring elements.

Good article But I'm not too fond of the "new pirates" line, it's a bit overrated, just because it is a comeback of pirates. The new line only ranks average for me, and that's mostly because of some great new accesories (telescope for example) and awesome minifigs. The design of the sets are a bit of a letdown, they seem a lot more "<insert that tiresome argument>" (not really because of large parts, although there are more of those than with the original pirates), but more the overall feel/design, I allmost get a "4+ feeling" by looking at some of them. Maybe I'll get a few of the impulse sets and cannon battle, but the rest I'll get from BL, I hope, since the prices are simply ridiculous (I hate it when they rip people off, just because they haven't been released worldwide yet), "steve" and "anchor chest tattoo pirate" are allmost cheaper, and they're much rarer, or they will be at least when new pirates are released in more countries. Just like the trolls/orcs where more expensive than black falcons and crusaders, ridiculous.