Dreamweb

Looks like a MOD has added a poll to this topic - that's splendid considering I wanted to add a poll in the first place, but somehow could not. I've noticed that when I use my home computer with Windows 8, many of the posting options are inactive (hyperlink icon and others, including the "add image" icon - I had to add all the images in the first post manually by typing the img tags). I guess I can't add a poll for the same reason, since I started a few polls in the past (on different operating systems) and they worked just fine. You're probably right, I often find describing minifig torso colours much harder than describing "normal" brick colours. Also, they sometimes differ considerably from the "default colour" if you will - just look at some yellow torsos for example.

Actually, 'squeezed' was the term that crossed my mind too while writing this review. It's hard for me to tell too... It's a light brownish-orangish colour... Nougat perhaps? I don't have much experience with this colour, but it might as well be nougat. As for the buttons and the rim around the lapels, they are of a more shiny-gold colour...

Recently I got 70409 Shipwreck Defence, that would be my second set of the new Pirates after the Brick Bounty... Hopefully not the last

I checked the review at Brickset and it looks like the guy who wrote it did indeed get a different face for the admiral. His looks just like the one in the instructions: Clearly different from the one I have: Which makes me wonder if the second face printing on that head is also different. I wonder how it happened that LEGO put a different head into the bag. Cool, looks like I got a unique set.

Thanks for the feedback! The sails ARE paper, not cloth. Acually I haven't seen cloth sails in LEGO sets in quite a while. Stll, I am hoping they will release a new ship for the bluecoats. Not neccessarily something as big as 10210 Imperial Flagship, in fact it can be smaller than the Brick Bounty - just put some more effort into the design this time please!

The Brickbeard's Bounty is the better ship overall, but not by much. Both have their flaws and advantages though. The Brick Bounty has an anchor, which is on the plus side, but summing up all the details of both ships I find it slightly inferior to the predecessor. Not to mention its lack of originality but I already covered that in the review. So, after much hesitation I voted for the Brickbeard's Bounty.

Here we go - this is my review of the flagship of the 2015 Pirate wave. The Brick Bounty, set number 70413. Let me begin by saying that I was pretty excited when I heard that a new Pirate series was to be released, more importantly - with a new ship. For each wave of Pirate sets, it's always the ship (or ships) that matter the most to me. But then, when I heard the name of the set which was way too similar to the 2009 ship, and I saw the preliminary pictures, then the final pictures, my excitement dropped somehow. It looks like rehashing of the same old ideas all over again - the name, the sails etc. Still, I am a fan of LEGO Pirates, and especially ships, so I had to get it anyway to see in person how much it is really worth (in my own opinion, of course). And to make my final judgement about the set. So, let's begin, I will tell you what I do like and what I do not, and in the end hopefully I will summarise my thoughts and impressions somehow. The box is pretty standard, quite big, but I do miss those much cooler boxes of early ships like the Black Seas Barracuda or Caribbean Clipper. At the back there are some close-ups of several fun features of the set. On one side we see some of the minifigs from this set (not all of them), the sawfish and the 1:1 image of the cannon. On another side which I did not take a photo of we have a smaller picture of the whole set. Here's what we have in the box - three middle hull sections without a bag, 6 numbered bags, one bag with no numbers and with large pieces inside, and another one with the sails, the instructions and the sticker sheet (only two stickers for the smaller windows, still I'm not a fan of those). A piece of cardboard inside this bag makes sure this does not fold or get damaged in any way. The instructions are in one thick book and I prefer this over several smaller books. The sails are paper which is pretty much LEGO's standard these days, unfortunately. I'll get back to the sails later. Here we have the minifigs, as seen from the front and the back. 4 pirates and 3 soldiers. It adds playability to the set, but a crew of 4 seems a bit too small for a ship this size, don't you think? The facial exp<b></b>ression of the last soldier indicates that his backpack must be quite heavy. Let me also add that the soldiers come in bag no. 1, two of the pirates are in bag 5 and the other two are in bag 6. Which is a good thing for us fans of old pirate sets in that it builds up the tension gradually - you don't see the updated version of our beloved captain Redbeard (if that's really him) until bag 5, you don't see the new bandana until bag 6. The admiral's head has two prints... ...but neither of them looks like the one in the instructions. Weird... Speaking of the instructions, on the final pages we have some close-up images of different features of the set, they are basically the same as at the back of the box. But why is the chef feeding the rat a HUMAN LEG? Seems pretty gross... We also get a boat for the soldiers and the new updated sawfish. The sawfish is great and I like the dark blue colour of the boat, but I must admit I don't like the small cannon at all. It looks way too futuristic. Well, at least it shoots 1x1 round plates and makes you look for them all around your room. A rightful compensation for placing a sci-fi gun on a pirate era boat. Well, let's move on and take a look at the ship, shall we? This is what it looks like after bags 1 and 2. Notice the four gold 1x1 round plates in the stern section. A few steps later they will be covered by plates, never to be seen again. Therefore I find it strange that they chose this rare gold colour for them, instead of something more common like black or grey. The ship after bag 3. See what I meant about those gold plates? The ship after bag 4... After bag 5... And... done! There she be. Notice the crane for lifting the trasure chest. A nice play feature but looks somehow oversimplified and the boom is too short. How exactly are they going to lift the treasure from the deck if the hook cannot reach the deck? By the way, the chest is nowhere to be seen, but that's because it's concealed in the secret compartment. Keep reading to find out. View from the stern. The lack of proper stern section makes it look a bit low, but I must admit it looks pretty decent, and is much better (and higher) than what we saw in the Black Pearl. Well, the sails are printed on one side only, as was the case with some of the older ships. So it's not the problem of just this set, however while I can tolerate this on the square-rigged sails, the front sail looks really silly when viewed from the other side: See? Once again, I miss the old days when the sails were printed on both sides (and were made of fabric). The ship does not look bad from this angle... The figurehead looks all right. No complaints here. In here we can see pretty much the whole main deck. Thankfully, the anchor is present and has a very cool hoisting mechanism. What I will complain about though are the cannons. They have no wheels and are attached only on 1 stud each, therefore can be easily picked up, however once attached, they cannot move at all. You can't adjust their angle, nothing. What's worse, a gun port cannot be closed when the cannon is in place: That's as far down as it can go. Looks pretty weird and I think it's better to leave them open. A huge design flaw if you ask me. Now finally - FINALLY! Something new and original, not just copied from the previous ships. A sliding plank. You can extend it, put an unlucky soldier (or an insubordinate pirate) on it and then remove the plank from beneath his feet. "Number One, that's 'retract' plank, not 'remove' plank!" View of the deck towards the bow. Notice the out-of-place blue part. I have no idea why it was put in here. View towards the stern (notice the retractable plank I mentioned above). There is no ladder leading to the bridge, but this time I will forgive it, as the ratlines are so close that probably the pirates use them to climb to that part of the ship. Now, about the captain's cabin and how it looks from the outside. It's not a bad idea to make it asymmetrical as opposed to most of the previous ships... However, the balcony on the left should have been given some sort of door on its own - one that opens inside perhaps? The way it is now - it's a cabin that's not really a cabin, as it has one door and one gaping hole in the wall. Captain Redbeard (if that's really you), I hope for your sake that the nights around these latitudes are warm. The top of the cabin is removable, very much like in the Brickbeard's Bounty. The captain's cabin can be therefore accessed. The inside of the cabin looks... all right. It does feel a bit empty, but has the most useful equipment where it should be (apart from a bed perhaps, but this piece of furniture was also missing in previous ships so nothing new here). The hidden treasure below the floor of the captain's cabin. Again, an overall original and interesting feature. I give it points since it's a new idea. Too bad it leaves no room for a galley (and we do have a chef after all). The treasure chest itself, built very much according to the instructions. Once again, why are there two human legs in here? Do they have some special value to those guys? And finally, the spare parts. And quite a lot of them too! What is more, we also get a brick separator. Finally, I always wanted to get one but never got around to buying it. Now, some final thoughts. It's a good thing that the pirates are back, and I am very glad to see the bluecoats return! However... This ship is a bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad, it's just a disappointment when you take under consideration the previous ships released over the years. Had this been the first LEGO pirate ship ever, or the first since the 1997 discontinuation of the original series, I would probably rate it higher. But that is obviously not the case, as we have experienced 2009 Pirates and then Pirates of the Caribbean. The design of this ship borrows so much from the Brickbeard's Bounty (even the name!), it just seems so repetitive and unoriginal. Why red and white stripes on the sails AGAIN? In 2009 when Brickbeard's Bounty had them it could have been interpreted as an homage to Black Seas Barracuda, but now it just seems like they lack fresh ideas, or perhaps prefer to play it safe. That's what this ship is - apart from some minor details, they are rehashing old ideas which they know worked the last time around. I expected more from LEGO. Now again, don't get me wrong. I bought this ship and don't regret it. But it did kind of feel like buying a reissue of some older set rather than something new and original. If you don't have any pirate ships, I recommend you get it. If you do have other ships, you might still enjoy it tremendously. I am enjoying it, but I was also enjoying buying my third Black Seas Barracuda ten years ago, despite already having two of them. And in this case here, the situation is somewhat similar. If I were to rate this ship in a scale of 1 to 10, I would do so but only in relation to other LEGO Pirate ships of similar size - in which case I'd give it a 5/10, the Black Seas Barracuda being the 10/10. So that's basically what it is to me - an average ship, not that great but absolutely not bad either! But that - obviously - is just my opinion. Feel free to share yours and thanks for reading my review! I tried to show as many details as I could and I hope it will be helpful for those of you who still don't have one and wanted to learn more about it.

I'll wait until I've built the Brick Bounty which I just received today Then I'll make the final judgement.

To be honest, I like non-licensed pirates better. I was never a fan of PotC in the first place, only saw the first movie, didn't like it. And licensed sets, regardless of the franchise, are overpriced in general. Finally, the original Pirates were obviously non-licensed so I'm being a bit of a conservative in this regard.

Nothing original about the design and thus it is pretty representative for this 2015 line as a whole. If I'm not mistaken this is the 3rd island set with a giant skull. However, it does have some usefull pieces, and the minifigs are great, especially the lady. And to be honest it does look better than 2009 Loot Island which was the worst set of that wave IMO. I will probably get it for the parts. I wonder if that image in the background is a teaser of an upcoming ship - one for the soldiers perhaps?

I will definitely get this one. Lots of useful items here - a chest (black!), a barrel (grey!), a boat, a shark, a pirate, a skeleton, a nice original printed wall. The only thing I don't really like is the pirate flag. It's a good thing they used this pattern only in this one set.

Such sad, sad news... I was really shocked after reading about this. Bones, Scotty and now Spock. Not to mention Gene and Majel.

Thanks for the review! Looks like a pretty standard soldiers' set to me... Nothing we haven't seen in earlier sets. A tower, a crane, a jail (wait a minute, is it me or is the jail missing the back wall?). But the minifigs do look great, except perhaps for the redshirt pirate - the shade of yellow on his torso is so different from hands and face, it almost looks like a clone brand thing. Not good LEGO! The lady is excelllent though and finally presents some improvement over the previous years. Same can be told about the flag - really like its design, classic and yet with a fresh touch. I will probably get it anyway, for parts and for minifigs.

I already ordered the Brick Bounty but they will not start shipping until March 5th... It is a new pirate ship after all and therefore a must-have for me, although judging from the pictures I've seen I'd say it's actually a bit worse than Brickbeard's Bounty. But I'll wait with my final judgement until I get one.

Not REALLY a pirate movie, but... The Bounty (1984) starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson is one of my favourite maritime movies. I'd be really excited to see some sets based on that one, although the chances for this are virtually non-existent...

I checked one of those supermarkets in Warsaw yesterday but it wasn't there. Bad luck I guess. Anyway, I'll definitely be getting at least one of those. Good for army building. The cannon has small wheels and therefore can be easily used to complement an arsenal of almost any ship. Still no opinion about that new bandana until I get one, but I guess it's always better to have two types to choose from. The minifigs are OK, my favourite part is of course the new blue uniform. Digging the green bottle.

Thanks! Good luck with your build too. Those narrow hulls have really grown on me recently. Though one can build some powerful and heavily armed ships with the bigger hulls, there's just some sublime beauty hidden in the smaller ones. It manifests itself perfectly in the original Imperial Flagship, too bad the other official sets that used those weren't nearly as good. The Armada Flagship was a waste of such a perfect white/blue hull due to its questionable building solutions. But at least thanks to those sets we have some hull pieces in nice colours to work with!

Thanks for the comments! Actually, initially the hull looked way too massive, I was forced to trim it a little. The initial solution might have worked for a wide hull, but for the narrow one you have to be very careful not to make it look too beefed up. Well, it still looks massive, but to an extent which I find acceptable.

Exactly. One with the narrow hull would be great. Obviously that would require making some new parts, as the old ones are no longer in use. Funny how we always want what we can't get. I remember when the original Imperial Flagship came out in the 90s, I absolutely hated the fact that it had a narrow version of the hull I was used to. This attitude obviously changed with time and now I consider it to be one of the best ships out there. And today I'd be over the moon if they released something with a similar hull :-)

Let's just say that in my personal LEGO universe it's the Spaniards that use the blue and white sails (which is consistent with the original Armada Flagship's sails of course). Thanks! The thing with the narrow hulls is, you just don't have enough room to place two standard cannons back to back on both sides of the ship. Check the 6271 Imperial Flagship for example, it had two cannons but you could only place them either both one one side, or diagonally so to speak. So unless you just put one cannon in the middle on a rotating platform (like in the Renegade Runner), and I'm not a big fan of this solution, you have to improvise and make some smaller custom ones. It will use some prefab hull sections, but not ones seen anywhere in the Pirate sets (regardless of the era). But a genuine LEGO hull nonetheless. I will not spill the beans right now, but maybe someone will guess what that hull might be? However, I'm also working on another narrow hull ship at the same time, and I genuinely don't know which one will be finished sooner.

Thanks for your comment. As far as colours go I tend to think that sometimes less is more. I've built my share of 'rainbow ships' back in the day, now I prefere them to be more colour consistent. Besides, it also has a pretty high share of grey, and obviously brown. Three predominant colours are just enough for my taste, with more it can get too messy if you're not careful :-)

168C Some time ago, I mentioned that I'm currently working on a very big ship. That is still true, however I decided to take a break from it and in the meantime build something smaller that would take quicker to accomplish. So that's what I did and here is the result - the Spanish Armada ship named El Mono (The Monkey). It uses a narrow hull with two middle sections. The hull is customised using this procedure. From a different angle... A close-up of the stern... And the bow with the monkey figurehead. The anchor mechanism is simple but does its job. The hatch at the front can be used to access the lower deck. Notice the ladder inside. Main deck with the cannons and the ship's bell... You can see the bell here too, as well as the doors to the captain's cabin and the ladder leading up to the bridge... ...and here it is, up here you can see ship's helm, and of course the captain. Those sections are removable for easy access to the interior areas of the ship. This is the lower deck, with four beds for the crew, also notice another room at the back with the treasure chest - unfortunately this area cannot be accessed, so consider this to be a secret treasury if you will... :) Same area from a different angle, the passage on the right where the barrels are leads to the ladder and on to the main deck... Not much room for a captain's cabin on a ship this size, but it's just enough for a bed and a small table with a map, and of course - some booze! So that's it, comments are of course very much welcome! Thanks for watching and please take a look at the Brickshelf gallery for some extra pictures!

I've built one recently and if all goes well, will post it here by the end of the week. So consider this post a teaser of sorts :-)

The figurehead is the old type torso and it's very much LEGO. Nice little ship, but where's the helm? :-)

The ship IS a disappointment in terms of repetition. Surely there are some changes compared to the Brickbeard's Bounty but the two are still too much alike. Even the name is virtually the same. I am sure I will get it regardless, as it is sill brand new Pirate LEGO, but I guess I will dismantle it soon after that and just use the parts for some other purpose.