Dreamweb

Yes, perhaps the next time I will create a new thread. I just once thought one thread would be sufficient, but right now I'm not that sure about it.

Well I've been busy again with non-lego activities but finally managed to finish the merchant vessel. Once again I must apologise for the quality of the pictures, but I still don't own a digital camera, so please be lenient. The brickshelf folder is here, although while I'm writing these words it's still being moderated so do be patient... EDIT: It's available now...

I think they're the same as European ones... :) BTW I have about 30 or so shooting cannons and only 2 non-shooting ones which look just like the one shown in this thread. About the set - I think it's great, I like the canvas top very much. I've had a few chances to buy it, maybe someday I finally will...

4 points from me. I got it for my birthday once. It's not a masterpiece and the design is not particularly great, but it has many useful parts like the cannon or the palm tree or the white flag or the treasure chest. Another parrot and monkey are always welcome and the baseplate looks good. I remember I just loved the small cave in which the chest can be put, it inspired me to make my own similar ones, in which the treasure was completely hidden and impossible to be seen by strangers.

Well the town is surely enormous and magnificent, however I must ask what all those modern-looking people are doing there (like those seen here)?

I'm from Poland and the word drakkar is familiar to me, it exists in my language as well. And yes this boat is a drakkar :)

Oh, I almost forgot: you can read more about the VOC here, and when you do this you might also want to read about the WIC (here).

It's... it's... big :) And I like it very much, it's very realistic, not every MOC has to be colourful, I like the way it's so toned down. And yes, the ships are made of Pirate theme hulls, they could use some sails though. Oh, and the colour of the shore isn't bad either, it reminds me of gravelly beaches.

One thing I always regret is not having enough brown bricks to make nice one-coloured realistic brown hulls like this one. Well the brown bricks aren't that common after all. I wish I had the means to build one brown ship similar to this one.

I like the trumpet. It would be great if you want to make a MOC musical band. I've always regreted that (AFAIK) there are no Lego guitars.

Ladies and gentlemen here it is! That's the only Western set I own! :D And I like it!

There's one thing I don't understand. Why is the ladder pointing straight at the sky and leading absolutely nowhere? What purpose does it serve?

I think that what we see in this set is a spring, which is very simple in construction but I love the idea. This spring depicts the very essence of Lego - it's small but cleverly made, its idea is more important than the size or piece count. This is exactly how all the small sets should be designed.

I've seen many Pirate MOCs sold on internet auctions in Poland so that's nothing new to me. But I agree with you that building them is rather a way of showing the pieces they have to sell. I'm pretty sure that if I bought one of those it would be just for parts, not to keep the MOC in the form I got it and put it on a shelf (well, I even rarely do it with original Lego sets).

When I look at the pictures in 2005 catalogue, I must say the Duplo knights resemble original Castle theme more than KK2 ever did :D

Because of that I tend to kind of squeeze the torso while removing its arms - I mean I hold it very tight with my thumb on the belly and the index finger on the back (or the opposite), it sort of protects the torso from breaking at sides.

This is a ship by Aaron Walsh I found on lugnet: The brickshelf gallery is here. The corresponding lugnet article is here. The hull is custom-built and because of it its "resolution" is low - no streamlined shape, just all those right angles and the overall look suffers because of it. But my point is that the white colour fits very well despite the ship's size.

For a long time I was a traditionalist and preferred the classic one-coloured brown hull. However I changed my mind quite recently and now my number one is the white hull with blue top of the Armada Flagship. It just has this noble look all the others are missing. Now I really wish there was a wide version of that one! However we're talking only about colours here, not sizes. The classic brown would be my second choice.

Whatever explanation you like, the question is which one is the best and this for one person would mean which looks the best, and for another person something completely different.

That doesn't change the fact that we can't see them well enough.

This time it's about colours of the hulls we've seen in Lego Pirates' ships. I also added 6493, it's not a Pirate set but has a Pirate-style hull. The first colour in each case is the colour of the top parts of the hull, while the second is the colour of the bottom parts and the whole middle sections if there are any. So which of these colours is the most aesthetically pleasing/realistic/dangerously looking/whatever you like? Or if you'd like to see some other colours in the future what would they be?

Officers can have anything they want, it is part of being an officer. :)

Privateers?

It sounds great and it actually doesn't require putting tiles on the whole upper surface of the wall since it is not seen anyway. And putting tiles only in some places prevents the upper floor from sticking firmly to the lower one as the studs won't reach the holes anyway.

Another part which can be used as an alternative admiral's outfit is the vampire's torso: Well, the handkerchief with drops of blood looks a bit disturbing, maybe it'd be better for an evil pirate captain after all. I used this torso to make Ghost Rider (see here).