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Ahoy Mateys! Are you building Pirate mocs this year for Brickworld Chicago in June? There are several ways to participate: 1. Microscale Modules: Build your microscale pirate ships, islands, & fortresses on modules made of 8x8 octagonal plates connected to 4x4 plates. Last year's builds can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/penfold/27713623466/in/photostream/ Check out the standard here: http://brickworldbts.blogspot.com/2015/01/introducing-microscale-castlepirate.html David Gregory, the castle coordinator, and I will also be selling microscale castle and pirate kits in this modular standard. 2. Modular Pirate Town: Phred has a discussion on a larger minifigure scale Pirate Town modular standard found here: 3. Modular Island Standard: This baseplate free standard can be arranged in innumerable ways. Plexiglas allows for sea life underwater with island scenes above. Please contact me for details on this standard. Example images can be found in my flickr stream here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9321695@N03/7404998314/ 4. Microcrab Pirates: Arm your crustaceans for battle! Examples of the microcrabs can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9321695@N03/7404998898/in/photostream/ 5. Your own table: Some builders prefer their own displays. In that case, you can select the option to have your table near the Pirates collaboration. Please feel free to contact me regarding your display requirements including power for motors / lights, table space, etc. In addition, we are always looking for attendees interested in sharing their pirate building techniques by hosting or participating in a workshop, round table discussion, or presentation. Thank you, Ben Ellermann Brickworld Pirates Coordinator

I think this idea is great! David Gregory (Brickworld Castle Coordinator) and I set up the microscale version of the octagon tiles with help from others. We would love to have your minifigure scale modular layout as part of the Pirates collaboration. Please let us know if we can help in any way. Thanks, Ben Ellermann Brickworld Pirates Coordinator

The Pirates collaboration can always use more ships and forts to go with the various islands and volcano. We will try our best to incorporate everyone's mocs into the collaboration. Other related activities include a micro pirates and castle collaboration (and custom kits for sale) which I will post about in the future. We may also have a presentation / round table discussion on collecting classic pirates and castle sets.

Ahoy Mateys! If you plan to attend Brickworld Chicago in June 2016, please consider joining the Pirates collaboration. Your mocs whether they are ships, islands, fortresses, or sea creatures are welcome. Some builders prefer their own displays. In that case, you can select the option to have your table near the Pirates collaboration. Please feel free to contact me regarding your display or participating in the collaboration. Thank you, Ben Ellermann Brickworld Pirates Coordinator

I suggest using the Brickworld logo for a blog post. You can find one example here: http://brickworldbts.blogspot.com/ Thank you for blogging about the event. Small ships would definitely be welcome. The underwater sea would have a similar height of approximately 6 bricks. I will double check this measurement. We will certainly take numerous pictures of the display to share. Thanks! Ben

Hi everyone, I will be the Pirates coordinator again this year at Brickworld. Please check out the 2014 Brickworld Chicago information: • Website: http://www.brickworld.us/ • Date: Wednesday, June 11 - Sunday, June 15 • Location: Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center • Registration cost: $50 (all access) $70 (full registration – ability to display creations, free goody bag, eligible for prizes, raffles, and awards) • Hotel room costs: $129 per night (Please be aware that you have to sign up through Brickworld to get the special discounted rate. These rooms will sell out well in advance of the convention dates) The Pirate layout will again include underwater scenes in addition to islands and a volcano. Please feel free to bring any type of pirate mocs including ships, islands, forts, sea creatures, boats. Do not forget to register your mocs on the Brickworld website. Click the “Pirate Collaboration” checkbox when registering. Thanks! Questions, concerns, comments, or suggestions about the display can be posted in this thread or sent to me via pm or email. Thank you. Ben Ellermann Brickworld Pirates Coordinator

Ahoy mateys! I know this announcement is late. However, if you are attending Brickworld 2013 in Chicago and failed to register your pirate moc, we will make room in the collaborative display for your ship, boat, raft, island, or fortress. Feel free to contact me via private message for more details. Thanks, Ben Brickworld Pirate Coordinator

Here is the latest update from Jim Foulds of the LEGO Community Team: I spoke with a very helpful LEGO customer service rep this morning. She confirmed that the prepacks are in stock. Shipping to North American customers who call will take approximately 10 business days. Ben Ellermann

The Classic-Castle Team is proud to announce our eighth annual building contest: The Colossal Castle Contest VIII. It will begin on November 1st and end on December 31st, 2010. This contest is a bit different than other contests. We have a variety of categories each with one prize for the winner. Some categories require small creations and others need larger ones. Everyone, even with a limited supply of bricks, should be able to enter several categories. We are looking for creativity, not who has the most LEGO. Check out the prizes. Seven Classic Castle sets including the highly popular Knight's Procession, Knight's Tournament, and Town Square are prizes. There are are also vintage misb sets, custom medieval weapons, and new castle sets. It truly is colossal! Thank you to Rich Stehnach "Blackrock", Ben Ellermann, Trevor Van Aalst, BrickArms, BrickForge, The Brothers Brick, and the LEGO Company for donating prizes. The rules can be found here. Enjoy! Please check out the question and answer thread on Classic Castle for additional information: http://www.classic-castle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19798

Thank you Phes. I appreciate it. Ben

Hi everyone, I will be the Pirates coordinator again this year at Brickworld. Please check out Brickworld information that I pirated from David Gregory’s castle post: The Pirate layout will again include blue cloth for water. Please feel free to bring your blue baseplates for the layout. Any type of pirate mocs including ships, islands, forts, sea creatures, boats, etc are welcome. Do not forget to register your mocs on the Brickworld website. Click the “Pirate Collaboration” checkbox when registering. Thanks! This year’s event theme involves Space. Ideas include classic space sets and themes recreated in Pirate style. The Castle fans may be more supportive of capturing unfortunate spaceships and imprisoning their crews ;) Please bring your Pirate/Space mash-up mocs for the collaborative display. Questions, concerns, comments, or suggestions about the display can be posted in this thread or sent to me via pm or email. Thank you. Ben Ellermann Brickworld Pirates Coordinator

Two prominent custom set creators have offered Pirate sets in the past. Check out Eric Druon's Puerto Brico: http://www.baronsat.net/baronshop/PuertoBr...uerto_Brico.htm Dan Siskind created the Salty Anchor Tavern: http://www.brickmania.com/pirate-theme-kits It is sold out but the instructions can be purchased through the Brickmania instructions club. Ben

One possibility is that the seller set aside that SES specifically for an individual buyer. They could have discussed the set on a forum or in person and used the BrickLink system to complete the sale. In addition, sellers have the option not to notify all BL users with a set or part on their wanted lists. Of course if you or I were selling an SES, we would want everyone to know about it. Ben

Most set archive pages list the original manufacturers suggested retail price for the original year of issue. Sixty six dollars for 6276 is likely found in a 1989 USA shop at home catalog. Looking at the value of a set on eBay and BrickLink is the best way to determine current price. Ben

Fill a bucket or container with warm soapy water. Add a small amount of bleach to the water. Let your bricks soak in the water for a few hours. Rinse the bricks and let them air dry on a towel. It will take a few days for the bleach smell to go away. By then the bricks should not smell like smoke. Unfortunately the sails and string smells are harder to remove. Place the sails in between dryer sheets and place a heavy book on top for a few days. This should lessen the smoke smell. You can also use this method for smoke damaged instruction booklets. It is quite common these days for some eBay sellers to list sets as complete when they are not. It may be easier just to order the few basic bricks. Bricklink sets are usually complete but we have to pay a premium for those sets. Ben