Lorentzen

Did you guys notice that "Steve" the rare trader guy has a wrong minifig head on the picture on the front of the SES box? He's got Redbeard's head, and not the brown bearded face

The long awaited MOC or whatever you wanna call it. I was nine, looked weird and my parents thought that their kitchen was good looking...

Welcome here I can't wait to see what you decide to build when time comes

Haha, that's a great MOC - nice details all around, and sweet photoskills you have also

Sources: Peeron Bricklink Brickset Overview: The Forbidden Island was the first place where Captain Redbeard and his new crew of swashbuckling swashbucklers found refuge. The built the place from a small cutter which had crashed and nearly sunk by the cliffs of the Eldorado Fortress. The Pirates gave up stealing the mighty treasure at the Eldorado Fortress to save themselve and the remains of their small cutter, and followed the stream southwards until they found a suitable baseplate on which they could set up camp. Thus came to be the Forbidden Island. The Pirates used what they could find on the island, and the driftwood from their cutter to build a place to fulfill their basic needs: A prison cell in which they could keep soldiers imprisoned for ransom, and a crow's nest, in which they could scout the far corners of the Caribbean sea for ships passing by. A few years later, Captain Redbeard and his crew sailed further south to build a much larger island, the Rock Island Refuge, but is a completely different story - and baseplate... For now they would have to suffice with what they had, here on the Forbidden Island. As we know, there has been quite a few pirates islands, but this was the very first one, and Captain Redbeard still holds this place close to his heart. Let's begin with the box and the building instructions: Box: I simply love the boxes of the old pirate sets. I have quite a few of them, but unfortunately I do not have this box, so I have found some pictures of the front of the box on eBay. A member of eurobicks - Tully - has made a "Box Art" topic for this specific box, which you can find in the Pirate index on these boards. The box art of the old pirate sets were magnificent because the did multiple things all at once: They presented the set as it was, with a clear picture on the front of the box, but the boxes also had suggestions for alternative models on the back or the inside of the box. Furthermore, some of them had a background design as if it were a treasure map, and I just loved to look closely at the design even as a 9-year-old boy. Eurobricks/classic-pirates.com uses a similar design, so it must have made an impact to more than just me. Instruction manual: A nice A4-sized manual, with two nice simple pictures of the set on the front page. The first things to assemble are the minifigs, the shark and the rowing boat: On this same picture you can see that the baseplate has some white dots, and the first building step shows how to put the basic structure correctly onto the baseplate. Pretty clever, although it limits how much you can moderate the set if you don't want to see those white dots on you mod/moc. Why can't LEGO draw the tricorne hat properly? It looks so stupid. Random page: You can see that there are smaller building steps within the building process. This is a good idea if you want to keep the younger kids' interest in the building process. Here are two pictures taken from the back of the manual, showing alternate models, using the bricks from the set: As you can see, the playability in this set is great. Minifigs, special pieces, animals and accessories: Minifigs: You get four minifigs with this set: three pirate and one soldier. This is great because the set is actually not that big. It is only the baseplate which is big, so four minifigs is a fair amount. The fact that one of them is a soldier adds to the playability, while the pirate captain is a must have for every LEGO pirate fan. Accessories and special pieces: You get a good number of weapons with this set, and even a cannon with cannon balls - excellent! Suspense bridge, ship riggings, stairs, prison doors, barrel... so many possibilities for MOCing - excellent! Animals: Animal life was rich on the Forbidden Island Be careful with that shark, you cunning parrot, you! The baseplate: As you can see, there are white dots on the studs, to help the builder. It is 32x32 studs and great for MOCing. One thing that puzzles me is how the edge of the island is further from the edge of the actual baseplate, than it is on all official pictures I have ever seen of this set. The stairs go directly into the water, which must have been extremely annoying for the pirates. But I guess they could live with that... I mean, they were probably pretty drunk all the time. Too bad their mothers weren't there to keep an eye out for them... but as Charlton Heston said to one of his pirates in the film "Treasure Island" "...ahh, you never had a mother". The rowing boat: Along with the four minifigs, the three animals, the many, many palm tree leaves, the suspension bridge, the rope ladders, stairs, prison doors, gold chest and cannon, you ALSO get a rowing boat. Look at him, enjoying life on the open sea. Onto the actual island... Here are a few pictures of the island itself, and the design. You will notice how green the island is, full of plants and stuff. This is because Captain Redbeard wanted to keep the island and their loot secret from the Bluecoats and Governor Broadside. Closer view: The set has some nice features, and one of the many, is the clever little trap in the floor above the prison cell. If an enemy is unfortunate enough to walk across this certain part of the floor, he will most likely fall through the secret hatch in the floor, which will open if one of the pirates pull the technic bar from the side: ...and the poor soldier is trapped for good. Here, we have the weird stairway to heaven... to the ocean Bird's view: Concluding words I love this set, and have spent countless hours playing with it as a kid. Back then, at the age of 9, I even built a butt-ugly ship using all the ship parts from this set. Maybe, if you're lucky, I will share an old photograph of me standing beside that dreadful MOC-ship. This set is certainly great for many reasons: - It has a classic LEGO Pirate design that has proven very popular among both young and adult LEGO fans. - It has three animals and four minifigs with a good variety, and army builders get the popular soldier, along with a large amount of weapons. - It has a suspense bridge, ship riggings, a mast, a barrel, stairs and prison doors. The building variations are endless. - It has a large quite special baseplate - It has lots and lots of green leaves which are great for MOCing. The only major negative aspect is the stairs that go directly into the water, but I could *almost* live with that as a kid, and I can *almost* live with it now. And so can the drunken pirates. If I had to grade this set, I would give it an overall 9 - the pieces that you get with this set are amazing. It is definitely high up top of my "Classic Pirates" list of sets, and as this review has shown you, it is not merely because of nostalgia - it has so many positive things about it, that it deserves all of our praise and attention. With SO many useful parts in one set, and with MOCing being one of the most important parts of the LEGO experience for most LEGO fans, this set is one of THE best sets released in this size category (below 200 pcs). I hope you enjoyed my review - don't forget to vote.

Fortunately I have a few of those rare sailor guy torsos :) (somebody decided to call him Steve in an article so that's what I call him) - and I just bought the three sails, and I also had the blue baseplate, all in all it was quite cheap compared to what they sell for in complete condition :)

I found a picture of the story line to the set:

What an excellent excellent review. I really enjoyed looking through it all - thanks

Wuuhuu I just bought this set on german ebay for 35 Euros excl. blue baseplate and sails for the ship, and a few minifigs are missing. But that's a pretty fair price if you ask me :) I can't wait to get my hands on this baby. I keep returning to this review to check out the pics. I love this set very much

done diddly done

Excellent MOC - so many details, and so many great ideas :) My favourite detail is your use of transparent cones for "bottles" that you have replaced with white cones after they have been filled with milk.

Sadly I don't own the box myself. The pictures are taken from an ebay auction that had the box. Yeah, I'm really happy to have all the bricks now. It's nice to have this set in 100% condition - espacially with Steve, the un-piratey pirate

Your city is stunning. I can't believe that any child or grown man can have so much space in any house for LEGO. You are indeed one lucky man, and if you have a wife, you should definitely hold on to her, since she has agreed to let you spend so much money and take up so much space for LEGO. This is certainly every LEGO enthusiasts dream. I love love love love to browse through all your pictures. You've created tons of great things.

This is my list (I doubt it will change in the near future) All used but in excellent condition. All 100% complete 6235 6245 6251 6257 6259 6260 6265 6267 6270 6273 6274 6276 6286 8396 x 4 8397 x 4 6239 x 3 6240 x 2 6241 6242

Haha, sweet. Thanks

Well... no matter if it's a piratey ship or a regal ship, the colours are indeed a bit off. I mentioned this in my reciew, but regardless of the colourscheme, this ship is amazing. I love to build it, and I keep it nice and clean when it's built. I'm thinking about re-vamping the review with better photos and better descriptions. Besides, there are a few bricks missing on the different photos, but I have the complete ship now with the rare "Steve" minifig. God I love this set thanks for all the nice comments :) - but as I said, I intend to re-vamp the review sometime in the future

I disagree... two weeks of completed auctions is not good a enough indication to what a true average price is (but you and I disagree, which is totally fine ) Besides, what about those sets that aren't for sale very often? How can you find old auctions for those sets? If people remember to post sale prices for those sets in here, they will remain here, which is not the case with completed listings on ebay

I created the thread, so people can determine whether or not they are looking to get a good deal on an auction. This could be an idea of how to use the information in this thread: 1: I find an auction of interest. 2: I go here, check out what other auctions like it has sold for in the past. 3: Based on this knowledge I decide what my maximum bid will be.

Welcome to Eurobricks :) You really have excellent MOCing skills - I love your MOC and I personally feel that it is great to see black being used, as I myself was a child in the 80's where the colour palette wasn't quite as rich. Besides; your decision to use black instead of brown makes your MOCs stand out from many of the otherwise excellent MOC on Eurobricks I can't wait to see your next MOC.

Wow - I really love this MOC. It's amazing. Great idea with the green army men baseplates as leaves on the tree. After seeing the reference pics, you've really captured every detail from the original building. oh, btw - excellent roof technique.

Wow - this is a cool little set It really reminds me of a MOC - it doesn't look very "official LEGOish" - but it is actually a good thing. There are many cool details which I think is rare for such a small set. Great review. Thank you

At one point last month, I sat down and went through A LOT of pirate/castle MOCs to check out what kind of bricks and pieces were used to create the kind of rocks, grass, roads, paths, trees, water (and water effects) docks, house walls, windows, doors, entrances, different roofs, strings etc. etc. etc. that I find lovely to look at. It ended up as a loooong unreadable list of things to remember to buy on bricklink, but when I find the time, I could clean up that list (make it more readable), and post it here. btw, it will be very expensive to just buy all of those bricks and pieces at one time, so my suggestion is to start out really small, and only buy the needed bricks for a small-scale MOC at first. I decided to go through my own pile of LEGO first and see how many bricks I already have, that fit my criteria for MOCing bricks - so I haven't bought any from my loooooong list yet.

Well from the pictures provided it's clear that you definitelt aren't overly picky - but I'm still amazed that LEGO thinks that the one on the left is "good quality" printing.... LEGO was of a MUCH better quality when I was i kid (80's- early 90's) Today I often experience new bricks that have cracks after very little play time - even regular white 1x2 bricks!!!

agreed

Wow - this is definitely a WINNER One of the best ideas ever put into LEGO. And a lot of most excellent details throughout the entire scene.