Brickvergnugen

Glad the thread was resurrected, the is new to me. Why on earth I want to try doing this is puzzling, but I'm really kicking myself now having already opened my Squidman Escape!!

Adding a vote for soldiers ship and add-ons to the new harbor. I'd love to see some citizenry and new pirates too (no more captains though, just the swabs!).

Thanks for the well structured review. This is a must have just for the wealth of moving parts!

...you realize your office would feel empty without some sort of LEGO creation on display. ...you rotate the LEGO display in your office in an attempt amuse coworkers and visitors. ...you base lunch decisions on proximity to a local store having a LEGO sale. ...you sneak out early for lunch to have extra time at the aforementioned sale. ...you work to train your dogs to not even sniff the open containers of LEGO on the floor. ...reading this list brings back good memories.

That's a fine siege tower!

If I needed another laptop carrier, this would be it.

Might want to keep an eye on the soldier loading up powder next the commander. Mutiny!! Clever use of the 'tooth' piece!

I was so happy to see the Pirate theme released last year that it brought me out of my dark age. However, this is a major disappointment. There is so much potential with the Pirates theme and TLG seems to be putting very little effort in these latest releases. Same ol' figs, different box. Did they over manufacture and are just trying to sell off built up stock? There doesn't seem to be much continuity with this battle pack in comparison to other themes. There are castle battle packs which include a either knights, trolls or dwarfs (basically five unique 'soldier' figures). However, the pirate battle pack has one solder from each of the opposing sides, a commander from each of the opposing sides, and a monkey. Really? A monkey? Is it the referee? Perhaps the problem is that there is no diversity in the figures offered in the redcoats lineup so they felt that including more than one of the same figure would be bad. If so, then why not introduce a a few different torsos? A sergeant, lieutenant, captain, deck hand, something other than the common infantry and supreme commander of allied forces or whatever ol' commander fancy pants is supposed to be. There should have been two products here: separate redcoat and pirate packs. While I hope they have some nice new sets in store for us soon, I have this constant nagging feeling that it's going to just be more of "Where will the monkey and a treasure chest show up next?".

Nice way for folks to get the figs, but I wish there were something new to it.

When a new set arrives, my first task is to open all the parts and just create something random. The actual set comes second. Gradually, the set is picked clean as the hunger for bricks on other projects grows. Eventually the 'bones' are sorted into storage. "Brick Vulture", I wish I had thought of that.

Not having to spend my free time driving in congested shopping centers and deal with the masses is well worth the cost of shipping. There may be better prices to be found at other online retailers, but having a single source is mighty nice. I like to build, not shop.

Thanks for the comments. I'd love to hear any specific suggestions for improvements related to building or design. I know the photos are crummy. There was a rush to get photos of this one before I have to tear everything down and pack it up for an upcoming move. Unfortunately, I wasn't completely done and hope to rebuild it in a couple of months after getting settled in.

Vig. 58c It's no Nassau, but it'll do....

The stained glass is fantastic!

Meh....brick is brick. I still have mostly pre-1990's bricks, but look forward to building up stock of the new colors, in particular the browns and tans.

Sorry to hear about your demotion. Did the lost cannon in the first installment lead to court marshall?

Shocking use of Photoshop. I have to know why the shark in the first photo farting lightning?

YAAAR!!...You caught my favorite part of the project. I'm so proud someone noticed the gun rack.

Vig. 55c Need a row boat? Come on down to Big Al's Row Boat Emporium for all your row boat needs.! Bad plunder? No plunder? No problem. Our easy terms will work with your booty seeking schedule. Our sales staff is standing by to help. Got a map and no way to get from point A to point X? Get on down to Big Al's and bring your wench! We have row boats to meet any need: Single seaters Double seaters Pickupboats Even HYBRID's!!!!! So get on over to Big Al's. Just look for our Shark Attack taking a bite out of overpriced row boats!!! Okay, so I've had some free time and really wanted to find something to do with all the random row boats sitting around. My apologies to those overseas who have never had to sit through the awful car sales advertisements here in the USA. You're better off for not knowing them.

As others have said, the lantern is quite nice.

77c Feeling pity for the new redcoats who have no boat I felt it best to give them a little help. With two new Brickbeard Bounty's in hand, this is what came out: Swiveling deck guns on the bow, full rotating cannon amidship. Behold the filthy old black plates brought out from my archives for the poop deck! In the sights of a deck gun! The Scurvybird arrives in port with her cargo....An Army! (note that en route the Mermaid was ditched for a Monkey with rum, kind of a mascot for me). Sorry about the background clutter... Arrival in the fort to be met by the Governor's Honor Guard. Still working on a better photo setup. FYI - That table was my building table as a child. It's seen quite a bit of brick!

Many thanks for the comments. It was around 5* F outside when I did this. My mind clearly wanted to be somewhere else. I had just finished sorting some of my old transparent pieces and began working on a port MOC messing with a crane and for some reason the cargo net from the new Brickbeard ship struck me as needing to be made into a hammock and the old yellow cone in my old pieces called out for beer bottle. A lolly indeed. I too don't care much for the new palm trees, but was too lazy to pull one off an old set with set 6242 (Soldiers Fort) sitting in front of me. Not being able to adjust the trunk of the new tree to more interesting shapes is pretty weak. I just noticed that that little tan base plate does have notching to allow it to be attached to a larger building plate. It may look okay on top of a massive blue one, if only they were still to be found...

Anything with a monkey at the bar get my approval.

While not raised bilingually, I did have a good bit of German language around me (my town has a strongly German influenced history). I learned the language in school and eventually studied in Germany. For me there is a lot of humor to be had mixing the German language with some of our local phrases, such as 'Guten Tag Y'all'. Thus the user name too, just something to amuse.

I've seen this yellowing in some white pieces I have from the late 70's and early 80's. Interestingly, they are incredibly well suited for creating buildings that call for a weathered look (i.e. Spanish missions like this one: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeffe/pi...3-3339_img.jpg) Those discolored bricks add a texture to the coloring that new bricks cannot offer.