jodawill

It's that tattoo on the arm that really makes it great in my opinion. If you have enough of these pirates to spare, you could pull it off of the torso and put it on a different one to get more tattooed sailors. The legs are great too. I wonder if there's an existing pirate torso it would pair well with. I can't remember a dark green one off the top of my head, although there was obviously the dark green bandana.

Yes, you're right. I should probably avoid writing comments at 2am when I'm grumpy because I can't sleep. You're right. The new one has a lot of serious improvements over the original. I agree with you about the cannon in the front. I also love how they rounded it out. I think the original was also meant to give the illusion of it being round, but they it didn't translate very well, probably due to the pieces they had available at the time. Something else I haven't seen anyone mention is that on the original, the grate over the pit doesn't reach all the way across. I guess there isn't much they could have done, except this baseplate was made specifically for this set, so it would have made sense to design the pit to fit that part. But then it might not have been sturdy enough, so who knows. Since the grate was also introduced in that set, they could have made it larger to fit the baseplate. The new one is improved in this aspect. I'm surprised I haven't seen some of these things mentioned already in the thread. The office door on the original doesn't cover the gap completely. About 2/3 of a stud width is left exposed. The new one closes lines up perfectly. I see what you're saying about the low walls in the office, but I think it was the best move because it allows little fingers to get in there for play. Almost everything about the building is an improvement in the new version. I think the only thing about the structure that bothers me on the new one is just that office. It looks like it was chopped in half. But it's not a huge deal because it's something I can fix with generic parts. I probably am being too harsh about the set. It's 95% excellent. But the what really bums me out here is the quality control. That's what Lego was great at in 1989. I think they've lowered their standards too far. I shouldn't have this many quality issues with a $215 set. (Ironically, it seems the quality is actually better on small, mass produced sets.)

Yeah, that governor's office is a bit off. I think they sacrificed a bit too much in order to get the fold out feature. It's nice that you can get a better look at the set in that position, but the architecture doesn't really make a lot of sense because of it. There's a lot of gaps in that configuration. It doesn't feel very cohesive. And in order to get that layout, they had to make the office smaller than the original. I think this is actually the reason the set looks like a squished too hat in the box photo. It has that angled wall with the door, but nothing is behind it. The original set has another wall beyond that and it has a much greater sense of depth. The whole cannon area behind the office is just ludicrous. I'm glad to have the extra cannon, but not at the expense of chopping off half of that room. It's the pinnacle of the building, the part that your eyes are drawn to first when you look at the building. It's just not right. I was initially really excited about this set. It mostly is great, but the more I look at it, both online and now in person, the more I'm just disappointed by this wasted opportunity. It will probably be another decade before we see anything like this again, if ever, and they couldn't bother to get all of the details right. Honestly, it feels like no one involved in the production of this set really understood what made the original great or was familiar with the source material at all. It seems more like someone just glanced at the photos from their archive and said, "Yep, we could do something like that." It wasn't made with the same passion they put into 10305. It's just all of the small details. Incorrect information in the introduction of the book. The marketing materials calling the governor an admiral. Saying "the gang's all here" without including any of the original characters. The poor print quality. The lack of inclusion of Captain Redbeard. The color inconsistencies in the sails and bricks. Instead of being a love letter, it kind of feels like a big F you to all of the fans who have been waiting 8 years for another pirates wave, especially when you top it off with the fact we apparently won't be able to buy any of the important pieces though PAB. Is that too harsh? Having said all of that, I'm still going to be forking over money to buy more parts to extend my fort and so forth. But I'm genuinely disappointed with the sails and minifigures, which are really the most important parts of this set considering any of us could have designed our own Eldorado Fortress from available parts at any time. It's these exclusive parts we've been waiting 8 years for, and frankly, they're a bit disappointing. But maybe TLG doesn't care as long as we keep giving them money.

I do miss the old coins. They just have this magical quality about them. They really do look like treasure. It was really special seeing them for the first time when I got Sea Mates as a little kid. If they ever brought them back, I would buy tens of thousands of them. I would build Scrooge McDuck style vaults for my pirates. That being said, there are definitely some practical reasons for TLG to prefer the new coin. It doesn't require a unique mold. If their 1x1 round tile mold wears out, they have to replace it anyway for all the other sets they use it for. Unlike the original coins, they actually do connect to studs, so you can build with them. And the chrome coating on the old ones was notorious for wearing off. I wish I had been able to LUGBulk the original coins, but I did order a lot of the new coins. I have over 600 of them. The major downside to them, though, and the reason I didn't order thousands of them, is that they don't really look good if you just have a cove full of them. Their underside doesn't look like a coin. I do love the new coin, but it could never replace the original for that reason.

I got my shakos today. The shipping was incredibly fast! They look genuine to me, and these new bluecoats look way better with the prints.

Alright, I've changed my mind about the print quality. I thought it was fine when I was building it late at night, but seeing it in natural light next to the original, I'm changing my vote. It really is too washed out. I love the mustache face for the soldier though. It has only the minimum amount of detail necessary to bring the face to life. I love the new governor's hat, but you really can't beat the original plume. It fit the curve of the hat so perfectly.

The new Harry Potter set has a dragon head. I'm not sure whether it's a new mold, but it makes me wonder if they might plan to reuse it for a dragon knights set in the near future.

Thanks! Yeah, it does look a little strange with that face. I think the torso goes well with those dark green legs. It might look good if you just used the torso with the dark green legs, change out the head, and put a black tricorne on top.

That's an interesting take. You could be right. I assumed it was because the set doesn't already contain white 1x3 plates and they didn't want to add another part. I wasn't able to find what you were talking about with the other two sets. Are your referring to the inverted slopes? If so, that seems a bit different to me because the gap isn't a full plate thick. Do you have some images of his MOCs you could share? That would be interesting also.

Well, I just finished building mine. I was missing two pieces. I encountered several quality control issues with my copy. Several of the pieces were chipped and scratched like they came from a kid's collection. The photos at the beginning of the instructions were printed poorly, the bags were crammed into the bottom of the box, the box wasn't sealed properly, and the sails are three different colors (none of which are similar to what's depicted on the box). I could forgive one or two of these issues, but put them all together, and it makes me think quality at TLG has really gone downhill. I've never had problems like this until recently. This is a premium product sold at a premium price and I think they owe their customers better than this. I really enjoyed most of the build, but I'm bummed right now because it started off with problems and it ended with missing pieces. Quality issues aside, I really love this set. I know a lot of people are disappointed with it when comparing it to 10305, but personally, I appreciate the more straight forward build, where most of the bricks are just stacked traditionally. 10305 is a masterpiece, but I don't even come close to having the skills to expand it. I love both, but I'm kind of more excited about this one from a building perspective because I can much more reasonably extend it. I've been surprised that no one has mentioned the gap in the entryway. I always thought it was funny that the original was missing a 1x3 plate section between the arches, and it was even depicted that way in the comic. They fixed it in 10320. It would have been funny if they had pointed this out. I wonder if they had a debate internally about whether to leave the gap or fill it in. That archway is identical to the original, and they just added the extra 1x3 plate. If I was putting this on a shelf to display, I might remove it just for fun. The crane is a huge improvement over the original. I know it's a little wonky because the minifigures can't use it, but it's a lot more functional than the original. I love how the angles come together on that one too. I also found the middle section to be surprisingly detailed. I expected it to be very straight forward, just stack some bricks and put a plate on top. The switch for the trapdoor is the most interesting I've seen, and they put some extra effort into the details of that section with the SNOT building and so forth. I wasn't expecting it to be that interesting. I like it. Quality issues aside, I'd rate the building a 10/10. I would say the minifigures are 6/10. To me, they don't really capture the magic of the original. The governor has unique printing, but he doesn't seem to stand out to me the way Broadside did in the original. Maybe that's because we're just more accustomed to special printings now, but he doesn't really stand out to me. I would have preferred the bluecoats without those ropes on the front, and there's really nothing interesting about the pirates in this set. I'm ok with not including Redbeard, but I would have liked to have gotten something special, like maybe a new version of Ironhook. Despite having a new printing on the female pirate, there's really nothing remarkable about the pirates here. Except for the color of the epaulettes, I prefer the 2015 version of all of the minifigures in this set. How has everyone else's experience been going so far?

Well, the shipping is basically a flat fee on that part, so the more you order, the cheaper it is. I got 200 for a friend and 300 for myself. I'll try to sell some of them to recoup some of the cost. I could probably just bring them to a LUG meeting and sell them for a dollar a piece. I actually kind of wish I had bought more because I'd like to keep more than I need in order to future proof my collection. And, like I said, there's absolutely no way a seller who's been there since 2001 is selling counterfeit goods. He may have actually parted out 500 sets (I've met people who have) or found them in a PAB bin at Legoland. And as for the price, it seems like he just wants to get rid of them faster. Can you imagine how long it would take to sell 5000 at $2 a piece?

That's interesting. I wonder if that's why the US version is missing a few words in random spots. Maybe those errors don't appear in the UK version?

Well, I finished the ship. I was initially very annoyed with the QC issues, but once I got going, I quite enjoyed building the ship. I was impressed with several of the building techniques used here. Something that I think particularly deserves a shout out here is the way bowsprit connects. It's quite impressive how the angles match up perfectly. I wonder if it was trial and error or if the designer worked it out mathematically. It's one of those things where you'd probably actually have to do the math to determine whether it's a legal connection. I also love the curves on the bottom of the ship. When you're at the point where you just have this base with the white sides, it feels very satisfying to hold in your hands. It doesn't feel like it's brick built. It's just that smooth. Another thing I appreciate is that all of the strings are studded. There's no knot tying here. It's great that they included an extra string because those are pricey. I have it sitting next to the original Eldorado Fortress right now and it fits in perfectly. I love how the color scheme fits the old set so well. Has anyone else noticed that the cutlass is a new mold? The hand guard is thicker and flatter. It was quite startling to me when I picked it up. It also feels like a different type of plastic. It feels much more solid than the original.

I noticed that the black hinge plate is a different color on one side. The female end is really pale, enough that I noticed it from the other end of the table. They're all like that. Very odd. Edit: Here's a photo: https://imgur.com/a/41sWwfS Edit 2: I promise, the image above does not contain nudity as Imgur suggests.

Boy... I just opened the instructions to start building. I was startled by the poor quality of the instructions. I would expect to see better printing on a Chinese knockoff. The photos in the beginning are so blurry, some of the minifigures don't even have any visible faces. Honestly, if I hadn't bought this from Lego directly, I might suspect this was counterfeit. Are they all like this, or is mine an exception? Ok, step 1. I pulled the sails out and they're some dark tan color with a green tint, not like the original. I'm not a fan of the color, but that's the designer's choice. Then I held them next to each other and saw the colors don't even match! The two small sails are different shades and the printed one is a completely different color! What on earth is going on with their quality control?

Wow! I saw the video today, and I have to say, it looks a hundred times better in these photos because the lighting is so similar to what they used in the movies. It really shows how accurate this is to the model used in the film. It looks incredible!

I'm not sure that it's meant to be a first name. I think he just has two different names in alternate Lego universes. He was called Captain Roger in the UK and Captain Redbeard in the US. He's called "Red Beard" in the US version of The Golden Medallion. I imagine the UK version of the comic probably called him Roger. The Ladybird books also called him Roger. As far as I've seen, the US magazines always called him Redbeard.

I haven't opened any of the bags yet, so I'm not aware of any damage to the parts yet. There probably isn't any. The box is just a bit beat up, and it obviously came this way from the factory. The shipping box was undamaged. All of the bags were bunched together, bulging the center of the box, and the flap wasn't folded down all the way when they put the tape on. There's some slack in the tape about half an inch long. The same goes for the instructions. Someone was probably in a hurry when they taped it. (As I understand it, taped boxes are packed by hand.) I haven't talked to customer service. I may just let them know. It's not a huge deal, but if I couldn't only afford one copy, it would be a huge bummer to get a box that was damaged straight from the factory just due to carelessness. I've never seen this issue before. I have to say, though - I looked at a couple of the torsos through the bag, and I didn't think the printing was as bad as people are making it out to be. The white isn't brilliant white, but it doesn't look to me like it was supposed to be. It's more of an off white color, which I think is fine.

I don't have this one. I was never a fan of the hat piece in particular. There's something really odd about seeing a minifigure with a bald head. I had never really looked very closely at it before though, and I think the torso is terrific. I wonder what this would look like if you put a traditional bandana (not the new one) on him and used monochrome legs.

That Ironhook is incredible. TLG should hire him to design the CMFs!

If it doesn't have a tail, it's not a monkey, even if it has a monkey kind of shape. If it doesn't have a tail, it's an ape.

Probably. I just ordered 500 of them. I'll let you all know if there's anything fishy about them.

The seller has been on Bricklink since 2001 and has excellent feedback - no complaints about fake parts. The printed shakos were never available on Bricks & Pieces. I know because I ordered the plain ones back then. It's not uncommon though for German sellers to have crazy stuff. I don't know why, but somehow German sellers have always had interesting inventories. I believe these are real, and they're cheaper than they would be if they were listed on PAB now. I may order some myself. Thanks for the heads up!

My son had a reddish brown Duplo piece break recently. It's from one of the 2014 castle sets. It broke just by assembling it - no rough housing. The piece that came off is a choking hazard. My son is seven years old, but if this had happened with our baby it could have been a problem. I contacted customer support and they said they'd send me an envelope to send it back, as well as a replacement. I never got either. A few weeks later, I got an email from another team that deals with safety issues. They apologized, saying they didn't have any more information other than I had a broken Duplo piece, and they wanted me to share all the details with them again. So I did, and it's been a few more weeks and I haven't heard back or received the replacement or envelope. Their customer support is normally great. I wonder what's going on with this. I kind of wonder if they're afraid to handle this issue because they don't want to issue a product recall. They seem to take a lot of pride in the fact they've only had a few recalls, and it's been something like 20 years since the last one. But, honestly, all of these brittle brown and brittle blue Duplo pieces should be recalled for safety. As for the minifigures, I think they've gotten better recently, although some colors may be problematic. One of my white minifigures from Benny's Space Squad cracked just sitting in the closet. I measured the thickness of the wall a while back and compared it to the new ones. I forget the exact numbers - if I remember correctly, a torso from the '80s was 1.4mm, the Benny's Space Squad one was 0.9mm, and the new Black Falcon torso was 1.2mm. (Or something like that - the difference was pretty large.)

Sea Mates was my first pirates set - possibly only the second set I received that included minifigures. Those were the only soldiers I had as a kid, so I have a real soft spot for that set. I recently bought a very nice copy with the box from Mercari at a good price, but the seller apparently had second thoughts because she cancelled my order a week after marking it as shipped. It would be tough to say that I prefer one over the other. I like both the red and blue versions, although I didn't know the blue ones existed until I was an adult. I have a lot more of the blue ones now. Are they actually more common? It seems like I find 10 for every red one I see. I probably have 20 of the blue ones. I've never ordered them from Bricklink. I've just randomly come across them over the years through various sets I've picked up and so forth. I think I only have three of the red ones, and that includes the two from Sea Mates. I always wanted the Armada ones as a kid. As an adult, I still want them (I only have the red one from the small set, which I picked up about 10 years ago). But I'm not quite as excited about them now because they don't really seem like something I can army build. They all look like some kind of noblemen, not soldiers. So I do like them quite a bit, and I would be really excited to get the rest, but I also get a lot of enjoyment from building armies, and I feel like the lack of foot soldiers for that faction limits the building opportunities a bit.