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I mean, have you seen Captain Roger in the comic vs his minifigure, lol? ;)

This LEGO Mania commercial from 1994 has Jack and footage of older commercials featuring Pirates and Space characters built out of LEGO. (The cartoon Maniac appears on the end logo too; it's a real bridging of the eras.) I didn't see the Soldier in this one, just the Pirate cabin boy. Fun fact though, I ran across these images on one of the LEGO Pirate Facebook groups I belong to. (I apologize for not making a note of the person and group at the time so I could give full credit; if anyone knows, please post and let me know.) They reveal that the Pirate boy from the commercial is actually Jimbo, the cabin boy from the Golden Medallion comic and other Pirate story materials!

That's the one! I ordered the Treasure Map from the last Bricklink designer program; the box and instructions were very nicely done.

Isn't there some kind of initiative to use Bricklink to release Ideas submissions that didn't make the cut? We could see some Pirates sets come out of that.

It had the benefit of being the first new theme in well over five years at the time, and having a ton of new pieces and the most sophisticated minifigures to date. Plus, y'know, pirates are pretty cool. ?

It seems a little early to wonder if the set isn't selling well after months of it being out of stock and back ordered...

Almost done building this one. (I was able to order it from Target.com.) I think it's a true classic. I know the traditional LEGO pirate ship has large hull pieces and fabric sails, but there's something very satisfying about seeing a model like this and knowing you built every part of it! Plus the scale is nice, it has almost all the features you'd want in a LEGO ship, and it's easily customizable for any seafaring faction.

I saw a social media post today with someone in a US Wal-Mart with this set. Target.com says it'll be available on 8/15, so it may be sneaking out there in the wild this weekend. TC

It sounds like LEGO delayed many of the August 1st US releases to September due to supply issues. However, they may be on sale sooner than September if stores receive shipments, so I would check back around the 14th and the 28th. (I don't have any inside information, this just seems to be the informed rumors going around the various news sites and social media groups.)

I got mine and finished it; took about a week to build. This is the ultimate pirate set! So many little details and flourishes. I love the way the ship sections look; I can't wait to build the Barracuda herself. Judging from the pictures and the construction of the individual sections, this is LEGO's best ship model to date. It's everything I imagined a LEGO Pirate ship to have when I was a kid looking at the catalog pictures of the Barracuda and SES all those years ago. I was pleasantly surprised with the island sections too; the use of the saucer pieces for sand initially struck me as strange, but they look great in person. I hope this set is around a good long time to give as many people as possible a chance to get one.

I've had better luck with purchasing sets as opposed to trying to piece them together from individual lot purchases. Still, I bought a lot of these sets ten years ago, when they were generally less expensive than they are now. Since most of the larger sets have exclusive elements, I think it would still be more cost effective to try and find a good deal on the set than tracking down the individual parts and figures. If you happened to find an eBay lot with most of the expensive parts all together, that might be a different story. (I was able to complete the Imperial Flagship because I was lucky enough to find a lot that included almost all of the rare pieces but none of the regular bricks.) I haven't had any issues really with breakable elements--I think one set I bought had a large flag with broken clips, but this was mentioned in the auction listing and I had a replacement handy anyway. I've also got an Eldorado Fortress baseplate that's slightly cracked. I'd be most concerned about the condition of rare/exclusive elements like the sails, blue lantern pieces, rarer figures, feathers, etc. The weakest pieces like the flags and other clip-type pieces can usually be replaced fairly easily. Another thing to watch out for are whether the sails are original or replicas--I think the folks making replica sails are doing good work, but you'll want to make sure you're getting the real deal if that's what you want. I have seen a few examples of eBay sellers putting in replica sails in bulk auctions, possibly to drive up the bids. Since you're in the US, it might be worth asking around/checking into the local LEGO resale shops (if there are any) like Bricks and Minifigs when/if they reopen in your area. It probably varies from store to store, but I've seen some sets at fair prices. They're usually on the higher end of fair, but you'll be able to see what you're getting and bypass Bricklink and eBay fees and shipping.

Long ago I swore off collecting any LEGO sets except for my two absolute favorites, Pirates and Adventurers, which seemed harmless enough since they were both semi-retired themes at the time. Then came the Pirates Roller Coaster, which was a great excuse to get a roller coaster set under the auspices of Pirates collecting without dropping a ton of money on that big, beautiful roller coaster set. (I also love theme parks.) I picked up the Friends Amusement Pier for similar reasons. But fortunately I avoided talking myself into buying the LEGOLAND set since it only has a small Pirate section...until the local Discovery Center emailed me to ask if I wanted to buy it. (I did.) So now I've got this big, ridiculous theme park layout all over my desk, and (I promise this is true) I'd put the Billund sticker over the LEGOLAND entrance because it's my favorite park, and I thought "Now what I really need is a big haunted house like Billund has", but I knew that would never actually happen because this AFOL was strictly an Adventurers/Pirates guy, so this was as big as the theme park was going to get. I've never believed that telepathy exists more than I do right now. I do sympathize with those of you who were hoping for a more traditional fairgrounds attraction, because this seems squarely targeted at me for some reason. Sorry guys!

You're right! There's 2013's Sea Cow too, and I guess technically the SpongeBob Flying Dutchman. I was thinking only about ships in the Pirate theme; I overlooked the other ones. Still a long time to go without using the piece on a ship.

I think there are three schools of thought when it comes to LEGO Jolly Roger design: Use a regular skull, with no LEGO reference (the 1989 Jolly Roger, the Queen Anne's Revenge flag, and the 2015 Jolly Roger) Use a skull that could conceivably fit *into* the regular minifigure head (2009 Jolly Roger) Approximate a minifigure skull as seen on the skeleton minifigure (2003 Jolly Rogers, Metalbeard's insignia, the 2016 Ninjago Sky Pirates) The new design seems to try and blend options 1 and 2, and while I appreciate it, I much prefer either 1 or 3. 1 for nostalgia purposes and general appearance, 3 because it makes the most sense in a purely LEGO context.

I've always found it funny that the crows nest piece has been around since 1989, but it was never used in a ship set until 2015.

For nostalgic reasons, I quite like the old pirate hat, even though the printing is less clear and consistent. The new designs have a subtle but visible black outline that makes the design feel less like a part of the hat. Design wise, the new print is a fine update of the old Jolly Roger. I wish it would replace the 2009 pirate hat as the default LEGO pirate hat, although judging from the Creator ship that doesn't seem to be the case. (Sigh) The old Metalbeard hat and the 2015 hat have come and gone, but I think either one would have been fine for any LEGO pirate. Even the SpongeBob pirate hat is pretty nice.

It's very hard to tell, but I think the captain minifigure might have a new torso print rather than the 2009 Creator one.

The pirates and Imperials started a race on my desk. (I moved them to a table to take the picture.) Can you tell which sets I ended up unpacking?

I loved the idea of that set! I didn't finally get it until maybe nine or eight years ago; it was one of the few small sets I didn't have as a kid.

I think the last time I saw an Ideas set on sale that I really wanted was the Woman of NASA set...usually I just wait until there's either double VIP points or there's a cool free set that goes along with it. (I timed my Ship in a Bottle purchase carefully to pick up the 60 Years set--a great combination!) That usually results in an effective $5-$10 discount on the next big set. (Although it may be a year or more before there's another big Pirate-related set worth getting, lol.) These sets are usually out for a good long while, so hopefully those of us who aren't getting it immediately will have a shot somewhere down the line. :) Mind you, if it weren't for the current situation, I don't think I'd have the patience to wait to pick this one up. ;)

I'm fortunate enough to work from home, and I would love some input from the community: which small Pirate set or sets should I put on my desk? I have pretty much all of the small sets, but my very limited space means that most of them are disassembled and in Davy Jones's Locker (AKA storage. ) However, I could really do with some cheering up in this trying time, and I have a little bit of space on the desk, so I want to put some Pirates there! I'd like something that would be interesting to fiddle with while I'm on calls. What do you all think?

The scariest number is that it's actually been five more years between the Legends re-release in 2002 (when I finally got my copy of the set) and the 2020 Barracuda Bay than the 13 years between the original release (1989) and the Legends set. (Or maybe that's only scary to me, hahaha!)

Well, I am gobsmacked. I was hoping for some kind of tribute to Classic Pirates in the packaging, but holy sea cow, they went all out on this one! Bios and stories in the instructions! Yellow-framed boxes! And the builds themselves are just magical...somehow, they managed to include the key parts that made the original Ideas concept unique (like the Pirate inn) and also designed it so that it can be re-arranged into a fully functioning Black Seas Barracuda that might, if I'm being honest, actually be better than the original set! (And, let's face it, probably a better build than the Bay version, but I honestly can't complain.) I never had any of the large pirate sets as a young, young kid so I would constantly be rebuilding my shipwreck island sets into the ships I thought they were originally. Seeing a whole set built around this concept is amazing! And I'm so, so happy for everyone that wanted a BSB but never got one--now there's another chance. Wow. Wow wow wow wow. The timing around the release is extremely unfortunate, but just looking at the pictures is giving me some much-needed cheer.

Scrum (first picture above) has a yellow enough skin tone print that it actually looks just fine with regular minifig heads. (I recently used it to make a custom Captain Foul since all of the red pirate torsos have ruffs that just don't match his look.) As for the rest...better break out the beards, lol. :)

Wow, that is really cool! The head is quite different from the last one; looks more swashbuckling like the original print rather than rouguishly goofy like his comic book and 2015 looks. And I love the pirate hat; it's perfect! I'm going to miss the 2015 hat; I feel like it was shockingly underused, but this is a nice refinement of the original. Here's hoping they'll finally retire the silly 2009 hat as the default LEGO pirate hat.