TalonCard

Last night I finally finished putting together an Enchanted Island I bought on eBay. I love the overgrown green look it has, the awesome minifigures, and the cool sailboats. With this acquisition I have all the Pirate sets released in 1994. I also got the last Bricklink order I needed to rebuild my 1788 treasure chest set, which means I'm 1995 complete too. So I finally have the complete collections from three years: 1990, 1994, and 1995. TC

Counterpoint: the POTC sets, while awesome and new and shiny, will be around for another two years. MM is already discontinued. Take it from a longtime LEGO fan, it's best to take the long view here... TC

I'm excited about seeing what names and other information come out of the football game! Have you found anything unique from it so far? I'm not sure if this has been linked to before, but LEGO's FourPlus Pirates website is still up, and it has some intriguing information about the characters: http://www.lego.com/eng/fourplus/pirates/thepirates.asp Here's what I found interesting: Captian Kragg is Redbeard's brother. The FourPlus ship is called The Hurricane. A new pirate or Armada character is named: Don Cortez, the one who buried the treasure the pirates are after. TC

This was a fun look at the sets from these two years...it made me even more excited about the Enchanted Island that should be coming to me in the mail soon! :) I really think 1995 was an underrated year for Pirates. Sure, there were only three or four sets, but they were great ones with fun features and really solid designs. All the sets released in that year are among my favorite Pirate sets. TC

Not a bad idea. I was thinking of using these buildings for the colonists, though, at least for now. I'd like to keep the blacksmith's shop as much as I can, although I'm sure we'll get a POTC version eventually...it's just that the Blacksmith is one of the few figures I can keep from that set; the other male figures are too Castle-y to use in a Pirate setting. But one of them is definitely going to be a rollicking pub... TC

I just bought this set on Amazon--hurrah for no shipping and no tax! I'm already trying to figure out the best way to modify it for pirates... What do you all think I should do first? Does the Blacksmith's water wheel work for a Caribbean sea town? Are the cows appropriate? TC

What program did you use to build that virtual QAR? TC

Awhile back I bought an Imperial Flagship (the first one) that was missing a lot of parts...I was finally able to get what I needed from Bricklink to finish it! I'm really pleased with this one, as I never had the Flagship and I haven't bought an old ship in awhile. TC

Yes! I've got the figures from the Ostrich set on standby for crew duty whenever I finally get the QAR or the Pearl... :) TC

I don't know if anyone has seen the new preview yet, but *SPOILERS* It looks as though Blackbeard has captured the Pearl, with a strong suggestion that the QAR is the Pearl. Sort of a ghost ship possessing an actual ship, I suppose...well, former ghost ship in the Pearl's case. TC

I got a Sabre Island in absolutely beautiful condition today--with a firing canon, which is always a nice surprise! I now have all the Pirate sets and books released in 1990--the first time I've ever had the entire collection from a given year. I also got a mostly-complete Imperial Flagship...probably overpaid for it, though...some of the bricks had been replaced with...MEGA blocks!!! (The horror!) The pieces to finish it are coming through Bricklink; I can't wait! TC

Captain Roger: Don't worry--I still have 99.99% of the magazine, and it will get scanned at some point (along with all the other books and magazines I have); I just need to find the time for it. A lot of these things I really wanted to see, so I look forward to sharing them with my fellow LEGO Pirates fans. I've scanned the first two installments of that comic, and Mister Phes has been kind enough to post them here. The third part is missing, but I have since managed to acquire the magazine with the third part in it...scans will be coming at some point...it's all a matter of time. TC

I can confirm the Tattoo McGoo and other RBR names--they're from the 1996 March-April issue of the LEGO Mania Magazine, the official publication of the American LEGO club. TC

Hey everyone, I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to scan anything this Spring Break, but I thought I'd put in a few factoids from the Mania Magazines before I go back to school: The September-October issue names the Skull's Eye Schooner parrot and monkey Squawks and Coco, respectively. It also gives a date for the LEGO Pirate adventures: 1700. The March-April issue offered this biography of the Armada Admiral: The Admiral Favorite food: A "galleon" of rocky road ice cream Favorite basketball player: David "the Admiral" Robinson Favorite football team: The Buccaneers Favorite song: Row, Row, Row Your Boat The admiral of the Imperial Armada is one of the toughest sea dogs to sail the seven seas. Everyone calls him "the Admiral" because no one knows what his name is. He was marooned on a desert island when he was a baby and found by some Islanders. Ever since then, he's been a sailor. The Admiral wears his super shiny armor everywhere, even in the tub. It just takes him awhile to scrub the rust stains off his neck. His favorite tub toy is the 6289 Red Beard's Runner. "I like to practice sinking his ship," says the Admiral. The Admiral is a real sports fan. He especially likes to hang out with his friends the Islanders and play soccer. In the islands, they use coconuts for balls and palm trees for goals. "My scores aren't too good, but we sure eat well after the game," he says. This issue also names the skeleton from Volcano Island--Skully. Not terribly original, but there you are. It also suggests that the identical skeleton from 6232 Skeleton Crew is named George, but then again the comic also pegs one of the Red Beard Runer pirates as George...no further names besides the ones already pointed out by Grog, but I seem to have lost the back cover of that magazine...I could have sworn there was one more named pirate... TC

LOL; I hadn't even thought about that until now. When I was a younger fan of LEGO I used to be strongly against Mega BLEEPs and any other such pretenders, to the point where I converted my entire family into anti-Mega BLEEPs fanatics. This was more important when my only supply of LEGO came from birthday and Christmas presents, so brand recognition was Serious Business. If you only have two chances a year to get your favorite brand of bricks, you don't want to risk someone getting you the wrong kind by mistake. Now, however, not so much. And yet... My mother mentioned recently that she'd spent an entire afternoon separating the LEGOs from the Mega BLEEPs in the youth room of the church where she works...I'm a little chagrined at this, since I don't know how much those kids care which brands they're playing with. But I'm afraid my love for all things Pirate temporarily overrode my love for LEGO when Dead Man's Chest came out; I just had to have the small Mega BLEEP Jack Sparrow set because it came with a cool-looking plastic case that looked like Jack's compass from the films. It was so cool that I even wore it with my pirate costume one year. Still, I caused a small uproar when I came home with a Mega BLEEP set. It didn't bother me too much at the time; I even kept the figure and bricks the compass came with, but now that we're getting the real deal, I may have to have a ceremonial plank-walking with the LEGO Sparrow forcing the pretender overboard. TC

I'm sure we won't be getting decks, rigging, or double rows of cannon, but I'd be very surprised indeed if the upcoming Black Pearl set didn't resemble the game ship, at least in exterior detail. I'd be willing to bet that it'll look a lot like the game Pearl, but only from the sides. TC

How about "was digitally manipulated using a program that either is or has functions similar to Adobe Photoshop"? TC

I bought this book the other day, and I thought I'd come back to report. There are no new characters in the book, and no new information of note. (Aside from the fact that the pirates believe the mermaid figurehead of the Brickbeard's Bounty brings them luck.) The pictures are all just photographs of the sets with some minimal scenery photoshopped in. There is no story, exactly, it's more like a guide to the 2009 sets. No Imperial Flagship, no POTC. Definitely only for the hardcore Pirates collectors who must have everything. (For better or worse, I fit into this category. ;) ) TC

With all the 2009 Pirate minifigures and a whole slew of POTC figures coming out very soon, I don't think there will be a final installment in Pirate Minifigure history for quite some time! :) TC

I have more experience on eBay than I do on Pick a Brick or Bricklink, but it seems to me that it would be best to try and find the complete sets. The SES and ITP can be found for about $150-200 each, the BSB tends to go for less as it was in production longer. That's a lot of money, it's true, but once you factor in shipping and the cost of unique/hard to find sails, hulls, and baseplates (which typically go for upwards of $10 each), you're probably better off waiting for a high-priced-but-fair Buy it Now or Bricklink seller who offers free shipping. And that's not even counting the minifigures, which for some strange reason are more expensive on Bricklink and eBay individually then they are in the actual sets. TC

I'm just excited that we're getting a ship with right around 200 pieces more than the Brickbeard's Bounty at the same price point. (Er, in the US at least...) Heck, just getting two big pirate ships in one year is pretty fantastic. I'd hoped that the Black Pearl would be the same size as the QAR, but it stands to reason that if the line is successful, they'll make another Black Pearl in two years. I think by releasing the "Jack Sparrow" version first, they're helping to build demand for a bigger, badder version of the more iconic cursed Black Pearl from the first movie. It's a smart way to extend the series. You just cannot lose with this line. I have a soft spot for Castle too. (I miss my Wolfpack sets!) That said, I love Pirates more than anything else, and I've also found that I can really only focus on one theme. (Cash aside, there's display room to think about!) And I just might be able to get all the Pirates/Pirates of the Caribbean sets, but there's no way I could track down every Castle set...they've been making those since before I was born! :) TC

As a dyed-in-the-wool Pirate fan, I have to admit that I'm a little distressed whenever someone mentions modding Pirate stuff to fit Castle. Aren't tropical seas adventures way cooler? TC

Or just confusing, since a green apple comes in the Isla de Muerta set... TC

To the best of my knowledge, the US catalogs from 1992-1995 don't mention any of the Imperial Guards by name. The Skull's Eye Schooner box did imply that Broadside was the leader of the Imperial Guards, which seems to line up with this comic: "The Pirates, led by Captain Redbeard, are a powerful force of renegades. No Imperial treasure is safe when these seafaring mates are around. Their sailing ships are as fast as anything in the Imperial fleet. Their island outposts are fortified and well hidden. Whether on sea or land, they are a strong adversary for Governor Broadside and the Imperial Guards." In retrospect, as a kid in '92 I must have just assumed the Imperial Guard leader was Broadside based on their visual similarities, but the box and comic did eventually confirm my assumptions. I don't think Woodhouse ever appeared in the US promotional materials, unless it was in something I've been unable to get a hold of. There are still Brick Kicks issues featuring Pirates, pre-1994 Shop at Home catalogs, and the 1994 Islander issue of the Mania Magazine that might hold more information...the hunt continues... TC

I'm slightly skeptical of that...if you look at the first and last gunports on each side, they don't look as if there is a place to put a cannon behind them. I'm betting that of the six gunports on each side, only four actually have space for a cannon. I also wouldn't be surprised if there were only three cannon in the set. I'm not trying to diss the QAR--this is the best Pirate ship we've seen since the SES--but our expectations should be realistic... TC