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From what I've seen this is a pretty good representation of the attraction, though as the boats are modeled after the 4+ elements from way back they've always looked a little awkward to me. :) It's dissappointing that TLG isn't interested in doing a full Pirate release right now, but meanwhile these Pirate-adjacent sets are a good sign for fans. They keep the elements in active use so that they don't get retired. The set designers are on our side!

I wouldn't get my hopes up here; the minifigure is just the Pirate Captain from the CMF series. Plus almost every multi-theme video game from the last 20+ years has included Pirates in some form, but it's almost never translated into more sets or figures. (We could get something like the 2K Drive set I suppose.)

There is Blacktron lore for sure; I made a video summarizing what we know about it here; I plan to do one about M:Tron and Classic Space in the future as well. The thing about LEGO lore, especially from that time period, is that it tends to have been created in extremely small amounts for specific projects: club magazines exclusive to certain regions, advertising comics, storybooks, video games, etc. Sometimes there's a surprising amount of consistency, sometimes it's clear that the storytellers involved were doing their own thing, probably with little oversight and/or preserving of the information by the LEGO Group itself. I like to find what elements are compatible and present them as a consistent whole, but for anything from the 80s-early 2000s it's often what amounts to an MOC of miscellaneous story fragments. And always, the emphasis was on allowing kids the ability to continue the story themselves, so even the most fully fleshed out Space theme has a lot that's open ended.

Trying to decide what to order to get this; there are plenty of sets I was going to get eventually, but none that I'm particularly excited about...

Redbeard proudly declared that his ancestors were from Spain in the third German Time Cruisers audio drama, so he's Spanish by heritage if not by birth. I wanted to reference that. (It didn't actually come up in the Golden Ship audio drama since that was written years before and the continuity between the three German audio drama series in which Redbeard appears is pretty loose. But I try to smooth over the differences in telling Redbeard's full life story.) This was probably a reference to the fact that Redbeard and his fellow pirates were pursuing the Spanish treasure of their ancestors in some versions of the LEGO pirate story, mostly on the American catalogs and set boxes, but also including Redbeard's grandfather in particular in the Klick Magazine Timebuster comics. The cabinet pictures were a great addition, thank you for sharing. And great timing too; I was almost finished with the video when you posted them! :)

It took a while to get back to it, but Episode IV is finally here! This video covers the remainder of the original audio dramas, the cancelled sequel comic, and the 1992 mall tour, none of which would have been possible without their rediscovery, archiving, and translation by the fine members of this and other fan forums.

Thank you! I'll definitely post the video; it'll be a small part of the fourth installment of the Redbeard biography series, though this could easily be its own video in the future! I appreciate all the leads here; I'd thought for years that this exhibit was the most likely to be lost and undocumented, but the internet is proving me wrong again! :) It's really cool to know that it's actually safely preserved in working condition; I wish I could go to the Netherlands myself now! There are 7 model cabinets in total; Treasure Cave (#1), Pirate Attack, Escape, Storm Raft (#7), Walking the Plank, Pirate Ambush, and Jolly Tavern (#6). These names come from a British version of the checklist; I'm assuming it must exist in other languages too if the exhibit toured in Germany.

This is fantastic, thank you so much for taking these pictures and sharing! I've never seen some of these angles and details before! The model displays are from a little-seen Pirates show that toured in Europe in the early 1990s; there's a cover story about it in the autumn 1992 Bricks n Pieces magazine here. The neat thing about these models is that they used characters from the ongoing pirate story from the Golden Medallion comic and storybooks; in these pictures you can clearly see Captain Foul and Lt. de Martinet and Governor Broadside in the style of the comic. Each of the cabinets had some kind of interactive element activated by pushing the buttons (this feature seems to be intact in the images you posted; was it working in the exhibit?) and an anachronistic element that kids could find and check off on a scavenger hunt style list. (This is why Captain Foul is holding a flashlight. ) It's amazing that the exhibits have lasted this long. These are the best quality images of the displays that I'm aware of; for a long time I'd only seen the tiny pictures in the Bricks n Pieces magazine. They did resurface back in 2011 in a LEGO Mall exhibition in Hungary; last year I ran accross some pictures from that event. There's one model cabinet there that doesn't seem to be included in this exhibit, featuring Foul and Jimbo (again from the books) with a treasure map. I'd love to know who has been saving these displays in such great condition over the decades; if anyone has any information on that please let me know. :) The display with Governor Broadside and De Martinet on a raft has a very similar copy in the outdoors area of Pirate Land in LEGOLAND Billund; it would have been built around the same time. It's been moved a few times, but it's still there as far as I know. I'm actually putting the finishing touches on a Pirates video that includes information from this touring show; is it okay if I use some of these images and credit you, @CvS?

I like this set quite a bit--the ruined tower on a skullish island idea is nicely ambitious for a small set, and reminds me of the similar small-scope-big-concept Volcano Island from 1996, which is one of my favorites. I'd prefer a few more pirate specific elements (the Brick built jolly roger worked for me in the three-in-one, not so much here) but I love the little touches like the upside down bat. I am starting to hit my limit with this whole GWP concept though. What absurdly high price threshold is this gonna be at? Why can't this just be a regular set? I would buy several copies for the kids in my family if it were just available in stores. And this is on top of the rumored Majisto and Pirate Splash Battle GWPs lurking in the near future...

Hey OurToyWorld, I scanned these awhile back; you can find the Redbeard comic here and Kragg's here. They're not so much comic books as they are a couple of illustrated scenes, but I think they have a certain charm. If you're planning to use these in a video I'd appreciate a shout out to my channel LoreEscape and a link to the original scans so others can find them. :)

I don't think so; that print was introduced for the first Harry Potter sets in 2001 I believe.

Hey, I may have missed the cutoff for this, but I'd love to participate in the contest. :) I've built every Pirates set at least once and am a longtime scholar of the lore.

I feel like there has to be some other reason for the general lack of full Pirates waves after 2015 (and from 1997-2009 for that matter); I think one probably could have said that kids of 1989 weren't calling out for Pirates sets either--video games, robots, ninjas, and high fantasy toys were what was big at the time. Playmobil has been cranking out pirate sets consistently since before LEGO made theirs; they don't seem to have ever stopped so someone must be buying them. And most of the new LEGOLANDs continue to include pirate areas and rides, so it's seen as part of the LEGO experience. And to top it all off, they have to keep the pirate moulds in use if they want to make pirate sets in the future, which is probably why you see pirate adjacent sets like the roller coaster, Suntz, or the 4K sets pop up almost every year. (TLG retires inactive mounds after awhile to save space.) So other toy manufacturers make and sell pirate sets, pirates are consistently tied to the LEGO brand regardless of whether they make the sets, and there is a very good internal reason to make sets so they'll have the elements available to do these occasional big releases. I have no idea why the theme goes virtually dormant for 10 year periods without a larger lineup of sets; TLG doesn't do things without a reason, but darned if I know why.

I wouldn't cut any official sails from LEGO; they're already valuable and odds are good that their exact design, shape, material, and color won't ever be made again. Instead I'd look into some of the replicas folks are making, cut those instead or comissiona a custom size, and just sell the original to cover the cost and buy more LEGO.

I finally got my set, but the only thing I've had time to finish so far is the ship. And I agree with Duck here, it's pretty fantastic. It was a ton of fun to build, and uses completely different techniques than the original. If we were still getting Pirate sets from LEGO consistently it would be pretty cool to see a rotation of big ships small forts one year and then small ships big forts the next year. This is a model that can stant on its own. I love the big hull pieces too, but this and the 3-in-1 pirate ship effectively demonstrate that you can have entirely brick built ships sets in different sizes and I'd love to see more. The Anne Anchor figure looks a lot cooler in person; the black hair and legs combo works pretty well with the new torso. Not what I would have chosen to replace Captain Redbeard, but she's a great variant to have.

Hey Brad, been a subscriber for awhile now, love the tavern talks, etc. As others have mentioned, this seems to be an ambiguous bit of new lore in the long history of Eldorado Fortress rather than a reference to something established. It does bring to mind the Secret of La Sceletta, the 5th Pirates audio drama, where a map leading to documents clearing Will the Bos'un's father of terrible crimes was found in the attic of Eldorado Fortress. I don't think this is intended to be related, but they're both interesting hidden secrets of Eldorado. I'm also working on a video series about Pirates lore, let me know if there's any way I can help!

It would be nice if the box looks good when it arrives, but if it arrives at all that's a win in my book, lol.

It's possible; I think @PxChris posted scans of his copy of the UK version awhile back if you're interested in comparing. The US version had many other edits made to localize other names (they missed one instance of "Darkshark" too) and spellings as well as simplifying some of the dialogue and removing some of the more obviously British phrasings. With all the changes on top of it being a translation of what was probably the Danish original, a few words gone missing here and there wouldn't surprise me.

The game LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed recently retconned Redbeard's first name as "Roger" as a trivia fact, so he is technically Roger Redbeard now, in at least one universe. I used to prefer the idea that Roger was his last name and Redbeard was an obvious nickname like "Blackbeard" was for "Edward Teach". But I also kinda like the idea that Redbeard is his actual name and that he comes from a long line of Redbeards. (There's some internal LEGO Island backstory that tracks Redbeard's descendants in the future too, including a chap named Xavier Red Beard who stole a rescue ship meant to pick up the Rock Raiders. ) Roger is indeed the name used in the UK version of the comic, and since that translation was the basis for the US version, they missed a panel where he's called Roger instead of Redbeard, so it's technically also there as well. (I picked up on this as a kid, so I always figured part of his name was Roger.) Hilariously it's not the same bit of dialogue where Will is mistaken for the captain, since he has no beard, red or otherwise. (Of course, Redbeard also spends the entire comic running around without much of a red beard, so maybe its use as a last name makes more sense after all.)

I haven't seen this particular cutlass yet, but I did notice that it'd been changed from the original awhile back...maybe after 2009? It's been around for a bit.

Did your re-shipment ship? (May be too early to tell, I know.)

It looks like my decision to buy right at release has completely backfired; my card was charged but the set has gone missing in transit. :( So still no set, missed out on the VIP days GWP, and I'm out $220. Yikes. Not sure if I should request a refund now and a. try again, hoping the same thing doesn't happen, or b. try and drive to a LEGO store on Monday and hope it doesn't sell out before then. :(

My order is still doing that thing where they print a label and count it as shipping.

I definitely understand the desire to wait for a GWP or double VIP points here, that's just being a savvy LEGO buyer at this point. But is the expectation that every launch will have a promotion the norm now? I don't recall the Barracuda Bay, Lion Knight's Castle or Galaxy Explorer having promotions right at launch but I could be wrong. (Just curious, not arguing about the pros/cons/merits of GWP as a concept; if it were up to me I'd say give me a Summer Parts Pack and a Sabre Island GWP at launch because I want em!, lol.)

Gotta shout out to Deborah Sampson who fought for the Americans in our Revolutionary War as well. I would think there have to be other soldiers throughout history that we don't know about because they successfully evaded detection during their service or died before they were discovered.