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I could see them going any which way with this one. The conceit of Barracuda Bay was that Redbeard's ship wrecked when he was on his way to Eldorado Fortress for a final showdown over the ancestral treasure that was the focus of the original 1989 storyline, essentially retconning all of the previous pirates sets as taking place during the little story in the original Black Seas Barracuda box. So it would actually make a lot of sense for his next destination to be Eldorado Fortress to find out what happened to the treasure in the intervening years. If they wanted to straight up reuse the Redbeard from the Barracuda Bay set, they could definitely do that. (He's a great figure, after all.) They could also redesign him to be slightly older too. (There was some joking among the designers that if they were to continue Redbeard's story he'd be Graybeard instead.) But it's also been long enough since the Bay was released that they might just go back to the classic version in some way. The Space minifigures from the Galaxy Explorer and Blacktron sets are very close to the original figures, while the Castle remakes have been updated graphically but still in the classic style. I'm intrigued to see which direction they take these. I'm hoping for a textured ramp so that minifigures can be posed on it. The original is iconic but the ramp is pretty useless from a playability standpoint since minifigures pretty much slide right off. Unlike the Castle and Space themes, wheeled vehicles were uncommon in pirate sets so you could maybe roll barrels or cannon down the ramp, but that's about it. If it is a large single piece I'd like to see it used to access any hidden areas under the fortress.

I'm no expert in Ninjago lore, but I think the Desinty's Bounty was originally a pirate ship complete with a crew of more traditional looking pirates, years before Ninjago. Every time they do another version I keep hoping they're doing that one.

I'm sorry I didn't reply to this sooner--that's fantastic, a great find! If there are any gaps in the Klick/World magazines online I'd really like to see those scans! :)

I think you're both actually right here; the archives file date image makes sense given the minifigures, but the Secret Life of LEGO Bricks book does state that Europa was considered as one of the historical follow-ups to Castle, along with Western and Pirates. Multiple elements were put into development with the understanding that they could be used across all three themes: The soldier minifigure accessories (and possibly prints?) aren't mentioned but it would make sense if they also shared some common elements with Europa during that early development period. A clue could be that the bicorn as used on Captain Redbeard looks quite different from Niels's original design. One key takeaway from the book was that most theme proposals weren't dropped immediately and hung around to be redeveloped and re-pitched for decades. Western obviously came back, but even Adventurers had an early proposal in the 80s that was dropped to avoid similarities with Raiders of the Lost Ark. So it makes a lot of sense that even though Europa was around at the time Pirates was developed in the early 80s, the pictures we have are probably from an updated proposal in 1994. Also note that the theme was "eventually dubbed 'Europa'", which could mean that this is the name itself wasn't around until 1994 and earlier versions used a different name or no name at all. Another recurring theme in the book is that the LEGO Group's hesitancy to depict any kind of conflict had a huge influence on the development of themes, but the inevitable trend toward story based conflict play meant that the designers had to come up with increasingly far-fetched excuses for factions and weapons. The early Castle swords weren't just designed to avoid appearing threatening, the designers even nicknamed them cake knives. Pirates were allowed to have early firearms and cannons because the designers argued that these early weapons were notoriously unreliable and inaccurate, and that the soldiers and pirates would be too busy chasing after treasure to spend much time fighting anyway. This was ultimately one of the main reasons Pirates was chosen over Western, with its more modern weapons and genre focus on shootouts, and Europa, with its nation-based conflicts. (This is probably why the soldiers and later Imperial Guards don't have a definite nation assigned to them by their flags or story material.) Regarding the Brick Fanatics issues, since the magazine is out of print I'd be happy to add the Pirate related material to my scan list. TC

Oof, Chief was the first one who came to mind when you mentioned the project--now that's an expensive head! As far as the Armada figures go, they're definitely not exclusive to the US; the '96 wave was released in the UK. But they're bound to be quite a bit rarer than the other Pirate heads, as you've discovered, since they were only out for two years at the most and probably in much smaller numbers than most of the Pirate sets. If you don't have any of them your best bet is probably to find a "good" deal on an Armada Flagship since it includes all three heads and trade or sell the rest of the parts--you'd probably make back a good bit of what you'd paid for it initially since that set has a ton of rare/unique parts. How many heads do you have in your collection currently?

I think I've seen a few indications that some were available in certain Asian markets as well; it'd be worth investigating. Fortunately the 1997 pirate sets didn't have any exclusive head or torso prints, so you're in the clear there at least. Best of luck with the rest though; it's crazy how expensive some of these rare parts are getting.

Hmm, that basic hull build has me rethinking the set; I have a crew of skeleton pirates that would really work for.

Ooh, I missed the banana bunch piece!

Thank you for the @s. :) Off the top of my head, early concepts of the DUPLO Pirates theme included a DUPLO figure that appears to be Captain Redbeard (see the "Captain Figure Mockup" about 1/3rd of the way down), and the actors portraying Will and Camilla in the German audio dramas are brother and sister in real life: Sascha Draeger and Kerstin Draeger.

Ooooh, I like that one! Not crazy about the price, but it'd go so well with the Amusement Pier set I already have. Nice to see the first Friends jolly roger symbol; I wish they'd just do Friends pirates already. The fern pieces make for a nice looking palm tree, though the top section is pretty rough. (Another in the long history of LEGO palm tree tradeoffs, lol.)

We may want to adjust our expectations a little; it's also possible this is "just" a re-release of the Imperial Flagship or Barracuda Bay, which would still be pretty great for anyone who missed out on those.

I'd love to know why they named the monkey Spinoza, lol.

A fair question! No, that's an assumption on my part. It doesn't seem like a coincidence since there's really only one smiley faced pirate with a red shirt and bandanna that's consistently paired with Captain Redbeard, but it's not confirmed.

A fourth if you count the figure in the 3-in-1 set, and maybe even a fifth in the Brick Bounty set. But this is all just speculation based on appearances. ;) I like to think the 6235 version is an older Will who grew a mustache but later shaved again. (He's also aboard the Black Seas Barracuda and the Skull's Eye Schooner, I believe!)

That's his winter outfit, lol.

It refers to a secure, locked space to keep rare items, like you might find in a bank or archive. There's a picture here. In this case it probably means that they're digging into old LEGO designs to use or inspire the design for the new direct to consumer set. (I tried finding a good French translation but I couldn't guarantee it wouldn't come out to something like "bank coffee" or "jumpy bank", lol.)

An interesting detail: the review copies of this set seem to include a printed minifigure version of Bo'sun Will from the Minifigure Factory design station; I don't know if this is exclusive to the LEGO House as well or just printed as a bonus. (The printing is nothing to write home about, but it's always nice to see the character come back.)

If true, I'd kinda rather see an Imperial Trading Post remake--$215 is enough to make a nicely sized Fortress and docks with an updated mini ship. Or the mini ship could be the GWP.

Thanks to @PxChris on Instagram for finding this 1991 Japanese LEGO Pirate commercial. Redbeard rescues Will from the Eldorado Fortress, and they escape to Rock Island Refuge with a treasure map. I've seen most of the old commercials online dozens of times, so stumbling across a new one is a real treat. You all should check it out! Redbeard straight up punches a bluecoat with his hook hand, surprisingly violent for a LEGO commercial!

It looks like LEGO has started to tease the official March 1st release on Instagram. There will be a live release event on March 1st with the set designers and original Pirate set designer Niels Milan Pedersen. The set is expected to cost 599 DKK (about $85 USD). There will be a live virtual event featuring the product and design process on Instagram on March 2nd. The Instagram post does say "We have planned a number of events around the exclusive LEGO House product, both for those who can come to LEGO House and those who can’t", so maybe there will be some kind of wider release?

Don't get me wrong, I love the original palm tree design, but I can see why the original segments and palm tree design were done away with. They had an annoying tendency to snap in half or fall over when being played with or moved, the small base and big leaves meant they were often top heavy, especially the earliest ones, the individual segments took up a lot of the piece count but you needed a lot of them to get a good bend, and you couldn't do a lot with them aside from tree building (brown being an uncommon color at the time; I think most other uses in sets were recolors). And to top it all off, they don't do a lot to evoke palm trees, with four leaves sticking straight out in regular intervals. The BTS palm tree is kind of the worst of both worlds; it has the old-style "helicopter" palm combined with a thin pole-like straight trunk. I think the palms in Barracuda Bay are actually a pretty good compromise between looking good, evoking the aesthetic of the actual plant, and consisting of parts with a wider variety of uses. I'm particularly fond of the coconuts. The only thing I'm not wild about is the technic base that doesn't look organic at all. IMO the best palm tree design yet is the one in 70604 Tiger Widow Island, which is similar to the Barracuda Bay palms but has an upside down beige bush piece that really sells the palm tree look.

I've scanned and added the LEGO Club Summer 1989 Brick Kicks issue here, and there are a couple of things that might interest Pirate fans: there's coverage of the 1989 New York Toys Fair, where the Pirate theme was launched in America, and a comic where Brick Buildmore goes in search of Captain Redbeard's sunken treasure!

Added the Summer 1989 Brick Kicks. Of note are the photos of the Pirates launch at the 1989 New York Toy Fair!

To be fair, while Hook's ship in the original movie had white sails, the Disneyland attractions have used red and white striped sails for Hook's ship pretty consistently even before LEGO Pirates existed. As a side note, I think this is the first time this skull and hook crossbones has been used for Captain Hook? The idea also showed up in Jake and the Neverland Pirates and the non-Disney-but-now-owned-by-Disney Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates, but with very different looks. Of course, it's official LEGO canon that Captain Hook got the idea for his hook from Captain Redbeard.

Shame that it has a hook on it--how many LEGO pirate captains could that possibly be used for?! Oh wait...