jamtf

Oh come on, he is no prisoner! He would have been held captive below deck if he was. He is not even forced to walk the plank! On the front of the box he is shown with the (incorrect) Captain Roger head with red beard and eyepatch and he has a flintlock gun and a cutlass in his hand just like his fellow crew mates. That looks like a genuine pirate to me. Prisoners do not carry arms when the rest of the crew is present. Since he is the only one with the neat white shirt and the brown vest, I think he is the 2nd most important man on the ship and a superior compared to the horitzontally striped shirts crew and the 2 blue shirt guys. Of course Captain Roger is the man in charge but in my opinion this guy is the one that should hold the ship on course, the first mate or helmsman so to say. Imagine him at the steering wheel with a black or brown cape during rough weather circumstances and perhaps you get the same feeling about him as I do.

Today, I have seen a knock-off MISB copy of the Lego 6279 Skull Island set. The brand was Brick Block Enlighten and it was according to the box made in China. There were some Chinese markings on the box as well but no clue as to year of production, something that is commonly seen on a genuine Lego box. The box was partly made of purple cardboard just like the Pirate sets from the Lego System era (post yellow and blue Legoland boxes). The box cover photo was a genuine Lego photo and the contents inside the box was different. The minifigs had less detail (especially the torso prints were of a lesser quality) and most likely overall quality leaves to be desired. Also, the black Captain Roger fig had a black vest with yellow arms and black legs with yellow hips. Strange combination if you ask me and a deviation compared to the Lego fig. The box had to remain closed of course but what I saw was blocks that looked the same as real Lego. I think this set was purchased on retail for $20 or so and at that price, I would dare to take the risk to buy one.

Perhaps this link answers all of your questions. The Spongebob sets have been inventoried on BrickLink, apparantly they do not have starfishes included except the larger "Patrick" minifig. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=x112&in=S

How very true. Perhaps the brown hands did not exactly match the face color + an ambulance driver needs to help out in case of emergencies and for hygiene reasons he must then wear those white gloves.

The ambulance driver faces look important enough to be marine officers or sailors. Then the brown hands are not a problem anymore since you can use white hands as well as if they are wearing gloves! There is always a solution!

I just bought some spider-man ambulance driver heads from set 4857. They have a goatee and should blend well with the armada figs. They could be Portuguese colonial crew or Caribbean natives. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3626bpx276

I think flesh tone heads do not look that well. You also need to change the hands. Since the pirate line is out of production for such a long time, we can use our own imagination to create new citizens and crew members. I think the Spanish fleet had some slaves on board too so you could also put a Spanish conquistador helmet on the black minifigs. By the way Bonaparte, your minifig regained his freedom the hard way. He lost a leg over time!

It has been written before. Some use home made decals or similar to create new pirates. What kept me thinking is that we never see black pirates! I am sure that some of the pirates that used to live back then were of the black race. When I was a little kid, I was reading pirates comics by the name of "Roodbaard" (Dutch for Redbeard), He had a son named Eric and there was an old fellow with grey hair "Driepoot" (Dutch for Tripod because he had a peg leg and a stick in order to be physically able walk around). Last but not least, there was Baba, a former African slave that was freed by Roodbaard and his crew and he was a loyal crew member that could be called upon when needed. No black pirates were introduced in the classic sets. All had the classic yellow faces with some changes such as beards and eyepatches. I am planning to get some black minifig heads off of BrickLink soon to make my own. I am referring to the NBA faces but perhaps there are more of these. If they wear a bandana, it should look OK. Also, Playmobil included black pirates or slaves to their sets. I happen to own a few of these MIB sets (hardly played with) from my childhood although this might sound as blasphemy to the real Lego addicts! Wouldn't it be neat to add a few of these to the pirate landscape? It is historically correct as well. What are your thoughts?

No intention on my part to scare him off. He should feel welcome at any time. It is just that I fancy pirates over soldiers, in other words, I sympathize with captain Jack and dislike those navy soldiers. Same with Lego, the pirate sets are in my opnion way better than the soldier sets. Imperial Trading Post however is an exception but that has pirate and merchant figs in it as well. As a matter of fact, I am currently playing a pirate / merchant computer game called Port Royale 2. It is quite good and it has that typical imperial atmosphere. By the way, I am getting way off topic with this.

Why on earth would anyone fancy Norrington? I only remember him as the arrogant, ignorant commodore of the British navy that was outsmarted by Jack Sparrow. Also, his overdone politeness towards Miss Swan about what a fine woman she was made me rather sick. *wacko*

No, why? You call the huge table with pirate sets only a MOC in itself or for what reason? This is about a pirate collection (+ more) and most sets seem to have been built according to the original buidling instructions and then it ain't a MOC if you ask me.

I would be in trouble if I had things all over the place like that. In fact, I already have some trouble every now and then for storing empty boxes, instruction sheets and sets in several areas of the house. :'-( I even sold some of my duplicate sets and some sets that did not appeal to me anymore to get some extra space. One sadly happened to be a pirate set... :-(

This truly is a great fortress. It has been said but I like the use of the narrow stream base plate. It gives the fortress a realistic look. It could use some cannons here and there and a big flag + some wavy ones. As for the hallway, I would furnish it with some chairs and tables (made from brown bricks), maybe a gun rack, a pair of sables and a map on the wall and perhaps some lighting and a barrel or treasure chest. It should be a place for people to wait until they are allowed to come forward in order to to speak to the governor. By the way, did you add a big enough jail for captured pirates and islanders? I saw some small black bars in one of the pictures assuming this is supposed to be a small jail. Again, an impressive building. Congrats on pulling this off.

Coincidentally, I picked up a nice 6244 at a toy market (mainly old toys but only a couple Lego sets seen) today. It came in good used condition with the original box and instructions and was missing a few minor pieces (2 black round bricks and coins) and the paddles need replacing for they have stress marks. Other thing is that the Spaniard had lost its head since the person in the Armada outfit appeared to be this diver: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3626bpx26 I have no spare Imperial Armada head but think I am going to switch his head for this one: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3626bpb012 or a Rascus head. And I bought a whole lot of instructions today as well! No pirate ones though... mainly town, castle and classic space.

Some of the red and blue imperial guards and imperial soldiers uniforms seem to be included. There are no captain roger templates though! Same goes for the horizontal striped shirts scum and other scurvy rats. The female pirate torso in every colour including the original red one can be found here.

Check out pirate MOCs. There is a library (pinned section) with pirate theme torso stickers both MOCs as well as original Lego templates (printed torsos).

I saw a MISB copy of 6244 sell today for

Great ship, the cannons seem to be a bit different from eachother though. I would have liked it a bit better if all the cannons had the same colour scheme (for instance all brown bases with light grey wheels).

OK, when it comes down to Castle, these ar my favourite ones: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas079 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas167 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas097 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas197 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas184 They are from sets 383, 6086, 6081 and 6041 but purists should know. When it comes to Pirates, these are my favourite minifigs: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=pi053 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=pi057 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=pi012 From sets 6286, 6250 and 6289.

Yellowing is a lesser problem as many may think. The solution for getting yellowed pieces turn white again (or off-white if they are heavily worn) is quite simple: pure bleach will help reduce the yellowing and might actually former yellowed piece turn clear white again! Be careful, this only seems to work on white Lego pieces. Other colours have different outcomes so be careful. I even put printed white torsos in bleach (since they could not get any worse) and the prints remained intact. This will perhaps not work on imperial torsos since these are partly blue or red which might cause damage to the colour scheme. A bit off-topic but it is a way to upgrade Lego quality and bring it back to life. I would always search for boxed sets. If not for storage purposes, it will always be beneficial for the set if one thinks of reselling or trading. I only tend to buy unboxed sets if they are very rarely found. Also, boxed sets seem to be original and same era quality rather than unboxed sets which could have been picked together from a bunch of used Lego. Old pieces can easily get mixed with young pieces if you know what I mean. More than once I received a mixture of solid and hollow stud pieces for instance. MISB is the best quality you can get but be prepared to pay! Basically, every South Korean or Hong Kong bidder is after this quality. Try to search for built once sets that have been on display only and never played with. That should be a good way to get the best used quality for a realistic price.

Yes, that is the one I am talking about. You seem to know him very well too Captain Roger!

The pirate with the tatooed chest and the one with the white shirt and green vest (see for instance 6232 skeleton crew) can also be easily transformed into Imperial Armada / Spaniards. Their faces look like they are Spanish and skeleton crew has for instance the Spanish helmet included (for the skeleton) that can be switched with the red bandana. I consider this OK since the Spanish soldier sets always seem to be undermanned in sets such as 6280, 6291 and 6204.

Winning bid: EUR 4.05 (Approximately US $5.16) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ended: Sep-24-06 10:00:00 PDT Ships to: Germany Item location: Berlin, Germany History: 4 bids

Sorry, but I seem to have missed this somehow. Where did this map come from and where can it be found or purchased (still, if at all)? Thanks in advance for your help!