Retrocity

I received and built my Sea Serpent. I thought it was a fun build, and it looks pretty nice. I have the original, and in comparison, it is slightly shorter in length but wider for the most part. I’d love to make a few minor updates, maybe add some dragon plumes. Maybe someone will print a small flag with the updated insignia on it. I saw a version where the red dragon from the DND CMF was added where the plumes were on the original. I just placed the solid brown version from the Chocolatier CMF and it might look really nice too. I actually need to get a brick to hold it in place to see and will share a pic if it looks good. If it does, I might need to get an extra Chocolatier. I do hope an updated Black Knight's Castle is eventually released.

The Griffin torso immediately reminded me of the old scale mail torsos, so I'm not surprised to see it get reused with different colored arms (especially since the original came with red, blue, or black). At least for now, you can get more via PAB if you want and just swap to the arm color of choice. It always disappointed me that the Black Knights didn't have a unique torso like other factions and the scale mail / plate mail were used by Lion / Black Falcon / Royal knights as well. I understand why some are disappointed in the lack of a new torso, but given the history of the Black Knights and getting two other new parts, I can live. Now if Lego releases a modern Black Knights Castle, I want a torso with the insignia on it as part of it. I do have a few UV printed Lego branded torsos with the Black Knight dragon on it in the modern castle style. I put pearl dark gray arms on them (torso is red), but might try out dark blue on them. Would like to find a printed leg that would go with this and the Black Knight version of the Griffin torso. I think with the printed sail, it mostly exceeds what I would have expected from a GWP. I like the modernized Black Knights logo and hopefully this won't be the last we see of the shield.

Supposedly the Sea Serpent GWP comes with a printed fabric sail and dragon shields (assuming Black Knight color scheme) using the Hylian Shield shape! Only two minifigures, but getting a printed sail sounds great. No info on the torsos, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are the Griffin ones or use armor overtop a plain torso. Now just to see the purchasing threshold.

I made an order Thursday night, bestsellers shipped Friday, and arrived today. No bonuses for me, but my Gold Space Torsos came after getting cancelled on the last order. Here's what was interesting. The package was delivered by Amazon instead of the Post Office. Came in a brown paper bag envelope instead of the normal yellow one, and it said Amazon Shipping on the label. Was brought to the door like any normal Amazon order in one of their delivery vans. I hadn't heard anything about this change and wonder if all bestsellers will ship via Amazon now.

We should get the official unveil on Monday for BDP 8 and Coconut Cape. I saw that it will be 209.99 USD, but I think the pricing was removed at the moment. From a teaser photo on the Bricklink IG, at least one of the soldiers has the light purple torso from the Ninjago City Workshops set from last year. I didn’t know about this torso before this teaser and it fits really well. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=njo0957#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

I agree that the ships do look similar in overall design but there are enough small changes, for better or worse, to differentiate them. The sails being generally the same goes a long way toward making them look very similar to me. Perhaps they could’ve gone with black, or dark red for the sails with white bricks for the skull. I do like the ship. I think as pointed out above, the ship will be bought for a lot of children who likely will enjoy it and don’t have the prior ship. It’s a shame there isn’t an alternative that would be more in line for an older crowd and I get the frustration. Like the prior one, I think it will go on sale often enough or be available cheaply on the secondary market for those who wait. I myself have gotten two of 31109, two of 31120, and one of 31132 off of bulk lot auctions cheaply (though it takes time and patience). Expecting the new ship and castle will eventually show up as well. As another talking point, I noticed the cloth sails from the Goonies set are available on PAB for a not too crazy amount (~$8 USD). I wonder if they might work on the alternate build sloops (or similarly sized moc ship).

The ship is fine, I’ll likely try to get it on sale at some point. I think it’s fair to wait for more pictures for a full assessment. I’d like to see what the cabin looks like. I also really like the kraken build. I feel like a teal/green version is needed for the Kraken knights (hopefully all the parts exist in those colors). I also agree that the alternate builds look good, potentially better than the main build. The two small sloops will look nice mixed in with some other bigger ships, maybe add a cloth sail to each. Like the new castle, I’m much happier to deal with a smaller part count if the tradeoff is new minifigure parts. New torsos/legs aren’t really coming in other sets at the moment unless you are going 3rd party. It’s easier to add on to the ship, understanding the likely increased cost of the ship and the cost to buy additional parts if you don’t have them on hand. Off initial glance, the captain’s torso looks like it could work for an imperial as well.

The Gryphon and Gold Space torsos from my early February order were cancelled today. This was from the brief time they moved a bunch of those parts from Standard to Bestsellers in the U.S. Looks like they are currently OOS online. I wonder if it has to do with the parts being moved back to the Standard parts list and stock not being replenished for remaining orders from when they were listed as Bestsellers in the U.S.

It looks like the CMF Tuba player will be useful as an Imperial. Not a great closeup out there of the torso without the tuba in front but looks good from afar. Nice red printed legs and shako along with gold epaulets to go with the white torso. The monster hunter might have a useful torso / legs for a pirate as well.

Good point with the alternate builds. I was thinking that the 2009 and 2015 waves included a couple Imperials with the largest Pirate ship. Perhaps one alternate build is an Imperial fort for the pirates to attack. 3rd could be some sort of trading post or civilian building/setting that both groups would be at. My initial thought was they included a civilian and a Serpent knight with the Horse Knight Castle and seemed to place a larger emphasis on a bigger and better selection of minifigures (with more of the budget put toward new prints for the minifigures). I honestly prefer more of the budget going toward new minifigure prints than more pieces in the Creator sets because I can add on to the build with extra parts. Options for new pirate themed minifigure parts are much more limited. Hopefully this bodes well for some new prints. I figure printed legs are pretty rare for pirates, so no budget really needs to be allocated to a new print there (though I’m not opposed to one, just thinking about how it’s been in the past). They made two new castle factions, make the Imperial faction a new color and/or bring back Spanish/Armada helmets. Say with 5 figures: two Imperial or other opposing faction, one Pirate captain, one male pirate, and one female pirate. They could reuse the vending machine torso for one figure, but I’m wondering if they want to keep it exclusive outside BDP sets. If it gets a 6th figure, one additional pirate or a skeleton. They could also make the captain a woman which would give some variety. Of course, they could just rehash existing torsos, or the set could be something unexpected but where’s the fun in speculating that.

Quite exciting to see it sounds like a new creator ship is on the way. It looks like it is 168 less pieces than 31109. The Horse Knight Castle is 67 less pieces than 31220. 6 figures versus 4 (counting the skeleton) for the new versus old castle. I think it would be fair to speculate 5-6 figures for the pirate ship. Considering the minifigure assortment in the Horse Knight Castle and Haunted Mansion creator sets, I am also hopeful we’ll get a nice assortment of new prints. Maybe a new Imperial figure as well.

These are also available in the BAM towers in LEGO stores if you have one nearby. If you get any, I’d love to see how they look next to the custom torsos from a color perspective. I’m planning to alter one of the creator pirate ships for a faction using those torsos (Dutch too I suppose) and had been thinking of at least getting an admiral torso from Rocky Mountain in orange. The BAM torso is reddish orange, and I was hoping they wouldn’t look out of place together. The ship looks great and those sails look really good on it

The rest of the parts appear to be up. The torsos, legs, and heads from the castle and haunted house seem to be normally priced. Just some of the specialized pieces are various prices.

Picked up my copy at the Post Office yesterday after there was a delivery issue on Wednesday. I received my PAB order yesterday as well with a few more of the green torsos used for the Imperial Guards in the set. Was there any mention of what faction/country they intended for them to represent? Probably won’t be able to work on it this weekend with getting ready for the holiday, but hopefully on one of my off days next week.

The bestsellers I ordered on Monday shipped Tuesday surprisingly. Fastest turnaround ever for an order.

FYI, it looks like they further dropped prices on a bunch of retiring parts (at least in the U.S.). I had a cart of best sellers (mostly retiring parts) that I had been building and held off once I saw the news about standard parts. I thought a bunch of parts had gone out of stock when I saw my cart total was significantly cheaper. Ended up adding more parts that got the total back to close to where it was originally lol. Cows for $3.48, horse barding for $3, gorilla body and both arms for $4.49 total, a lot of torsos for around $0.60, ect…

My card was charged a few days ago, and the order status updated to “In Warehouse” today!

Really tempting to grab a 2nd one for the alternative builds.

I saw a few days ago elsewhere that someone had reached out to Lego, and customer service told them that they should all ship by 11/15. Hopefully that's the case.

Has anyone in the US had their payment method charged / received shipment notification for Thieves of Tortuga? Seems like at least a few of the other sets have started shipping, but haven’t seen any mention of Tortuga in the US. Mine is In Process, I think it may have been In Warehouse last week.

Can you share the vendor? I've gotten a few of the orange BAM pirate torso's and have started a small imperial faction with them. I have an extra of the Creator Pirate Ship and have been thinking of modifying it for them. Still not sure what path I'll take as far as sails, but would love to have that information for when I do.

Hopefully the Brickheadz lead to new TMNT sets in the future. Could line up with sets for the Mutant Mayhem sequel in 2027. Would love a large set based on the sewer lair or Technodrome from the 1987 cartoon or one of the lairs from the 90s movies (The Secret of the Ooze abandoned subway station lair would be really cool).

Preordered mine!

That’s a really good callout. I didn’t think that at first, but I definitely see it now. Both torsos are really nice. The gold Imperial torso could be used with either blue or red coats or as its own separate faction.

Really great looking figures. I may get the set because I really liked the concept in general. Will absolutely get more of the minifigures. Like the viking vibe for the Kraken knights, can easily swap the helmets to make them more of a traditional castle if desired or use them with other viking sets. Shield, torso, and leg printing is great. I voted for Kraken but Griffin gave off the most classic castle look. Really pleased with their torso. To me, it looks like an updated scale mail armor used a lot with the Black Knights but also throughout other castle themes. If the Sea Serpent remake wins that vote, I could see this torso being used (though I’d love to see a Black Knight torso with their emblem on it). I like that they are using a variety of shields types to make factions more unique. Pirate torsos are also really good. Nice to see the Paradisa figures too. My sister had a bunch of these sets growing up, but I currently have them. I would’ve liked to have seen another theme represented, but I’m glad to have such a variety of new figures coming that should be available on PAB eventually and usable on future BDP sets.