Hive

You think they're stupid? I think they're pretty nice - though only for high-ranking officers and captains. These green soldiers, I can't help but think they'd look better with white epaulettes. But nice useage of this new torso.

Thanks. I would, but the only sail I have an extra of is the main sails. The front sail, which is the type of sail that would fit on top of the cabin, is as expensive as the 7 main sails combined!

173B Having long desired to own 10210 Imperial Flagship I finally decided that now, with the release of Pirates 2015, to simply make my own, budget version of this now all-too-expensive ship. So I paid the premium Bricklink price for the 10210 sails and put together a ship with the parts I already had lying around. I did my best to make it look as much as an official LEGO set as I could manage, and I have been greatly inspired by several past LEGO ships when building this one. Without further ado, I present my very own 2015 Budget Imperial Flagship:

I have somewhat of a hard time believing that...

My own opinion: 1. 6239 Cannon Battle vs. 70409 Shipwreck Defense A tad unfair comparison, since 70409 is obviously much bigger and more impressive. But it also costs twice as much, which evens out the clear advantage somewhat. With the huge price gap in mind, 70409 still narrowly wins it for me - in part due to me prefering blue coats over red coats. 2. 6241 Loot Island vs. 70411 Treasure Island Another close call that had me go back and forth. I like sets with raised baseplates (even a weird one like the one in 6241) but 70411 has a better build. Both sets has an exclusive figure that's really interesting (castaway and female pirate) and both have a high quality set of minifigs. In the end, 70411 edges out a very narrow victory. 3. 6242 Soldier's Fort & 6240 Kraken Attackin' vs. 70412 Soldiers Fort & 70410 Soldiers Outpost Yet another close contest with both sides having advantages and disadvantages. The 2009 sets have a better raft, better animals, much better palm tree and an overall better build - whereas the 2015 sets have more interesting parts, better colours and better minifigs. Both have the always-sought-for by AFOLs modularity, but the 2009 editions gives more options in terms of modular combinations. 6242 & 6240 are clear victors to me. 4. 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty vs. 70413 The Brick Bounty 6243 has a much better colour scheme and better animals; 70413 has better rigging and better minifigs. In the end though, they're both so dissapointingly similar that not much can seperate them. The lack of originality in 70413 ends up handing the victory to 6243. 5. Chess 2009 vs. Chess 2015 2009 has better and more logical board pieces/figures while 2015 has a far more interesting board. It's hard to declare a victor here, so I'll settle for a draw. Final conclusions: both themes are pretty good in my eyes, LEGO did us well with them (for a 1-wave theme, which both seems to be). They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but in my eyes they're about equals. I enjoy both greatly.

There's already a thread for this sort of stuff: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=63379

Very well built, some clever techniques! A beautiful but sad creation.

Nice build, my girlfriend really liked this one a lot.

I already made a topic on the battle of the flagships, and parallels between the two are often made in discussion threads... so inspired by my old Castle battle thread, I decided to let the two Pirates themes battle it out. And as such, I have put the sets up against each other in compareable and fairly even battles. Due to the 2009 theme having more sets, I had to leave out some for a fairer comparison. As you'll notice, I also grouped 2 sets together for tag team battle in order to make them more directly compareable. Without further ado, let's get started! 1. 6239 Cannon Battle vs. 70409 Shipwreck Defense vs. 2. 6241 Loot Island vs. 70411 Treasure Island vs. 3. 6242 Soldier's Fort & 6240 Kraken Attackin' vs. 70412 Soldiers Fort & 70410 Soldiers Outpost vs. 4. 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty vs. 70413 The Brick Bounty vs. 5. Chess 2009 vs. Chess 2015 vs.

Interesting, I only saw the two biggest sets before. Thanks for the history lesson!

If it's your first ever pirate ship, I think you'll enjoy it either way. My first ever ship was Brickbeard's Bounty, and although it's not the best ship I own nor close to the best LEGO set I own, it was one of my very best experiences to build it. There's just something magical about building the ships, and when it's your first one... that's something special.

Honestly, I think that's because more people have now bought and build the new set and thus realized that it isn't as special as they perceived in the pictures. The initial excitement of getting something new has simply worn of.

I grew up with the first Pirates wave and have fond memories thereof - but I don't miss them. They were great for their time, but LEGO sets nowadays has evolved with more parts, more colours and more details (not least on minifigures!). The only thing that has "devolved" is perhaps the complexity and general size of sets. And that, I do of course miss. I mean, who wouldn't want to see a Pirate set the size and scale of the Imperial Trading Post or El Dorado Fortress but with new colours, parts and technique?

Thank you for your kind suggestion, but I think I'll pass. What you said was: What you do is suggest that many European vendors dump prices on goods and instead artificially beef up shipping costs to make up the difference. Your use of the phrase "on the hook" more than implies deliberate malicious intent on behalf of the sellers. Here is a definition of said phrase: Yes and I'm tired of unfair and completely unreasonable accusations made towards most of an entire continent. Especially since they are mainly based on faults of your own. I mean, who doesn't check for shipping costs before ordering an item? I have yet to encounter a single Bricklink store that did not list shipping costs on the splash page. Prices are there, simply have a look. If the shop owner overcharges you, demand the transaction cancelled. And if in doubt, contact the seller and ask for clarification.

Very nice! I too am reminded of Black Sails when looking through the pictures, great job with the details and life of it all!

Very nice, I've often wondered how a new version of the BSB would look. Though I'm surprised with myself to say that I think I prefer it with yellow... it's more striking that way.

This isn't about me personally, this is about you generalizing and trying to give European sellers a bad reputation. Sure, you are entitled to an opinion - just as I am entitled to question your groundless accusations against an entire continent worth of Bricklinkers. Yes, lots of European shops have lower prices to offset the higher shipping costs. That's pretty basic business sense: if you cannot compete with the price of X, lower the price of Y instead. But you need to realize that no Bricklink shops get a cut from the local post office. And sure, there are some shops here and there that have low prices but instead charge excessively for shipping, packing and an assortment of other fees - but to claim that it's a general thing done by Europeans is a nasty and groundless accusation. I'd wager that I can find just as many American shops doing that as European. And at any rate, those shops are *not* an accurate represenation of the general Bricklink shop, neither in Europe nor in USA. Of course you're often better off buying from your own country/region due to lower shipping costs. But not because Europeans have come up with some kind of clever scheme to rip you off, as you suggest - but because of factors we simply cannot control. Thankfully, that's none of your business. Oh so now it's merely half of the European shops who are nasty cheats? I don't know, but I'd like to repeat this again - since you seem incapable of comprehending it: we do not affect shipping costs in any way. We have no control over such aspects. If you want to know, ask our state post offices.

Beautiful and very lifelike build. And that pose is stunning.

LEGO Historian, do you know anything about the sets LEGO did with Deutsche Telekom, for their pro cycling team in the late 90's? I coincidentally stumbled across pictures of 2 sets a few days ago, and wondered what the background for producing them was.

Man, I love that glass cabinet. I'd love one of those some day, when I have room for it! What are those display cases in different sizes and where did you get them?

Fortunately, taste is a matter of subjectivity. I personally wouldn't give this ship more than 6/10, though I agree that the minifigs are amazing. But that's just not enough for me, minifigs can't make a lazily average set amazing. And being the owner of Brickbeard's Bounty as well as the two PoTC ships, I strongly disagree that this one is better than either of those. But yes, it's actually better than many of the old ships, I'll give you that.

You know, I find these accusations wildly offensive and insulting (as a European Bricklink seller myself). You don't know a damn thing - and if you are unpleasantly surprised by high shipping costs, be sure to only shop when 1) the shop clearly lists shipping prices and/or 2) you ask the shop for shipping costs beforehand. Don't go around painting all European Bricklinkers as dirty cheats because you've had a few bad experiences (which, at least in part, is your own fault for not researching shipping costs beforehand). Shipping is damn expensive from Europe, that's just the way it is. If we sellers could reduce shipping costs, we'd naturally gladly do it - as it would mean more sales.

I just received 4/5 of the new Pirates sets by mail today, and am now waiting on a Bricks & Pieces order that (among other things) includes the rare parts I desire from the last set, The Brick Bounty - such as the pirate captain and cook torsos.

Thanks for sharing.

Now that we're speaking officer modifications, I also think they'd be better with gold eupalettes instead of white.