Classic-Castle.com

Hi all,
I just finished building the Pirate ship from the current pirates line. I personally haven't been into pirates since they first came out. I have the original Carribean clipper and all the sets from the original pirate blue coat releases apart from the pirate ship. So I thought these sets looked good and would fit in well with my original sets. I only have 4 of the 5 current pirate sets.. still haven't got the smallest set.
But i find these sets pretty awesome and great retro nods.
The Govenors men wear blue but each soldier has a distinct face and in my opinion their own unique personality. The soldier rowing in a boat has a sweaty face. The Lieutenant who comes in the pirate ship. He's the one with the white wig.. looks confident in his face but is the only one who has a reversible face that shows how scared he is. Governors daughter who isn't a damsel in distress.. She wears pants and carries a sword. You have a very retro plain faced soldier. The sets them selves are great. there's so much detail and things you can do with each set. Alot of play value. and the bonus of the 4 smallest sets is that each of the pirate and govenors sets can interlock with each other to create a much larger island or fort.

The pirate sets.
Nice skull shaped island that has been used a few times before.. this time though you pull down on the palm tree to reveal the treasure. It comes with the Pirate lady.. She is just awesome and in my opinion looks more fearsome than the actual pirate captain. Definitely a nod to the previous pirate woman from the original line. Alot of the characters seemed to have come from the original lego pirate comic book that came with a game and cabin boy Will who has been recreated in the pirate ship.http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=6255-1 There's a few pirates with mustaches using the same faces which is pretty much how the original pirate sets were. They even have similar torso designs to the originals. The captain basically is an updated version of Red Beard. Even the original pirate map has had a makeover. The ship itself Isn't great compared to the Black Pearl or the Sea Cow but it looks great and is the only way to get the Captain. The only thing the sets are missing... is a monkey!

The drawbacks of course are that the figures are so unique that it doesn't lend it self to army building but as a one off series of 5 sets created for younger kids they are awesome. The instruction books and I do mean books are easy to read. Even the smallest instructions I have comes in at 64 pages. And they often only add 1 or 2 pieces per page.
If we have to have a limited run of castle sets in the future I kinda wish they would be like this.. very retro, modular and far more interesting when they are interlocked than just stand alone sets.
Just my opinion.. sorry about the wordiness and the typing lol The rum has gone.. why is the rum always gone

Yea, these look great, with great nods to the original sets.

I might have to stretch my budget to pick some of these up.

Frank

I am quite a large Pirate fan, and was very disappointed with this line, but there were some silver linings.

The cons:
The sets are very basic, and in some cases, downright ugly. The builds were not very interesting, no special techniques at all. Parts selection isn't too bad, but definitely lacking. The best set design, IMO, is the Treasure Island one. the ship isn't bad, but it sits too low for my liking, and the sails just look off.

The Pros:
The figs. I love the figs. They are a great new update on the original pirate figs, and I am quite happy to increase my Blue coated army. I also like the inclusion of all the rum bottles, it adds a nice touch. And every set has a cannon, can't go wrong with that. I also like the flags, both of them.

My advice is this: unless you really are starved for Pirates, I would pass on this line. The whole line is just underwhelming.

EKnight

Where as I, disagree. I found building these sets fun. Not WOW, but fun. I was in a pirate mood. I liked pretty much all but one set, the fort. I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't upset with any of the parts. I even like the new gator design. Of course the figs are great. Except...two of the three females (and please note, I'm glad they are giving us three) are the same as they have been for several years.

Are they my dream pirate line? Nope...but to be honest, they wouldn't ever actually make my dream pirate line. Just like they would never really ever make my dream castle line. What I want, does not appeal to the target audience. But if this line brings in new fans...yay! Or Arr!!

I'm not big into pirates, but I'll probably pick up Soldier's Fort and Treasure Island for some new parts and figures.

The set designs seem small and underwhelming compared to the 1989 pirates, but the mini-figures are fantastic.

I'm excited to pick up a few of them.

You know, it's kind of unfair to compare any LEGO Pirate ship to the Black Seas Barracuda .......

This is in reference to 70413 The Brick Bounty, by the way.

But I'm doing it anyway! First off, the cannons don't have wheels like the BSB did. The BSB's didn't even need wheels because there were four cannons (meaning there was no need to move the about) yet there they were. Also, the BSB had more interior that could be used as crew quarters and such. The BSB also only had 870 parts which (if you take the Queen Anne's Revenge and Black Pearl, both licensed, into consideration for price points) would only make it cost about $105-$110. The figures don't bother me as much, but there could always have more pirates. The rest of the sets are actually pretty groovy, but the Soldier's fort is not near big enough, despite the extension set. There was no Imperial ship of any kind this time around, which is a real problem since the Pirates could just run away if things get ugly. Of course, the whole point in the underwhelming sets is to get us to build our own stuff that we actually like.

The 2015 Pirates sadly stayed well below their possibilities and I would be very surprised if there would be any new sets released. I rather think that it will discretly disappear from the shelves.

Building-wise the sets are a bit too simple and too small if you compare them with other themes - likely meant for the lower age-range. They just look rather cheaplish and underwhelming. Like the last (proper) medieval series.

The minifigs look good though and fit in seamlessly into the classical Pirate line-up. Thats cool
I recently saw the shipwreck set massively reduced and had to grab a couple of them. The brown slopes and the minifigs and accessory will become handy, but I didn't even bother to actually assemble the set just for fun - I guess that tells a lot

All in all - they could have known it won't take off as a line. but at least we might get some cool figures and parts for a low price soon.