Castle and Pirates

Section8 · Post by **Section8** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:43 pm

I haven't been on here too long, so I don't know if this has been discussed before, but how do all you CCers feel about the Pirates theme? I'm not talking about the travesty released this year, but the line from 1989 - about 1998 or so (I'm not totally sure), classics like Caribbean Clipper, Skull's Eye Schooner, and Imperial Trading Post. Those sets were on par quality wise with the best of the Castle sets, in my opinion, and I had a great time playing with both of those themes when I was younger.

Personally, I jump between Castle and Pirates as my favorite theme every once in a while. I think that the Castles and Pirate Ships are the two most impressive looking mini-fig scale models LEGO ever made. My Black Seas Barracuda (original) occupies the space atop my dresser and draws alot of favorable comments from my visitors. I don't have a proper castle to share the space with, though.

Also, while Castle has this great site, I haven't been able to find something similar for Pirates. Does one exist? Thanks for your help in this.

Edit: I had to choose between the Barracuda and Black Monarch's Fortress as a reward when I was younger. As hard a decision then as it would be now.

Sir Vincent · Post by **Sir Vincent** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:46 pm

Yes I agree with you that pirates truly are great...but I find very few things wrong with the new ones...and for a pirate LEGO website...there is always Lugnet pirates...

Section8 · Post by **Section8** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:51 pm

Sir Vincent wrote:...there is always Lugnet pirates...

I find their content to be pretty sparse, compared to this site and even LUGNET Castle.

TheOrk · Post by **TheOrk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:51 am

I like pirates.
After I see LEGO castle stable I'm gonna start complaining about pirates

the two themes go together so easily.

LEGOFREAK · Post by **LEGOFREAK** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:24 am

when pirates were in their heyday, I used to get them almost as much as castle. in fact it seemed when castle really started to decline there were more pirate sets out.
The only complaint I ever had about pirates was the fact that you needed a LOT of room for them. I mean, the ocean is a big place.

and there were only so many coastal towns I could build.
Recently I got rid of most of my pirates, and the imperials they fought against simply because I can only focus on one theme, and that theme is castle.
I will probably be getting some of the pirate sets now though because of some of the useful pieces. lets face it jack stone stuff went on clearance up to 80 per cent off - I saw 20.00 sets going so cheap that if they had useful parts I probably would have gotten them...

Post by **Formendacil** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:11 am

I'd say that the reason is that most Pirate fans are also Castle fans, or a significant number are, and that there a great number more Castle-only fans that Pirate-only fans. In addition, there is somewhat more of a variety of things to build in Castle, as the medieval period lasted longer than the pirate one, and as Castle has fantasy, while Pirates have no real equivalent.

This means a larger fan base, which means that there are more people who are willing to start and join a site like this, hence there is a classic-castle.com, and not a perfect-pirates.com

jwcbigdog · Post by **jwcbigdog** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:40 pm

I loved both the Pirates and Caslte growing up and I agree with everyone who said the two went together well. While I realize that they are actually from two different time periods, that didn't really matter when I was a kid. The pirate/soldier/imperial gaurd sets that TLC put out were right on par with the castle sets I always thought, and I even picked up some of the Islanders sets, but not too many. I have not been able to find a site devoted to pirates anywhere either, but if someone started one, I would check it out. As much as I like them, I may be selling/trading my Pirates theme stuff off later, just because I want to focus on castle.

Jojo · Post by **Jojo** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:13 pm

Hello!

Pirates saved me from my Dark Ages in 1989. I was going to turn 12 that year, and that's the predetermined age when you must not buy any minifig-LEGO anymore. But I did. And 6285 Black Seas Barracuda ("Black Shark" in German (well, English translation of the German name "Schwarzhai") is one of my all time favourites. Even in 1993 I bought the 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner rather than 6082 Fire Breathing Fortress...

Bye
Jojo

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:08 pm

Pirates has one real big problem: it's a defunct line. I don't count Jack StoneBeard as a continuation. It's been defunct for several years now, except for a few odd rereleases. Thus, the traffic on it has slowly died down on Lugnet, though it still has its adherents.

Castle is a broader subject than Pirates, which contributes to having a full site for it. It depends on how you want to count for what the time frame is, though. Narrowly, the Castle period is 1100 to 1400 AD; broadly, 1000-1500. The Golden Age of Piracy was 1680-1725. However, from a broader standpoint, the Pirates period can run from 1500 to 1815 with what LEGO produced. If you want to be really inclusive, Piracy has been around as long as there has been ships to steal from and with, and continues today. But essentially, you are limited to ports, ships, and coastal defenses, all of which you can cover in Castles and still have lots left over.

The real problem remains that there is a finite amount of Pirates stuff available, and its difficult to get new converts if it isn't available on shelfs. KK2 may not be to liking of many of us, but it does keep the Castle line a living thing.

Green Fox · Post by **Green Fox** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:16 pm

I was never a big fan of the pirates themselves, but the soldiers are another matter...

I LOVE THEM EVER-SO MUCH! I WANT AS MANY AS I CAN! I HAVE 8! I WON 39 MORE ON EBAY! FOR £24.02!

Rant over. The soldiers and their sets, with the "New England" feel and the brick-and-plaster castle walls are brilliant. The redcoats are my favourite minifigs. It must be the blue eapulets. Or the grenadier hats. Imperial Trading post is the set I want, more so than 375. I don't like pirates or their ships. But I do like soldiers... As you may have guessed.

forester3291 · Post by **forester3291** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:18 pm

I like Pirates, always have. But castle as others have said is just much more te.
You can build on and on and on with castle. With Pirates you can only build sea ports sea-side towns and ships. With castle you can build all that and more.

Plus pirates ahven't ahd any sets since the late 90's so it's a basically theme

.

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:45 pm

Green Fox wrote:I was never a big fan of the pirates themselves, but the soldiers are another matter...

I LOVE THEM EVER-SO MUCH! I WANT AS MANY AS I CAN! I HAVE 8! I WON 39 MORE ON EBAY! FOR £24.02!

Rant over. The soldiers and their sets, with the "New England" feel and the brick-and-plaster castle walls are brilliant. The redcoats are my favourite minifigs. It must be the blue eapulets. Or the grenadier hats. Imperial Trading post is the set I want, more so than 375. I don't like pirates or their ships. But I do like soldiers... As you may have guessed.

The Imperial Trading Post is a great, great set. If anyone is interested in the Pirates line, I'd recommend this as the top non-ship Pirate set.

I love the soldiers, too:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=201802

Not to mention the 20 regenerated Cap'n Redbeards I have converted by shako, musket, and gray backpack as my Black Guard, and about 40 Armada figs (these are actually pretty hard to get).

Post by **Formendacil** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:51 pm

As much as I like Castles, Pirates were my favourite theme for many years, mainly due the Imperial Trading Post.

I fully have to agree with TTK that this is a GREAT set. Even now, long since Pirates' heyday in my mind, it remains one of my favourite three sets.

I would love to see a new minifig line of pirates. Even a KK2-esque theme...

kajo163 · Post by **kajo163** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:12 pm

MMM, pirates! I actually think that it's castles equal in many ways.

The soldiers are very cool, some of the most usefull minifigs I've got. I use them for my royal guard (not the castle king of course) and as a small marching band, when I'm in the mood for some marching drums ':D:'

Wish I'd got more though, the uniforms are quite nice and works both for 1700 and Napoleonic time settings!

As for the pirates, I used to have a comic book about them, it was nice and it gave the three main characters even more play value. Together with the three crew mebers from the big Ice Planet spaceship (6973) and some of the WHITE blacktron dudes, they are the mini figs I would never take apart!

Hej så länge!
-Joel!