Lego Pirates -- Treasure Island

Lego Pirates – Treasure Island

Code: 70411

Pieces: 180

Build Time: ½ hour

Year: 2015

THE BACKGROUND

Pirates was the theme that really made me fall in love with Lego as a child. I don’t remember who bought me my first batch of it – probably Mum and Dad – but it would go on to cast a long shadow over my childhood. So when word began to leak of a new Pirates set in 2015 (which we now know to be the Brick Bounty) my hopes were high that other sets might be announced to accompany it.

My wishes were granted only a few months later when a range of additional regular sets (and one Juniors set) were announced. I was excited that the theme was returning, but a little underwhelmed with the sets themselves at first glance. However, now that they’ve shown up instore and I’m seeing them in person, I’m much more pleased with them. They’re not perfect, but today we look at the first of the  

MINIFIGURES

3 minifigures and two animals are included in this set – a Pirate Princess, a male Pirate, a Bluecoat, a crocodile and a parrot.

The Pirate Princess is one of the best minifigures I’ve seen in a long time. Decked out in an eyepatch, and bearing a spyglass and cutlass, she’ll take on any man fool enough to challenge her leadership – and feed them to the crocodile that keeps lurking around her hideout. She’s also got two faces – happy and angry – and is a really cool addition to the Pirates range. 

The male pirate on the other hand, is a little disconcerting. Traditionally the Pirates have looked rowdy and raucous, while the Imperials (or Bluecoats as they’re now known) were stern, stuffy and staid. There was no clear good guy or bad guy; just your personal preference, though it would have been easy to assume the Pirates were actually the good guys (and certainly were in my own play). But this male pirate actually looks quite sinister. Liver rings hang under his eyes, and an unpleasant scowl crosses his visage. He’s an impressive minifigure, but I can’t help but think he pushes the line a little too overtly into villain territory. 

The parrot looks to be the same mould as the 1980s/1990s Pirates parrot, and is similarly coloured. The red and green colouring is quite uneven, but this is a result of the moulding process – no two should ever be quite the same. I always loved the parrot and monkey figures from the Pirates sets, so I’m thrilled to see it return again. Hopefully we’ll see more monkeys soon too.

The Bluecoat is probably the least interesting of the three, but that’s not because he’s bad. His face is just a generic smirk, but he comes with some really cool accessories. His hat is a little fancier than the one I grew up with, but it’s been in use since at least the 2009 Pirates series. The feather on the top is a really nice touch. Also, the epaulettes and the backpack really mark the character out as distinguished – he’s clearly a cut above those ruffian pirates!

It seems that the crocodile is a completely new mould, though to me it doesn’t look drastically different to the original one that’s been around since 1994. He’s articulated at two points (a hinge at the jaw and a swivel at the tail). He’s also got holes in his mouth that will let him chomp on one of the oars, in one of two ways – sideways and front on.

THE BUILD

Treasure Island itself is a fun playset, consisting of a skull-shaped cave and a small jetty which extends out over the water, supported by a pile of roughly-hewn rocks. If you have set 70409 (Shipwreck Defence) it actually connects up at the jetty, but I haven’t been able to find that set instore anywhere as yet.   

The jetty features a small table with a bottle of grog (presumably rum), and a few different spots for you to perch the parrot. There’s a small half-barrel too, which seems to serve as an improvised boat for the pirates.

Mounted atop the skull cave is a cannon on a swivel. I was really pleased to see that it’s one of the old-style pullback cannons – you could do some serious damage with these back in the day, and I don’t doubt that it’s still the case.

Cleverly concealed within the skull is an action feature – pulling the tree down will raise up the skull face, revealing a hidden chest full of gems! It’s not a super-smooth process, as the tension on the chain varies wildly depending on the angle that you position the tree. You’ll notice that the box and the instructions position it slightly differently – the version outlined on the instructions is much more effective to get it open, but slightly less aesthetically pleasing. But it works nonetheless and is a fun addition.

The back of the set is pretty plain, but not completely – obviously the pirates (or Bluecoats) can access the treasure, but there’s also a hidden compartment where the treasure map can be stored. Not a feature that will make you run out and buy the set, but fun nonetheless.

The other major component is the Bluecoat rowboat. Though the mould is identical to the rowboat featured in the Lego Juniors Pirate set that I reviewed back in February, it’s been cast in blue this time and features a few additional accessories. This one has been kitted out with a rifle at the front of the boat, and features some kind of mortar too. The mortar is one of those new relatively new guns that fires off 1x1 round studs, and includes several spares – which is good, as it’s pretty easy to lose them!  

OVERALL

Treasure Island was the set that impressed me most on release, and I think turned out the best overall of the non-ship sets. Though I’m very pleased with this new Pirates series, I’m hoping that the line is a success and we see more sets next year – and for many years going forward. Whether Pirates have the same pull now as they did in the late 1980s through to the mid 1990s remains to be seen, but here’s hoping they do! 

Lego Review – Pirate Treasure Hunt (10679)

Set: 10679

Pieces: 57

Theme: Juniors/Pirates

RRP: $15AUD

Build Time: 15 minutes

THE BACKGROUND

YESSSSSS! THE RETURN OF LEGO PIRATES!

Pirates was far and away my favourite Lego theme as a child. Castle was great, Town (later City) had its moments and Space was boss – but my heart belonged to Pirates.

So when I found out that the theme would be returning in 2015, I was over the moon. The sets that have been announced so far are a little on the mixed side – though The Brick Bounty looks great – but I’m hopeful that we’ll see the theme continue beyond this year and grow into its own thing again.  

Today we look at the first of the sets released for this year – Pirate Treasure Hunt, released under the Juniors brand. Juniors is aimed at kids who are too old for Duplo but perhaps aren’t ready for more difficult builds. They use standard brick sizes and minifigures, but tend to incorporate a larger number of pre-built elements than standard Lego sets.

THE MINIFIGURES

Two minifigures are included in the set – a Pirate (unnamed on the box, and Brickipedia hasn’t updated its page yet) and a skeleton (who appears to be actually dead, rather than undead).

The Pirate is presumably some kind of captain, as he’s wearing a hat bedecked with a Jolly Roger, and also has a wooden leg. He’s armed with a cutlass and carries a treasure map; presumably the diorama elements are the “X” marked on the spot.

Though they’re a little on the morbid side, Lego skeletons are always great. This particular guy is wearing a red bandanna. He’s also decked out with a blunderbuss pistol, and has a gem tightly clutched in his skeletal fingers – though you can obviously display him without these extra elements should you wish.  

Additionally, the set includes a shark. It seems to be exactly the same as all of the ones that were released back in the 1990s. This is a good thing – those sharks were great, and it’s always nice to have another.

THE BUILD

There’s not a whole lot of building that goes on in this set. There’s a rowboat, which you do add a few bricks and a barrel to, but is largely pre-built. The other main component is a small set of ruins; presumably it used to be some kind of house or outpost, but it has now fallen into disrepair. The sole occupant is the skeleton, who keeps watch over the very thing that has drawn the pirate captain to this forsaken place – TREASURE!

It’s not the most impressive haul of booty I’ve seen from the Pirates line, but it is quite diverse – a goblet, a gemstone set atop a golden stand and some gold doubloons. These doubloons are a little unusual -- they’re simply 1 x 1 round pieces cast in gold, rather than the actual coins that Lego has used over the years. This may simply be the result of the set being part of the Juniors range, but I couldn’t say for sure.  

OVERALL

Despite its release under the Juniors brand, I’m not sure how suitable this would be for a genuinely young child. There are a large number of small pieces in the form of the gold pieces, the gem and the weapons. Granted, this was all around when I was in this age group too, but we didn’t have such strict laws governing the size of children’s toys. 

Nonetheless, it is a cool diorama set that could easily be incorporated into a larger Pirates display. I’m a huge fan of it. So don’t be put off by the “Juniors” label – invest today!  

Minifigure Week! Day 6: Pirate Captain (Series 8, 2012)

Minifigures are one of my favourite things about Lego – and series 12 is on the way (possibly even out in your country by the time you read this). So to celebrate this upcoming release, every day this week, we’ll be looking at a different minifigure from the series that have come before. This is by no means a comprehensive overview – nor even necessarily a look at my favourites – but it’s an example of some of the unusual figures the line has produced since it debuted back in 2010.  Today, we look at the Pirate Captain from series 8.

“Yarr! Don’t ye know who I be? And if not, do ye have any suggestions?”

A real pirate is a merciless, rotten son of a sea dog, and that’s exactly what the Pirate Captain aspires to be. He certainly looks the part with his rugged eye-patch, hook-hand and peg-leg, but he has to admit that he’s had a few hiccups along the way.
 
First of all, his ships keep sinking. No matter whether it’s a man o’ war or a dinghy, any vessel capsizes within five minutes of him coming aboard. Also, he gets seasick really easily – sometimes just a picture of the ocean is enough to set him off. Worst of all, he’s having real trouble coming up with a piratey name. All the good ones – from Ironhook to Brickbeard – seem to already be taken. If he can just come up with a name to strike fear into the hearts of landlubbers everywhere, the Pirate Captain figures the rest of his problems will solve themselves!

--LEGO.com biography
Pirates. One of the expansive and popular themes the company has ever released, Pirates dominated a good chunk of my pre- and primary school years. It is still something of a matter of sadness for me that I never owned the incredible Pirate Ship – though I did own two different versions of the pirate hideout, both of which were incredible.  

But since the late 1990s, there’s been precious little Pirates stuff released. There were lots of Pirates of the Caribbean sets in recent years, which some might argue filled that niche, but it just wasn’t the same.  A Brickmaster book, a few sets here and there, a handful of figures and the subject of today’s review, the Pirate Captain has been all that Pirate fans have been able to get their hands on for years now. 

Still, 2015 looks like it will have something exciting happening on the Pirates front, and one can only hope that means we’re going to see more in future too. In the meantime, let’s look at the Pirate Captain from 2012.

Series 8 was one that I almost completely missed. I wasn’t in a very good way at the time of release and Lego was low on my list of priorities. By the time I snapped back a little, series 8 and 9 had all but disappeared from the shelves and the (mostly disappointing) series 10 was about to drop. This doesn’t bother me too much, but I want that Diver! If anyone’s keen to help out, let me know.

The Pirate Captain is just an all-round great figure. He looks something like my mental image of Captain Hook – he’s a gentleman’s pirate, in contrast to the more stubbly Captain Redbeard. His moustache has been neatly waxed, his red coat looks dapper and his neck ruff is impeccable.  He's got a leather belt, and a matching strap slung across his chest -- presuably this could be used to hold a blunderbuss or two, Blackbeard style.

The Pirate Captain with some of my old early 1990s Pirates

Gold is a recurring theme here -- the skull and crossbones on his hat is emblazoned in gold and he even has a little gold tooth in his mouth too. I like to imagine that this is kind of his ceremonial dress, rather than just his everyday getup -- it's for when he needs to intimidate the enemy and inspire his men, pre-batttle, rather than when he's actually fighting.  

The Pirate Captain comes with one accessory – a golden cutlass – but he also features a golden hook hand and a brown peg leg., so that kind of balances the accessory count a little. You don’t really need anything else, but if he was going to have another, one of the old parrots would have been cool. Sadly I couldn't find any of my old ones.
 


photo from Brickipedia

The old Pirates minifigures had amazing paint work for the time, so even with all the time past, there was still a lot to live up to -- and given my childhood attachment to the Pirates franchise, my expectations were exceptionally high. But he definitely delivers. Though he’s not likely to become as iconic as Captain Redbeard (see left) from ye olden days of the Pirates line, he's fantastic. Roll on 2015 and more Pirates!