Lego Pirates

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Pirates is a Lego theme launched in 1989 featuring pirates, soldiers, islanders and sailing ships.

The original Pirate sets included the first Lego minifigures without the traditional head with simply two eyes and a smile; they had a variety of different features including hair, eyepatches and facial hair. Alongside the Pirates released in 1989 were the bluecoated Imperial Soldiers (based either on the French, or the British navy) who were to fight the Pirates. A comic book entitled "The Gold Medallion" was also released in that year, as well as a Ladybird Book series. In 1990, the Imperial Soldiers were replaced by the redcoat Imperial Guards. In 1996 Lego changed the entire "feel" of the Pirate line and made it much more Spanish influenced. This meant the Imperial Guards were replaced to the Imperial Armada, heavily based on the Spanish Armada. The Islanders, sold originally in 1994, were a sub-theme loosely based on a Polynesian concept.

In 1997, the last few Lego System Pirate sets were released. The theme's end came as a shock to some AFOL's, because the Pirates line had always been a big seller. A few Pirates sets were rerealeased in the Legends series. Pirate Lego themes, have been seen in Duplo and the 4+ theme.

Contents 1 Set list 1.1 Pirates 1.2 Imperial Armada 1.3 Imperial Guards 1.4 Imperial Soldiers 1.5 Islanders 1.6 Miscellaneous 2 Non-System 2.1 Duplo Pirates 2.2 4+ Pirates 3 Pirates fans 4 Official merchandise 5 Ladybird Books series 5.1 Titles 5.2 Characters 5.3 Islands 6 1993 World Lego Expo – Pirates Ahoy 6.1 Souvenir guide 6.2 Exhibits 6.3 Storyline 7 Pirate attractions at Legoland 8 Evil Stevie’s Pirate Game 9 External links

[edit] Set list

[edit] Pirates

• 1464-Pirate Lookout
• 1481-Pirates Desert Island
• 1492-Battle Cove
• 1696-Pirate Lookout
• 1713-Shipwrecked Pirate
• 1733-Shipwrecked Pirate
• 1747-Treasure Surprise
• 1788-Treasure Chest
• 1802-Tidy Treasure
• 1871-Pirates Cannon
• 1873-Pirates Treasure
• 1889-Pirates Treasure Hold
• 1970-Pirates Gun Cart
• 6232-Skeleton Crew
• 6234-Renegade's Raft
• 6235-Buried Treasure
• 6237-Pirates Plunder
• 6248-Volcano Island
• 6249-Pirates Ambush
• 6250-Cross Bone Clipper
• 6254-Rocky Reef
• 6255-Pirate Comic
• 6257-Castaway's Raft
• 6258-Smuggler's Shanty
• 6260-Shipwreck Island
• 6261-Raft Raiders
• 6268-Renegade Runner
• 6270-Forbidden Island
• 6273-Rock Island Refuge
• 6279-Skull Island
• 6281-Pirates Perilous Pitfall
• 6285-Black Seas Barracuda
• 6286-Skull's Eye Schooner
• 6289-Red Beard Runner
• 6290-Red Beard Runner
• 6296-Shipwreck Island
• 10040-Black Seas Barracuda

[edit] Imperial Armada

• 6244-Armada Sentry
• 6280-Armada Flagship
• 6291-Armada Flagship

[edit] Imperial Guards

• 1795-Imperial Cannon
• 1872-Soldiers Forge
• 6247-Bounty Boat
• 6263-Imperial Outpost
• 6266-Cannon Cove
• 6271-Imperial Flagship
• 6277-Imperial Trading Post

[edit] Imperial Soldiers

• 6245-Harbor Sentry
• 6259-Broadside's Brig
• 6265-Sabre Island
• 6267-Lagoon Lock-Up
• 6274-Caribbean Clipper
• 6276-Eldorado Fortress

[edit] Islanders

• 6236-King Kahuka
• 6246-Crocodile Cage
• 6256-Islander Catamaran
• 6262-King Kahuka's Throne
• 6264-Forbidden Cove
• 6278-Enchanted Island
• 6292-Enchanted Island

[edit] Miscellaneous

• 3983-Captain Roger Key Chain
• 4224454-Captain Roger Key Chain
• 6204-Buccaneers
• 6251-Pirate Mini Figures
• 6252-Sea Mates

[edit] Non-System

[edit] Duplo Pirates

• 7880-Big Pirate Ship
• 7881-Ghost Ship
• 7882-Shark Attack
• 7883-Treasure Hunt

[edit] 4+ Pirates

• 7070-Catapult Raft
• 7071-Treasure Island
• 7072-Captain Kragg's Ship
• 7073-Pirate Dock
• 7074-Skull Island
• 7075-Captain Redbeard's Pirate Ship
• 7080-Scurvy Dog and Crocodile
• 7081-Harry Hardtack and Monkey
• 7082-Cannonball Jimmy and Shark
• 7290-Promotional Set

[edit] Pirates fans

It is a running gag in the AFOL community that there are only two pirate fans in existence.[1] One of them is Steve Jackson, who invented a game, Evil Stevie's Pirate Game or ESPG, now often played at conventions like GenCon and Origins International Game Expo by other Pirates fans, such as Frank Filz and his hangers on from GameLUG. However, since the emergence of Eurobricks Pirate LEGO Forum in July 2006 it has been observed there are significantly more pirate fans than previously realised.

[edit] Official merchandise

The Lego Group has also released a variety of official Pirate Lego merchandise ranging from clothing to stick-on tattoos to board games.

[edit] Ladybird Books series

An official series of children's books based on the Pirate Lego theme was published by Ladybird Books in 1990.

[edit] Titles

• 1 Will and the Gold Chase
• 2 Captain Roger's Birthday
• 3 Adventure on Shark Island
• 4 The Royal Visit

The stories revolved around the misadventures of the crew of Dark Shark and their run-ins with Broadside's Imperial Guards. The stories developed a stronger characterisation for key characters and expanded the Pirate Lego universe. They also introduced a character known as Captain Foul who commanded the ship “The Barracuda”, however the captain or ship did not appear in any of the official Pirate Lego sets.

Like the comic Governor Broadside was given a family which included his Aunt Prudence and niece Camilla. The entire crew of the Dark Shark (6285/10050 Blacks Seas Barracuda) were given names even including the monkey and parrot!

A short biographic description and illustrated portrait of each of the Dark Shark’s character was presented on the first and second page of each book.

[edit] Characters

Broadside's Family

• Aunt Prudence
• Camilla
• Governor Broadside

Dark Shark Crew

• Anne
• Bo'Sun Will
• Captain Roger (known as Captain Redbeard in Northern America)
• Flashfork
• First Mate Rummy
• Jimbo
• Popsy (the parrot)
• Spinoza (the monkey)

On the final two pages of each book is a map of the fictional archipelago named “The Treasure Islands” in which the Ladybird Pirate Lego universe is set.

[edit] Islands

• Black Reef Island
• Emerald Island
• Hook Nose Island
• Island of Fogs
• Island of Ruins
• Island of Skulls
• John Silver Island
• Pirate Hat Island
• Pirate’s Nest
• Sabatina
• Shark Island
• Skeleton Island

[edit] 1993 World Lego Expo – Pirates Ahoy

For its 1993 World Expo, the Lego Group chose “Pirates Ahoy” as the theme. The exposition contained various exhibits mostly depicting three dimensional sculptures of pirates made entirely from Lego, although the Pirate Galleon containing 13,280 pieces was built at System minifigure scale and was crewed by standard Pirate Lego minifigures.

[edit] Souvenir guide

A souvenir guide accompanied the exposition and its main feature was a story which loosely tied the exhibits together in a first person narrative. The souvenir guide also provided information about each exhibit including its name, how many pieces it contained and the number of hours it took to construct.

The top-left corner of odd pages contained information and an illustrated portrait of infamous pirates from history including Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts. While top-right hand cornered of the even pages included a picture of that pirate’s flag.

[edit] Exhibits

Name	No. of Bricks	Building TIme
Pirate Galleon	13,280	101 hours
Galley	103,688	955 hours
Captain’s Cabin	31,773	876 Hours
L’ollonois	46,075	298 hours
Pirate Musicians	29,274	1,432 hours
Pirate Training Camp	103,436	613 hours
Paradise Canyon	22,322	1,115 hours
Treasure Cave	31,445	921 hours
Anne Bonny	38,180	254 hours
Henry Morgan	49,875	330 hours
Black Beard	Unspecified	Unspecified

[edit] Storyline

One day a long time ago I sailed the ocean blue with old Captain Roger and his Lego Pirate crew. That balmy night we gathered in the galley for a fish of hot rate stew, and sausages, and boiled cuttlefish. And I overheard two mutineers whispering ‘bout a plot to steal our precious treasure map and make off with the lot.

But the Captain caught them in the act and roared, “You’ll walk the plank and live with old King Neptune on that galleon we sank!”

We found the Island on the map and camped by a lagoon, and drank and danced till midnight to a merry pirate tune. A training class was organised for all of those aboard, where everyone learnt how to fight with musket, knife and sword.

When we were fit to go the Captain said “Look for a grave. From there we’ll find the pathway to the secret treasure cave.”

“Aye, Sir,” we said, and shook our heads, so it was a great surprise when, lo and behold. We found the gold. It was immense in size.

[edit] Pirate attractions at Legoland

[edit] Evil Stevie’s Pirate Game

Evil Stevie’s Pirate Game is a game which involves elements of both role playing and tactical combat in a similar vein of the Warhammer games yet the rules have been tailored to specifically suit Pirate Lego.

[edit] External links

• Eurobricks Pirate Lego Forum - The biggest online Pirate Lego discussion forum and information resource
• Fibblesnork's Lego Guide: Pirates
• Brickset: List of all Lego Pirate sets
• Lugnet: List of all Lego Pirate sets