David Thomsen

I've been picking them up slowly over the last week and I finally picked up the Brick Bounty, which is now sitting beside my Brickbeard's Bounty. I have to say, while I love the new ship and some of the changes that they made like the anchor and the way they did the stern, I'm kind of disappointed seeing the two ships next to each other. The colours are just too similar for me to feel adequately impressed. Why couldn't the Brick Bounty have black and white sails, or green instead of red, or anything other than slightly brighter BBB colours? It's a shame, because it's otherwise a lovely ship, and I should feel happier with it. Maybe once I have the Imperial Flagship built between them and I can see a bit more diversity... Another thing I've heard people unhappy about is the white epaulettes on the soldiers, but I have to disagree about that. At first it looks odd, like they should have red epaulettes, just to be more like the Classic soldiers. But then it gets difficult to distinguish the red/blue soldiers from the blue/red soldiers. Having one side blue/white/red and the other side blue/white at least makes them look slightly more visually distinctive.

The early Pirate catalogue pictures were the most beautiful advertisements for toys I have ever seen, and possibly a large reason for my strong nostalgia for them. Look at that. It's not an advertisement, it's a work of art. Right down to the silhouettes of the gunman on the sails! The golden hues of sunset! These images don't just sell the toys, they actually make them come alive. Anyway. It has long been a goal of mine to recreate these Lego Pirate photographs, right down to the physical sets they built, and I welcome anyone else who wants to do the same. (Although I guess the physical sets can be photoshopped in...)

A 'draw' option has been added since I last looked at the poll, so that's where my vote has gone. I'm still waiting for the BB to turn up at my work so I can get a staff discount. It's very hard to wait since I can pick it up elsewhere, but I'm on a budget and it's expensive. I build the BBB in preparation to have the ships side by side, and knowing how the BB is built, the cabin already looks oddly high when it didn't used to. Does anyone have a picture of the two ships next to each other from the view of the side? I can't seem to find any images like that on Google images.

I also think the financial problems TLG used to have might have changed things a lot, like I built the new Fort set the other day and it gives the appearance of size without really having many pieces in it. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, since a kid is probably going to enjoys fort with a good size over a smaller, more detailed one with more pieces. It gets Lego into kids' homes. I never had the BSB but I spent a lot of time wishing I had had it. The new Pirate ships are great because they let me experience something I never had. Looking back, the BSB looks like a brick-built 'Creator' set, whereas the new ships, while seemingly more simple with their specialised parts, have more details because of it. I guess it depends how you define 'model' sets. If I, with no nostalgia for the BSB, were asked to choose between that and the BBB, I might actually choose the latter.

I prefer the tricorn version, especially since he has black stubble and brown hair, which doesn't quite work. But I won't vote in this topic while it only has two answers, since my full answer would be 'I prefer tricorn guy but that doesn't mean some of my officers can't have hair as well'.

I have no problem with the hatless officers as this is what I had already been doing for some of them. Pirates too! I think there's one pirate in the chess set with surfer hair? I don't prefer it with or without the hat, but I like to have about one in every three or four pirates or soldiers hatless. (If anyone is going to make a poll, please remember things like this... The BB vs BBB poll only had two options, and no room for other options)

I had originally votes for the Brick Bounty, but had a thought that shifted my vote back to the BBB. The Brick Bounty is just too similar to the BBB. Why not give it black and white sails, or a more different colour scheme, or anything to make it more visually distinctive?

Everyone seems to want a Bluecoat Imperial Flagship, am I the only who wants something different - something more like the MMV, a harbour with one or two buildings and a smaller merchant ship, maybe one hull piece shorter than the Brick Bounty? The 2009 theme gave the pirates something to fight in 2010, why not this time give them something to raid?

Aren't there three pirate sets in this wave? Although I guess the two smaller sets are like one set split in two...

I hadn't noticed this but you're right, it says two cutlasses and a golden one but it has three non-golden cutlasses. I imagine if you pointed this out to Lego they'd send a free golden cutlass for false advertising. Actually, it says exactly the same thing in the Brick Bounty description! I guess the Governor and Admiral were supposed to come with a golden cutlass.

This is true. If you gave me the pieces for each side and asked me to identify the rooks, the knights and the bishops, the only ones I'd get correct would be the Soldier Rooks. They look like towers. For the pirates I would have chosen the stone skulls as the rooks. I would have chosen the catapult as the Pirate Knight (because it is martial) and the map for the Soldier Bishop. When I first saw the box I actually thought the photographer had got all the pieces mixed up. Having said that, it's definitely not the first novelty chess set I've seen with ambiguous parts.

Hey, don't forget that the 'Report your Latest Pirate Acquisitions' page is over here... I think most people come to this page for news and rumours, but lately about 50% of it has been people reporting their latest pirate acquisitions.

I hadn't noticed that before, I guess it's a stylistic thing, having the windows more inset. I think I could appreciate the balcony better if it was more than just a couple of cones and a tile. They could have use the L-shaped tiles to wrap it around, or something. But it was probably a tricky idea to implement and get right.

This poll needs more options. It should have had five options, something like: BB is greatly better than BBB BB is somewhat better than BBB Neither is better than the other BBB is somewhat better than BB BBB is greatly better than BB My vote would probably go for 'neither'. Both have advantages and disadvantages. One has an anchor. One has (in my opinion) a nicer colour scheme. One has a crows nest. One has cannons on wheels that let the cannon flaps close properly. One has a nifty hole for hiding treasure. One has proper doors. One has a more realistically designed stern. One has tubes for spars. One has the more interesting looking cabin. It's actually a fairly decent match. But if I have to choose, I'll go with BB, because I like the spars, I like the anchor and I like the stern designs. Actually, it's kind of funny that the BB is winning (so far) considering the reaction of most people in the community when they first saw it....

That Brickset review actually made me really want the ship, whereas previously I'd only grudgingly felt that I needed to buy it because it belongs in my collection. I'd been a bit sceptical about the lack of a bow section at the stern (I realise how silly that sounds now) but the way they've explained it makes it actually an improvement. I hope if they make an Imperial Flagship equivalent this/next year (fingers crossed, touch wood etc) they implement this change. There are a few problems with it, but for a non-exclusive set that's pretty standard. And I can kind of see where they were going with that weird... open balcony... thing. The one thing the review really lacks though is a profile comparison of the BB and the BBB. There's one of all three ships side by side but it means the ships are in front of each other and you can't compare their profiles.

The missing back wall of the jail was the reason I was convinced the preliminary pictures weren't the finished sets, because when have they ever included a prison cell without a back wall? It's like having a large Creator building without a barbecue.

Personally I like this 'unique' aspect of the older torso, it is not so useful for army builders but since I prefer a small set of individual pirates it works well for me. What I dislike is the similarity between some of the torsos, in particular the one with the brown vest and the anchor tattoo, but also the one with the blue coat over the red and white striped top. They look too samey for my 'individual' pirates. What I'd actually like to see is a pirate theme with pirates in the style of the CMF 'Swashbuckler'. It's a different template for what pirates can look like, that isn't all striped shirts and eye patches and peg legs and hook hands and bandannas.

Pirates came out in 2009, the Imperial Flagship came out in 2010, and in 2011 we had the POTC: On Stranger Tides theme... Now it's 2015 and we have more pirates, and again a POTC film in two years time... Not necessarily a prediction of the future, and there's no precedent (as far as I'm aware) of a licensed theme being revived many years after it has finished. But until a new pattern emerges, I'm assuming this is how Pirates 2015 is going to play out.

Despite it's simplicity, Pirate Treasure Hunt is actually a very worthwhile parts back. The 2009 equivalent, Pirate Building Set, only comes with the sword, jewels, hat and exclusive torso & head as useful Pirate-themed parts. Pirate Treasure Hunt has all of these things (except the head isn't exclusive) as well as black treasure chest, chain, barrel, shark, goblet, boat, oars, gun, exclusive map, exclusive flag and skeleton with new bandanna. It also has more generic building parts that are useful to Pirate MOCs, including an exclusive printed wall piece. Pirate Building Set came with three times as many pieces, but they're all pieces that can be picked up almost anywhere.

Yes, she's from an old Castle set, some kind of damsel in distress. I have to admit that the bluecoat 'king' doesn't look so bad mixing the shako with that torso and the white gloves, I'm so used to using shakos for the lowest ranking soldiers that I had to take a moment to adjust. But why didn't they use the bluecoat female soldier for the 'queen'? This queen just looks out of place, wrong colours and everything, and there is an old blue dress they could have used, I think from the Imperial Flagship. Once again, If I get the set I'll probably replace her with another figure. What source are the figures? Do they have the neck print on the torso, or the mark under the arms?

Yes the board IS off by 90 degrees, how odd! Although easy to fix. I don't think the game is intended to be played with a palm tree in one player's way. And I'm not sure the minifig pieces will be off centre, the way they're laid out on the board gives them balance by having their weapon on the inner side. And all the brick built pieces fit flush. I hadn't really noticed that the two halves on the side of the board form a beach scene with bridge when put together, it makes their design a lot less random. I'll give the set this one thing, it would look really nice displayed like that. I'm almost tempted to get the set and replace the playing pieces with my own, just for the design of the thing.

I like the way the board is also a box to store the pieces in, and I find it cute that one soldier has a baguette, but everything else is very disappointing. One shako? Only two different types of non-leader pirate torso? It almost seems like they made it out of spare pieces, and found they didn't have enough shakos left and too many of these two pirate torsos. The brick-built pieces seem mismatched as well, some too big and some too small. I also think they got some of the pieces mixed up in the photo, the weird plinth (?) objects are used as bishop on one side and knight on the other. I was unlikely to get this anyway, but it seems like a definite pass now. I don't think this is the 'end' of the theme, it's impossible to predict what Lego are going to do based on what they have done before. A lot of 'rules' and 'patterns' that people observe don't really work indefinitely.

When I see the 2015 pirates side by side with the 2009 pirates I can kind of understand why... Red soldiers with blue epaulettes versus blue soldiers with red epaulettes? Could be a tad confusing! At least this way they are more visually distinctive while also having a nod to Classic Pirates.

I always liked the names that had nothing to do with their appearance, like the monkey 'Spinoza' who could have been called 'Browntail' or something, going by naming conventions. This guy doesn't have to be XXX-beard. I'm going to call him Archibald Mondegreen.

It just occurred to me, the Simpsons contrived to have an entire Lego episode, and Top Gear has promotional videos of them all in Lego... what are the odds of Doctor Who contriving to somehow do an entire episode in Lego?