The Pirate Theme ended...

[Mister Phes]

My apologies for being a little off topic here:

That would make a fantastic theme if well made.

Imagine, the new theme Ancient civilizations - what a potential ;)  You can have sub themes about the worlds greatest civ.

An ancient aztec pyramid, a maya temple, a nice version of

NOOOOOOOOO!!! I'm greedy! Keep them all for the Pirate theme. However, Adventurers has already claimed about 3 Aztec sets. So maybe its too late.

Concerning De Fronsac, I'm sure of it (from distant memories though) - I'll have to check it out (and its DEFINITLY not that megablock French actor playing in the brotherhood of the wolves ;) ).

Yes find out. De Fronsac are definitely dealing in wine but they have no mention of their founder having a piratical history. That would be a great story to attract customers. Well customers like me anyway...

[xwingyoda]

mister_phes,

I'll look into that de Fronsac history tonight ;)

[Mister Phes]

mister_phes,

I'll look into that de Fronsac history tonight ;)

Good boy!

And after looking at the Adventurer Aztec sets I've concluded that they seem a bit busy. Too many specialist pieces hanging off them which detracts from the main design. Although I tend to think the Knights Kingdom and Viking sets also suffer from this to a degree.

Anyhow, here's the Jungle sub-theme of Adventurers:

http://www.brickset.com/search.aspx?Subtheme=Jungle

[The Middleman]

I think the problem with KK2/Aztec sets is/was that they had no distinct SHAPE. This was/is not the case with Pirates/Vikings - very distinct structures.

[Wolf04]

So this is LEGO's big excuse? They ran out of ideas? Pathetic. There are a ton of things unfinished. Why don't they say the truth that they just don't feel like doing it. It's really sad though, that LEGO ruined every theme...Pirates with 4+, Castle with the fugly rainbow knights, Adventurers with Dino Attack and weapons? Wtf is LEGO thinking or they even thinking. I really don't like LEGO's line-up now. Believe it or not, I think there isn't much variety.

Before, sets used to stay on the market for years because they were popular but now, after a year, you can hardly find a set.

[Mister Phes]

There were a number of reasons why LEGO cancelled the Pirate theme.

* The reason they told me when I Emailed them was "Because we want to explore new themes" - and just look how many other themes popped up in the late 90's that didn't go anywhere... Great choice that was.

* They were running out of ideas. Not sure how this could happen because I could give them several thousand to keep them producing Pirate Lego sets for the next 50 years.

* LEGO was suffering from financial difficulties and were cancelling the themes that weren't performing as well.

* The designs of the Pirate sets were as good. It would only take a few pieces here and there to rectify a lot of the faults. But NOOOOOOO.... LEGO was trying to hard cut costs by reducing the number of pieces so that effected the design quality of the sets as I mentioned earlier.

* The Pirate sets were a bit over priced. Many people felt the sets were too expensive for what they had to offer. Which is understandable as LEGO was cutting corners by reducing the number of pieces, but not the prices accordingly.

[The Middleman]

Good reasons, phes. As for the cost, I think the hulls significantly increased them.

[xwingyoda]

It will be really interesting to see how the viking line do. It has a lot in common with pirates (its not to revive an old quarel ;) ). For once I hope its not a theme that will disappear after one year.

A lot of pieces are similar. They also will have hulls. Maybe TLC will decide to revive the pirate line if the viking do well, who knows?

[Mister Phes]

Good reasons, phes. As for the cost, I think the hulls significantly increased them.

Hulls were introduced right at the start of the Pirate theme in 1989 but the design compromises didn't come into effect until 1996. Indeed they would increase the cost but they aren't that expensive.

[The Middleman]

Good reasons, phes.  As for the cost, I think the hulls significantly increased them.

Hulls were introduced right at the start of the Pirate theme in 1989 but the design compromises didn't come into effect until 1996. Indeed they would increase the cost but they aren't that expensive.

Well, they're absolutely huge - maybe twenty, thirty times the size of the average LEGO piece.

[Mister Phes]

How big is the average sized LEGO brick these days? Going by what I've seen a hull would only be 3 or 4 times bigger than a lot of "average" sized LEGO pieces these days.

Besides, LEGO created a whole new floating hull for 7075 Red Beards Ship which is a fairly substantial ship. And it only costs US$39.99.

[The Middleman]

How big is the average sized LEGO brick these days? Going by what I've seen a hull would only be 3 or 4 times bigger than a lot of "average" sized LEGO pieces these days.

Besides, LEGO created a whole new floating hull for 7075 Red Beards Ship which is a fairly substantial ship. And it only costs US$39.99.

With a whopping 132 pieces!

[Mister Phes]

But my, what big pieces they are!

Shamefully...

[The Middleman]

But my, what big pieces they are!

Shamefully...

Even so, the hull is the largest piece by far. Must be costly.

[Mister Phes]

They don't cost that much on BrickLink though... But that might not mean anything.

[The Middleman]

They don't cost that much on BrickLink though... But that might not mean anything.

Yeah, the cost to LEGO is how much plastic they use and how many parts have to be fitted together.

[Mister Phes]

Cost aside...

What would, YOU Mr Bloody Jay (or ANOYNE else for that matter), like to see if LEGO was to release more SYSTEM Pirate sets?

[xwingyoda]

Like I always said, a big portuary city with wooden docks, buildings, tavern, armury, small ambulant merchants selling food, a merchant ship made of wood (and not fancy colours), and some kind of new small sail boat.

Also including brand new minifigs, with the weapons the same new colour as KK2 and vikings ;)

[Mister Phes]

Would this large portuary city be one large set or would it consist of several smaller sets?

I think I'd rather several smaller sets myself that way I could customise the city to my liking and not have to shell out heaps of $$ to get it. And this way we could get multiples of certain sets and build different buildings from them.

The Pirate sets were obviously intended to be stand alone. Obviously you could combine them to make larger sets, but there wasn't a system where you could add sets together cohesively to build an actual city.

Great idea Master Yoda!

[xwingyoda]

I'm thinking more of a large set for starters with the basic docks and a few small buildings. And another large ship.

Than middle sets where you would have the tavers, the armury (...), a merchant ship...

And a lot of smaller sets to really have enough minifigs to create a real life city ;) (small boats, minifigs with vegetation and animals, a stable with horses, a nice water fountain and a water area to wash clothes...).

Those sets could have a good play value for kids when they stand alone, and create a magnificent MOC for AFOLs ;)

[Mister Phes]

What about a clever and cohesive system by which you could easy add smaller sets to the large one? And these smaller sets would also be able to stand alone if necessary. This would be a greater incentive to get all the sets. Kinda like Voltron... Having one Lion just wasn't enough. Ya had to get all of them...

Any Master Yoda, is there any particular nationality for these sets?

[xwingyoda]

The problem with cohesion is that the whole city is elevated (duh, ita a portuary city), so in order to combine all the sets, you would need a lot of pieces to elevate each middle size set, thus increasing the cost :'(

What nationality you ask, I would tend to go for the French Empire, but really it doesn't matter. That's one of the whole point of a portuary ccommercial city, you could have a diversity of nationalities mingling at taverns.

Sure they would not produce a slave auction :-D (OK sorry, very bad humour *wacko* )

[Mister Phes]

The problem with cohesion is that the whole city is elevated (duh, ita a portuary city), so in order to combine all the sets, you would need a lot of pieces to elevate each middle size set, thus increasing the cost :'(

I did say a clever cohesive system which implies it takes this into consideration.

If you look at the existing sets, like the Imperial Trading Post for example. Only one half is elevated via base plate. The other half (the habour) is merely black plates sitting atop of 3 x 6 arches, so the evelation issue need to be complete. Other sets such as Lagoon Lockup only elevated the black plates atop of 1 x 8 bricks.

I don't know exactly what you have in mind but I don't see how its going to be that expensive. Besides the whole city need not to be elevated. Only harbour and buildings like the ship wright would need to be on the water front.

[xwingyoda]

I was thinking of an elaborate way such as the one in the Cloud City set. I guess it could be done at minor cost.

[Mister Phes]

Well being elaborate would certainly increase the price. But is it entirely necessary when a more simple and cost effective method could be used?