[ENTRY]

Ahoy Seafarers,

This is my entry into the Return of the Classic Pirates Contest, the Pirate Gun Cart Revisited (I listened to feedback and this is version 2) I have updated the old pirate accessory pack set#1970 the "pirate gun cart" for 2023 by adding more firepower, and redesigning the gun cart to look more like a organ gun or ribauldequin. I opted not to enlarge the size of the cart as organ guns were meant to be moved by 1-2 people. Instead I focused on firepower, and now the gun cart has 5 barrels instead of 3 occupying the same 4 stud wide profile.  I changed the colors around from the original to better match a organ gun. In addition to the updates to the cart I have added some plates to be a sandbar for the pirate crew to fire from.

One of the best things about the classic Pirates I sets was they were small and affordable. This meant that not just parents but also kids could buy them.  The many different small sets could be combined to make larger scenes. The changes I have made to the pirate gun cart have increased the part count from the original (23 parts and 2 minifigures) to now 33 parts and 2 minifigures. This is still small enough that it would be a great affordable little set if LEGO decides to release a entire Pirate theme again.

 

 

 

Thank you all for checking out my entry, please feel free to leave any comments or feedback.

 

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(spoiler)My previous Version 1.

It is based upon set#1970 using modern parts available on Bricks and Pieces. The original set had a whopping 23 parts and 2 minifigures, and this modern version has 25 parts and 2 minifigures.

 

 

I do not have Photoshop so this is my attempt with MS paint to add a background like all the original Pirate sets used to have. If you have any recommendations on how to improve the background please share.

 

This is the original for comparison

Thanks for viewing, any comments or suggestions are most welcome.

 

 

Edited June 29, 20231 yr by Vdog
updates

Ah accessory packs!

 Something that modern lego seemingly hates more than anything else!

The modernising of the figs is always a plus, even though I still love the aesthetic of the classic minifigs.

 I feel that maybe a revision of the colour scheme could have made a more striking impact, perhaps black wheels, reddish brown cart and pearl silver blunderbuss to match the change on the flintlock pistol.
 

pros:

 Your photoshop skills are still infinitely better than mine.

 Upgraded figs.

 I love the bar handle on the cart now, best part of the all over change.

cons:

 A bit too close to the original build for me to truely classify it as a remake.

I feel that a slight change of colours could have modernised the feel of this more.

 Modern lego would have at least one pirate be female, being incredibly picky with this one, but if I’m making the judgement off a recreation it would be a likely change.   
 

Long live the battle pack I say, we certainly need more of these and I love the approach of a small set, much like the 2015 pirate survival. 

Edited June 28, 20231 yr by thewatchman
Spelling

I find it a little bit too similar to the original, I understand there's that much you could do with such a small set, but you could improve the design, add more muskets, or instead of muskets make an organ gun from stud shooters.

Edited June 28, 20231 yr by Eggyslav

I agree with the comments saying it's too close to the original, a redesign to be closer to a puckle gun would be cool to see but then you lose the aesthetic of the 3 rifles, the best change here would be mixing up the colors as suggested and adding a small sand plate build similar to Pirates Adventure set from the 2015 run, curious to see what changes you apply to this one!

One way to make a remake build different from the original is to change the proportions a bit.  Since the original build was 4 bricks wide plus wheels, what if you remade it as a 5 brick wide build? This would give you more room for more guns and center the "tail" of the gun.  A good starting piece to give a creative starting point could be the 1x5 technic plate: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32124#T=C

As already mentioned this remake should be approached a bit differently. The original set itself is too small to effectively pull it of with the same size and color scheme and not make it look too similar. I like the way the whole cart is built with some slopes and more smoothed out but switching the black for either browns would look much better and more fitting for a reworked set.

Hello,

Thank you all for your feedback.

2 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

As already mentioned this remake should be approached a bit differently. The original set itself is too small to effectively pull it of with the same size and color scheme and not make it look too similar. I like the way the whole cart is built with some slopes and more smoothed out but switching the black for either browns would look much better and more fitting for a reworked set.

I had design this version to be a copy of set#1970 with current production pieces. After re-reading the contest details and the feedback, I have a new version 2 coming out soon.

 

15 hours ago, Eggyslav said:

I find it a little bit too similar to the original, I understand there's that much you could do with such a small set, but you could improve the design, add more muskets, or instead of muskets make an organ gun from stud shooters.

Thanks for the organ gun idea, I had to look it up. The original gun cart is a very basic type of organ gun, also known as a ribauldequin, but most had much more barrels. My version 2 will have 5 barrels instead of 3.

 

15 hours ago, thewatchman said:

Ah accessory packs!

 Something that modern lego seemingly hates more than anything else!

The modernising of the figs is always a plus, even though I still love the aesthetic of the classic minifigs.

 I feel that maybe a revision of the colour scheme could have made a more striking impact, perhaps black wheels, reddish brown cart and pearl silver blunderbuss to match the change on the flintlock pistol.
 

pros:

 Your photoshop skills are still infinitely better than mine.

 Upgraded figs.

 I love the bar handle on the cart now, best part of the all over change.

cons:

 A bit too close to the original build for me to truely classify it as a remake.

I feel that a slight change of colours could have modernised the feel of this more.

 Modern lego would have at least one pirate be female, being incredibly picky with this one, but if I’m making the judgement off a recreation it would be a likely change.   
 

Long live the battle pack I say, we certainly need more of these and I love the approach of a small set, much like the 2015 pirate survival. 

Thanks for the feedback, "accessory pack" sets is exactly what I think LEGO needs to make more of.

 

 

One more question for the pirate moc community... For my version 2 should I edit my original post or just post the updates here in the comments?

I'd go with the update of the first post. Maybe include previous versions in the spoilers tag if needed. That way when it comes to voting, people only need to look at the first post. Some might even miss the final version if it had to be searched for through the pages ...

7 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

I'd go with the update of the first post. Maybe include previous versions in the spoilers tag if needed. That way when it comes to voting, people only need to look at the first post. Some might even miss the final version if it had to be searched for through the pages ...

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I have released my version 2 and updated the first post.

This is a neat little build.  Version 2 is an improvement over version 1, although I'm not sure I like the sand -- it adds very little to the build.  And often, less is more.

You've set yourself up for a challenge trying to recreate and update a set with less than 50 bricks in it.  Nice work overall on capturing the spirit of the original, and I hope you'll continue to make more MOCs!

This second version is far greater than the first attempt. The idea of using the vertical clips and fitting 5 guns in the width of four studs is excellent! Five studs would be too wide. I too would say skip the sand, it doesn't add anything to the set. As for the photo editing, it's hard to give advice about how to use a certain software from a very beginners perspective. I'd say it's better to use the images with no background, than with a not so good of an edit. Anyways the pros of building digitally is that renders give you a solid background. I usually use Photoshop to erase everything around my creation and make it white (:

Looking much better. I like the changes though like has been said, the sand just increases the piece count without adding much.  Good second version!

I like that this is bigger than the original, and the smooth undercarriage and drawbar to move the weapon around is good, but it does miss the different height of the guns from the original. 

Could the clips be moved around slightly so that the outermost barrels be attached with modified 1x1 tile clips so they would be lower than the other three barrels? It would mean re-arranging the other supports and it may be more fragile but I think it would look better. 

13 hours ago, Seaber said:

I like that this is bigger than the original, and the smooth undercarriage and drawbar to move the weapon around is good, but it does miss the different height of the guns from the original. 

Could the clips be moved around slightly so that the outermost barrels be attached with modified 1x1 tile clips so they would be lower than the other three barrels? It would mean re-arranging the other supports and it may be more fragile but I think it would look better. 

 

Hi, I did try your suggestion, but having the end guns lower it would result in the stocks colliding with the wheels. See bellow to some other earlier experiments with more barrels, and barrels at different heights. It is possible to add more firepower to this little cart, however it changes the appearance, to where it no longer looks like a plausible official Lego set. 4-5 barrels seems to be the sweet spot, that makes it both more powerful than the original, but still conforms to the rules of this contest that state the moc should look like a modern version of an official Lego Pirates set.

 

On 6/29/2023 at 12:46 PM, MstrOfPppts said:

This second version is far greater than the first attempt. The idea of using the vertical clips and fitting 5 guns in the width of four studs is excellent! Five studs would be too wide. I too would say skip the sand, it doesn't add anything to the set. As for the photo editing, it's hard to give advice about how to use a certain software from a very beginners perspective. I'd say it's better to use the images with no background, than with a not so good of an edit. Anyways the pros of building digitally is that renders give you a solid background. I usually use Photoshop to erase everything around my creation and make it white (:

Thanks for the compliment and feedback. I agree the plates don't add much to the build, but they did provide land for the render. I typically just use the white background when I render images of mocs on stud.io. I was impressed with the box art on the new Eldorado Fortress, using the same color scheme as the original pirate sets, and wanted to try to replicate that. Digital renders can look great, but sometimes the dimensions can be off from real life. I don't have any of the black wheels or muskets (which have not been produced in a while), so I am waiting on a Bricklink order to build this in real life.

I've seen the old version and the new one is definitely an improvement. This small set was quite strange to begin with, although a great army builder. I know the tan plates are just background, but you should consider making a proper (small) baseplate for the gun cart. That would make it an even bigger improvement over the old set. Tan is good as it represents sand, so I would add some terrain, nothing big, a small hill perhaps. Plus some plants here and there. Maybe make the base less regular, not two identical plates but more like a random pile of sand. That would actually turn this into a real set, as 1970 was just a parts pack with very little actual structure.

A good reimagining of an ancient impulse set.

Theme (story)

Two pirates, with a gun cart, seems self-explanatory to me. This is a reimagining so I personally would have added something else-an animal, a small gem, etc... But this is your build, so it's your call.

Build

Is the cart solid? Some of the variants you tried looked unstable or weak, and while this build seems good, I'll be looking forward to the physical version. As for the island, it's the only lackluster part of the set ; it's symmetrical and I would love if the second layer were to cover a larger part of the island (it looks like a man-made mound and not a random beach- I would try to make it 1 plate tall per layer-might make it better). I do really like the colour scheme-black looks good for guns

OMG, I love the new version! Very nicely done!

Neat little MOC! At first I thought the increase in the number of guns felt excessive but looking up the real-world armaments you based it on it actually feels pretty realistic!
I like the way you've mounted them with clips attached in a SNOT orientation too.

I think the addition of the very basic sand platform probably detracts from the impact of the MOC and should be either removed or enhanced with more detail. Using curved slopes for the edges of the sand would be one option, though if you did you'd probably want to add some sort of divot in the middle for the wheels to rest in so it wouldn't just slide off.

Overall the remake looks good, anyway, I have some suggestions though the first being that I love that you added land but I think that it could use some wildlife (like a bird or a crab) and add a least one small tree or bush. Onto the gun cart, I love the look of the black muskets and the matching wheels but I think you should keep with the original theme of them being staggered. The rest like the updated crew members looks awesome! Happy building :)

I guess could like it because it's something unique, weird and offers plenty of arms, but honestly i prefer the original or Your first version. This one looks too much like a beast in my opinion ;) And, while i'm not familiar with the original, on pictures it seemed simple and almost perfect, so why even redo it? ;) Or maybe i'm wrong and Your approach would give it more playvalue? Then again, i like Your cart and probably prefer those new handles to the original, it's guns and change of colors that bothers me. Brown will always be proper a shade for Lego pirates muskets and pistols for me. 

Still, i guess it doesn't realy hurt, muskets are still muskets. And if i was a kid i might be dreaming to get them in this new cool color, as everything new in Lego = attractive to me back then. 

Tho, one thing i'd change right away is that go pirate in white bandana. He looks more like a tourist on a holiday at the beach, who dressed up as a pirate, so i'd prefer to alter his attire or face. Give him black pants, or even switch them with the older guy, then they would look more interesting, or give an eypatch, or just one leg, probably would be harder for him to push or pull that guncart then, but he would surely finaly look like a decent seadog ;)