Hello!
I entered the competition to make a remake of the 1889 Lego Pirates set. Hidden in a small cave in the rock is a treasure chest full of diamonds, covered by a door made of vegetation. But just in case someone does find the treasure, a small gold bar has been hidden away as an emergency stash. More pictures on my insta account, because it simply won't allow more. 

MyFirstMOC Insta

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 20231 yr by MyFirstMOC-Hun

It's a solid attempt, but it's a bit too over the top. There's waaaay too much foliage and details for it to be an official set.

Edited June 28, 20231 yr by Eggyslav

11 minutes ago, Eggyslav said:

It's a solid attempt, but it's a bit too over the top. There's waaaay too much foliage and details for it to be an official set.

I don't necessarily agree that there is too much vegetation. It's under 300 pieces, with that number of pieces, Lego releases sets easily. But if you look at the original, you can see that there wasn't much on that one. For me, that's how it came together into a modern set. Especially when I see that what you showed in example Sabre Island became a much larger item count moc. But if you don't like it I'll take it. I like it 😉😀.

But I'm not talking about the pieces count. My entry has similar number of pieces. I'm rather talking about how it doesn't feel like an official Lego set, there's just too much going on there for such a small set. I like the build, don't get me wrong, but I'm just pointing out how this just might not seem to meet the contest standards. But if if you want to talk about piece count, your remake has nearly 10 times more than the original, and as such it's barely recognizable, if at all. It's too big compared to the original and over the top.

Edited June 28, 20231 yr by Eggyslav

1 hour ago, MyFirstMOC-Hun said:

More pictures on my insta account, because it simply won't allow more. 

Welcome aboard MyFirstMOC-hun

You have something nice there, so let me help you a little here with images.

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12 minutes ago, Eggyslav said:

But I'm not talking about the pieces count. My entry has similar number of pieces. I'm rather talking about how it doesn't feel like an official Lego set, there's just too much going on there for such a small set. I like the build, don't get me wrong, but I'm just pointing out how this just might not seem to meet the contest standards. But if if you want to talk about piece count, your remake has nearly 10 times more than the original, and as such it's barely recognizable, if at all. It's too big compared to the original and over the top.

I see, well then the next set won't comply with the competition rules either, but I'll post it here anyway. The third one I'm working on won't be up to scratch either, so I'll either win absolutely nothing or be disqualified. When I looked at that little set, this is what I imagined it would look like in a modern guise. If it doesn't fit in the competition, I'll accept it and if I have to amend the entry to be a non-entry.

2 minutes ago, Marooned Marin said:

Welcome aboard MyFirstMOC-hun

You have something nice there, so let me help you a little here with images.

HOW TO UPLOAD PHOTOS - Click Spoiler

  Reveal hidden contents

1. Go to your Flickr (or BrickSafe) account and open one picture in the new tab.

2. Click view full size

3. Copy the url address: example on the picture (same is for BrickSafe)

4. Paste the address inside the post (click edit post), and the system will automatically embed the picture inside the post.

The End

......

If unsure, you can go to training ground for new members here-click and practice your posting pictures skills.

Thank you! 😎😉🏴‍☠️🍻

Wonderful little island! Love all the details you added like the latern and camp fire. I am sure it is not your first moc

3 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Wonderful little island! Love all the details you added like the latern and camp fire. I am sure it is not your first moc

Thank you! 😉😎🏴‍☠️🍻

8 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I am sure it is not your first moc

He has been featured before on the Classic-Pirates: https://www.classic-pirates.com/mocs/subtheme/pirates/6260-shipwreck-remale-zsolti

10 minutes ago, MyFirstMOC-Hun said:

I see, well then the next set won't comply with the competition rules either, but I'll post it here anyway.

Post it anyway, because there is no limit on the part-count (like on LEGO-Ideas), part-count is only a guide-line for designers not to go too big.

Cool build!

 I actually really like this; it looks similar to a rocky island build I was working on, but abandoned a year ago. 
 The rock design and lanterns are very much on style for a modern build, and I really like the idea of a pirate cave style set.

The foliage covering the entrance is really cool, reminds me a lot of castle in the forest build. 
 

pros:

Great rock design.

Recognisable as what it is.

Natural plant design.

cons: 

Front palm tree design wise is not a great design choice. It creatures an unwelcome over complication of the shape of the build.

Silly complaint but el dorado uses the older style palm tree design, and as such I feel current pirate designs would use those also.

All up; fantastic and would 100% buy if released.

I absloutely love your presentation and all the amazing little details you have included like the bottles of depleted rum, the campfire with the vines and flowers serving as a curtain of sorts, if you add a pole to support the vines you can easily have two display options here with the curtains doubling as a roof to provide some nice shade at the cave entrance. But it's the hidden gold bar that I really, really love, a small detail but very charming and so in line with pirates hiding their treasures haha. The only thing I would change is I would remove the palm tree near the water line and perhaps add a coconut with a face scratched on it or a second female minfigure, don't want our mate getting too lonely on that island hey! 

15 minutes ago, _R_R_ said:

I absloutely love your presentation and all the amazing little details you have included like the bottles of depleted rum, the campfire with the vines and flowers serving as a curtain of sorts, if you add a pole to support the vines you can easily have two display options here with the curtains doubling as a roof to provide some nice shade at the cave entrance. But it's the hidden gold bar that I really, really love, a small detail but very charming and so in line with pirates hiding their treasures haha. The only thing I would change is I would remove the palm tree near the water line and perhaps add a coconut with a face scratched on it or a second female minfigure, don't want our mate getting too lonely on that island hey! 

Thank you! Yes, maybe that palm tree should have been left out, but it was originally going to be a little fiddling spot like the one at the top of the ships mast. But that would have been too quaint 😂.

16 minutes ago, MyFirstMOC-Hun said:

Thank you! Yes, maybe that palm tree should have been left out, but it was originally going to be a little fiddling spot like the one at the top of the ships mast. But that would have been too quaint 😂.

I wonder if a little redesign of palm tree on the island itself could give you that fiddling spot, like a platform build around it or trying to have a bucket piece on it, but hard to do unless you extend the island's length, you could also try adding a new attached to the palm tree and rock area so the pirate has a place to sleep, the set that keeps on giving! 

So there has been a lot of feedback about how this has too many pieces to be an official Lego set. So rather than pointing out specifics, I'll give you some tools to help with this.

1) Count the number of pieces you have in this and try to reduce it by 10%. So if you have 250 pieces, reduce it by 25 pieces. This will help you revisit each piece and decide if you really need it.

2) Each piece type that Lego includes in a set requires more complexity to assemble into the box. Reduce the number of different types of pieces. For example: you have 3 different colors of palm leaves. Reducing this down to 2 colors will help reduce production costs.  This process can also help with reducing the overall piece count I mentioned in step one.

9 minutes ago, durazno33 said:

So there has been a lot of feedback about how this has too many pieces to be an official Lego set. So rather than pointing out specifics, I'll give you some tools to help with this.

1) Count the number of pieces you have in this and try to reduce it by 10%. So if you have 250 pieces, reduce it by 25 pieces. This will help you revisit each piece and decide if you really need it.

2) Each piece type that Lego includes in a set requires more complexity to assemble into the box. Reduce the number of different types of pieces. For example: you have 3 different colors of palm leaves. Reducing this down to 2 colors will help reduce production costs.  This process can also help with reducing the overall piece count I mentioned in step one.

Thank you, but I will not change this one, nor the next one. I understand if it doesn't fit the competition, it won't count. But I won't change the number of pieces or the look of it, because I think it's fine the way it is.

That's a great little built and would be a day one purchase for me. The style reminds me of set 40566 "Ray the Castaway", so your MOC could easily an original LEGO set. Thumbs up!

This is excellent, it captures the charm of the original theme quite well!  I really dig the secret gold brick, such a fun touch.

I have a couple suggestions:

• There's a lip/offset on either side where the sand bank moves over a stud.  It's quite jarring in an otherwise smooth and very well designed little island.
• The rocks are all flat (which is fine) but then there's little 1x1 round plates.  Those plates don't fit with the rest of the rocks, IMHO.  I'd remove them or maybe put a crab or some seaweed there (Eldorado uses dark green 1x1 tiles with clip, for example)
• Others have mentioned the tree front and center -- I take 3 specific issues with it: first, it's in the foreground, blocking view and play to the rest of the set.  Second, it's dead center, offset a bit would be much nicer.  Follow the rule of thirds.  Third, there's two tress in this build, good design says there should be either one, three or five trees.  It sounds dumb until you actually start following it, then it's an essential rule to follow.  A build this size should really just have a single tree.
• The foliage is too thick and uses too many bricks.  There's multiple leaf and flower types on a single plant, and there's probably 20 parts there when much fewer parts could accomplish the same effect.  Perhaps try placing a large foliage piece with 3 flowers stuck in it?  Less is often more.
• It would be amazing if pulling the tree revealed the treasure.  70411 has a mechanism like this (it's really the only good part of that set...)

All in all, this is quite a nice design that I really like!

I'm not sure how useful feedback is, if you are 'locked in' on your decision :D Perhaps it will give you considerations before your next build?

Disagree on changing the palms to the new Eldorado style. This style was good enough for Barracuda Bay, so happy to see you stick with it here. As others have mentioned, the palm tree in the foreground could go. While I like the interesting angle of it jutting out like it is, it's a bit in-the-way - might be better around the side of the build instead of blocking the main viewing angle.

Big props to your presentation here with the box cover art and that. It would be neat to see what the 'official' front and back-of-box images that are settled on end up being. One last comment to say that the fact that the front of the cave opens and closes might be a 'play feature' worth emphasising a little more.

9 minutes ago, Yoggington said:

I'm not sure how useful feedback is, if you are 'locked in' on your decision :D Perhaps it will give you considerations before your next build?

Disagree on changing the palms to the new Eldorado style. This style was good enough for Barracuda Bay, so happy to see you stick with it here. As others have mentioned, the palm tree in the foreground could go. While I like the interesting angle of it jutting out like it is, it's a bit in-the-way - might be better around the side of the build instead of blocking the main viewing angle.

Big props to your presentation here with the box cover art and that. It would be neat to see what the 'official' front and back-of-box images that are settled on end up being. One last comment to say that the fact that the front of the cave opens and closes might be a 'play feature' worth emphasising a little more.

Hi! I'm not shy of comments, I read them all, I'm just not going to rebuild this particular set. The palm tree was originally there front and center because it would have had a little basket on it for our man to peek out of. But the baroque looked idiotic, so in the end the palm tree wasn't put on it, but it was kept. I really agree, it's not in the right place, maybe it would be better if it was taken out and just a little rock in its place. I'll look at that next time.
 

Thanks for your reply. 😉🏴‍☠️

On 6/28/2023 at 12:28 PM, Eggyslav said:

There's waaaay too much foliage and details for it to be an official set.

I don't think remakes have to look like official sets. Many of the remakes posted as examples in the main contest thread absolutely do not look like official sets. I think this rule should apply to the 'suggest a new set' category only.

This having been said, I still think this one would pass as a real set. I like what you have done here. The original set was very small and this is a pretty decent expansion. The palm trees look good and I like it that one of them is almost lying in the water. The rocks look massive and sturdy. The cave entrance looks quite realistic.

My only suggestion would be to add more water around it and maybe some waves. Then again I understand that you wanted to focus on the island. Some animals would be good too. I don't see any. A crab perhaps?

Anyway, it's a nice-looking smallish island and I would buy this as a set.

Clearly a MOC-a very nice MOC

Theme (story)

This is a very clear set- it looks like a real hideaway, and the foliage serves it's purpose, and the tiny island adds to the feeling of a cramped hideout for one person who wants a really low profile. I concur with Dreamweb, a crocodile would really improve the set's playability.

Build

For once, the small fireplace actually makes sense. The brick-built BURP you went with looks good, and the light grey colour scheme for the rocks avoids a drab colour scheme from all the brown. Now of course the main course is the foliage, and while it is well done, I would either remove, shorten or lift up the tree at the front of the island, since it adds a lot to the footprint of the set. And maybe remove a few flower pieces, that way it'll look less loaded with foliage (which seems to be a common complaint).

Cute little build - I could almost see this as a GWP like Ray the Castaway. Others have mentioned the excess foliage, which I tend to agree. Also, it's spelled 'Challenge'. All the best!

On 6/30/2023 at 3:12 PM, Dreamweb said:

I don't think remakes have to look like official sets. Many of the remakes posted as examples in the main contest thread absolutely do not look like official sets. I think this rule should apply to the 'suggest a new set' category only.

This having been said, I still think this one would pass as a real set. I like what you have done here. The original set was very small and this is a pretty decent expansion. The palm trees look good and I like it that one of them is almost lying in the water. The rocks look massive and sturdy. The cave entrance looks quite realistic.

My only suggestion would be to add more water around it and maybe some waves. Then again I understand that you wanted to focus on the island. Some animals would be good too. I don't see any. A crab perhaps?

Anyway, it's a nice-looking smallish island and I would buy this as a set.

Thank you very much! 😉🏴‍☠️🍻

25 minutes ago, TimGoodwin said:

Cute little build - I could almost see this as a GWP like Ray the Castaway. Others have mentioned the excess foliage, which I tend to agree. Also, it's spelled 'Challenge'. All the best!

According to the translator, I spelled the word challenge correctly, but since then several people have asked me to spell it with an e. I will definitely correct this.

Yes, I could see this as part of a gwp. Since there were several suggestions for all three sets, I might make a CFE - Community Feedback Edition 😀🏴‍☠️🍻

Another great example of expanding a tiny original Pirate set! 

I always think it looks better when the Technic part in the palm trees has a brown stud pushed into the pin hole, might be worth trying that so there isn't a big gap in the middle of the tree. 

I also think the 2x3 slope underneath the lantern should be moved out a stud so it is flush with the rounded slope at the back as at present it is a little bit severe, or maybe split it into two 1x3 slopes to stagger the transition. 

I think the shaping on the small cave looks really good and you managed to fit plenty of fun details in. Unless my eyes are deceiving me though, looks like there is no monkey?! 

My thoughts:

• I love smaller builds, you packed in a lot of colour in a small area.
• The palm tree on the water doesn't look quite right, I understand why it is that way but does mesh well with the tan sloped bricks.
• Hidden gold is great, this is the kind of attention to detail official lego sets have.
• Not sure if a real lego set would have the chest being unopenable though.
• I think the foilage on the front is fine and not too over the top, however the back might be. I don't feel a set of this size would have that many details on the backside.
• And I like the good amount of minifig accessories: numerous bottles, sword, fish & pot, the light and the gun. It's just the right amount for this set.

Edited July 4, 20231 yr by LetsBrick