Review: 852751 Pirates Chess Set

Imperial Governer · August 25, 2009

I'm getting this one for the minifigures, baby! :pir_laugh2:

Great review! :jollyroger:

**Alice** · August 25, 2009

Thanks for this review. I love Lego Chess sets and they were one of the first things that amazed me about Lego. :pir-wub: This set does have a great collection of minifigs and would be great for anyone wanting to build their pirate minifig collection. I am interested in seeing the lower quality minifigs for myself but it appears that they look a bit like imposter LEGO. One of the wonderful things about LEGO is the attention they pay to the quality of their products as compared with other building blocks, so the lower quality is a disappointment to me. Overall, this set is great for the price. I wonder if the lower quality minifigs have anything to do with the affordability of this set. :pir-sceptic:

**Rick** · August 25, 2009

Overall, this set is great for the price. I wonder if the lower quality minifigs have anything to do with the affordability of this set.

Haven't the 'simple' chess sets (so not talking about the BIG castle chess set) always been €50/$50?

Edited August 25, 2009 by Rick

Callum · August 25, 2009

Haven't the 'simple' chess sets (so not talking about the BIG castle chess set) always been €50/$50?

Yep they were.... I purchased 3 of each of the old chess sets for 25$USD each from Lego.com. The minifigs were perfect.

I hope that these problems are accidental, but something tells me its just another case of lower costs, same price = More profit.

Our only action may be to vote with our wallets. The last few years before 2009 really have been excellent years for TLG's Quality and Customer service, IMO... Which makes this stand out even more like dogs b^^.... food.

Edit - Excellent review. I would have been ordering a half dozen of these had there not been issues with the figs! Agree with the few comments re: Shakos. The horses are odd, but expected... the nice surprise is the dagger-monkeys-. Pirate Wench with skirt is unique to this set which is neat, but I will probably obtain the skirt from somewhere else and avoid the minifigs in this :pir_bawling:

Edited August 25, 2009 by Callum

**Etzel** · August 25, 2009

Yes, tricorns for the people! :pir_laugh2:

I prefer tricorns over shakos so this is a very interesting set for me. As for the lower quality I don't find it too alarming. IMO the differences are very small so I don't care that much.

I might however wait some time before I get this set, it would be nice if it came out on 50% sale as the castle one did :pir-tongue:

k_peek_2000 · August 26, 2009

50 bucks for 24 minifigs? That's a steal!!!!!

gogobig · August 26, 2009

50 bucks for 24 minifigs? That's a steal!!!!!

Not bad, Id stick with tic-tac-toe rather. $20 for 10 minifigs :jollyroger:

WastedGrunt36 · August 26, 2009

Why did they not add epaulettes, and add tricorns instead of shakos? Now they look more like revolutionary soldiers. I hope I have 8 extra blue epaulettes...

The Cobra · August 26, 2009

I found extra epaulettes in every set I bought (from Soldier's arsenal to Shipwreck hideout), I guess it's the same in the rest of the world.

allencao3 · August 26, 2009

A detailed and well-structured review!

The pirate side of the set is excellent especially with the variety of pawn figs and accessories. Of course, replacing one of anchor tattoed pawns with the elder pirate with grey beard in loot island would have been better by including all figs in 2009 pirate line.

The imperials side really sucks IMO though. No epaulette, tricorns on pawns and shakos on bishops, poorly-designed rooks (especially when compared to pirate counterparts). Most importantly, the knights don't belong in here at all! Seems like someone picked up whatever at hand and put them in to merely complete the chess pieces. Sincerely hope this would not be a bad example followed by other sets in future! :thumbdown:

**Rick** · August 26, 2009

I can somehow (from a non-AFOL perspective) understand the choice of the shako and epaulets for the bishops, since they need to be taller than the pawns.

muffinman42 · August 26, 2009

to make the bishop higher i would of just stood him on a stand.

WastedGrunt36 · August 26, 2009

I found extra epaulettes in every set I bought (from Soldier's arsenal to Shipwreck hideout), I guess it's the same in the rest of the world.

But I'm using half of them....

I guess I'm going to have to buy some soldiers arsenals and cannon battles.

Commodore Hornbricker · August 26, 2009

Very nice review. I haven't seen or heard anything about this until now. I certainly haven't seen one in any of the local Lego stores but if I do I'll have to pick on up. I wonder if we'll be seeing or hearing anything about new real sets anytime soon. I am thinking these games and the advent calendar might be it until after Christmas.

Edgehead · August 27, 2009

i really enjoy all these extra little sets lego puts out to compliment their building sets, chess and tic tac toe are both awesome games

i think the issues with quality in both these sets is just an obvious attempt to make some extra proffit on these sets, i doubt that these poor quality figs would appear in any of the real building sets

ziljin · October 9, 2009

Hm, I just found out about this. How come i can't find any info about it except this review? Has it already been discontinued as soon as it was released? Or will they eventually release it. I definitely want one of these.

Diamondback · October 9, 2009

I never saw the silly thing hit S@H--does that mean this was possibly just a limited pre-release?

Buckshot · October 21, 2009

Has there been any news on a release date for this set? Seems to have made an appearance in August and then just disappeared.

Guess this is a REALLY rare set!

squidman85 · October 21, 2009

The set is good,but the only problem is the price and Soldiers Knight :thumbdown: .

martinsuper · October 21, 2009

Holy wow! You could really make something big out of this in NO time! Everything in that set is useful. VERY COOL!

Diamondback · October 23, 2009

I've seen 'em listed on a collectible-toys site for US$125, which struck me as an utter crock of bovine-scatology.

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SkaForHire · July 10, 2010

I take it these were not like the Viking Chess sets and available for a couple years? Which stinks, wish I had money back when these came out (Or when that massive Castle chess came out!!!)

Good Cragger Fan · March 14, 2013

I take it these were not like the Viking Chess sets and available for a couple years? Which stinks, wish I had money back when these came out (Or when that massive Castle chess came out!!!)

I could not possibly agree with you more here! This is because I was unable to find the Giant Castle Chess Set, other than LEGO Shop-At-Home, even though I took a trip down to the US to the Bellvue LEGO Brand Retail Store with loads of American money and they were sold out of them!!!! :damn: :wall: :ugh: :enough: :thumbdown: (however, I got 20 Castle Battle Packs for the Crown and the Undead Skeleton factions for the Castle Fantasy-Era line (10 of each faction) :grin_wub: :wink: :thumbup: ), and this is also because I could not find the Pirate Chess Set anywhere, not even on LEGO Shop-At-Home's website!!!!! :cry_sad: :cry3: :damn: :facepalm: :wall: :ugh: :enough: :thumbdown: