Probability of returning to Classic Pirates after POTC...

[David Thomsen]

Classic Pirates have fallen under the radar over the last few months, but as someone who only uses the POTC range to boost my Classic set-up, Classic Pirates have never been far from my mind.

If Classic pirates did return, it would have access to all of these new pieces that did not exist two years ago:

• Gold Ingots
  
• New Gold Coins
  
• Ponytail Hair
  
• Sword Holders
  
• Musketeer Hats
  
• Buckets
  
• Bottles
  
• Two new soldier torsos - King's Officer and Barbossa
  
• New mermaid tails
  
• Globe
  
• Islander hair & bones
  

If for some reason the POTC line did fail after one or two waves, I think Lego would be in the perfect position to revisit the Classics line, especially since there were only two or three new moulds in the 2009 line. Some things, like the sword holders, musketeer hats, soldier torsos and possibly ponytail hair, can only really be used in a Pirate theme.

On the other hand, after Classic Pirates in 2009 and then POTC in 2011, they may want to take a break from Pirates for a while.

[Piranha]

I think they will return to classic Pirates after POTC. Personally because I see POTC as Indiana Jones or Batman, 1-3 waves.

Just enough goodies and not to overkill it. (I still want an Interceptor though and Port Royal and or Tortuga) hehe

Yes also I love all those parts you mentioned, the musketeer hat, rum bottle, islanders etc, now I am getting excited, so many possible Pirate sets.

Edited June 4, 2011 by Macoco

[Churchill]

I agree. I see no reason for them not to, unless they think the interest isn't there. The new molds would make it a piece of cake to create all new kinds of sets with little trouble.

Of course, this would open up the yellow vs. flesh debate....

[Mister Phes]

The continued release of Pirates of the Caribbean sets depends on numerous factors.

The first major factor is the release of future Pirates of the Caribbean films. At this point its uncertain if there will be another, apparently Disney is interested by Johnny Depp wishes to wait. So without a film to tie-in, this theme may be short lived.

Second factor is how well this wave of sets sells. From observation it appears probably not as well as the LEGO Group had hoped. I don't know if its just my perspective, but these PotC sets seem very abundant online and sell well below their recommended retail prices. With the 2009 Pirate sets it was quite the opposite.

[David Thomsen]

Second factor is how well this wave of sets sells. From observation it appears probably not as well as the LEGO Group had hoped. I don't know if its just my perspective, but these PotC sets seem very abundant online and sell well under retail price. With the 2009 Pirate sets it was quite the opposite.

Do you mean they sell well below retail price, or that they sell well at retail price? If the latter, why wouldn't the Lego Group be happy with that?

[Rick]

After TLG stopped released Indiana Jones sets, Adventurers returned quickly in the form of Pharaoh's Quest, so there is a pretty good chance 'Classic' Pirates will return after TLG stops releasing new PotC sets. Although I don't know any details about the LEGO-Disney license or movie release plans...

[Mister Phes]

Do you mean they sell well below retail price, or that they sell well at retail price? If the latter, why wouldn't the Lego Group be happy with that?

Yes, I meant "well below retail price", I shall revise my earlier post to avoid future confusion.

[Tazmaniac]

I would have thought the future of POTC would be determend by units sold, not the price at which they were selling.

TLG gets their cut regardless of what they sell for on the market......yes?

I guess if LEGO retailers can't move the stock at RRP they won't want more waves, leaving TLG without buyers.

Just my thoughts.

[Big Cam]

I actually recall reading that there was already filming going on for the next two films. I don't recall where I read that so I guess we'll have to leave it as speculation for now. If the movies get made and if LEGO has the disney license for a while longer, I'd expect PotC to be the only pirate line, but without a doubt I think classic pirates will show up after the license ends. Just like SW, there are many movies and many scenes for TLG to cash in on with PotC.

[Captain Becker]

Yes, Classic Pirats will return after this POTC theme, how long POTC theme will be contiuning? Only this one year. How long it takes at we get new Classic Pirate sets after POTC theme has ended? We shall see, it takes a bit time ofcourse, specially if they dont have yet any ideas for the sets. I dont belive at TLC will stop doing Pirates line after so many years, even at we had a little dark age in the past, but Pirates will once again return on to Lego caribbean waters mate.

I just hope they will have these new pieces included: New sword holder, new torso printing on the Officer, the printed hats: Like King George soldiers hats, and Barbossas privateer hat. Im still waiting those POTC sets to come in stores though, they should have come in june but still no sight of them yet. Im a bit worried if POTC sets even come into my towns stores.

Captain Becker

[Mister Phes]

I would have thought the future of POTC would be determend by units sold, not the price at which they were selling.

Indeed the number of units sold is the key factor. I was noting (from my observations) people aren't buying the sets at retail prices, so as a consequence they are more abundant online at significantly lower prices. If they were selling well this would not be the case.

I actually recall reading that there was already filming going on for the next two films.

That rumour is obsolete as of May 5^th.

While Terry Rossio has apparently finished the next script and Disney wants to make another, Johnny Depp has said:

"Boils down to story, script and filmmaker. It's not something where I would say, 'Let's shoot it next month and get it out by Christmas 2012. We should hold off for a bit. They should be special, just like they are special to me."

[Tazmaniac]

Indeed the number of units sold is the key factor. I was noting (from my observations) people aren't buying the sets at retail prices, so as a consequence they are more abundant online at significantly lower prices. If they were selling well this would not be the case.

That makes sense I misunderstood your first post but reading it again I can see clearly what you were saying....silly me.

Edited June 5, 2011 by TazManiac

[Cpt. Dan]

From a business perspective, I think it all depends on the success of the line. If it makes sense for TLG to continue POTC due to financial reasons, they may continue to create years of waves. Although classic pirate will never go away and will eventually come back, I think it is reliant on the success of POTC.

Edit: I have been to many stores lately and it appears either POTC is well stocked or people are not buying them. This does not surprise me as a few mentioned before but the retail on these sets is quite high, and has even kept me from picking up more than one.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Cpt. Dan

[Mister Phes]

That makes sense I misunderstood your first post but reading it again I can see clearly what you were saying....silly me.

Or maybe I just didn't phrase it very well

[Fives]

I have never been a huge fan of the pirates stuff before POTC. But, I now have begun to really love it, and if they were to come back with more Classic stuff, they should have the Bluecoats! One thing though, if they did come back, they should replace all of the basic imperial soldiers hats with tricornes. They just look better. But, I still want POTC to last a couple more waves.

[Gregorovich]

I think they will return eventually. I mean, other than Star Wars, licenses themes never last that long, however great they are. I think they'd be silly not to return to CP once the public lose interest in PotC, because pirates is a very popular theme amongst kids. And with all the new moulds they have, there's plenty of scenes and minifigures they couldn't have done before.

[CrazyPirate]

Hopefully they will return.If they do,do you think the Captain will be BrickBeard,RedBeard,or a totally new Pirate?I think RedBeard should return.

[CrazyPirate]

Also,I hope Islanders return.

[Horry]

Also,I hope Islanders return.

I can not disagree more. I have studied political sciences so forgive me in advance for my rant. The islanders have been a structual racist line that emphasised a "primitive" and romanticised view of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and Micronesia. There's more to "islanders" than bones in their hairstyles and some leafs as trousers. I generally like Lego's effort to try to present an enlightened view on humankind, but they utterly failed when presentin' "islanders"

I promise I will not get political again, sorry. But his had to get off me chest

[CrazyPirate]

Also,I hope Islanders return.

You have a point,I just sort of liked them.

I can not disagree more. I have studied political sciences so forgive me in advance for my rant. The islanders have been a structual racist line that emphasised a "primitive" and romanticised view of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and Micronesia. There's more to "islanders" than bones in their hairstyles and some leafs as trousers. I generally like Lego's effort to try to present an enlightened view on humankind, but they utterly failed when presentin' "islanders"

I promise I will not get political again, sorry. But his had to get off me chest

Sorry,I messed up and replied the wrong post.

[Piranha]

well I think they should still do an Islander type subtheme.

Edited June 14, 2011 by Macoco

[Dhivael]

I can not disagree more. I have studied political sciences so forgive me in advance for my rant. The islanders have been a structual racist line that emphasised a "primitive" and romanticised view of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and Micronesia. There's more to "islanders" than bones in their hairstyles and some leafs as trousers. I generally like Lego's effort to try to present an enlightened view on humankind, but they utterly failed when presentin' "islanders"

I promise I will not get political again, sorry. But his had to get off me chest

I absolutely agree with this. I never really appreciated the Islanders line.

I would venture to say that I sort of got the feeling that Lego was trying to do a Mayan-type civilization which had an interesting idea, but felt poorly executed.

[MstrOfPppts]

You are being to picky here. You are forgeting that LEGO is a toy, firstly meant for children. We also have thousands of cartoons, where the islanders (either in pirate or medieval era) are represented as a bunch of almost naked, bones in hair wearing guys with no culture and they're mostly canibals. For children that works, and there really is no more. I really liked the islanders line, it brought some diversity into pirates line, but speaking of political or racial problems some of you see ... I think there are no such things in toys nor LEGO. Besides they sticked with the neutral yellow for these guys, although I'd prefer them black, and the Western theme indians red.

The world just is as it is, and noone can change it. Stereotypes and cliches will always exist and if they use them in toys, I have no problem with that. Children get the general ideas from the cartoons, in which case some are far more problematic than an innocent Islanders line from LEGO!

[David Thomsen]

I can not disagree more. I have studied political sciences so forgive me in advance for my rant. The islanders have been a structual racist line that emphasised a "primitive" and romanticised view of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and Micronesia. There's more to "islanders" than bones in their hairstyles and some leafs as trousers. I generally like Lego's effort to try to present an enlightened view on humankind, but they utterly failed when presentin' "islanders"

I think it would be interesting to create a new thread with a poll to find out whether people are pro- or anti-Islander.

I am pro. I have never felt that the Islanders were a caricature of any real indigenous people. They are a fantasy based on the idea of a primitive culture living on islands, so far removed from reality that I don't think anyone could be offended by it.

Yes, there's more to "Islanders" than bones and leaves... but there's also more to Pirates than gold and hook hands... and there's more to Castle than bows and swords...

I think it's easy to identify 'Islanders' as the people of Caribbean and Micronesia because of the relative minority of these islands, whereas you don't think of 'Castle' as the people of anywhere in particular because there are so many, many places in Europe they could represent.

I do think your study of political science has made you prone to see racism where there isn't any. Otherwise I challenge you to take offense that 'Lego City' represents your society as nothing more than a collection of emergency services...

[Horry]

I think it would be interesting to create a new thread with a poll to find out whether people are pro- or anti-Islander.

I am pro. I have never felt that the Islanders were a caricature of any real indigenous people. They are a fantasy based on the idea of a primitive culture living on islands, so far removed from reality that I don't think anyone could be offended by it.

Yes, there's more to "Islanders" than bones and leaves... but there's also more to Pirates than gold and hook hands... and there's more to Castle than bows and swords...

I think it's easy to identify 'Islanders' as the people of Caribbean and Micronesia because of the relative minority of these islands, whereas you don't think of 'Castle' as the people of anywhere in particular because there are so many, many places in Europe they could represent.

I do think your study of political science has made you prone to see racism where there isn't any. Otherwise I challenge you to take offense that 'Lego City' represents your society as nothing more than a collection of emergency services...

Aye, that's a good point but I might have not presented mine well enough. I did not speak of racism, I spoke of structural racism and that is actually a difference

(one, that almost nobody knows of because we political scientists are not really good in talkin' to people )

I totally agree on all that points you made about castle and the pirates themselfs and so on. But (1) they represent people of European descent what gives them the advantage of diversity. They can be pirates or city-folks or knights. Islanders have to be Islanders. That alone wouldn't be a problem but there comes

(2) Why do Islanders have to represent a Eurocentric cliché of people on islands? Why not talking about their great fishing techniques and their brilliant ways of building boats and houseboats? That would be agreat way of doin' some interesting designs for Lego, anyway. You said it yourself: "a primitive culture" - that is no way to judge other people - because they don't use metals or writing they are not primitive but that is the picture media and culture in Europe are displayin' it.

It's not meant to be an attack on you or anyone else liking Islanders - I assume that no-one here is racist. But we all inherited stupid cultural prejudices that we would never ever be allowed to be made upon our cultures. And Lego could do a great deal about this. So, you know what? scrap my idea! let Lego do a new Islanders wave but without clichès! That'll be cool. And now I shut up before I get problems with the mods