Pictorial Review - 6285 - Black Seas Barracuda

After being in love with this set from a distance for 22 years, I finally had the guts to buy one, even though I knew it would be quite expensive. Luckily the set was 100% complete with the original box in a quite good condition.

I know that there is already a nice review of the Black Seas Barracuda, but I love to play with photoshop, and I decided to do my own review after playing around with a few ideas I had in mind.

So without further ado, I give you my review of one of the finest sets ever released by LEGO.

I have decided to do most of the review in pictures, with less text than I am used to.

If you want, you can always take a look at some of my other reviews:

Pirate theme:

6267 - Lagoon Lock-Up

6270 - Forbidden Island

6273 - Rock Island Refuge

Caribbean Clipper

6286 - Skull's Eye Schooner

Other themes:

6353 - Coastal Cutter

6376 - Breezeway Cafe

6062 - Battering Ram

And some shameless self-promotion:

My article on the "classic" LEGO houses

I know how you guys just love to look at photos of LEGO, so there'll be approx 30 pictures all in all.

I hope you enjoy the picture-tour

The box for this set is HUGE - I don't think I've ever held such a huge box before - perhaps maybe the 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner box is the same size. I should compare them at some point - they are currently in my attic though.

The good old days when boxes had flaps, cellophane and plastic trays to present special parts - those days are unfortunately over. It's a good thing that most LEGO collectors keep the original boxes to store their vintage sets in. The boxes these days are not as interesting - yes I know that the graphics are better, but it's not nearly as interesting to investigate boxes compared to the 1980's/early 1990's.

They even had lots of alternate models on the boxes and manuals. Here are three of them:

It wasn't as easy to build large sets back then - but that's completely fine with me. The harder the challenge, the better. The manual did have sub-model building, but no numbered bags, no specific piece call-outs or anything. Just plain ol' LEGO building as I love it

To build a LEGO ship, you naturally need lots of special parts. The classic masts are so much nicer than masts today.

A big set such as this naturally comes with countless of cool accessories - but one thing that I think sets today does better than back in the 1980's/1990's is that they offer more accessories, and of a much better detail.

That does not, however mean that the parts offered with this set is bad - at all - just look at the next few pictures. There are lots of great parts to help enhance playability.

The beautiful red/white sails:

You get two of these:

...and two of these:

The rowing boat is a great addition to the set and adds even more to the playbility:

We get 8 minifigs and even a yellow lady figure head. All the minifigs are supposed to be pirates. We all know that Steve from 6286 - Skull's Eye Schooner was perhaps supposed to be a neutral trader of some sorts. But here, on the epic Black Seas Barracuda, all on board are swashbuckling swashbucklers - even the hard core female. First of its kind in LEGOLAND to have lipstick on.

The prefab hull - nice classic brown color

This is the only shot I did of the building process - I always forget to take photos when building sets, because I get so excited. This is not even a genuine "building process" shot - it was taken as I took the ship apart again for safe storage in the box

After she is built, she is ready to set sail for the small hide-out Forbidden Island.

The next handful of shots are all here to show you the magnificent design and color scheme of the ship. Kudos to the designer for creating this masterpiece.

As you can see, there are of course numerous play features on the ship - it's an important detail that there is easy access to the captain's cabin - just to name one feature - the cannons, the anchor, the walk-the-plank plank. etc. etc. etc.

It's always a bit difficult for me to give LEGO sets points, so instead I'll just say that this has always been the set that I've dreamt of the most, and after cleaning it, and ironing the sails, and building it, I was not at all disappointed that I purchased it. It is the most beautiful thing ever... I love how it shines as if it was 1989 again. I am even happy to own the huge box, even though it takes up a LOT of space in my house

I rate this set 11/10

I hope you enjoyed the pictorial tour.

Please remember to vote

Edited October 4, 20177 yr by Lorentzen

Nice this is my favorite Pirate ship! Great review!

OK, damn you!!! I was eventually planning to review this set, but your review is fantastic!!! Now if I decide to rebuild it and review it, I'll have my work cut out for me.

Splendid work, I know this ship inside out since I've owned it for over 20 years, but I loved your review.

Ever thought of joining the Reviewers Academy? This is an excellent review of a great set.

The photo-editing is good as well. I don't have this set but I agree that TLG should take a closer look at this one before they make new ships.

It has some great features that seem to be lost in time.

Anyway, thanks for the review. I'll put it in the index

For such an old set it has quite nice features

The mother of my fondness for Lego Pirates and ships in general! The BSB was my christmas present when I was... dunno, very young? It was propably the set longest assembled ever in my possession.

Your review is superb and I love the manipulated pictures - thank you for this!

The mother of my fondness for Lego Pirates and ships in general! The BSB was my christmas present when I was... dunno, very young? It was propably the set longest assembled ever in my possession.

Your review is superb and I love the manipulated pictures - thank you for this!

What Horry said word for word.

Still the pride of my collection and the reason for my return to LEGO was partly due to rebuilding this great set. I just wish I still had all my sails

As others have said great review.

Long live the BSB.

What an absolutely beautiful review

I've recently resumed my interest in Lego, picking up QAR, Brickbeard's Bounty and the Imperial Flagship.

One day I'll get my hands on this and I will be a very happy man!

Magnificent review, Lorentzen! Lovely photoshopped pictures, too.

I love reading reviews of old sets, particularly when they are either MISB or newly acquired and restored (as you've done). The BSB is about as grand as Lego sets can come. The pirate wave that this set belonged to brought so many firsts to the Lego world - truly remarkable. I'm afraid that if I started my praise rant about this set I may be here for far too long, so I'll try to keep things short and sweet. The minifigures are all wonderful, and the ship is filled with loads of details and opportunities for play. It's incredible that this was the first pirate ship, and yet it has arguably yet to be topped. This is the way Lego pirate ships should be done!

Thank you for the nice comments - you are far to kind :)

I am not too keen on joining the excellent Reviewers Academy because I don't have the time to do reviews regularly :( But thanks for asking :)

Edited June 24, 201113 yr by Lorentzen

Lorentzen, your backgrounds and water effects are amazing and really capture the imagination. We really appreciate your hard work putting this review together. I like how you give it an 11 out of 10!

I noticed that the Peeron and Bricklink piece counts are different. Does anyone know why that is? I don't usually notice people citing both stats in reviews.

I'm pretty sure I have a BSB and a Caribbean Clipper in a toy bucket at my mom's house, and I know one day I will be able to resurrect it from its tomb, and maybe piece it together and order missing parts on BL. One day... one day...

Thanks for the review. Awesome job on the pictures.

Unfortunately, this is the closest I've come to ever seeing the BSB in person, let alone building and/or owning it myself. Sigh... dark ages.

Unbelievable design, even with the less advanced building techniques of the era. Thanks for the stellar review.

This is an outstanding review, the ship looks better on the screen than it does on my floor.

I need to clean the dust off of mine

Edited June 25, 201113 yr by SirSven7

I keep this set since 1994 and not one moment I lost my enthousiasm to build it once a year.

I always loved these old sets, especially this one. When I get all of my bricks out of storage I plan on building this again! Great review!

My favorite Pirate Ship! I remember getting this for XMas many years ago.. still one of my best gifts to date :)

The best set to compliment the BSB is Eldorado's Fortress! Maybe you can review it next?

My favorite Pirate Ship! I remember getting this for XMas many years ago.. still one of my best gifts to date :)

The best set to compliment the BSB is Eldorado's Fortress! Maybe you can review it next?

I agree completely. Eldorado's Fortress was/is awesome!

hi, is the shark part of the set ? since mine doesn't have any shark at all.

You're actually right... there is no shark in this set at all. I just got a shark with my ebay purchase and never even thought that it wasn't a part of the original set.

I'll remove the shark from the "animal" picture in my review

Cool that you noticed

I love this set very much but I never got it, I fear that when I buy this set I won't ever demolish it to build something else, one of the best sets ever produced.

This set is too good, I did got the Skull's eye schooner and that's my largest box I have.

I have always loved this set. I would buy it, slap some different flags on it, replace the minifigs, and call it an imperial ship like you have never seen before if it wasn't for the fact that my brother has the same set . My only problem is the red sails. In my opinion pirate sails should always be black, because of the redcoats. the red sails should be for redcoats, blue for bluecoats, and black for pirates.

Edited August 26, 201113 yr by Cpt. Tristan

This set is a classic. Words can't describe it so I won't even try - enough has been said already on numerous occasions. Oh, well, I'll just write this - I love absolutely everything about it, including the box and the instructions.

And this review, just like your Caribbean Clipper review, will soon be blogged! Good job Lorentzen!

[bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

Thanks for blogging this and my CC review

I really enjoyed reviewing both this ship and the CC - they are awesome ships, and I thank all of you for giving med such nice feedback - it means a lot :)

This is one impressive ship, I wasn't aware that Lego put so much detail in the cabin's exterior. I also miss the flaps of old, if only my old boxes hadn't be lost.