Imperial Flagship and my issue with it

[Seablue19]

Hello! I am 27 and all growing up loved, LOVED Pirate LEGO's, so this year I purchased the Black Pearl and Queen Anne's Revenge, neat little ships for a great price. But, all growing up I wanted the Black Seas Barracuda, just so happen my best friend bought it for me for Christmas. On top of that, I found a 100% complete Skull's Eye Schooner (another ship I always wanted) on ebay for $165, and recently bought the Imperial Flagship from I think 2009.

The first thing that I notice is the sails on the recent pre-PotC sets. I can't stand the way the sails look or maybe how they are just set up, so I wanted to see if I can find parts to where I can set the sails up like the classic pirates had them, with the top straight in line and a slight bend on the bottom with those little balls on the lego pieces. The problem is finding them ANYWHERE without paying for an entire ship just to take it down.

Anyone else not like how the sails are set up on the Imperial Flagship and the Brickbeard's Bounty? And if so, in keeping the entire ship intact, what are the best pieces to buy to fix the way the sails look? I don't know how big the sails are going to be yet but was wondering what types of pieces I would need. Might keep it with how the Pirates of the Caribbean sets have them which is good, but definitely don't want to keep the way they look originally on the Imperial Flagship, they just look too lazy, like they were done to be done with the design.

[proraptor]

Im going to have to disagree....The sails on the IFS are the most realistic sails that Lego has produced. The print on them is amazingly realistic with the tie straps and such

[Sebeus I]

As in classic pirates ships you mean this part ?

It's not very easy to come by BUT you can use other parts instead, like this one:

Im going to have to disagree....The sails on the IFS are the most realistic sails that Lego has produced. The print on them is amazingly realistic with the tie straps and such

I don't think he's talking about the sails themselves, he means the way they are attached to the booms and I certainly agree with him.

Personally I think the Imperial Flagship has the worst rigging/mast construction ever, it's a waste of such nice sails.

[Bricksan]

Having just finished building this beauty and having had the old BSB in my youth, this ship is built so much better that the older ships and find the way they did the masts fantastic.

[proraptor]

I agree....I also have a lot of the old ships and like the new mast designs....

[SkaForHire]

As in classic pirates ships you mean this part ?

It's not very easy to come by BUT you can use other parts instead, like this one:

I don't think he's talking about the sails themselves, he means the way they are attached to the booms and I certainly agree with him.

Personally I think the Imperial Flagship has the worst rigging/mast construction ever, it's a waste of such nice sails.

I used to use that second piece all the time, now they are pretty hard to find. Sometimes Pick a Brick has them. I have not looked at how the new ships are attached, do they go back to the old way?

[Seablue19]

Yeah like said earlier I don't have an issue with the sails themselves, just how they are attached. I just seem to still love how the older sets were attached with those items shown and how the top was flat while the bottom was sort of pushed out like it was naturally going with the wind. They redid the classic way to hold the sails on with my Queen Anne's Revenge and the Black Pearl which I really like. The Lego store here doesn't seem to have either of those pieces in the pick a brick, but overhearing a conversation the guy was saying something to the effect of they display what they have in stock. I guess I could check another Lego store near me and see if they have it or not. The ship in general I have seen pictures and I get it tomorrow (the Imperial Flagship) but that was my only issue was the mounting of the sails themselves. I am going to try to find these pieces to set them the classic way, and see how it looks compared to how it is intended to be set up and see if I was right or not in my feelings on it. I get the Skull's Eye Schooner later this week as well, leaving behind the Brickbeard's Bounty left to collect before I go for the smaller ships. I had the Red Beard Runner and still have the parts just somehow lost the flags to it but I think if I rebuild it and find some flags I might want to do some upgrading on the cabin and the ship in general, the flags were nice, just thought some of the build on it was kinda lame. The skull in the back was really an interesting touch so I would keep that, just add things like doors and some more detail.

[David Thomsen]

I didn't have any of the original pirate ships, but comparing pictures online, the sails on the BSB seem kind of saggy compared with the IF, where they seem to be more taut. This is just my preference, though.

[Sebeus I]

You can't see this on a picture but I own both old and new ships and you can feel the difference in the sails, the old sails are made of stronger cloth, they are heavy and soft compared to the paper-like new sails.

Anyway, the QAR and the Black Pearl have a good attachement system as well, instead of the traditional plates they use technic pins, much better then the Brickbeard Bounty and the Imperial Flagship.

It must be possible to equip the same type of booms to the Imperial Flagship.

Maybe you can use the instructions of the Black Pearl and QAR to find the sollution ?

I don't know the exact proportions of teh sails but by varying the lengt of the technic axles used in the booms they might fit.

[Seablue19]

I went on Lego.com and purchased some items to recreate the booms like in the BP and QAN, also went to bricklink as well. Going to post pictures when I get all the parts in after I set it up.

[SkaForHire]

Yeah like said earlier I don't have an issue with the sails themselves, just how they are attached. I just seem to still love how the older sets were attached with those items shown and how the top was flat while the bottom was sort of pushed out like it was naturally going with the wind. They redid the classic way to hold the sails on with my Queen Anne's Revenge and the Black Pearl which I really like. The Lego store here doesn't seem to have either of those pieces in the pick a brick, but overhearing a conversation the guy was saying something to the effect of they display what they have in stock. I guess I could check another Lego store near me and see if they have it or not. The ship in general I have seen pictures and I get it tomorrow (the Imperial Flagship) but that was my only issue was the mounting of the sails themselves. I am going to try to find these pieces to set them the classic way, and see how it looks compared to how it is intended to be set up and see if I was right or not in my feelings on it. I get the Skull's Eye Schooner later this week as well, leaving behind the Brickbeard's Bounty left to collect before I go for the smaller ships. I had the Red Beard Runner and still have the parts just somehow lost the flags to it but I think if I rebuild it and find some flags I might want to do some upgrading on the cabin and the ship in general, the flags were nice, just thought some of the build on it was kinda lame. The skull in the back was really an interesting touch so I would keep that, just add things like doors and some more detail.

I know here we have a couple Lego Stores in the part of Texas I am in, and I have at times asked workers if they could check if they have a piece in the back - most of the time they will do it for you. During less busy times of the year they seem to have more stock in the back, but I am guessing during the holiday season what you see is what they have. Also, don't assume they do not have any more stock if you see a few empty bins along the first two rows above the ground. The Lego stores are required to put larger bricks that cannot not be swallowed by little kids at that level. Sometimes they run out of those large bricks and leave them empty, but have stock for the top rows beyond what is displayed.

[Dreamweb]

I agree that old sails are superior is many ways, they are thicker and most importantly, have printing on both sides. The one-side printing is really annoying.

Anyway, the Imperial Flagship is a great set, but I have just one major issue with it. These minifigs sitting on the lower deck (where the cannons are) seem to be kinda trapped. How do they get out of there? It seems that in fact Brickbeard isn't the only prisoner down there.

[Siegfried]

These minifigs sitting on the lower deck (where the cannons are) seem to be kinda trapped. How do they get out of there? It seems that in fact Brickbeard isn't the only prisoner down there.

What's wrong with the hinged 8x8 grill plates?

[Sebeus I]

What's wrong with the hinged 8x8 grill plates?

There's nothing wrong with those, atleast if a minifigure is able to jump 7 hight

What's really wrong is the fact that there is no stairs, not even a simple ladder.

[Siegfried]

There's nothing wrong with those, atleast if a minifigure is able to jump 7 hight

What's really wrong is the fact that there is no stairs, not even a simple ladder.

Real sailors don't need that kind of stuff. I used to shun stairs whenever possible.

Even so, I don't see how it would have worked. If they added the clip on ladders (which would have been realistic) the it would have been annoying to arrange when you put the deck back on.

[CopMike]

Interesting topic, even for a SW nerd as me ! Probably because I have a project going which involves sails!

As in classic pirates ships you mean this part ?

It's not very easy to come by BUT you can use other parts instead, like this one:

Excuse my bad knowledge of this things, but how do you mean they´re hard to come by?

172 stores has them, last used in a 2011 set.

909 stores has them, last used in a 2011 set.

Real sailors don't need that kind of stuff. I used to shun stairs whenever possible.

Even so, I don't see how it would have worked. If they added the clip on ladders (which would have been realistic) the it would have been annoying to arrange when you put the deck back on.

two + X times two + X/2 times = ropeladder!

[Siegfried]

two + X times two + X/2 times = ropeladder!

I must confess I'd have loved that; I don't have too many of that rope piece!

[Seablue19]

When I bought the Queen Anne's Revenge and the Black Pearl I ended up having 2 of those extra rope pieces somehow. Guess that is a great way to utilize them on my Imperial Flagship, thanks for the idea!

[Sebeus I]

Interesting topic, even for a SW nerd as me ! Probably because I have a project going which involves sails!

Excuse my bad knowledge of this things, but how do you mean they´re hard to come by?

172 stores has them, last used in a 2011 set.

909 stores has them, last used in a 2011 set.

...

You can find everything at bricklink but if you only need a couple of those specific parts it's not interesting to pay the sending costs.

I don't know of any interesting new set that has a decent amount of those parts.

[Storel]

I don't know how easy it would be to find the sets now, but I'd suggest "Jungle Duel" from the Indiana Jones series (not one of the best sets, but...). It has four of the 2-stud hooks. Also has a few other bits that'd be useful for piratey things. Of course, probably not going to be value for money if you're only after a few parts, but just a thought :-)

[Seablue19]

So I finally got all the pieces in, and I rebuilt the ships booms with them to see how it would look. I modeled it after the Black Pearl and Queen Anne's Revenge simply because the flags are exactly the same. I honestly think this looks better than it's traditional set up. For the sol fact that it looked to fake to me, and for the fact that when you looked at the ship from the side, all the flags looked like they were flag with a bulge only in the center, just didn't look, shippy to me. lol. I really like it this way, though I had to mess around with the booms cause I didn't have all the right pieces I needed it still worked out.

Front shot.

[Sebeus I]

Much better, it looks very good, maybe you can also replace the vertical boom of the jib sail by a rope to the first mast, that would be much more realistic, you can do that the same way as the QAR.

[Lord Cutler Beckett]

it looks more realistic than the original. It's very beautiful :)

I would like to do the same thing but there's one little problem, I bought 3 sets in December: Black pearl, Queen Anne's Revenge and medieval market village so I'm not going to buy anything the next 3 months

[kermit]

Did you keep the original distance between each boom to get the puffed-out effect of the sails? and do you know if they make the part you used to connect the sails to the boom in the brown colour so that it blends in with the boom?

[Seablue19]

I plan on getting some rope and actually setting up the front flag in the same way as the classic sets, from the bottom to the bottom front, then up to the first mast, to the second one, third, and down to the back of the top deck in the back. Kermit I think I can find them in brown to make them match better but I haven't looked on bricklink. The pieces were all bought on lego.com pick a brick before I even knew about the awesomeness of bricklink.

As for the distance, the original distance was WAY to far spread out to get the curved effect on the sails, so I had to take the masts down and lay them side by side with the Black Pearl flag and compare distance and match them to each other.