This was one of the last Lego sets I got before I stopped collecting as a teenager. It was for Christmas I was 12 and my mom got me this, the Barracuda, the Imperial Clipper and the Pirates hideout Island. Only looking back now and realise she must have spent a small fortune getting all those sets.
I always wanted the Barracuda as a kid, but it was too expensive. I did get it later though: a dream come true. I did have the Imperial Clipper and Pirates hideout island too. Those were wonderful sets too, I played a lot with them.
Same here. My brother and I got the entire initial run of the pirate theme. Soon afterwards I was heading into middle school and lost interest in Lego until many years later. Missed out on the western theme unfortunately.
Retro reviews are always weird for me because I see pieces I'm really familiar with from back in the day, only to suddenly realize "hey, I haven't seen one of those in a new set in years."
having been born in 03 and growing up in the early 2000s, it's always really weird seeing pieces i had as a kid being used so early on, i never realized that the musket and sabre pieces i had as a kid from lego star wars or pirates were so old
Hi Jang, I checked the cannon. The one you have isthe bb0039. This type of cannon is the disabled version of the shooting cannon, special made for the North American market. The original cannon belonging to this is x110c01. Don't see them being sold in the USA on bricklink though.
I miss those 3D baseplates. They were a cool foundation to build on, although I was only ever able to get one of them myself, I remember I got pretty creative with it with just what I could build as a kid. Ah... good times.
YES, I love them too! This one shape came with about 5 different prints! I also liked the big 3D baseplates with a river printed down the middle... and they can hold water!
Yes! I wasn’t that great at building my own stuff but this baseplate somehow made it easier for me to imagine what to build on top and it’s what I used most of the time when I built from my own head as a kid. For me this baseplate was magical.
Right? The 3-in-1 Medieval Castle is a good example of this. A $100 set, but only two knight figures, 1 villager, and a dragon. Should have had a couple more knights, or maybe a 2nd dragon.
I believe the cannons in this version was a temporary substitute without a spring till the non-functional cannons with the two spear insignia was made for the US market.
"I've been looking forward to this." Such a lovely, classic set. That little crane feature is pretty smart. BTW I cannot unsee the large jail door as being a Fabuland piece. Shame that nowadays pirates doesn't seem to interest the general audience as much, judging by the flop of the 2016 wave.
Well, lego did make a Pirate Island hotel in Legoland, approved the amazing Barracuda Bay, and made the creator set. But even then, all of that stuff it’s just one and done, and the hotel is likely there for the hotel experience, rather than pirate sets experience. There is demand for pirates, especially by Afols. Lego needs to give us a supply
The 2016 theme was really just a less good repeat of the 2009 theme, which was decent but didn't really scratch the itch. I think if Lego wants pirates to succeed in today's market they need to reemphasize engineering-based play, like string rigging for sails and cranes, articulated gun emplacements, etc. And of course, don't juniorize any of the decorative elements. The bizarre, minifigure-esque skull icon of the 2009 pirates really took away from the aesthetic.
This set was in my older brother's collection when I was growing up. Got so many memories of playing with this along with the Imperial Flagship, Renegade Runner and the Lagoon lock-up. His sets inspired me to start a LEGO collection of my own and they've now been passed down to his son. The future is bright for LEGO-heads in this family!
This was one of my biggest childhood sets, and my first Pirate set. I promptly spent the next year collecting the entire first year line including the Barracuda. It was really amazing and I still occasionally keep it on display. The baseplate was used for many of my own builds over the years. Also, it's worth pointing out that these were the first figures with faceprinting other than the standard face, and also the first with non-standard legs and hands.
I got this for my birthday when I was 6. Just watched your video, unpacked it and built it. Building the whole line now that it is out of storage. Thanks for the fond memories Jang!
I had this set as a kid (in the US) and it had those same kind of cannons where you could just kind of push the "cannonball" out. I remember thinking it was pretty lame but otherwise I had so much fun playing with this set as a kid. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
How about Playmobil cannons? I had pirate cannons and US army (1860 era style) cannons that would shoot real shells, those were amazing fun, we would set up whole battlefields in a room and spend hours shooting down the other side. They would easily shoot 5 meters far. where they banned too?
"It's good in its own way" is the best description. Such charm and nostalgia in this set. To me this is a perfect example of what LEGO use to be for me. A fantastic starting point to allow you to build more and encourage your own creativity. Nice review JANG. This is why I watch your channel for sure.
I got this for Christmas when I was a kid. This was one of my favourite sets. I rebuilt it 1 million times over, so much fun. I wish we could still get sets like this
Still have this set! LEGO Pirates was the last series I was into before my hiatus. I had the Imperials and my friend collected the Pirates. We had both original the ships and all the smaller sets. Ahh the memories!
Thank you Jang and Beyond the Brick for review of this 1989, The Eldorado Fortress should be the next big Creator 3-in-1 set for 2022, follow up to the pirate ship and medieval castle!
I had a lot of the 1989 Pirate stuff, everything except for the 2 ships I think. I was all into Knights before, but I prefered these. Though Black Monarch is still my number one castle. From the pirate castles, I especially liked the Forbidden Island for some reason. I played with it a lot.
Iirc I had the large navy ship, a smaller pirate ship and a load of the small sets in the pirates line. A friend had this one and I absolutely coveted that big old base rock. Lol. So good to see it again. :D
I got this set when I was in Kindergarten in 1991. Great memories with this one. I still have it, complete, just not assembled. Mine had the actual shooting cannons and it was the only ones I had throughout the 90s.. I'm waiting for my kids to want to build it here at some point. Great video Jang, maybe this will make them want to put it together!
I'm in the US, I had this set, the Barracuda, Clipper, Shipwreck Island and most of the smaller sets from this era and none of them had spring loaded shooting cannons. I remember having to pull the cannons off the sets in order to tilt and dump the cannon pieces stuck inside. Would've made the set much more fun if I could've shot the cannons off!
Pit of death pretty much. But...man..this Line. Epic. As a child i didn't have pot to Piss in, so spent hours studying the catalogue and the boxes in store. The art on the boxes was amazing. Fantasy went in to overdrive.
Lego’s violence guidelines have always been just… really confusing. The castle can’t be grey because kids could create weapons or tanks out of grey bricks, but hey, I guess gun emplacements are fine.
Lego's official position is that violence has a place in children's play and has been proven to be beneficial, but they don't want to tie it to modern day military stuff. As such, historic (eg. Pirates, Wild West, etc.) and fantastical (eg. Star Wars, Marvel, etc.) stuff's fine, but tanks aren't.
it's strange isn't it? But these old imperial sets to me have always represented more history than violence. Getting to see the old weapons and technology of back then, represented in LEGO form. I can see the difference between that and having modern warfare sets.
AWESOME review, Jang, thanks! And thanks to Beyond the Brick! It sounds like they are a little older than us. but a similar story. My brother and I got into LEGO Pirates, but it was just at the end of the blue coats. The only blue coats we had were from the Rock Island Refuge set. But I did end up buying this set later as an adult collector and it is awesome! It's sitting on my desk shelf right above my computer screen as I type. :) I was hoping you would address what that strange structure was side of the big tower and entrance, using the four white cylinder pieces and the grey 2 by 3 stud piece. It looks like there should be a statue there, or maybe a ladder, heh. And I never noticed the concept with the crane that you turn it and it raises on its own! I thought you were just supposed to pull the other piece on the end! Very cool!
The fam had this set. I'm pretty sure our cannons were the all grey ones with the spring. I never saw the set together, but I played with most of the parts and that base plate was fun to use. I especially remember the "food storage" pit! Awesome review! Will definitely show to the family.
I never had Captain Roger (Redbeard) minifig, but that minifig was/is revolutionary! Peg leg, hook, facial print (beard, hair and eye patch),... all new in 1989. You have 1990 catalog, that is why some sets were not marked as new (they were new in 1989).
Wow, this is such an incredible set. Sadly I was converting into my video game phase and don’t have this set. So playable and amazing figure selection. Just add some ships and imaginative play is real.
7:40 In Canada/USA they removed the spring from the shooting cannons. In Later years I think they made a cannon that didn't shoot at all for Canada/USA. 9:02 well considering the Jail cell is above this area, It really is for Storage! ...and the new Eldorado set has the underneath as a wine cellar and stuff!
You were right in calling that stucco at around 2:50. Stucco has been used for thousands of years to weatherproof structures in both the old world and precolumbian new world. Source: I am an archaeologist.
As a player of Lego Legacy: Heroes Unboxed* (thanks for the correction!), this review was fascinating! I wish we could still get some of these old figs. And the giant 3D baseplate is used SO well here!
Those raised plates were amazing and it's a shame LEGO doesn't use them anymore. They allowed us, back then, to have our builds higher up which was great for play be it in Pirates, in Castle where a green version of this plate existed, or even in the Space sets where there were greys and neon coloured ones. For children, this was much better than forcing them to have everything built on normal plates. Kids do NOT have large enough LEGO collections to allow them to "just build" the elevation to put the sets on top of it.
We do kinda wonder though, how much it cost back then to make raised base plates like these which, as far as I'm aware, are all different and unique to one set only, with different printing patterns. And we was also had the day when Lego supplied inner boxes and plastic trays for packaging sets before the 2000s. Such a different time that was. I wouldn't be surprised if stuff like that contributed to the losses the company was making at the time.
This is one of the first Lego sets I ever had, and one that still exists in my parents' home (albeit incomplete, as I have no idea where many of the pieces are). Oh the memories.
I'm so glad you had the opportunity to review this set :D It's no.1 on my Pirates theme wishlist, it's hard to find one in such good condition nowadays
If they made this today, there's no way it would have this many figures. Comparing this to the Moff Gideon Cruiser set that came out recently, which (if I remember right, I don't own the set) has a similar value proposition, if it was on par with this one, it should have had at least two or three more troopers (storm or dark).
Man, I miss days when Lego was giving away minifigures like candy. Here we get small amount, but in castles.... Damn, 8 or more figures at times... We don't get those amounts of massable figures nowadays.
I wasn't born in the 80s or 90s, so I didn't get these sets but my grandparents had a lot of these sets for there kids so by the time I got around to all the sets they were already destroyed, but I have lots of good memories playing with the raised baseplates and builidng pretty much whatever I wanted on them.
That set was awesome (got it back then, as a wee kid). Best set I ever got, and the only one better would have been the Barracuda. I'm blaming it (and the rest of the Pirates) for my everlasting love of the anything pirate/pirate-related/17th-18th century.
Love this set! Just so you know, the 1x1 modified plate that has the string tied to it is meant to be removed and pulled to raise or lower the crane. It was just a manual way of doing it. Not sure why they didn't include a winch with the set, as they had those for a long time before this.
One has to wonder - why was it not a problem for Lego to print white decals (the bicorn hat) onto dark block colours back then, but fail so miserably at it now? Or include eight figures into a $150 set?
From my experiance in printing indystry, aviable paints constatly changes to worse due to environmental laws. At least in the EU they forbid usage of some crucial component every two years that ruins your production line and as soon as you get new proportions, temperature and drying time right, they change it again.
New designers are idiots printing WHITE on black instead of opposite. Look at this hat - its WHITE with black print. Yes it IS more expesive but it looks better
There were two generations of non shooting cannons, this was the first generation Notice how it isn't a unique mould, as if it had to be used unexpectedly, so the only identifier is the black trigger
I was always a big [and still am] a classic space fan, along with knights and town, but never pirates. However, that said, this set would have been amazing to have as a kid. I think the designer made great use of that 3D baseplate and really built up a lot for the small number of pieces in this set. Even though some areas just have 1 or 2 studs [knobs!] wide to display figures, there are lots and lots of places to do so. I could see kids playing with this for a long time, and also making modifications pretty easily to it. What an amazing set!
I've never seen the cannon with a black plunger. Mine were matching grey and shot across the room really well. Almost too well. I was disappointed the first time I got the static version.
