Tag Archives: Pirates

Avast, me mateys! If ye be lookin’ for LEGO on the high seas, you’ve found the place where X marks the spot. Here be a treasure trove of sailing ships, garrisons full of imperial scalawags, and other such nautical nonsense. Walk that plank and dive into the wonderful world of LEGO Pirates.

From the Caribbean to the Grand Line, these fantastic LEGO pirates are ready to plunder [Minifig Monday]

2025 is turning out to be the best year for LEGO pirates since Barracuda Bay opened for business. Fun One Piece playsets, a gorgeous new Black Pearl, collectible minifigs, and let’s not forget that One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship is currently in design. September is also a big month for pirate minifigs with two contests running that fans of Minifig Monday will want to take note of, including one that The Brothers Brick is sponsoring. But first, let’s have a look at some amazing pirate-themed minifig creations that have come on our radar lately, as well as a few classic creations.

This week’s cover image comes courtesy of Garret (2p_figs), who created the post-apocalyptic pirate crew above with some inspiration from Waterworld. Garret also created this cursed clown pirate that incorporates some incredible parts usage at minifig scale. The Illithid head from D&D is perfectly employed as an octopus, and the pony tail looks great as a sash.

Click to follow the map to more incredible pirate figures from the community

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO Pirates Imperial Armada sets sail again with a new MOC flagship, the Ocean’s Crown

LEGO’s Pirate theme may be dormant, but 2025 is shaping up to be the biggest pirate year ever, thanks to One Piece, minifigs, and more. It’s only fitting that we’re seeing some incredible pirate themed MOCs set sail of late, perhaps none so majestic as the Ocean’s Crown – the latest creation from Vietnamese AFOL and Masterpiece Gallery alum Khang Huynh in collaboration with Kỷ Duy Phong.

Inspired by Imperial Flagship 10210, Khang’s creation is fully a meter long and 80cm tall, making it properly minifig-scale without compromise.

The duo had previously made their mark on the lawless side of the age of piracy with the “Kraken Shadowy,” a highly-detailed spin on a Black Seas Barracuda’s foundation sailing across a breathtaking brick sea. You can read our coverage from 2023 here.

Batten down the hatches and brace for more pics of the majestic Ocean’s Crown after the jump

White sails, black hearts on a sea of bricks

Contrary to what you may have seen in popular films and TV, pirates wouldn’t sail under black sails. They’d more likely rig their ships with sails like the ones in this incredible tall ship from Luke (@cathedralofbricks). Luke has been building with typhoon intensity these past few months, but so far all of his works have been castles (as he shared with us in our interview last month). For a change of pace, he tests out new waters and rekindles an old love for the golden age of piracy. Luke proves every bit as adept at sea as he is with gothic stonework. While incorporating many modern elements and techniques, some elements, like the hull pieces and the mast over the stern are straight from vintage LEGO Pirate ships. Having just finished building the One Piece Going Merry, I feel a powerful nostalgia for these dedicated nautical pieces from LEGO’s past.

While the brickwork is all LEGO, Luke finishes the pirate vessel with custom sails and well-researched rigging. Tying all those tiny knots must have been as much work as building the ship itself! And for the water, it’s smooth sailing over azure sea with frothy white bricks trailing in the wake. I love the mix of curved white parts around the hull conveying the speed of a ship under full sail.

Putting the ‘rat’ into pirate – with clever parts use to boot

We often see collaborative projects in the LEGO community where different builders will all build within a similar theme. But it’s not often that said collab is themed around a specific builder! Steven Howad (Ghalad) and co have undertaken a “special secret collab” (his words) to celebrate LEGO designer and AFOL community stalwart Markus Rollbühler. Steven was handed five mice to get him started, but he has taken them and really ran with it – there is so much NPU here! The mice are in the beard, but we also have: octopuses and tyres for the hair; Dots wristbands for the sash and headband; lifejackets for the jacket buttons; long-haired dogs in the cheeks; and plenty more besides. But my favourite – and the most meta – are the boat hulls used for the hat and epaulettes!

One Piece pirate ship? How about 4,000 Piece?

As excited as we are for the newly revealed One Piece sets, we still hold out hope that LEGO will return to the Age of Sails with sets that aren’t infused with clowns and talking reindeer. For minifig-scale ships, there are few LEGO shipwrights as skilled as Saran (MocYourBricks) who for years has been upgrading designs from LEGO’s past with an AFOL’s eye for detail and custom sails and rigging. This photo comes from bee.brick, who recreated the Black Pearl and Queen Anne’s Revenge from Saran’s instructions. with extra flourishes, like brick-built canon blasts.

Built from 4,000 pieces, the Queen Anne’s Revenge is a thing of beauty, and even if the roughly $1000 cost of sourcing the parts and instructions is out of your price range, you can vicariously experience the joy of building it in this one-hour “speed build.”

Pirate the galaxy in style with the Typhoon and Tarantula starships

Official Star Wars media runs the gamut from abysmal to sublime, but the best Star Wars stories will always be the ones that exist in our heads. Perhaps no other fictional universe has spawned as many fan works where foundational canon serves as a launchpad for creativity. In the LEGO community, RPGs like Star Wars: Factions are collaborative playgrounds for stories told with visual accompaniment in the form of original builds. Sentinel_Brix is one of the more prolific members of that community, leaning heavily into the “opera” side of space opera with a complex serial story with a sprawling cast. One of the builder’s latest arcs features pirates and includes original designs for a galleon and starfighter.

Per the builder’s lore, the DY-76 “Typhoon” is a starfighter from the Clone Wars era built by Koensayr Manufacturing. If the vessel’s cockpit looks familiar, it’s because it comes from the same company the made the Y-Wing. I especially like the biplane wing design and the color details in sand red and light blue.

Read on to learn more about Sentinel_Brix’s Star Wars pirate faction

Yo, ho, ho, ho, me hearties!

If ye be dreamin’ of a white Christmas, legend has it that there’s an uncharted isle where snow falls but once a year. Ye don’t believe me? Well, Jo Marte captured the whole jolly affair in LEGO! Featuring crows nests, skull-shaped caves, and shipwrecks, the scene bears all the trappings of classic Pirate, only things are looking a lot merrier for this motley crew of scallywags.

Swap yer grog for eggnog and cozy up by the fire as we await the arrival of White Beard’s booty. Here comes the jolly devil himself on his dolphin-pulled skiff. “On Flipper! On Skipper!” the festive freebooter calls.

Ye best be staying silent about what you’ve seen. Dead men tell no tales. “Now swim away, swim away, swim away all!” Until next year.

Brickmaster and commander

For someone who grew up with the old Pirates LEGO theme, it’s always gratifying to see the theme’s evolution at the hands of able builders. Case in point: “Redcoat Navy Brigantine” by Evancelt Lego. The Imperial Navy sets sail in a slick, stylish vessel that pays homage to the original theme while really hoisting the yardarm a few notches in terms of detail and accuracy. This incarnation of the pirates’ nemesis has a distinctly Napoleonic feel. The deck hums with activity while bayonet-wielding marines stand at the ready. I love those brick-built furled sails, which are almost indistinguishable from cloth, and the trans blue and white tiles standing in for a serene sea. Is the Navy on the trail of pirates, or do they have another mission in mind?

This little fortress is big on details

Miniaturizing a large set (either for budget reasons or just because a microscale version looks so darn cute) is a common enough practice among LEGO builders, but most of the time the miniature versions don’t stay at minifig scale. “Eldoradito Fortress” by. Ciamosław Ciamek keeps most of the major features of the larger 10320 Eldorado Fortress (itself a remake of the classic set of the same name), so it stays true to its storied pedigree despite its smaller size. We’ve got the winch, jail, tower, cannons, dock, stone ramp, rowboat, and palm tree. There’s even a solitary guard, though he looks as though he’s probably overdue to be relieved. The only feature that doesn’t make it into the smaller version is the ship (which would be tough to shrink down much further anyway).

Should any of ye be wishin’ ta beg for mercy, Captain Hutt will hear yer pleas

Any fan of pirate history knows the legend of the Jade Eye’s Return, and how young Duke Wavewalker and his ragtag crew fell into the hands of the nefarious Captain Hutt while fleeing the Imperial armada. Joe (jnj_bricks) pays tribute in LEGO to the memorable scene on the shoals of Cancun where Duke and crew were taken by skiff to the all-meaty shark pit. Joe’s clever mash-up was made for a challenge to blend Star Wars with history, so taking the plank-walking Sarclaac scene back to the golden age of pirates is a perfect fit. The skiff’s brick-built hull is a lovely design and Joe’s technique for partially submerged sharks is brilliant, nesting the upper jaw over a grey dome and using triangular tiles for the dorsal fins. What sells the scene is the excellent remix of minifigs. Of course, pirate Chewie would use Hagrid’s beard.

Swashbuckling and derring-do aplenty in this LEGO adventure

It’s been a rough day for the merchant Steve. He’s just onshore to make a buck or two; unfortunately, he arrived at this idyllic Caribbean harbor town just in time for it to fall victim to enemy attack. Now he must join forces with the pirates of Captain Redbeard if he wants to get out before things get really rough. That’s the tale told in LEGO by Nicholas Goodman in this thrilling scene called “Escape from the Imperial Trading Post.” The thing is, I probably didn’t need to give you all that backstory. The build itself tells the story wonderfully, with a scene that feels ripped from a blockbuster movie: the pairs of combatants locked in desperate combat, the whitecapped waves crashing against the rocks, the palm trees swaying in the breeze. The cliffs have a natural, rugged look to them, and the fort’s whitewashed walls have just the right amount of weathering. Let’s hope Steve makes it to his ship okay; those cliffs look a little dicey.

A year-long LEGO Castle project documented on YouTube

One of the perks of having friends in the LEGO hobby is being able to see their projects develop over time, transforming from rough sketches and multi-colored foundations to beautiful works of art on their way to a convention. And over the past year, we’ve had the chance to look in on Caleb Schilling‘s process as he developed his Island Castle build over on YouTube. The work was on display at Brickworld Chicago this year, and the completed work is quite a sight to behold! Featuring an array of earth tones, a gorgeous galleon, and an army of conquistador-style minifigures, this scene displays an overwhelming number of interesting techniques bringing it to life. My favorite among them has got to be the design of the large palm trees, relying on 1×1 slopes to create bands of texture running up the bent trunks.

If you’d like to go back to the start with Caleb, he’s got all 8 videos lined up in an Island Castle playlist over on YouTube for every LEGO Pirates and Castle fan out there.