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.

Just another quiet night in the local...

LEGO builds that are injected with humour are particular favourites of mine. In this regard, I particularly enjoy Ross Fisher‘s builds and his latest perfectly captures a wrong time, wrong place scenario.

The characterisation in both expression and pose of minifigure is effortlessly recreated in LEGO form here and the building the figures populate has some nice touches too, with the loose roof tiles and wood frame of the building capturing the era of the high seas.
“Now back away, slowly, as if we were never here…”

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The isle of magic

If I were searching for an island of magic like the explorer in this LEGO vignette by Josh, I’d be pretty excited when I saw this. Josh doesn’t provide us any further details on the specifics, but this mysterious island is flowing with lava and surrounded by a steaming sea. At the center lies some sort of magical cauldron. Note the subtle gradient beneath the transparent light blue tiles, giving the water a sense of depth.

The sky pirates have returned in this epic mashup of Ninjago and Pirates

Ninjago has done a lot of settings over its decade-long run, but for me, by far the coolest wave was the Skybound storyline from 2016, which was basically a Ninjago mashup of steampunk and pirates. It’s the LEGO theme we never not from Disney’s Treasure Planet. So this fan redux of some of the sets by Markus Ronge just ticks all the right boxes for me. Markus has taken the already-fantastic idea from Ninjago of sky pirates and turned the dial up to eleven, with slightly more “realistic” designs (you can call a flying pirate ship realistic, right?). The color scheme is on point with the browns and oranges, and check out that bone dragon figurehead on the revised Misfortune’s Keep. I reviewed the original 70605 Misfortune’s Keep back in 2016, and as cool as I thought that set was, this would have blown me away.

But what really blows me away about Markus’ model is that it’s not just a redux of the Skybound sets, but it’s also a mashup with the LEGO Ideas 21322 Barracuda Bay Pirates set, another set I loved. The Misfortune’s Keep ship breaks down into a sky pirates wrecked base!

And let’s not overlook the splendidly simple yet beautifully stylized way Markus has chosen to display the models, with a simple graphic and brick-built stands.

It’s a pirate’s life for me down by ‘arr-bour

You might have missed it, but last Sunday was that silliest of holidays, Talk Like a Pirate Day. And to celebrate the occasion, Nick Sweetman built the local LEGO pirate hangout, the Skull and Crossbones Bar & Grill. The cutaway design is ingenious for giving you a feel for the building while letting you see all the piratey action, mostly consisting of lots of drinking and carousing—which seems about right. My favorite thing about this scene, though, is the multitude of pirates wearing that classic blue pirate coat. Often builders try to carefully make sure all the minifigures in a scene are uniquely dressed, but this somehow seems perfect to me for how LEGO pirates would dress and I absolutely love it.

At last we will reveal ourselves to the LEGO fans...

You’ve got to give Yodamann credit for keeping LEGO building fun with this build that could have been part of the Time Cruisers line in the ’90s. Classic pirates with a Star Wars-inspired speeder…what’s not to love? The oars in the front, the inspiration for this creation, works really well here, and I love the barrel in the back for the propulsor unit.

This epic 74-gun LEGO ship is ready to set sail

This minifig-scale LEGO ship, The Charlemagne, was built by Brick Duvel over a period of 2-3 years, and it’s a massive 150 studs from bow to stern, translating to a scale 177 feet long. Months were spent on the rigging alone, and the proof is in the pudding with this gorgeous model. Unlike many LEGO ships, the rigging is extensive, taut, and tied down well.

Click to see more details including the interior!

I’m hooked on this captain

Captain Hook earned his famous moniker thanks to that trademark replacement appendage of his. And, no doubt, if you were to encounter the villainous pirate in real life, that hook would be hard to ignore. But in LEGO form, the hook proves to be the captain’s least interesting feature. Ivan Martynov has crafted a charming rendition of Peter Pan’s archenemy with plenty of details and techniques worthy of study. From the pirate hat made using hot air balloon shells, to the impressive flowing coat, it’s hard to worry very much about the hook. Maybe he should change his name to highlight a more impressive feature. Captain Coat? Captain Ascot? Captain That-Little-Beach-Diorama-He’s-Standing-On?

Here be alligators along the Shipwreck Island!

Ahoy mateys! LEGO builder Markus Aspacher has a little something that definitely hits us in the nostalgic feels. It is a remake of the official 6296 Shipwreck Island set from 1996. Like the set, it’s a shipwreck turned island complete with a small raft, pirate mast sail and alligator. But this modernized version utilizes newer pieces, cool build techniques, and a fancy-pants base that looks like a desolate location in the Caribbean. There’s a neat mix of solid-colored and transparent pieces that convey areas of depth and shallows in the water. It is way more engaging than the blue baseplate that the original set came with. This is not the first time this builder has wowed us with his swell build techniques. It turns out that awesome dioramas is kinda Markus’ thing.

Monkey see, monkey do bigger

I’ve seen giant LEGO pieces, and even upscaled fish and chickens, but I’ve never before seen a giant LEGO monkey, and this one from mybrickbuild has me tickled pink. The classic LEGO monkey was one of my favorite pieces in the original Pirates theme, this giant one makes me want to see a whole LEGO Pirates set built at this scale. It’s a digital render but it looks like it’s mostly buildable with real bricks, except for the 2×2 round bricks with Technic holes, which aren’t currently available in brown. The arms and curling tail are courtesy of the new curved 2×2 round piece that forms the trunk on the Bonsai Tree.

If you like seeing things made bigger with bricks, check out our upscaled LEGO archives!

Babies are keeping the seas safe for babies, baby

Who doesn’t love babies, especially when they are dressed as sailors in the Imperial navy. Here they go resupplying at the port before setting sail to root out evil in all its baby-hating evil ways. But the babies aren’t the only adorable things in this scene by Kev.the.Builder —- take a closer look at that port, with its tiny red roof and tiny door made from an arched window piece, and that tiny working crane. The tiny tree is also very… very… tiny, and cute.

Stay away from the Forbidden Island!

There’s many reasons why it’s called the ‘forbidden’ island, and builder Cube Brick shares a few of them with this tribal encounter.

It looks like the sailor barely escaped being sacrificed to whatever these guys worship. However, I’m still on the island admiring the fantastic wet and dry sand job. I love the shells and the hermit crab!

Interestingly, Cube Brick combined Classic LEGO island natives with new Aztec warrior minifigures. Doing so really helps the narrative that this is a dangerous place, especially with the skeleton in the cage and the de-armed figure on the altar! Yikes!

Make sure to report your cargo at the Customs House

Everyone loves a good LEGO fortress. Builder Ayrlego shares a rendition of his own protective retreat in his creation, Customs House, Hussar’s Isle.

In keeping with his theme of Victorian Age models, Ayrlego again puts forth a well-detailed creation showing British troops on patrol next to the customs office. These offices were used to count the number and types of ships coming into port, and played an essential role in administering the British Empire around the world. No wonder there are so many soldiers to protect it!

Although there’s a lot to love about this build, I think the window frames are the best part. They have the rounded edges and features of something that might have actually been built back then. If this was a LEGO set, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.