Where there’s a will, there’s a way – and nothing rings more true when constructing a ship with a brick-built hull. For you see, the problem is; the smaller the ship, the greater the challenge!
A talented designer, by the name Bryckland, was not discouraged by this caveat when setting upon building his first pint-size vessel… but did he succeed?
Bryckland writes:
Hello everybody
This is my first attempt at a brick-built ship, I wanted to use the curved shape of the tail part in a way or another and eventually found how!
Short but sweet, but I knew it complete, when I sailed in a younger man’s clothes…
A Brick-Built Ship without A Name
A picture is worth a thousand words, and what more could we add which is not already self-evident about this amazing little ship? Sometimes words are not needed as the build speaks volumes for itself
Hey look, young Jim Morrison humming to himself Land Ho!
Oh no! Admiral Woodhouse and his bothersome Imperial Guards have been sighted off the starboard broadside – except there are no cannons and therefore no broadside!
The Secret Technique
Bryckland continues:
I used modified plates #78257 (so useful!) and #63868 to get the exact angle I needed. Here is a screenshot from my Studio draft.
Still confused how he achieved it? It’s some sort of sorcery for sure!
About the Builder…
Bryckland (often known as Alex), made his debut with this nifty little built in the LEGO Pirates forum back in the fall of 2022. An Imperial surveillance crew was promptly dispatched to monitor his work and gather more intelligence. One of our spies within Imperial ranks brings word that Bryckland hails from France, his favourite LEGO theme is Lord Of The Rings and, get this… he is on a mission to inform the masses of a tale concerning three adventurers in a medieval world name “Bryckland”. At this moment of writing, season I ‘The Golden Key‘ is well underway.
Bryckland the builder (not the medieval world), has an impressive Flickr account, with several simple yet astonishing builds. If yer have Instagram, you can follow his work and the rest of The Golden Key story there. And let’s give his ReBrickable a quick mention even though there isn’t much happening there at this time.
What Do Yer Think?
Is this one of the finest small vessels you’ve seen on the Classic-Pirates? Can you guess how many trans-blue round plates made up the water around this build? Our count is 242, how about yours? Have yer ever seen a ship with the anchor positioned right in the middle? What, you missed this small detail? It just goes and shows how awesome this design is.
But enough of these questions, sail around the LEGO Pirates forum and tell us what you think of it. We await you!
The BrickLink Designer Program returns for its second 2023 Series so the Classic Piratesdemand invite Pirate fans to participate. Our quest to increase the probability of future LEGO Pirate set releases continues!
Your next mission is to submit your LEGO Pirate fan creation before the deadline of June2nd.
We will accept Series 2 submissions from May 15th – June 2nd. The best designs have the chance to be future BDP Series 2 sets, so get those ideas flowing!
May 15 — June 2 Submit your models to Bricklink during the 4-week window before the deadline on June 2, 2023 at noon Pacific US time.
Crowd Support
June 12th — June 30th BrickLink cordially invites all members to vote for their favorite submissions (it would be stupid to vote for yer most hated submissions). This crowd vote weighs in alongside the Bricklink Designer Program’s internal selection criteria which influences the designs chosen for crowdfunding.
Review
July — August The Bricklink team will review each design for profitability building experience, brand fit, and crowd favorites.
5 Designs Announced
August 23rd
Bricklink will unveil the five Series 2 designs and then assist designers to ensure their creations are all that they can be.
Crowdfunding
June 2024 BrickLink members may pre-order their favorite sets, with a limit of 2 of each set per household. All sets that receive over 3,000 pre-orders will be produced. Up to 20,000 of each set will be manufactured during a limited, one-time production run. So don’t miss out!
Production and Shipping
November 2024 The sets will enter production and orders will be ready for shipment approximately 6 months after pre-ordering, although the actual dates and shipping times may vary.
Who Were the Series 1 Winners?
Glad yer asked! The the Series 1 finalists were announced on 10 May, 2023 so now immerse yerself in all the pirate glory in our original 2023 Bricklink Designer Program blog post.
That be sarcasm, actually…
Are Yer Gonna Enter?
Do you have what it takes to create a great LEGO Pirate set? Or do ye fear this is a fruitless venture?
Not a single Indigo Islander submission in series in so someone better change that!
Share your thoughts… and prospective submissions in the LEGO Pirates Forum.
Posted by Mister Phes in Bricklink | Comments Off on Submit your Pirate Entries in the 2023 BrickLink Designer Program: Series 2
If you are somewhat a regular reader, or even an occasional visitor of the Classic-Pirates blog, you’ve probably caught wind of the most notorious pirate designer from Denmark, Niel Milan Pederesen ahem… the infamous Piraten, whom we’ve had a pleasure covering in the past with The Crown project, and The Casswell Point.
Today, we guide you through his magnificent fortress which has been raided by a band of vicious pirates during the Skærbæk Fan Weekend of 2022!
Contrary to your first impression, they are not cowardly running away, they are tactically retreating (with a great haste) to the safety of the open sea
Piraten writes:
Hi Pirates.
Made an update for the Fortress for the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend 2022 and finally… photos in proper quality!!!
Never heard of the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend? According to their website, it began back in 2005 when the LEGO® Group arranged a small shindig with some AFOLs. That event was called the LEGO Fan Weekend and over the years it’s blossomed into a fantastic event, until LEGO suddenly pulled out the plug…
This enraged three AFOLs who then decided to commandeer the organisation, and in 2015 the Skærbæk Fan Weekend was born. To this day, fans from all over the world make their pilgrimage to Skærbæk (Denmark) each year to share their brick passion, Piraten included.
The Fortress at Skærbæk 2022
Unlike Soldiers fortresses we’ve witnessed in the past, this one seems to lack the impregnable enclosure… perhaps this gave pirates the false impression of an easier target to plunder?
The parrot-eye view provides us the basic layout of the Fortress, and among other things, the cannons position and the weakest spot in the line of defence
Skirmish in the courtyard – between the two, our doubloons are on the pirate with a sharp cutlass
“Arrrr, rum or your life, you dirty bluecoat!”
Yar! Nothing better than to slash an unarmed opponent in the back while he runs for his life
Hey there’s Bo’Sun Will Cavendish! But wait, doesn’t he wear red pants and a red striped shirt?
The doors to the tower are guarded by one of those LOTR fans who yells at every given opportunity “You shall not pass!”
Oblivious to the ongoing slaughter in the courtyard, nothing can stop these well trained Imperial gunners to fire at will at the imaginary foe in the distance
What is this?? A redcoat inside the bluecoats’ fort and in possession of an important sealed envelope? Some foul play is obviously at hand
“Yer got worms in your peg leg and we need to amputate while we can. Bite hard, this will sting a little!”
See! There is always a chance to practice honest trade… but 20-or more- doubloons for only one carrot is a plain robbery
To maximise playability, and fuel our vivid imaginations, Piraten ingeniously left crucial parts of the build wide open for our prying eyes
The back of The Fortress reveals how awesome this build truly is. Observe how much playability it offers. Counting more than 8,000 parts, it’s much too gargantuan to be submitted to LEGO Ideas… but this did not stop Piraten from taking action!
The Original Fortress on LEGO Ideas (Again!)
During 2020, Piraten submitted his first version of The Fortress to LEGO Ideas. This version was considerably smaller than with a mere 3,000 pieces to meet LEGO Ideas submission requirements and sporting a less colorful palette.
Piraten continues:
The background for this fortress is my childhood love for the LEGO Pirates Series. After I was one of two to build a huge pirate display at Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2019, I felt it was time to take on my Lego Ideas project again.
I could feel the love for the pirate theme from the LEGO community for real when I met people in Skærbæk. Also online on Facebook I could feel the hunger for more sets/mocs/builds/dioramas from the Caribbean Sea. So I went home and started on the project again.
Please support and let’s do this again.
On the prestigious 10,000 supporter milestone on LEGO Ideas and advanced his Fortress (version 1.0) project to the review phase, at which point he was infuriatingly rejected! This busted the barnacles of many of his loyal fans who howled and begged him to re-submit this awesome build for another round. Some claim a series of violent riots erupted across Europe until he finally agreed.
And agree he did, for The Fortress Version 1 is back! Back on LEGO Ideas for you to support! (a second time) So set a direct course to LEGO Ideas project page and let’s Get The Fortress all the way to 10K… again!
Piraten (Brian Steffensen Vestergaard) is a builder who marvels in pirate themed creations and has achieved 10,000 supporters for TWO different pirate themed LEGO Ideas projects. Are ye impressed? He also appeared on LEGO Masters 2022 (Denmark) where he reached the semifinal! If you are not familiar with his brilliance you can find him on various platforms upon he regularly shares awesome pirate ideas:
If ye be seeking well preserved classic pirate sets, visit the Piraten Shop on BrickLink and claim buy the sets you’ve always desired, but never had… He ships worldwide – but not in a pirate ship!
As a member of the LEGO Ideas rejected 10K Club, he underwent a torture sessionan interview and answered many interesting questions regarding his creative outlet.
Piraten (on the right) with… well, if you don’t know who Mr. Niel Milan Pedersen is, or why he deserves a giant statue somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean, ye have homework to do laddie!
What Do You Think?
Which one do you like better, the original Fortress or The Fortress Version 2.0? Do you think Governor Broadside would approve either of them? Do you think Piraten should forget all about LEGO Ideas and instead offer his brilliant designs on Rebrickable? Would you buy the instructions if they were available?
Do tell… it’s as easy as clicking the shiny red button below, or following this link to the LEGO Pirates forum!
LEGO Pirate MOCs need not be gargantuan creations, consuming thousands of bricks and sprawling leagues of space. It’s the quality, not the quantity (or some cliche like that) which counts most!
Servertijd demonstrates this phenomena by taking a rather modest scene and apply some highly talented photo editing skills, to transform a boat and some plates into a vibrant virtual diorama.
Servertijd writes:
Hi all,
Here is a small scene I made. I wanted to build a scene around this boat.
I am using a Canon M50 with a 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 lens
I edit my photos with photoshop.
Behind the Scenes
Servertijd captured but one photo of the finished creation, so let’s dive into his process so we can learn how he arrived at the finished scene.
Ahhh, the birds eye view – my favourite vantage!
Before global warming they were actually on a golf course… in front of apartment buildings…
Now, just add some sea…
Next, add some tropical islands with palm trees in the background
Finally, add sky to conceal all the draws in the background
Servertijd continues:
You can also see the net technique for water.
I wanted a minifigscale, a midi scale on the left and a micro scale on the horizon.
I did some test shots without proper lighting just to see if the forced perspective worked like I wanted to. It is really relying on it.
And this is the whole thing from above without proper angle. losing its magic pretty fast :p
Observe how vulnerable they are to Indigo Islander attacks! King Kahuka is hiding among the palms
About the Builder…
Servertijd (Jesse van den Oetelaar) is talented AFOL builder and digital image editor who sails from the Netherlands.
His Instagram profile and Flickr stream are bustling with gorgeously edited historic and SciFi builds, where he skillfully melds physical creations with digital environments. Quite spiffy really!
He’s also a member of @rebellug and Lowlug, so weigh anchor give them a hoy should thee happen to be sailing those waters.
What Do Yer Think?
Has Servertijd succeeded in rejigging an ordinary photo to become a more engaging spectacle?
Here it is again in gorgeous widescreen Cinemascope with immaculate depth of field
Or is there something else he could have incorporated into the scene? An editing technique he could have used instead?
Tell us of your own digital imaging adventures… or just yer musings on his build. Tally ho! The LEGO Pirates Forum awaits thee.
It’s that time of year again maties! The time when all the 10K LEGO Ideas submissions during the past 4 months are tallied up and enter the review phase.
This time there a “record-shattering”71 submissions reached the 10K milestone – so does that mean a record-shattering number will be rejected during the review phase?
You better count each little thumbnail to ensure there are 71 of them
71 Product Ideas Qualify for the First 2023 LEGO Ideas Review
This morning, we closed the latest review qualification round with a record-shattering 71 submissions reaching the 10,000 supporter milestone and qualifying for the First 2023 Review.
These 71 product ideas have hit the 10,000 supporter milestone between the months of early January 2023 and today’s review qualification date, the 1st of May 2023. Congratulations to all 10K members who’ve made it to this milestone!
Product Ideas hitting 10,000 supporters after today’s deadline will be eligible for the next review period instead which starts on the 4th of September, 2023.
We look forward to celebrating our 10K Club members through the 10K Club Interview series, which will kick off as soon as we’ve announced the Third 2022 review results.
Have a favourite or perhaps multiple favourites? Let us know in the comments what you’re hoping will make it through this review.
71 submissions ay? Perhaps LEGO Ideas popularity has increased over the years and achieving 10K supporters is somewhat less challenging than before. Maybe it’s time to shift the goal posts and make the requirement 15K!
The Pirate-Themed Submissions
Now, this is the part where we disappoint you! There aren’t any classic-style pirate-themed submissions in this review.
*The Classic Pirates duck the incoming barrage of rotten tomatoes*
But there be a couple of submissions relevant to the Pirates theme.
But if you missed this glorious news, here’s a visual quick reminder…
The Crown also includes a holy hand grenade
So now we’re pleased to report The Crown has officially entered the review phase. Some fans probably be wondering what relevance a crown has to pirates – there wasn’t even a crown in any of the LEGO Pirate sets! Wait a minute…
Pirates Perilous Pitfall is the only LEGO Pirates set to include a crown and Captain Valiant must seize it before it falls into pirate hands!
Crowns are some of the most valuable booty in existence! Imagine how difficult they are to acquire. It’s not like there’s an abundance of monarchs sailing about, and even if one should happen to be encountered, imagine the challenge of capturing their ship. Such royalty would have their finest naval forces at their command and a fleet to escort them. Some say, the crown of King Dandelion be the only crown in the Brick Seas, and it is currently in possession of the Imperial Armada. Therefore, crowns are definitely worthy addition to yer treasure horde!
“Double Helix Coaster” by Nachapon L_e_g_o
Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to cover this submission due to insufficient capacity… in other words, we don’t have enough bloggers to keep on top of all these wonderful MOCs!
Another Pirate-themed roller coaster – but this one is more scientific than the Creator 3 in 1 Pirate Roller Coaster (31084)
Nonetheless, this submission is quite an interesting concept, and while Nachapon didn’t state why pirates were chosen as the thematic, this information was provided:
DNA is a double helix formed by base pairs attached to a sugar-phosphate backbone.
This Double Helix Coaster is the first-ever, brand new concept for a Lego roller coaster elevator mechanism and track layout. It is equipped with two helix/spiral rails. One is a helix lift using a worm gear gearbox operated by hand crank or a motor to push many carts to the top continuously, another one is a helix slide rail for carts to coast down in a spiral. Both of them were built in the same tower just like the shape of DNA! What makes this design possible? The answer is the cart has a lift hook only on its left side. The hook is inside and pushed by the lift when the cart is climbing. but when the cart coasts down the hook are outside so it will not hit the lift parts.
The helix lift is safer, more reliable, and compact. The whole thing was built on two base plates only.
Connect many new coaster rail parts #80566 “rail 13X13X3 1/3, ¼ circle” to form this beautiful double helixtower.
Use VR box or simply naked eyes 3D on smartphone full screen stereoscopic 3D SBS 4K 2160p 60 fps – on YouTube
And if yer interested in blogging or love writing about LEGO Pirates, send an Email to MailShip@Classic-Pirates.com
Third 2022 LEGO Ideas Review
If yer can recall back to last year and still wondering what be happening (despite there being zero Pirate submissions) here be a quick announcement…
Only 35 submissions reached 10K – did yer slack off on supporting or something?
Third 2022 LEGO Review Results
The LEGO Review Board is currently working their way through the Third 2022 LEGO Review which consists of 35 wonderfully creative product ideas. We look forward to sharing the news with you all as soon as they are ready. Check out the fantastic submissions that are currently being reviewed below.
The results will arrive during the Summer of 2023 and you can learn more about those piratically-deprived submissions on the official LEGO blog.
What is LEGO Ideas?
New in these waters? Here’s a quick briefing:
LEGO Ideas is a platform which provides you the opportunity to submit your creations in the hope of having them produced as official LEGO sets. To be considered for production, your submission must achieve 10,000 supporters and pass a review phase.
Should your creation succeed (at the time of writing, Pirates of Barracuda Bay is the only pirate-themed submission to do so), you receive a 1% commission on sales and awarded ten LEGO sets from those currently on the market.
Will any of these pirate-themed submissions pass the review phase? Or will they be mercilessly rejected and disappear into obscurity? Do you think these submissions aren’t piratey enough for the Classic Pirates to mention? Or would you eagerly buy them if they were released as official sets?
Share your thoughts on the first 2023 LEGO Ideas Review in the LEGO Pirates Forum!
Posted by Mister Phes in LEGO Ideas News | Comments Off on Which Pirate Themed Submissions Made the First 2023 LEGO Ideas Review?
Imagine a role-playing LEGO building game set during the Age of Discovery… Imagine a world with four factions, where all factions interact, cooperate, compete and fight for power. The name of the game is Brethren of the Brick Seas, better known by its enthusiastic players, as “BoBS”.
The Empire of Oleon has an aggressive history with Corrington, and during the last war the two empires proved to be an even match. Now, what happens when these mighty rivals encounter a mutual threat under the red banner of the great Lotus Empire?
The Duplo enthusiast expert builder, Evancelt, explored this diplomatic dilemma with great fervour, resulting in the creation of the Allied Intelligence Office.
Evancelt writes:
When I build, I usually build from my head and just “wing it” while building. This means I will build from the base up with a rough idea in mind and alter things as I go. In this case, I knew the build needed to be on a 32×32 MILs baseplate in order to connect with builds from other LUG members. This build is going to be displayed in Denver at FanExpo with CoWLUG.
I think I built it over the course of 3 evenings: first night was the base, second night was the walls, then third night was the roof, vegetation, and figures.
Regarding my finished builds, unless they are going to a convention (like this one), I usually take them apart after a few weeks in order to reuse the parts in new builds! Taking apart builds is not super fun, so sometimes MOCs might sit around longer while I avoid taking them apart.
The Enemy of my Enemy…
Corrington and Oleonhad negotiated the use of Spudkirk Harbor by the blue coat Soldier’s navy in support of their joint campaign against the Lotii. This arrangement primarily meant blue coat ships could anchor offshore for provisioning and largely precluded Oleonese troops from landing in the Corlander settlement itself.
In this salty corner of universe, the two traditionally hostile empires are (surprisingly) neighbours
Corlander Naval Intelligence established a small fortified base where they could work alongside their Oleonese counterparts on shore. If they were to ever defeat the Lotii, Corrington and Oleon would have to work together!
With so many great details packed into this MOC, there’s one worthy of your attention… the palm tree in the background. Study it, and then steal it (yo ho ho, a pirate-MOC life for you)
Under the protection of heavy security, two high ranking officials meet on the balcony of the fortified base (one looks a bit like Governor Broadside). Previously belonging to rival factions, they now discuss economics, war, and other boring exciting geopolitical matters, which pose threats to their empires.
Can you guess all the colours used on the roof? Neither can we, but we dig the lovely texture
But look, who in his right mind would leave cannonballs lying around like that? What if one of the old-farts esteemed commanders slipped and broke his neck? Hmm… is it possible that we have a Lotti secret agent in our midst? But who is he? These two at the front look too serious for the job, and the Peeping Tom at the back is too preoccupied inspecting fine blue coat Soldier wives tanning to notice anything suspicious… No, our International Man of Mistery is not here.
Yeah, so… why is the safety rail (string) on the mainland side of the pier? To prevent soldiers from falling on… solid ground?? This is done on purpose, to drive us mad! Well done Evancelt
That seagull looks like he is trying to tell us something by mainly pointing his beak using his advanced body language training in the general direction of… wait a minute! Why is that soldier outside the safe fort?! Gasp! It’s a saboteur… no honest man wears a pompous smirk like that.
Behind the Scenes Footage
Evancelt continues:
Here are some behind the scenes shots of the base, walls, and tree taken from my Instagram story.
The wall technique was inspired by CapOnBOBS’s sloped wall forts.
“LEGO from BrickLink comes in small plastic bags….. So Does Drugs.” – Captain GreenHair
With enough drugs bricks at his disposal, we observe the start of Evancelt’s ordinary rocky base. Exciting, isn’t it? (Yeah, almost like the commercial break during Black Sails’ season finale)
The technique used for slope wall is the same ship-builders use in making sloped hull sides. All you need is a slope-30 and any combination of a plate modified with a clip and a bar
If you are interested in the advance wall textures (like seen here), Evancelt went out of his way and produced a small but powerful tutorial available HERE
About the Builder…
Evancelt is a legendary builder who has earned the special MOC Expert tag for his steady output of clever creations in the LEGO Pirates MOC Forum. Often employing Duplo elements and other ingenious innovations skillfully woven into his builds… observe see his “mini red coats” and you’ll get the idea.
You can follow Evan via Instagram and Flickr where you will discover more masterful builds (which may or may not incorporate Duplo). If that’s not enough, being a tech nerd techie, Evan maintains his own website upon which he showcases his Brethren of the Brick Seas, builds and other creative endeavors. Last but not the least, you can give your support to his contributions on LEGO Ideas.
One thing Evan enjoys more than Duplo building is reading and replying to comments about his creations inside the LEGO Pirates Forum… so let’s make Evan happy, let’s give him a word or two of what we think about this particular MOC!
