[CONTEST] Vote for the WINNERS! (VOTING CLOSED)

Main:

6274 Caribbean Clipper Remake by Alexu
With so many quality entries, there is unfortunately only room for one ship in my votes. Honourable mentions to the OTT UCS Jolly Roger, Le Scorpion & especially the Skull’s Eye Schooner (great snot stairs here, & the tan hull is surprisingly pleasing). But the one that gets my vote is Alexu’s Caribbean Clipper.

The colours here are great, especially the choice of brown for the masts. There’s something very pleasing about the proportions of the ship outline that I can’t put my finger on, and I particularly like the work in the build to the rear of the cabin. A fine opponent for the new Barracuda.

Forbidden Cove by TomSkippy
There are some things I dislike in this build, but all is forgiven due to the excellent roof. That’s probably my favourite thing in any of the main set entries, and I couldn’t not vote for it when I fully intend to swipe the technique.

The colours here work very well, although that may come from lifting a little too much from the Indy set. I’m not a huge fan of the fleshies, or the canoe being so modern, but these are counter-balanced by the excellent skull-spikes, the fencing technique & statue with.. ‘red stuff’.

1871 Pirate Cannon Battlepack by Jansued
A much smaller entry compared to most in this category, but the cannon is really excellently done altogether. I’m not sure of the piece count but I wonder if you’d dropped the mini-figs and focused on just the cannon, would it have qualified for the mini-category? I imagine it won't hold up here compared to all the larger entries, but it would certainly be in contention there.

I am not going to let the small size get in the way of my casting a vote for it, it’s really well done and I expect I may try to re-create it. Nice figbarf too, but it's the cannon that's won me over.

Imperial Trading Outpost by aex383
If every entry in the contest was a genuine Lego set available for sale, I feel like this is the first one I’d try to buy.
It is so very different from everything else here, and I like it a whole lot. I’m curious as to the piece count, and I think if Lego were designing it there are things they would do differently for sure – more modularity, less parts-intensive build style - but as it stands it’s crammed with great details and hints at a bustling world beyond the part we see here.

6269 Islander Palace by BrynnOfCastlegate
You’re lucky the Islanders are my favourite corner of the Lego pirate lore, as I’ve squeezed in a second Islander vote here at the expense of many great entries :D Limiting your palette to bricks in colours available at the time added an extra level of difficulty, but granted the end-result a level of ‘genuine product’ that is very agreeable. You’re not the only one to do that in the competition, but I thinks it’s the entry like that where it works the best. I could really see 10-year-old me tinkering with this for hours.

The presentation & poster are the icing on the cake.

Mini:
King Kahuka's Outrigger Boat by Kritch
The elegance in such a small build is striking. If this was a legitimate set, I would buy multiple copies. I’d still prefer red cross-braces though :P

Shark Cart by TomSkippy
Both the build & presentation could use a little polish, but the core concept here – a pirate who’s strapped his half-barrel to a shark for an engine? That’s hilarious & I love it. Even that pose of hoisting the cup (with his hook-hand, no less) as he swills his rum while belting along at a rate of knots – fantastic.

Fortune Idol by Oky
You had me at the mechanism, but the general statue construction is great. Astute minifig selection too.

1872 Imperial Guard Camp by Thewatchman
I’ve not leaned into the updated sets much here, but this one stands out. Lots of clever updating happening - the conversion of the rockwork to an Islander statue especially, but also the fire & the drumstick are neatly done. Best of all is the bold choice of torso.
I would probably change the hips to either plain red or plain white, the flushed-cheeks on one face are distracting – but that a personal preference, not a deal-breaker.

Treasure Island by Oky
Of all the mini-category entries, this feels like the most realistic one in terms of something that Lego would actually release as a GWP or polybag. The buried treasure is cleverly done. I might change out the trousers, but that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise great little set.

I touched on this in my initial critic comments, but this was my second-favourite ship, and I feel a little obliged to give at least one of my main votes to a ship.

I definitely have a rather untrained eye when it comes to sea-craft, but I know what I like, and what I like here is the distinctive colour-scheme. I know the tan hull was forced on you, but I like it a lot. The tan/red/LBG combo works for me. The hull shaping borders on sublime to have it built out like that but still achieve such a smooth shape. I spent a good while getting my head around how the steps must be built and that is far from the only clever technique hidden in the build (just look at the arch to the bullion store, or the way the clips in the sides are embedded). The rear of the ship looks great, as does the 'final posing' with the poor guy walking the plank.

Top marks.

I feel that a lot of folks aren't judging entries based on whether or not they could be an official set.  Most of the ships, and some of the larger builds, I felt were good, but they were more like MOCs than an official set.  Specifically, they were overly or inconsistently detailed, featured repetitive techniques, lacked good use of colors and/or the rule of thirds, or were simply too large to pass for an official set.  If you can remove 1/3 of your build and keep the same look and feel, it's a MOC.

The ships in this contest were good, but not jaw-dropping.  Some of the Caribbean Clipper redesigns were nice, but either shared the weaknesses of the original set or borrowed too heavily from Barracuda Bay to really impress me.  I think it simply takes longer than 2 months to design a proper ship.  I'd be quite interested to see a longer contest focused on designing an original frigate.

There are about a dozen entries that all feel like they could be an official set to me, and of those, the ones I've selected are those that offer something above and beyond what I see in most builds.  That could be play features, novel build techniques or parts usage, a particularly clever concept or gimmick, or something else.  Just make me say "oh wow": a good example is the Imperial Flagship Redux, which is included here exclusively for its figurehead.

Of all the builds here, one is a clear winner IMHO, and that's Lagoon Lock-up by @Aanchir.  This build perfectly capturing the spirit and charm of the original set, combined with some excellent parts usage, very modern build techniques, and some wonderful play features.  Every brick has been carefully chosen, and it shows.  I feel that this build is actually stronger than the official Eldorado fortress set; it's simply a joy to look at and so perfectly designed.

I found the mini set category much easier to judge; many of these sets were nothing more than an island with water and beach techniques borrowed from either Ray the Castaway or Barracuda Bay.  Nice, but not particularly inspiring.  Treasure Island is included in my list and gets a special shout-out because it's the only set to actually feature properly buried treasure in <50 bricks.

Sloop Windy by @Marooned Marin is simply an excellent build; outstanding parts usage, and it was very fun to watch the revisions in design.  It's also perhaps the best use of the boat hull that I've ever seen.  It'll be a shame if it doesn't win.

I chose entries that simply brought back my childhood, and which i'd swear were available back in the 90s, ones i'd immidiately pick at any shop right away if i was given a free shopping spree, and with which i'd also actually play sometimes as all of these are all very playable indyvidually, sets which could help create great scenarios when combined... but most imprtantly entries that also did manage to follow this Contest's basic rules, that is being designed to look like legit ready-to-produce classic sets.

In the Main Category it all starts with Le Scorpion, great vessel which is completely new to the Lego Pirates world, unique in type, unlike most of other presented ships, and whose oars can take me on a quest to explore unmapped waters of the Carribean and jungles of the Spanish Main. I imagine it stumbling upon little pirate village by a swampy river, made out of the Rocky Island Escape and Skull Island, only to learn that there's a whole new world waiting further that water way, one that even seadogs are afraid to visit, with the mysterious Islander Palace and legendary Lost Lagoon.      

Lost Laggon is pretty much THE SET of this lineup, thing that none of use would be able to afford and we probably wouldn't ever get, but we would all have dreamed of back in the day and kept our eyes stuck into it's picture in the catalogue.  

If my budget would allow me to grab only sets from the Mini Set Category, on the other hand, those 5 entries guarantee a lot of fun scenarios anyway, as if Islanders would have problems feeding this hungry Fortune Idol, and so even King Kahuka himself would have to go fishing in his Outrigger Boar, not realizing that  in reality it wasn't statue that was hungry, but pirates deep deep under it, stuck in a cave with their Great Treasure  and forced to gain food by trading some of the coins, after they shipwrecked their vessel. But starving might be their last problem, since their renegade captain Blackbeard managed to obtain a new type of "vessel" and is now on their track... just like imperial River Soldiers under leutenant Trikornetti... 

Great Pirate Treasure might actually be the best mini set of all time, cause everyone loves money!, real or not, this one gives bragging right to anyone who will own it and no one has ever thought about making a supply pack like that. Just like there wasn't a pink parrot. Still, the best character out of the bunch is definitely Fortune Idol, as i don't see him just a goofy statue, but as a thing with it's own soul, that probably got some legs right under that earth and could talk every faction to do all sorts of favors for him :)

I remember about 10+ years ago i asked in this Forum if anyone knows how to do digital backgrounds for fake packaging art and answers proved that it was an uknown field... and now almost every does those backgrounds, like if it was nothing complicated, could say that it became a standard in this contest. Wow. Times changed. However those 10+ years ago I learned that people in this Forum are obsessed with MOCs and hardly follow Contests' rules and this haven't changed at all, as most of the Entrants were overfocused with details good for MOCs, or sets that they did poorly for themselves and decidded to throw in anyway, forgetting that our goal here was to design a legit Lego product and that Lego is about simplicity and playability. 

I had great fun reviewing these Entries anyway and i must admit that we have an obscene amount of unbelievably talented creators in here. Briliant architects erecting buildings, gardeners mantaigning their plantwork, sculpters mastering their rockwork, wardens designing perfect prisons, magnificent trap builder, fantastic treasure hiders, engineering geniuses planning their mechanical features, fashion experts coming up with new clothing and so on... Most of the Entrants are kinda like Planeteers of the Lego world, with different powers. However they still need to find their Captain Planet to combine their powers and guide them, and to help them use their cappabilities properly as we didn't strike gold in this battle of ideas. 

I was simply expecting that this Contest will be a perfect occassion to try doing all those obvious sets that we never got, that everyone will take a hint from those great examples provided by Mister Phes or that they will look into different themes for inspiration as Castle, Paradiso or Town had a great amount of ideas to steal/borrow from and thus i hoped to see plenty of new stuff... new types of ships, new types of boats, pirate vessels disguised as merchant crafts, taverns, booths offering supplies, flooded towns, royal yachts, duels, shooting ranges, palanquins, beached shipwrecks or a large vessel for the Islanders. Instead we got 50 thousand replikas of Carribean Clipper and an unaccountable number of mini islands with hidden treasures. 

Still, it was an awesome experience and a lifesaver for me as it gave me chance to have great discussions. And i've learned to like Islanders more, even tho i never cared for them much, always considered them sorta subtheme, but looking at a great number of Entries with them i have to say as a faction they are absolute winners, because they got a lot of ready-to-produce sets, which was this Contest's main goal, and where other factions sorta failed. We got amazing remakes and interesing new concepts for Soldiers and Pirates, some even definitely better than those classic mediocres ones, but we still didn't get anything that could compare to Baracuda or Eldorado Fortress. And I would have to guess the absolute bestseller in the Main Category that would be the Imperial Flagship by Elephant Knight, but I deemed this set too similar to the original and i always thought that the original was a dull copy of the Carribean Clipper, so i didn't vote for him. A small galley turned out to be the best ship of all... Similarly i didn't vote for the Shark Cart by Tom Skippy, even tho i believe this would be an authentic besteller if it it was released, but it just doesn't fit with the classic Pirate Universe and i thought of of this entry as a refreshing joke, something that could be realeased as a goofy promotional pack or a part of Time Cruisers banner, Lego Movie, a cross-theme line, rather than a set that would deserve a place in the charts. It also doesn't change the fact that Mini Sets won the battle between Categories for me, as the limit of pieces forced Contestants to focus on their job and we got a large variety of sets that could be made legit right away.