Pirates is a Lego theme launched in 1989 featuring pirates, soldiers, islanders and sailing ships. The theme has been seen in minifigure scale, Duplo and the 4+ theme.
The original Pirates sets included the first Lego minifigures without the traditional head with simply two eyes and a smile; they had a variety of different printed features including hair, eyepatches and facial hair.
Alongside the Pirates released for 1989 were Governor Broadside's blue-coated troops who were to fight the Pirates. These forces were based upon the French navy and marines of the colonial era, being known as "Imperial Soldiers" by fans, though explicitly identified as "Governors" on page 16 of the 1990 American catalog. A comic book entitled "The Gold Medallion" was also released in that year, as well as a Ladybird Book series. From 1992-93, the Governors were gradually replaced by the red-coated Imperial Guards, while existing Governors sets that continued in production were considered part of the Guards. Both the Governors and the Imperial Guards used two crossed cannons under a crown as their emblem.
A sub-theme loosely based on a Polynesian concept, the Islanders, was released for 1994. For 1996 Lego changed the entire "feel" of the Pirates line and made it Spanish-influenced. This meant the Imperial Guards were replaced by the Imperial Armada, heavily based on the Spanish Armada. Along with this change, the pirates were also given new faces. For 1997 Lego discontinued the Pirates theme; the theme's end at this time came as a shock to fans, because the Pirates line had always been a big seller.
Two 1996 Pirate sets, "Red Beard Runner" and "Armada Flagship", and one 1994 Islanders set, "Enchanted Island", were re-released for 2001. The 1989 Pirates set "Black Seas Barracuda" was updated and re-released for 2002 for the Lego Legends series. The Pirates theme was brought to 4+ for 2004 and Duplo for 2006. Lego reintroduced Pirates in minifigure scale for 2009, just in time for the theme's 20th anniversary. However, the series was only continued with a single set the following year to make room for a series of licensed products, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, based on the series of films of the same name.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Set list
Set names from UK, Australia & New Zealand given in brackets.
Pirates (1989-1997, 2001-2002)
- 1989
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 2001-2002
Pirates (2009-2010)
Pirates (2015)
Juniors Pirates (2015)
Imperial Soldiers (1989-1993)
Imperial Guards (1992-1995)
Imperial Armada (1996-1997, 2001)
Islanders (1994, 2001)
Lego Theme Sets Video
Official merchandise
Lego Group has also released a variety of official Pirate Lego merchandise ranging from clothing to stick-on tattoos to board games.
Characters
Pirates
Captain Roger / Captain Redbeard Captain Roger, also known as Captain Redbeard, is a fictional character created by the Lego Company for the Pirates theme of the Lego System. The Pirate theme, along with the captain, was first introduced in 1989. As the theme's chief antagonist, the leader of the pirates fights continuously against Governor Broadside's soldiers. Captain Roger/Redbeard is in command of two pirate ships: the Black Sea Barracuda and the Skull's Eye Schooner. During the years of fighting, he suffered three major injuries, which caused him to wear an eye patch over his left eye, an iron hook where his left hand used to be and a wooden right leg. Additional trademarks of the captain are the skull and crossed bones on his bicorne, his distinctive gold-trimmed black frock coat and green scarf, and a colorful tropical parrot. Together with his friend Will and his first mate Rummy, Captain Roger/Redbeard encounters countless adventures of swash-buckling, sailing, treasure hunting and piracy.
In later sets, the appearance of Captain Roger/Redbeard was redesigned to look more intimidating, with him now wearing a shredded red shirt and sporting a massive knife slung through his belt. This character is identified as "Captain Ironhook" on the Classic Pirates website, making him a character separate from Captain Roger/Redbeard.
Despite the introduction of Captain Brickbeard in Lego's newest 2009 lineup of pirate-themed sets, many people still feel that the original pirate commander, Captain Roger/Redbeard, is unquestionably THE Lego pirate captain. The fan website www.classic-pirates.com calls Captain Redbeard "the true king of the Lego Pirates line", and "he will always remain the main icon of the Lego Pirates line". Others feel that Brickbeard is just a new release of Roger/Redbeard, due to the close resemblance between the two figures.
- Captain Brickbeard
Captain Brickbeard is a fictional character created by the Lego Company for their 2009-line of Pirates sets; he is an updated version of the Roger/Redbeard character.
Of all the Lego Pirate Captains, none of them are female. Only Lego fans have made female pirate captains.
- Rummy
Identified as Captain Roger's/Redbeard's first mate.
- Governor Broadside
Governor Broadside is Captain Roger's/Redbeard's chief enemy and (mostly) chief victim as well, as Redbeard seems to always get the better of him. In the 2009 Pirates Line, Broadside is now Capt. Brickbeard's chief enemy and chief victim.
- Lieutenant de Martinet
Lt. de Martinet is identified on the website Classic Pirates as Governor Broadside's second-in-command.
- Admiral Woodhouse
Adm. Woodhouse is identified as the leader of the red-coated Imperial Guards.
- King Kahuka
Kahuka is the leader of the Islanders, a Polynesian-based sub-theme of the Pirates theme and he cannot be mistaken for anyone else that Lego has ever conjured up. He wears a massive, carved red face mask topped with white feathers, a face painted white and blue, a necklace made out of teeth and a large round medallion, a red sash around his waist (which was probably a present given to him by a passing ship's captain) and a grass skirt. His center of power is located on "Enchanted Island", a fictitious island invented by Lego.
Ladybird Books series
An official series of children's books based on the Pirate Lego theme was published by Ladybird Books in 1990.
Titles
- Will and the Gold Chase
- Captain Roger's Birthday
- Adventure on Shark Island
- The Royal Visit
The stories revolved around the misadventures of the crew of Dark Shark and their run-ins with Broadside's Imperial Guards. The stories developed a stronger characterisation for key characters and expanded the Pirate Lego universe. They also introduced a character known as Captain Foul who commanded the ship "The Barracuda", however the captain did not appear in any of the official Pirate Lego sets.
Like the comic Governor Broadside was given a family which included his Aunt Prudence and niece Camilla. The entire crew of the Dark Shark (6285/10050 Blacks Seas Barracuda) were given names, including the monkey and the parrot.
A short biographical description and illustrated portrait of each of the Dark Shark's characters was presented on the first and second pages of each book.
Characters
Broadside's Family
- Aunt Prudence
- Camilla
- Governor Broadside
Dark Shark Crew
- Anne
- Bo'Sun Will
- Captain Roger (known as Captain Redbeard in Northern America)
- Flashfork
- First Mate Rummy
- Jimbo
- Popsy (the parrot)
- Spinoza (the monkey)
On the final two pages of each book is a map of the fictional archipelago named "The Treasure Islands" in which the Ladybird Pirate Lego universe is set.
Islands
- Black Reef Island
- Emerald Island
- Hook Nose Island
- Island of Fogs
- Island of Ruins
- Island of Skulls
- John Silver Island
- Pirate Hat Island
- Pirate's Nest
- Sabatina
- Shark Island
- Skeleton Island
1993 World Lego Expo - Pirates Ahoy
For its 1993 World Expo, the Lego Group chose "Pirates Ahoy" as the theme. The exhibition contained various exhibits mostly depicting three-dimensional sculptures of pirates made entirely from Lego, although the Pirate Galleon containing 13,280 pieces was built at System minifigure scale and was crewed by standard Pirate Lego minifigures.
Souvenir guide
A souvenir guide accompanied the exhibition and its main feature was a story which loosely tied the exhibits together in a first person narrative. The souvenir guide also provided information about each exhibit including its name, how many pieces it contained and the number of hours it took to construct.
The top-left corner of odd pages contained information and an illustrated portrait of infamous pirates from history including Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts. While top-right hand cornered of the even pages included a picture of that pirate's flag.
Exhibits
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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