Lego Pirates

Created by a small team led by designer Niels Milan Pedersen, Lego Pirates was the company's fourth theme (after Space, Castle, Town) and it was more complex.[1][2] Numerous new pieces were also created including firearms, wildlife (parrots, sharks, monkeys), and cloth sails.[3][4] Lego Pirates minifigures were the first to go beyond the traditional head with simply two dots for eyes and a smile, as many of them had a variety of different printed features including eyepatches, facial hair, and feminine makeup. Only a few minifigures in Lego Pirates used the traditional face of two eyes and a smile; the soldier/trooper of the Imperial Soldiers and Imperial Guards, the Imperial Soldiers sailor/marine (only found in 6274 Caribbean Clipper), and young pirate Bo'Sun Will.[5]Prior to the launch of Lego Pirates, minifigures were distinguished in function and organization by their torso, headgear (either a helmet or hair), and accessories, being generic roles without any specified character.

In Lego's first attempt to establish a narrative and encourage role-playing, personalities were created for several of these minifigures of Lego Pirates. Stories were printed on boxes, particularly for the USA market where the larger sets had a flap that opened up to display the contents. In a first for Lego television ads used stop-motion animation.[6] A comic book entitled "The Gold Medallion" was also released in that year, as well as a Ladybird Book series. The storyline takes place in the 18th century, where pirates had been searching for buried treasure as the doubloons (Spanish gold coins) belonged to their ancestors, however a colony of settlers discovered the treasure first and claimed it, leading to conflict. The Governor of the colony was forced to fortify the settlements and attempted to hide the treasure in his main fortress.[7]

The Pirates were led by Captain Redbeard (called Captain Roger in some markets) whose is distinguished by his black bicorne hat, left eye patch, peg leg on the right and a hook where his left hand was; his crew included First Mate Rummy and the young Bo'Sun Will. Another pirate leader was Captain Ironhook who has been suggested as a rival to Redbeard; both minifigures were similar except that Ironhook had a tattered shirt (some releases of Ironhook have a peg leg).[8] Their emblem was the Jolly Roger, a black flag featuring the skull and crossbones. 6285 Black Seas Barracuda was their first pirate ship while 6270 Forbidden Island was their original hideout, both released in 1989. The catalogue releases for the Pirates expanded considerably with a larger base, 6273 Rock Island Refuge (1991), and then a pair of pirate ships in 1993 (the large 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner and small 6268 Renegade Runner).

Opposing the Pirates were the Imperial Soldiers led by Governor Broadside and his second-in-command Lieutenant de Martinet. These blue-coated forces were based upon the French navy and marines of the colonial era and Napoleonic Wars, being known Imperial Soldiers in certain catalogues worldwide, though explicitly identified as "Governors" on page 16 of the 1990 American catalog. From 1992-93, the Imperial Soldiers were gradually replaced by the red-coated Imperial Guards led by Admiral Woodside (with 6274 Caribbean Clipper and 6276 Eldorado Fortress being replaced by 6271 Imperial Flagship and 6277 Imperial Trading Post, respectively, as the Imperials' sailing ship and main base). The smaller Imperial Soldiers sets that continued on sale until the end of 1993 were considered part of the Guards, in part as placeholders since only two more catalogue sets were released for the Guards after 1992. The Soldiers and Guards minifigures were very similar save for a Palette swap of uniforms and facial expressions. Both the Imperial Soldiers and the Imperial Guards used two crossed cannons under a crown as their emblem, though the Soldiers' blue flag was similar to the Flag of Quebec while the Guards had three thick red horizontal stripes.[9] The Imperial Guards were reintroduced in 2009-10, and the Imperial Soldiers were reintroduced in 2015; the Guards and Soldiers were the respective government opponents of the Pirates during the brief periods of Lego Pirates revival.

A new faction loosely based on a Polynesian concept, the Islanders, was released for 1994. This resulted in Lego having three factions in 1994 and 1995, with the Pirates battling the Imperial Guard on the high seas and disturbing the Islanders while seeking treasure. However in 1995 Lego discontinued all of the previously-released Imperial Guards sets from 1992 to 1993 (particularly their larger sets, the 6271 Imperial Flagship and 6277 Imperial Trading Post), making the new release 6263 Imperial Outpost the sole Imperial Guards set, which essentially made the year a Pirates versus Islanders conflict.

For 1996 Lego changed the entire "feel" of the Pirates line, giving the Pirates minifigs new faces, and made it Spanish-influenced. The Imperial Guards were replaced by the Imperial Armada (heavily influenced by the Spanish Armada), though the Guards' 6263 Imperial Outpost remained available in 1996 as a medium land base for Imperial side, as ending up only two sets were released for the Armada including the 6280 Armada Flagship (although Armada minifigures were guests in new sets of the Pirates faction). 1996 was also the last year for the Islanders who had not seen any new releases since 1994 nor had their minifigures featured as guests in other factions' sets. 1997 featured just the Pirates versus the Imperial Armada; however some of the new releases like 6250 Cross Bone Clipper and 6281 Pirates Perilous Pitfalls were not well received and this turned out to the final year of original Lego Pirates run.

After 1997 Lego discontinued the Pirates theme to the shock to fans, because the Pirates line had always been a big seller. The original releases (1989-91) retrospectively were most nostalgic among Lego Pirates fans due to the sets' design and meticulous detail, which was sacrificed in subsequent releases for increased playability which drew a mixed reception. For instance the 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner (1993), which succeeded 6285 Black Seas Barracuda (1989) as the main pirates ship set, implemented a mechanism for the ship's wheel to control the rudder which necessitated a smaller and less detailed aft cabin, plus the Skull's Eye Schooner's cannons are attached to rotating turntables on sliders instead of the more realistic placement of cannons upon wheeled naval carriages like earlier Lego Pirates ship sets.[10][11] 6289 Red Beard Runner (1996), which replaced 6286, drew criticism for "battle damage" features like the tumbling forward mast and collapsing quarterdeck as these made the assembled set unstable.[12] The changes to Lego's set design direction, not just in Lego Pirates but also across their other product lines, have been attributed to the Lego Group's retiring of many LEGO Designers who had created the sets from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, replacing them with 30 'innovators' who graduated from the European design colleges around Europe who knew "little specifically about toy design and less about LEGO building".

The Pirates theme was brought to 4+ for 2004 and Duplo for 2006.

Lego reintroduced Pirates and Imperial Guards in minifigure scale for 2009, including the pirate ship 6243 Brickbeard’s Bounty, just in time for the theme's 20th anniversary. However there was only one more set released the following year, the 10210 Imperial Flagship (2010) which was largest vessel in Lego Pirates ever released. After 2010, the revived Lego Pirates theme was discontinued in order to make room for a series of licensed products, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, based on the film series of the same name.

In 2015, Lego had another brief reintroduction of the theme with Pirates and Imperial Soldiers, including the pirate ship 70413 The Brick Bounty (inspired by the earlier 6243 Brickbeard’s Bounty and 6285 Black Seas Barracuda).[13]

Two 1996 Pirate sets, "Red Beard Runner" and "Armada Flagship", and one 1994 Islanders set, "Enchanted Island", were re-released for 2001.

6276 Eldorado Fortress remains a classic for its design and innovation.[14] Being considered the benchmark for Lego pirate ships, the 6285 Black Seas Barracuda (1989) was re-released as 10040 Black Seas Barracuda (2002) as part of the Lego Legends series. The Black Seas Barracuda was also the inspiration for the 30th Lego Ideas set 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay, released in 2020, which can be built either as a pirate shipwreck on an island or the pirate ship due to its modular design.[15]

The 10210 Imperial Flagship (2010) of the Imperial Guards faction is the largest ship in Lego Pirates ever released, exceeding that of the 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner (1993). This ended a long running gag in Lego Pirates where the previous three Imperials' flagships were smaller than contemporary pirate ships; traditionally the pirate ship was also the largest and most expensive set of its era in Lego Pirates.[16]

Set names from UK, Australia & New Zealand given in brackets.

Diorama from a 1989 LEGO catalog depicting a battle between the Pirates and Imperial Soldiers, featuring the 6285 Black Seas Barracuda (left) and 6276 Eldorado Fortress

Lego Group has also released a variety of official Pirate Lego merchandise ranging from clothing to stick-on tattoos to board games.

An official series of children's books based on the Pirate Lego theme was published by Ladybird Books in 1990.

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.

• Official 2009 Lego site
• Classic-Pirates.com LEGO Pirate forum and information resource.
• Fibblesnork's Lego Guide: Pirates
• Brickset: List of all Lego Pirate sets
• Lugnet: List of all Lego Pirate sets