Do You Know LEGO Pirates Lore? (Theme Nostalgia Ep. 01)

I'm starting a new series!
Let's look back on old Lego themes and see where they went right and wrong. We'll go through the years and see how they evolved or stagnated. It's called Theme Nostalgia, and episode 1 takes a look at Pirates! (this is where I'm supposed to say "Yaaarrrr!" or some other cliche pirate thing, but I'm not going to do that.... carry on).

[@michaelsmith5583]

Pirates are the best.

[@michaelsmith5583]

So much nostalgia.

[@OlieBricks]

Can you feel it?

[@BrickTsar]

You expressed my feeling about pirates on the late 90s. As an adult collector - 1989 was a great year. Having facial expressions other than a grin was great. Pirates was the first theme that I bought ever set as it came out. But by the end of the 90s I was getting disappointed and buying just to keep the theme complete. I ended up selling my collection in the early 2000s. The internet age caused me to discover things I never knew about - so I parted with my pirates since they had discontinued theme and I grew tired of the later sets. Good coverage of the entire history. There is one pirate - a build from a 1963 set 905 Doll Set. It’s easily forgettable - lol

[@OlieBricks]

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll have check out that! Thanks for watching.

[@Wind-Waker7272]

Beautiful documentary

[@OlieBricks]

Thanks for watching!

[@pbonbrisco]

Great video man, I liked your recap over the old sets

[@OlieBricks]

Thx for watching!

[@deang5386]

One of my first sets when I was a kid was the Forbidden Island 6270. Just recently bought the 3 in 1 creator Pirate ship.

[@OlieBricks]

Such a great set!

[@MajorSvenGaming]

The innovations during the first pirate releases should not be over looked. We have the first face printing, the first named character in redbeard, new Lego animals besides horses from castle (the parrot, monkey, shark and later the crocodile). We have palm trees, masts, rigging, hull sections, cloth sails. Pirates really pushed the design of Lego sets and moved away from blockier designs of the mid 80s. The colour choices really suited as well, darker sets for pirates and lighter sets for the imperials (like they take more care of there structures). I think the theme will struggle to ever pick up again like it did during the 90s because Lego design has moved away from those generic themes like castle, town, space, adventures, vikings, western, pirates ect... Now it needs to be connected to a plot of a franchise, ninjago, monkey kid, star wars, Harry potter, Lord of the rings, marvel, hidden side, legend of chima, friends, ect... Classic town will never go because Lego city is a core but all the other themes will only occasionally crop up in creator of ideas sets. It's just working for Lego to do I that way. Pirates of the Caribbean also significantly limited the pirate returns in the mid 2000s because it was competing with itself (though I love the sets and have most of them). On the plus side the new barracuda bay was a fantastic set for any classic pirate collector. The 3 in 1 pirate ships not bad either, but the new redbeard being only available in the Lego house is quite cheeky. We know every few years we will get a pirate set in some form and if your like me (someone who only really pays attention to classic/modern pirates of castle sets) it's pretty affordable to pick up one big set every year and the odd collectable minifigure. Still need the skull eyes schooner for my classic collection sadly but I'm very happy with my classic black sea barracuda.

[@captaingrim8185]

This video is amazing. Keep up the amazing work. Love the content

[@OlieBricks]

Thank you so much

[@Maniac4Bricks]

I think as time went on, the idea of revisiting islanders will vanish to prevent cultural appropriation. Much like Western, Pirates has a romanticized nature in toy form, not exclusively to LEGO but many toy brands, and keeping the conflict down to Imperials can bring only so many options of sets. The number of sets is cut down over time for Pirates as it was cut down for many themes. Not to mention, if LEGO limits the frequency, the interest will increase over time, as well as the development of ideas. For example, when Pirates rebooted in 2009, the shark mold was large enough to swallow a whole minifigure. This piece was introduced in 2008 with the Agents line. Or the development of an island baseplate for Loot Island. But if the theme was around all the time, people wouldn't buy all of it, unlike if they release it every couple years.

[@Durahan82]

The Armada Flagship was a wasted opportunity, they could have Made a Spanish style Galleon easily , only the 2010 Man'o'war came close

[@Mac10Daddy]

Pirates was always my favorite theme growing up. Can you do a nostalgia review on Ice Planet 2002? Also, whatever you’re smoking looks like it’s pretty good. I want some 😁😶‍🌫️

[@OlieBricks]

I will put Ice Planet in the queue. Smokes on me all day 🌬️

[@Mac10Daddy]

@@OlieBricks You’re awesome Olie! Thanks for the great videos and content

[@Leo.501]

Pirates is the best theme from Lego, to bad that they kinda abandon it ...

[@OlieBricks]

It holds a special place for me, some of my earliest sets.

[@Leo.501]

@@OlieBricks for me too, even if I did not had them in 93-94, because there where not avelaible in my country at that time(or hard to get) I did get a 94 lego catalog and those sets where always in my mind lol. Now I am 36y old and still I whant them lol. The only set that I got now is the Baracuda Bay from the pirate theme, very good and fun one to build. I am a late new collector so I had to pay a premium for this set now in 2023 , the old ones are even harder to get, maybe I will do a MOC in one day. Cheers!