Lego Pirate Old

[Georgina Garding]

TheLEGO Pirates theme (1989-1990 LEGOLAND Pirates) is introduced in 1989. LEGO Pirates is one of the first themes to appear since the launch of LEGOLAND Town, Castle, Space and FABULAND in the late 1970s. The LEGO Pirates theme becomes very popular with its focus on the classic idea of Caribbean pirates pitting their wits against soldiers of colonial empires and occasionally encountering indigenous people. A classic story of good and evil needs firearms. Flintlock pistols and muskets are introduced for the first time. So are LEGO minifigures with multiple facial expressions with scruffy beards and thick moustaches, a peg-leg and hook hand, though the smiling expression still holds sway for years. Specific elements for the construction of large sailing ship models are also introduced for the first time.

I've been working on a timeline of all the different LEGO themes and stories in the format of the Star Wars Timetales and Star Trek Chronology and naturally the Pirates section is quite extensive. I thought I'd post a bit of it here to get some feedback. I've tried to include everything I could find--books, comics, audio dramas, magazine stories, etc. I have not included the LEGO Maniac comics, as they seem to be the fantasies of the Maniac himself. I haven't gotten to the computer games or the LEGOland stunt shows yet. I have opted to use primarily the US names, but only for internal consistency. Let me know what you all think!

During this time the ancestors (or, at least, antecedents) of the LEGO Pirates of the Sea capture gold from the Spanish, including the legendary treasure of Don Cortez, and hide them on islands all across the Tropical Sea. These pirates include Captain Snarlface and the Blackheart Cousins, John and Brian.

After capturing a particularly large treasure, Brian and John Blackheart bury it on Shipwreck Island and carve a map onto a gold medallion. They then split the medallion between the two. John vanishes in the jungles south of the Tropical Sea, while Brian attempts to raid Port Royal. He is captured, sent to Europe, and condemned. Another crew member receives a twenty year sentence.

A group of European settlers, led by Governor Broadside, have colonized a large island in the Tropical Sea named Sabatina. Settlements on Sabatina include the long-established trading center of Port Royal, defended by the mighty Eldorado Fortress, and Fenzance on the other side of the island.

Will rescues Camilla from the pirate, and the two are instantly smitten. Red Beard scolds Will for fighting his own men instead of the soldiers. The pirate captain calls for the Lieutenant De Martinet, leader of the soldiers, to surrender. He refuses, but his men see they are outnumbered and comply. De Martinet quickly follows suit.

After interviewing the shopkeeper, Red Beard and Will run into a group of soldiers, and Will is captured. Red Beard realizes this could be his chance to get at the other half of the medallion, and decides to wait it out.

Will and Rummy go ashore on a desert island where a treasure map is hidden on the White Cliff. They take different paths to the Cliff, encountering dense jungle, large swamps, and an ambush by Captain Foul.

Governor Broadside gives Camilla a golden heart-shaped pendant, which she wears everywhere. One day, she loses it while boating. She is so distressed that Broadside issues a reward to whoever finds the pendant. Fishermen search for it with hooks and nets, and pearl divers arrive from a far-off island to try to find it, but to no avail.

The pirates decide to go after the key. Will knows that the fishing boats usually take their catch to the markets in Port Royal. The pirates decide to disguise themselves and the ship to sail into Port Royal.

Will returns to the Skylark, and attempts to explain this to Red Beard. The Captain smells gold, however, and refuses to listen. He leads the pirates ashore to the fish market, where he trips over some barrels, revealing his disguise.

Pursued by soldiers, the pirates return to Skylark, taking a barrel of fish with them. They escape from Port Royal, and change course for the islands. The pirates find Old Binnacle, and retrieve Spinoza from his ship.

Will packages the pendant, marking the box with an anchor to match his tattoo. He then sends the package to Eldorado Fortress. Camilla knows who sent her back the pendant, and is very careful with it from then on.

Captain Red Beard is annoyed at his crew, as none of them appear to be at their posts. Little does he know that they are crowded in the hold, planning a surprise birthday party for their Captain! Of course, they are also anticipating the wonderful food and drink at the party.

The pirates return to their ship, where Will informs the captain that the treasure ship has been and gone, but its cargo is still sitting on the quay. Will, Rummy, and twelve other pirates go ashore armed and ready to take the cargo. The soldiers guarding the supplies surrender after realizing they are outnumbered. (By two!)

When Foul discovers the ruse, he decides to teach Anne a lesson. A day or two later the pirates trap Anne with a net and imprison her in a barrel hoisted atop the main mast of their ship. They sail to Shark Island, and send a ransom note via Popsy demanding one thousand doubloons to Red Beard.

The pirates have yet to recover the entirety of the pirate gold stored safely in Eldorado Fortress. Red Beard and his crew establish a new base on remote Rock Island to coordinate efforts with the other pirates at Forbidden Island and Shipwreck Island. They feel the day is drawing near when the treasure will be theirs.

Meanwhile, the settlers fortify many of their existing structures to repel the pirates. One such structure is the Lagoon Lock-Up, a former inn now designed to hold captured pirates and protect the lagoon.

A wealthy king summons the best shipwrights to design and build the Sea Lion, a vessel that will serve as the Imperial Flagship. He calls upon the finest soldiers to man her. Their mission: retrieve a treasure the king had hidden on a desert island in the Tropical Sea.

Sure enough, the as the Islanders leave for the Treasure Cave, the pirate ship appears on the horizon, ready for battle! The pirates land on the beach, and the Islanders make themselves scarce. Quextil hears the pirates mention gold, and tries to control his fear.

The King appoints a personal treasure hunter to seek out the legendary fortune of Captain Red Beard. According to legend, Red Beard hid all his treasures on a secret island in the Pirate Sea. Many have tried to find it, but all have been lost.

I'm still working on the new Pirates stuff, which has fewer named characters and almost no stories, but does seem to be set after the original Pirates theme--Broadside is visibly older in "LEGO Battles", and the book "Standing Small" indicates that Brickbeard has taken over from Red Beard, but Spinoza is still alive and is now Brickbeard's pet.

Thanks for posting this, it's strange how the pirates are viewed as the protagonists. It's also quite a coincidence Red beard, Broadside and Quextil all share the same birthday. Perhaps the twist is they're triplets!

I'm hoping to set up a website for the entire timeline once it's a little more completed. (It'll span from about 200,000,000 BC to 4,036 AD.) It actually didn't take as long as you might think; I was already familiar with the source material and either owned it or knew where to find them. The books are also pretty short--it takes more words to summarize the stories than it does to tell them. :p

I was fortunate that most of the Pirates theme was released before the internet...the Adventurers section of the timeline took forever, because of all the information contained in websites that have been offline for years. The online Pirate game is only partially preserved in the Wayback machine--some of it is probably lost forever. :(

your timeline is actually pretty cool and sure seems to be a lot of work. One thing I wonder about though, why do you place the Armade at the end of your timeline? Shouldn't they be placed somewhere in the late 16th century?

If redbeard is the captain of the Black Seas Barracuda, who commands the Red Beard's Runner?, does this means the BSB sunk in the sae before redbeard commands his runner? or does he owns and uses both ships?

That's a good question! You're right; the Armada sets do have more of a 16th century flavor to them. The reason I placed them where I did was that the 1996 Armada line carried over certain elements of the Islanders and Imperial Guards lines--Kahuka and the Admiral were said to be friends, and the Imperial Outpost was sometimes grouped with the Armada sets in 1996 catalogs. The LEGO Chess game also shows Woodhouse aboard the Armada Flagship, implying that the two powers had some kind of alliance and existed at the same time.

Of course, since I posted this version of the timeline, it's become apparent that there are other dates for the Pirate theme out there. The US boxes do specify the 18th century, and I accept that as definitive. The German audio dramas place the 1995 sets in the 1640s, however, while the German Time Cruisers audio dramas place the 1996 sets in 1602. All dates should be considered valid, but they are mutually exclusive.

Thank you! Red Beard has been shown to be in command of all of the Pirate ships LEGO released during the original Pirate line (he wasn't included in the Renegade Runner, but the Disney Adventures comic featured him escaping in it); whether he maintains a fleet of ships (as some pirates did) is up for debate. We do have sort of an answer on the Barracuda/Skull's Eye front--the Skull's Eye was known as the Dark Shark II in Germany; Dark Shark being the Barracuda's more widely used name. Runamuck's translations of the German audio dramas show that many of the crew from the original Pirate adventures--Red Beard, Will, and Rummy--were aboard the Dark Shark II. So it seems likely that the Skull's Eye was a replacement for the Barracuda.

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