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I am a fan of large sailing vessels, and I have several around the house, and a
large appetite for shipbuilding supplies...
BUT:
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7075 Captain Redbeard's Pirate Ship
134 elements, 4 figures, US$40, 2004
LEGO > SYSTEM > Pirate > 4+
| | | $A50, 132Pcs – Am I crazy? That’s nearly 38c a piece!
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Well, perhaps I am crazy, but then I am a fan of sailing vessels in general,
and it is a large vessel for a low price.
I bought it recently at the Lego warehouse sale, and stood with it in my hands
pondering its value for ten minutes. I’d resolved when I first saw pics of it
to buy it if/when it got to $A40, and I really couldn’t see that it was
worth $A50 (and probably not even $40). In the end, my wife made the decision
for me (or maybe she was just impatient to get away from the warehouse) and
insisted I buy it.
It comes in a *big* box, and my first impression on opening that box was a
lot of big parts, and a lot of empty space between them. The three hull pieces
(or is it six? The decks aren’t joined to the hull parts as they are in the
traditional pirates bow and stern pieces) were preassembled into the full hull.
The hull pieces are w i d e. Sure, there is only one centre section, but
that’s 16 studs long, (as against traditional pirate centre sections which
are eight), and the bow and stern are longer than the old ones, so the hull
assembly is longer than the RBR, and around the same size as a BSB, only
wider, so it *looks* shorter.
Assembly is quick (heck, there’s only 132 pieces, so it had better be): I
think the current pirates line does well in letting little kids have a big
pirate ship... building a BSB, SES or RBR is a task beyond most little kids
attention span. And it’s easily rebuilt when it breaks during play too.
There are new parts aplenty: The masts (2 new pieces, a main and a topmast
(which is also used for a bowsprit and mizzen topmast), new ratlines (narrow
and straight – the same length as the old long ratlines), the one piece
sterncastle (a lovely piece, but way too narrow for this vessel – it looks
much better on an old style narrow hull – see my
Revenge), a huge single piece
quarterdeck (16x16), a 12x14 pulpit (bow railing), a decorative skull and a
wonderful new carriage for the large technic/castle/alpha team cannon
(affectionately known as ‘slugthrowers’ to locals in Sydney - and possibly
further afield).
The new masts are nice, and as an exercise I replaced the old style masts
on one of my Port Brique vessels (as yet unseen on lugnet) with the new one.
Not too much re-engineering required, just the construction of a sleeker top
to replace the 4x4 technic brick.
The mizzen mast is a black 2x2x8 jack stone column under a topmast section.
Functional (and cleverly stepped in a 4x4 technic brick for stability), but
ugly. I can’t think of a better solution for a ‘mid sized’ mast with such
strength short of making a new piece, but it really should not be square (and
groovy!).
Arms are one piece, brick sized and click hinged. (Too heavy for their
length for my taste). The sails are different, and nicely packaged. The
mizzen sail is much maligned appearing from photos to be a sort of triangular
square sail (ie triangular in shape, but rigged squarely), but the truth is
that it’s not equilateral, it is much closer to a lateen sail (though the arm
is on the wrong edge), swing it around 90deg to the mast and it looks better,
or better yet, turn the mast 90deg. The only problem in rigging the mizzen
fore and aft is that the arm interfere’s with the hoist on the main.
(You may recall Lego doesn’t do well with mizzen sails: official pics of the
Armada flagship have the mizzen rigged *backward*!).
Although the fact of a new pirate flag is good, I think the design is a bit
goofy. But once again, this is pirates for kids – a bit cartoony is good.
I haven’t mentioned the figs. They’re an improvement on the original Jack
Stone figs (articulated wrists, moulded fingers), and again a bit cartoony.
They suit the target market, I think. I was disappointed that their wasn’t a
single minifig firearm included. The pirates aboard this ship deserve more
than a single cannon and a couple of scimitars! In any case, when I rebuild this
vessel, it’ll be recrewed with minifigs. The big figs are okay, just not my
thing.
There has been some negative comment on the new one piece railing (8x3x2) that
is used not only as railings, but as gunports (in combination with 4x4 plates
with two clips as gunport lids). Not useful for much, beside railings, but at
least there are eight of them so you can get a decent total length. (I’m
thinking they might be good as railings along a sea wall or similar). They
won’t be featuring on my own vessel based on the 7075, but I’m not throwing
them away either.
The colour scheme of 7075 is not appealing to me: red, grey, black, brown and
green just doesn’t work for me. Just swapping out the green would be good. And
the black too. And maybe the brown for good measure ;-)
The part that I like least is the one piece quarterdeck, brown, 16x16, with
curved sides to match the bow/stern hull deck (The deck part of the stern piece
is the same as the deck piece of the bow, only the hull shape is different).
It’s good for the model (nice and solid), but will be of limited use otherwise.
If it was grey rather than brown, it would be much, much more useful.
(I’d wan’t two so I could fully deck the hull!).
The pulpit is an odd bit too. I think I’ll be struggling to find a use for
this, although the skull as figurehead is probably better than a more
traditional one for a 4+ set.
It’s a nice part that the hoist comes pre-rigged – the thread tied to the
hook and the drum, with the thread already wound on to the latter. Similarly
with the anchor: No need to tie it yourself – another plus to allow assembly
by smaller kids.
I’ve started stripping my 7075 in preparation for a proper rebuild. The 8
guns a side will fit using standard Port Brique spacing (2 wide gunports, 2
studs apart), it’ll be two masted, using old style masts, and it will be nice
and wide!
Overall, I think it’s a good buy for $A50, and I’m pleased I bought it. (The
RRP of $A99 was a bit steep!). Sure,
it’s no Black Seas Barracuda, but it also has only 132 parts and only cost me
fifty bucks. It is a different ship for a different market, after all. If
you’re into pirate ships, it’s worth getting – there isn’t much street-cred
(or is that sea-cred?) in it’s standard form, there is a wealth of parts
(and new and different parts at that), that will give you a lot of
shipbuilding resources.
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