League Assignment: Pirates / Toy Review Forbidden Island Lego Pirates

This week’s assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers:
–
“Pirates.”

Spacemen, Spies, Cowboys and (by popular vote) Pirates! (I picked soldiers but whatevs)

For this assignment, I took a trip to the attic and dusted off the only vintage Lego Pirate set I still had.  Granted, I still have the Caribbean Clipper but I went along with the true 'pirate' Pirate set named Forbidden Island.  This seemed like a pretty standard issue set when it was released in 1989 and I along with many of my friends who played with Lego's all appeared to have this set.  The pirate sets in particular made me think of how much the price of Legos have inflated since this set was about 25 bucks and the Clipper was 30 on sale at K-Mart when I managed to get my hands on them.  I had a whole mess of smaller sets like the Renegade Runner or Shipwreck Island but my parents (the major purchasing partners in my household) really wanted me to just stick with one collection of legos which was the Castle System.

 

For the relatively cheap price, this seemed like a must have when you looked at it.  It possessed nearly every mainstay quality of any lego pirate set.  You got the treasure, the raft, oars, plenty of weapons, a captain with hook and peg leg, barrel, dungean, crow's nest, monkey, big pirate flag!!! phew! This is amazing with all of the beautiful touches this relatively simple set possessed.

 

 

 

I can't tell you the amount of play time and fun I had building (and rebuilding) this set.  Your minifigures were absolute musts for any pirate collector.  During this era, you didn't have many options for pirate minifigs.   You get the mustashed doo-rag figure, the first-mate tri-corner hat figure and the red-beard captain figure with swords, pistols and rifles galore.  You also get (not pictured) an imperial guard with backpack, shoulderboards and musket.  On top of this you get a parrot and monkey along with a complete weapon barrel and treasure chest complete with gold dabloons and a palm tree! 

 

 

The set itself is a quick build and resonates the feel of a makeshift, pirate fort from old ship parts and riggings with a crow's nest lookout along with overgrown palm dressings, a trap door covered jail and crumbling walls...it truly is a great set and captures the pirate collection wonderfully, just watch out for the shark!

The scalawags mixing it up with the royal navy