As Promised: New-School Lego Pirates

As you can see from the above photos the overall flavor of the pirates remains the same. Their is now a greater level of detail then there was in the late 80's/early 90's, too. In addition to the improved deco on the faces and chests the new pirate minifigures now sport back deco as well. While this is common on the licensed lines (i.e. Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc.) it's pretty rare on the original ones. The pirate gear remains largely the same with the cutlass, the rifle and treasure map looking just as I remembered them. In addition to the old stand-bys the good folks at Lego saw fit to toss a spy-glass into the mix as well as a red octopus. While the octopus figure has been around for awhile ( as early as the Alpha Team aquatic missions, I believe.) It's previous incarnations have been black. Although the pistol is absent from the arsenal thus far this is Lego Pirates so I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Other timeless pirate pieces have showed-up elsewhere over the last few years ( the monkey was used as Chim-Chim for the Speed Racer Line, the alligator appears in a few Agents sets, and the parrot is all over the place. There is also a re-tooled version of the shark, currently in Agent kits, which now has a gullet big enough to fit a figure in! ) so its reasonable to assume they'll get Pirate-ized sooner or later.

Note: I built the Organ Gun in the final photo from bits I had left over. It's not part of a kit or anything. But what screams pirate louder then a quad-cannon?