Random minifig of the day: pi051

Are we sure he comes in that set? Don't see him in that box art...

That’s a high degree of swashbuckling he’s pulling off with that look; just need to get him a fancier hat

@Binnekamp said:
" @CaptainMoore said:
"I usually consider that minifigures are the same based on their head and torso combination, at least for old pirates. I thought I had him from 6289 but he has a black bandana, what a change"

Back in the day heads and torsos came assembled together from the factory. I believe this stopped around 2005 or 2006 (in 2006 part inventories debuted at the back of instructions, which showed them as separate). For that reason you would often see the same head and torso together. 6100 Aqua Dart for example has a lot of mismatched minifig parts but the head and torso go together.
Heads appeared on multiple different torsos of course, but I suppose the factory process was easier to just use more of one combination.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was ended because of the internal reforms around 2004 that were needed to save the company from bankrupcy. The phasing out of 'non-brick' themes, slashing of colors and reduction of moulds were other such reforms."

Interesting fact, i've completely forgotten that they came pre-assembled.

This guy with black bandana was my fav as a child! Great memories!

Lego designer Carl Merriam, is that you?

I guess this guy (and his many variations with different pants and hats, which I do consider the same character) is unnamed.

When I first read Lego Mania Magazine (the 1996 Pirates issue to be precise) I thought that he is Parma Sean LaFeet, as this is a name that's used for an already named character (Tattoo McGoo), so maybe they just messed up? It's suspicious that he is the only unnamed crew member of the Red Beard Runner.

He also bears a loose similarity to the character Captain Foul from 6255, who never got an official minifig. This idea would be supported by the fact that he comes with a captain's bicorne in 6281, the only minifig aside from Captain Red Beard and Ironhook to do so.

@TheOtherMike said:
"Does anyone know why they did that in the first place? It seems an unnecessary step. I mean, the head wasn't designed to stay attached to the torso, unlike, say, the arms."

Probably to get everything printed in one go.

@Binnekamp:
The light-up minifigs came preassembled because they can’t be disassembled. Some books included preassembled minifigs in the covers. One big issue they appear to have considered was theft. Even the DK books have switched to just showing pictures of the minifigs, and making you dig deeper into the cover to retrieve it. Otherwise, you’d see books that all had their minifigs stolen, because they are too easy to access with just a tab of tape, or a weakly-glued piece of cellophane.

But, yeah, the trays that were custom designed for each set had to have been a huge money sink, and once they tapped into popular IP licenses, I don’t think they needed to really advertise the special parts anymore. Sets either sold themselves, or they didn’t.

@CaptainMoore:
Legs were always placed in a separate pocket right below the torso. There may have been an issue with torsos splitting open if left assembled with extreme temperature changes during shipping.

@TheOtherMike:
They had to make a new mold for the tray in every set. Certain shapes would be easy to repeat, but adding stuff to the back might require a deeper mold, and more variety of shapes to carve into the molds.

@Norikins:
Torsos have a patch printed on the neck, to ensure the arms and print face the same direction. Head covers that patch, so it can’t be printed in one step. They’d also need a much more complicated printing system to cover heads and torsos in one step.

@PurpleDave: I knew why the patch was there (although I often wondered what it was there for as a kid), but I couldn't remember if it'd been there long enough to have been there long enough for @Binnekamp's suggestion to be the solution. Which takes things back to my original question. Why *did* they do that extra step?

@TheOtherMike:
You mean why did they put the heads on the torsos for the tray displays? One possibility is that the heads would rotate if they were loose. Torsos won’t. Heads on torsos won’t either. Faces would almost certainly not be facing straight out if the heads could tumble, and the print could rub off if they were moving too frequently before the set was opened.

@PurpleDave: I'd almost forgotten about the trays. But didn't the heads come pre-attached in sets that didn't have those, or that had more minifigs than were shown in those?

@TheOtherMike:
Honestly, I don’t remember. The last time I opened a set with a tray was when they still produced sets with trays. I know the tray minifigs typically had heads attached to torsos with separate legs right below them, but I can’t even remember if they attached hats or hair. Comments here tell me they didn’t put neck accessories on, and I know they wouldn’t attach hand-held accessories.

Heh...The set reminds of an episode/story from "The Curse of Oak Island", where apparently; a ship (or at least its remains) were found waaaaay in from the island's shoreline. The team investigated, and found the island was originally two islands, and the ship was sailed to a point between them; sunk and buried, to the point that islands became connected...history can interesting:)

@brick_r said:
"Heh...The set reminds of an episode/story from "The Curse of Oak Island", where apparently; a ship (or at least its remains) were found waaaaay in from the island's shoreline. The team investigated, and found the island was originally two islands, and the ship was sailed to a point between them; sunk and buried, to the point that islands became connected...history can interesting:)"

Rant mode ON: The issue I have with that show is this - if they DID find anything substantial on Oak Island, we would hear about it all over the regular news channels before they would have it on the History channel. (Side note: My god, how far the History channel has fallen.... it used to be so much more than what it is now!)
Rant mode OFF.