@Wallace_Brick_Designs said:
" @WolfpackBricksStudios said:
"How are they running on water?



...Jesus?"

And Peter! But with help of course.
"

They will start sinking if they look away!

@BrickClones said:
" @Wallace_Brick_Designs said:
" @WolfpackBricksStudios said:
"How are they running on water?



...Jesus?"

And Peter! But with help of course.
"

They will start sinking if they look away! "

Yessir Caleb! ;) ;)

@Lewa8439 said:
"Those final 2 years for pirates were rough "

The smaller sets were actually quite good. Also they managed to still add something that felt a bit "different" with the Armada conquistadores.

People constantly ignore that Pirates was more "juniorized" from the get-go in 1989. Just look at the amount of large pieces in 6270 and 6265. Did that make the sets bad? Clearly not.

What was a bit off-setting was the sudden and inexplicable change in historical setting. The plate armor wearing conquistadores didn't really fit in with the late 18th century red/blue coats. It was even canonically stated, Imperial Armada is set in 1502 AD, whilst Imperial Guards/Soldiers was in 1750 AD.

Also the 1997 was seemingly entirely exclusive to NA. And the aftermarket prices for Imperial Armada sets and figures clearly deny a classification as "bad".

@Atuin said:
"The smaller sets were actually quite good. Also they managed to still add something that felt a bit "different" with the Armada conquistadores."

You're right about the smaller sets. That little volcano island was wonderful. And I did enjoy the Armada antagonists as well.

But I still agree that the last hurrah for Pirates was more like a whimper than a cannon firing.

I own the 2001 rerelease of this set. I like the look of the crew and ship has great functions for battle simulation. I love how the stern resembles a skull.

Why is Redbeard sending a runner?

'Ow can Capt'n Red Beard RUN?!?!...Got a ruddy PEG-LEG 'e does...(Sorry, couldn't resist.D)

As to the "Run on Water" thing...well...:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_basilisk
...or...
In 'theory', if one were fast enough (and we're talking Flash-Fast...:)) one could 'run' on water...although (and I AM a fan of The Flash) I come to the belief/understanding: Barry (or Jay, or Wally, or...) ISN'T 'running' on water, as more like 'skipping' like a tossed-flat-rock at a lake, or river, or other body of water...just a thought...:)

Funny. Just watched the third Pirates of the Caribbean with me mum

So it's running red beards. I didn't think there would be enough of a market for them to justify an illegal trade.

Ah, some day I will find this going for a price I’m prepared to pay for it, but it is not this day…

Shiver me timbers! This here ship be falling to pieces!

I'm honest, I think this clearly shows that it's the tail end of the classic Pirates theme and they apparently were running out of steam.
Easily one of the worst looking ships of the era.

I mean, it does sound like a particularly messy way of eating tomato-soup. This might strike icy fear in the hearts of the people who have to wash restaurant table-cloths, but for anyone else, I doubt our last words are going to be "O-oh, no! I-it's the Sloppy Soup Slurper!" or something along those lines.

It's not a bad set, but we've seen better ships before and since. This one is just -there-, quaffing its soup. Someone has to be average, and this set does so... reasonably adequately.

I've always really liked this set and as with all of the other pirate sets, have a modded version on display.

The play features are kind of neat and I especially enjoy the rugged and battle worn appearance it has. It helped give the impression that Captain Redbeard had been at war for a long, long time. This, plus the (then) new strings, nets, etc., and overall darker, more brooding promotional images really did a lot to inspire my imagination when I was a kid.

The final 1996 and 1997 (especially) sets might not be as well-liked by a lot of people as the sets from earlier years but it's hard to deny that the last sets are also some of the most distinct and memorable, both in terms of play features and their visual appearance. For those reasons I've always regarded them as worthy sets to the Pirates I era, despite their perceived shortcomings.

New pirates figs were great.
This ship sadly had quite a few flaws
Only having upper sails feels weird same for the rigging positioning.
The loose canons is strage if you compare it to 6291

@Atuin price is made by supply and demand
The Armade pirates hardly had small and medium sets and the army builder 6204 was only limited available so the suply is very small

@brick_r said:
"'Ow can Capt'n Red Beard RUN?!?!...Got a ruddy PEG-LEG 'e does...(Sorry, couldn't resist.D)

As to the "Run on Water" thing...well...:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_basilisk
...or...
In 'theory', if one were fast enough (and we're talking Flash-Fast...:)) one could 'run' on water...although (and I AM a fan of The Flash) I come to the belief/understanding: Barry (or Jay, or Wally, or...) ISN'T 'running' on water, as more like 'skipping' like a tossed-flat-rock at a lake, or river, or other body of water...just a thought...:) "

If you're a Flash fan, have you heard The Ballad of Barry Allen? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMe1qlyuMXQ

I love this set out of nostalgia alone. And I really appreciate the battle damage play features. Those are cool. And then there's the skull shaped aft of the ship. So cool.

It's no Black Seas Barracuda, but it doesn't have to be. This is different, and looks like Redbeard is playing a losing game. Pretty fitting for the second to last year of Pirates.

@watcher21 said:
"New pirates figs were great.
This ship sadly had quite a few flaws
Only having upper sails feels weird same for the rigging positioning.
The loose canons is strage if you compare it to 6291

@Atuin price is made by supply and demand
The Armade pirates hardly had small and medium sets and the army builder 6204 was only limited available so the suply is very small"

Same can be sad about the US only Galidor and a few other exclusive sets, which are still selling rather low even when MISB.

AND the Armada sets had an easily available re-release which was practically unchanged in 2001, 4 years after the last sets were discontinued. Imperial Armada set distribution was far from scarce. And this set was at 50-60 $ when it was last on shelves. Which is half of the Manas, who came out the same year, so it's not been really that expensive either.

@PurpleDave said:
"That's not a lot of sail for that much mast. There should be two more square sales, plus at least one jib."

I guess they could say some of the sails are stored out of the way, the yardarms on the fore and mizzen masts could certainly support more sails than are visible on the ship as it is. But lacking any jib does make it look a bit uneven; but a jib would interfere with the play function.

An amazing set
Right number of mast, right number of sails and a nice functionality, with the tilting mast.

Possibly the worst pirate flagship ever. I am glad I limit my collection to 1980-1994, so I don't have to search for this :D

My problem is the stupid mast won’t stay up. :o(

My wife complains a lot. :o)

Things were rough for Redbeard's crew after Dr. Cyber and Tim stranded them in the early 16th century. The only way home was "the long way" and the Imperial Armada were ready to defend their gold.

I am sad to realize that the Lego net piece included in this set hasn't been used since 2013.

https://brickset.com/parts/7115

@Atuin I mean that in the aftermarket the supply and demand have a great impact on the price.
6296 RRP $29.75 has 1 fig
6244 RRP $8.75 has 1 fig
6280 RRP $50.00 has 3 fig
These were the 3 regular sets good luck building a decent army with those.

Previous soldiers had 6247 6259 6265 6266 as cheap army builders

Galidor may have have low supply but also a low demand so a bad example

@AustinPowers said:
"I'm honest, I think this clearly shows that it's the tail end of the classic Pirates theme and they apparently were running out of steam.
Easily one of the worst looking ships of the era."

Steam? These are sailing ships. You could say the designers had no wind in their sails.

I find the formatting in this set name to be odd. Maybe it wasn't consistent everywhere, but the story material I saw as a kid - Lego Racers, Lego Adventures Magazine, Lego Football Mania - didn't split the captain's name into two words, he was Captain "Redbeard", no space. The addition of the space in this set's name makes it read, to me, less as a Runner ship owned by Captain Redbeard, and more a "Beard Runner" (I don't know what one of those is either...!) that is red.

@Atuin said:
"It was even canonically stated, Imperial Armada is set in 1502 AD, whilst Imperial Guards/Soldiers was in 1750 AD."

Captain Redbeard is over 250 years old in the original pirates sets? He's doing phenomenally well for his age...

Unless he's one of those cursed pirates they have plenty of in the PotC movies (a couple of which I just watched for the first time over the last two months), in which case I guess age is less of an issue if he's functionally immortal or something!

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"I find the formatting in this set name to be odd. Maybe it wasn't consistent everywhere, but the story material I saw as a kid - Lego Racers, Lego Adventures Magazine, Lego Football Mania - didn't split the captain's name into two words, he was Captain "Redbeard", no space. The addition of the space in this set's name makes it read, to me, less as a Runner ship owned by Captain Redbeard, and more a "Beard Runner" (I don't know what one of those is either...!) that is red.

@Atuin said:
"It was even canonically stated, Imperial Armada is set in 1502 AD, whilst Imperial Guards/Soldiers was in 1750 AD."

Captain Redbeard is over 250 years old in the original pirates sets? He's doing phenomenally well for his age...

Unless he's one of those cursed pirates they have plenty of in the PotC movies (a couple of which I just watched for the first time over the last two months), in which case I guess age is less of an issue if he's functionally immortal or something!"

You are right in pointing that spelling out, but it is not as consistent as you may perceive it - even some issues of Mania Magazine had it spelled "Red Beard" at times.

About Redbeard's age - yes, that is part of what I meant about the story. Either they deliberately broken continuity there, he had a very similar looking (and named) ancestor or he is somewhat a supernatural being.

Admittedly in Klick! issue 1 it was stated he searched for the treasure of his great-great-grandfather (or something) on the Islander's archipelago when encountering the Time Cruisers.

@yap said:
"An amazing set
Right number of mast, right number of sails and a nice functionality, with the tilting mast."

Right number of masts doesn't mean much, since some historical classes of ship had three and others had only one. Two is the right number only if it's supposed to represent a class that had two masts. And the right number of sails isn't even debatable. No captain would voluntarily leave port with only topsails and no jib.

@yellowcastle said:
"My problem is the stupid mast won’t stay up. :o(

My wife complains a lot. :o)"

at least she doesn't complain that you display it, right?

@BrickAnomie said:
"I am sad to realize that the Lego net piece included in this set hasn't been used since 2013.

https://brickset.com/parts/7115"

You left a digit out of the number https://brickset.com/parts/71155/net-10x10 And yeah, it is a shame.

@TheOtherMike: Nope, never heard of the song...nor 'Jim's Big Ego'...nor their singer/frontman Jim Infantino was Carman (co-creator of the Barry Allen 'Flash') Infantino's nephew...KIDDING :D...knew of that song a looong time ago...always thought Gustin should have sang it on the final CW 'The Flash' episode, even if just over the end credits...:)

@brick_r said:
" @TheOtherMike: Nope, never heard of the song...nor 'Jim's Big Ego'...nor their singer/frontman Jim Infantino was Carman (co-creator of the Barry Allen 'Flash') Infantino's nephew...KIDDING :D...knew of that song a looong time ago...always thought Gustin should have sang it on the final CW 'The Flash' episode, even if just over the end credits...:)"

I didn't know most of that, and yeah, featuring it in the CW Flash series would have been great.