Review: 5003082 Classic Pirate Minifigure
Posted by CapnRex101,
Classic Space received something of a revival last summer, beginning with the release of 5002812 Classic Spaceman Minifigure and 21109 Exo-Suit. LEGO has continued the trend of remembering such beloved themes this year by producing 5003082 Classic Pirate Minifigure. The Pirates theme was reintroduced in April following a five year absence and as such LEGO has tried to recapture some of the magic of the original sets, just as they did last year with Classic Space.
That set consisted simply of a Spaceman and a small robot, but it effectively conveyed the charm of Classic Space through the building techniques and the appearance of the famous planet logo. In my opinion, this Pirates model is far less successful in that regard, although it is a better set overall, particularly considering that it is free with a purchase of £50 or more at LEGO stores or LEGO S@H.
Box and Contents
The packaging was one of the most appealing aspects of last year's set and this one is just the same, featuring the classic LEGO logo and a rather stylish white design. The box consists of a sleeve and a tray, which has thick sides to strengthen it.
Inside is a small bag of pieces, an instruction booklet and a tiny Pirates-themed postcard with some stickers on the front. The booklet only contains a few pages of instructions, with the majority of the booklet documenting the range of Pirates sets and how they have developed over the years.
The imagery is sharp throughout and the dotted line running from the start of the manual to the end is a nice touch, recalling a traditional treasure map design. I had to select the page featuring 6277 Imperial Trading Post for photography as it is by far my favourite Pirates set, so I am pleased to see it receive an entire page here!
The Completed Model
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Pirate's torso is brand new, featuring a striped blue shirt and leather belt design on the front and back. His head makes use of a familiar print but the beard is now black rather than reddish brown as it has been in previous years. The same design appears in 60097 City Square, a review of which is coming soon.
A small island occupies the majority of the 24-pieces in the set, consisting of a barrel and a small palm tree placed on a 6x6 tan base. The tree uses a couple of Technic components to form the stem which I like, although this construction method is not at all faithful to the palm trees in the original sets. A dark bluish grey shark with an opening mouth offers some opposition for the pirate, who is also accompanied by a boat which is complete with a stylised Jolly Roger.
The range of accessories is impressive, including a trans-yellow gem, a cutlass, a bottle, four gold coins and a gold ingot! I was delighted to find that the gold bar and coins are chrome rather than pearl gold as the pieces have appeared in both colours previously.
Overall
As an attempt to recapture the magic of the original Pirates theme from 1989 this set fails, predominantly as a result of the almost exclusively modern parts and building techniques used. By my count, only nine of the pieces in the set were available in 1989, including the head, torso and legs of the minifigure! However, for a free promotional item it offers a huge amount of play value and feels like a high quality product.
The packaging is excellent and I like the small booklet included very much, but the highlight is actually the set itself which is reasonably substantial considering that this is a gift with purchase (GWP). This is an excellent addition to any Pirates collection and I absolutely recommend it to all fans of the theme.
This is available in the UK and Europe with £50/€75 purchases at LEGO stores or LEGO S@H, although you may wish to be quick as this kind of promotional item usually runs out very quickly. It will be available in North America from the 1st of August.
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27 comments on this article
I like it and really enjoy these throw-back sets..
I love the torso print and the chrome gold pieces.
I'd love to be able to get this, I love just about anything Pirate (the exception is Duplo and that 4+ junk). Looks like a cool little set. But the flag, what is going on with that flag? Why can't they stick to the simple and classic design rather than these childish, cartoon looking elements?
I miss the old Lego palm trees. Does anyone know why they don't do them that way anymore?
@captcrouton I think the problem with the old palm leaves was that they broke too easily just behind the connector part.
Lol, comparing the new outpost with the old one (1992), the 6277 leaves the new one in a very bad place. Not to mention the Barracuda.
I agree with the sentiment that this set is trying too hard to look like the classics. That said, it still looks like a lot of fun. Too bad all promo items didn't come in that type of packaging.
When is this coming to the States?
@teal93mr2 The review says starting August 1st for US buyers.
i love it,
im waiting for mine to join thee last year astronaut
Cute little set and i love the packaging as well. Regarding old palm trees, leaves were breaking at connection points indeed and trunk pieces were cracking as well (making them useful only as flower pots when cracked)
I can't tell you how happy it makes me that the new sharks have printed eyes! That's great progress in my eyes. If LEGO "humans" and horses have printed eyes, why shouldn't other LEGO animals? I hope one day we get new LEGO parrots and monkeys with printed eyes as well.
It kind of surprises me that we don't yet have LEGO octopuses with printed eyes, since you'd think it'd be as simple as printing a pair of 1x1 round tiles and sticking them on the existing LEGO octopus... The octopuses in the new City and Pirates sets just use transparent 1x1 round plates as eyes. I guess differently-colored eyes of any kind are an improvement on plain old hollow eye sockets, though.
Surprisingly, the new head with the black beard was included in my 60066-1: Swamp Police Starter Set, for the Police tiny hovercraft's pilot, instead of the reddish brown beard. Although the picture on the box seems to show the old head for this minifig.
Did someone also notice that?
Nice review and cute classic pirate set btw, i should quickly prepare a new order on Lego Shop :).
The set looks like it is worth the order.
Yeah, the set looks really brilliant. I hope these pop up online.
Don't get me wrong... I'm getting this. Have always loved the Pirates theme. BUT I wish they just used some of the older pieces. Give me the original shark. Original pirate flag and an old school Pirate fig. Like I said I like this and I'm getting it, but my mind would have been blown if they used older pieces. The flag is the biggest let down.
What's the point of a classic pirate minifigure if it's not classic? It's the same styling as all the others in this reboot. The spaceman one actually had the same everything except for the helmet, even the robot was styled similarly.
Cool little set and look forward to getting it in August here in the states. Thanks for the review! Really enjoyed getting a closer look at it.
This is the opposite of the space set from last year, that set did a great good at being classic but it didn't have much too it, this set has a lot do it but it is in no way classic other than the coins maybe. In a way this set reminds me of the junior pirate set we got this year and I think the two sets would go together well. Anyway great review CapnRex101 now just need to find something to buy which is not that easy as everything I want comes out on the 1st august.
Nice little set, particularly as a freebie, but as others are saying, this ain't classic!
I can forgive the modern shark as breaking out the old mould probably wasn't an option, and the tree too, though slightly less as I'm sure the trunk parts are still current or at least they were not all so long ago.
But the printing on the pirate, torso and face, and on the flag aren't remotely close to classic! It's a brand new pirate set, in keeping with the current range, packaged as classic. That's just plain wrong! Especially when the space set last year did honour the classic logo. If the torso and flag were truly classic I'd love it.
Lego has to start re-releasing classic sets..just saying. Make it a theme!
Like Darthbricks, the only thing that really, really annoys me is the 'juniorized' flag. But anyway, it seems to be such a pretty little set!
@zipforbananas The classic shark mold was included as recent as this year in Juniors set 10679-1 Pirate Treasure Hunt | http://brickset.com/sets/10679-1/Pirate-Treasure-Hunt . That's also where the pirate flag print comes from. Seems odd they didn't just use the updated flag that's in the regular pirate sets released this year - I'm going to say our castaway hadn't an official flag with him and painted that one by hand using his skivvies and the now empty bottle of squid ink.
It seems to me that you are imagining a purpose behind these sets without asking what LEGO intended the purpose to be.
To me, the real value in the sets are the booklets showing a brief history of space / pirate sets (And did you notice that the booklets are sewn together - not stapled. I believe this is the first time I've seen this.).
As for the sets themselves, the minifigure in the space set is pretty close to the original classic space man and the robot is nothing special. For the Pirate set, the minifigure and most of the other items are new or very recent.
So what's the purpose of these sets? I don't know but it seems that they are a little classic, a little new and a nice little history lesson.
How did these sets get their names? The Classic Space Minifigure set is pretty accurately named but the Classic Pirate Minifigure set is misleadingly named as the minifigure is more new than classic.
By the way, the Pirate set does not seem to be available in the US and I do not see any on ebay yet. If it's like the space set, the US will be running a couple of months behind Europe. The July freebie on the US LEGO.com site is a pretty cool looking space vehicle (that looks similar to the lunar rover) with what looks to be a fairly new space man with gold visor, etc.
@infoman7 - The purpose of the set is to recall, celebrate and pay homage to the original Pirates line just as the Classic Space exclusive did last year. That set was more successful in achieving that goal than this Pirates one in my opinion.
I mentioned towards the end of the review that the set will not be available in the US until August.
I love these trow-back sets like the space one.
Regarding the shark... pretty sure the shark in 10679-1 Pirate Treasure Hunt and this set is the exact same thing, just this set has printed eyes (though some people reported getting printed eye versions in 10679 too). Neither set contains the actually old shark mold... it's similar, but not exactly the same. I know because I have one of each.
I agree on the palm tree comments. Though "old" palm leaves (small version) were used in the last pirates line in 2009, so the lack of that piece in this wave is probably a design decision. 70411 Treasure island does include one, it's just not on the actual "palm tree" (which may be a banana tree in that set anyway). I do wish they'd bring back the old trunk pieces, that's the part I miss.