Random set of the day: Whitecap Bay
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 4194 Whitecap Bay, released in 2011. It's one of 14 Pirates of the Caribbean sets produced that year. It contains 745 pieces and 6 minifigs, and its retail price was US$79.99/£71.99.
It's owned by 3960 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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43 comments on this article
It's pirates!
It's castle!
Just add a purple classic spaceperson, rerelease, and PROFIT!
I forgot that the POTC sets we’re eligible for RSOTD now. I’ve never seen the fourth film so I’ve really got no idea what’s going on here. And are those... mermaids? With tentacles?
@bananaworld said:
"
It's pirates!
It's castle!
Just add a purple classic spaceperson, rerelease, and PROFIT!"
Hate to break it to you, but that's supposed to be a lighthouse. But yeah, it does look pretty castle-y.
Interesting how they used the magnifying glass there. I guess they were trying to intensify the light? It can't have made that much of a difference. Also, there doesn't appear to be too many rocks there, so perhaps they're just trying to warn boats about the angry mermaids?
@brickengineeringdude said:
"Interesting how they used the magnifying glass there. I guess they were trying to intensify the light? It can't have made that much of a difference. Also, there doesn't appear to be too many rocks there, so perhaps they're just trying to warn boats about the angry mermaids?"
The magnifying glass somewhat restricts the direction of the light, creating the illusion of a focused beam which matches the searchlight from the movie.
@Monopoly said:
"I forgot that the POTC sets we’re eligible for RSOTD now. I’ve never seen the fourth film so I’ve really got no idea what’s going on here. And are those... mermaids? With tentacles?"
So in On Stranger Tides, it is a plotpoint that you need the tear of a mermaid combined with the water of the Fountain of Youth in order to obtain immortality, I think, or at least have the effects of youthfulness. If you don't have the tear, you'll actually die. So naturally, Jack, who has been captured by Blackbeard, is caught up in these adventures because he had the map at the end of At World's End. So as a side-mission, they go to Whitecap Bay to capture a mermaid and force her to cry when they get close to the fountain, because, of course, it only works if the tears are fresh.
I didn't hate the movie. It was nice to be a bit free from the really complicated double-triple-quadruple-crossing from Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, although it did lose a lot of the charm since Will and Elizabeth weren't present in the story in addition to most of the other side characters because they either died in an offscreen fight with Blackbeard, or were sucked into the bottle Blackbeard trapped the Black Pearl in as part of his collection of ships in bottles. Also, I know it's the 1700s but like, that ain't no Florida I've ever seen, and I live here. Nary a cliff nor cave to my knowledge. Regardless, I still found it to be fun and I think the romance between the Clergyman and the mermaid is cute. Does kind of make you question if he now questions everything he believed though because, I mean, she'd probably be considered a demon. In fact, she kind of is. The mermaids are like actual mermaids and lure sailors to devour them, not your typical Disney kind, which is kind of ironic.
Dead Man Tell No Tales though, I had fun with it in the first viewing, when I saw it again about a year later, woof... and it tied in more with the Will and Elizabeth plot since their son Henry got himself mixed up with Jack and there's a whole mystical adventure to remove all the curses of the sea! It was probably best to leave it at a trilogy, but you know, if there's money to be made...
"The searchers all say she'd have made whitefish, err, whitecap bay, if they put 15 more miles behind her"
Some of these Pirates sets weren't half bad, you know?
Pharaoh's Quest and Alien Conquest: Guess we're not far from an RSOTD ourselves!
And first POTC set.
Good, good, good set with an excellent selection of figs - so glad I was able to pick this up just as I was emerging from my "dark ages". This set has long since been disassembled but the figs all live in Barracuda Bay now.
I loved this set so much as a kid! The mermaid minifigures are still incredible and definitely my favorite part. This is one of my only 2010/2011 sets that has been disassembled since like a year after I got it, but it was a ton of fun to play with.
Just for the beautiful black runabouts, I had to get two copies of this set.
Aye, Whitecap Bay!
Someone had to say it...
@Monopoly :
Generally speaking, PotC1 is considered to be the best of the bunch. They weren't trying to make a blockbuster smash hit, which is part of the reason why it ended up being a blockbuster smash hit. With all of the sequels, they kept trying to go bigger than before. PotC2-3, at least, built off of the first movie and told a cohesive story (fun fact: I used to work for a guy who builds small wooden boats, and I found out later that he supplied three boats for the 2nd and 3rd movies). But they'd also drawn that story to a conclusion. For the fourth movie, they bought the rights to a book called On Stranger Tides and basically shoe-horned Jack Sparrow et al into the story. The result is that there's a mix of returning PotC characters, and new characters who don't really feel like they belong in a PotC movie. PotC5 went even further in that direction, which is a large part of the reason that they've been looking to reboot the whole franchise for so long.
When I watch all five movies together, I don't even have to really pay attention to the first three to keep up with the pace of the story anymore, but I have a hard time remembering what happened in the last two just because they never made much of an impact on me.
They appear to be just regular mermaids, albeit with humongous tails. There are no tentacles, but they definitely aren't friendly, and I can't remember if they had some sort of whiplike weapon, or if they attacked with their bare hands.
@MCLegoboy :
Since you largely spoiled the plot of the entire movie, you don't get immortality from the PotC Fountain of Youth. You steal all the years that the other person could have had left in their life. The only way to obtain immortality from this would be to find a new sucker ever few decades who you could convince to take part in the ritual, for which you would need to obtain a new mermaid tear each time. It's not clear if the tear really needs to be fresh, as the PotC pirates tend to be an extremely superstitious lot, and may just be speculating about that the same way that Barbossa's crew argue that they shouldn't take chances in PotC1, and should spill all of Will Turner's blood, just to be sure.
Philip was the clergyman (and one of the characters who felt decidedly not-PotC), and his fate is ambiguous. The last we see of him, he'd received a mortal wound, appeared to have been healed by Syrena the mermaid, and then dragged underwater by the same with no further explanation. Maybe she took him to safety, maybe they borrowed from Splash (another Disney property) and she could make him capable of living underwater with her, maybe he drowned and she just kept his corpse as a trophy, or maybe he shared the fate of all the sailors rowing around Whitecap Bay. I suspect that she _intended_ to save him, but we don't know that she succeeded, and we don't know how she was trying to do so.
‘He’s a Pirate’ just popped into my head.
This looks like a good afternoon...
This was honestly a great set. very solidly built, even though it has a play function where it comes apart.
And those black row boats are awesome. Especially if my Blacktron want to go rowing.
It's a nice build for a castle/pirate team. I didn't care much for the movie.
This was the first set to bring me out of my dark age- a present from my wife (who never had a dark age!)
If I recall correctly, there were downloadable instructions to combine this with the London inn set and make a half-decent Port Royale. I wonder if those instructions can even be found anymore.
wow 9 yrs old. A lot of nice parts in this set.
So sorry I didn't get this when it was out.
@PurpleDave said:
"Philip was the clergyman (and one of the characters who felt decidedly not-PotC), and his fate is ambiguous. The last we see of him, he'd received a mortal wound, appeared to have been healed by Syrena the mermaid, and then dragged underwater by the same with no further explanation. Maybe she took him to safety, maybe they borrowed from Splash (another Disney property) and she could make him capable of living underwater with her, maybe he drowned and she just kept his corpse as a trophy, or maybe he shared the fate of all the sailors rowing around Whitecap Bay. I suspect that she _intended_ to save him, but we don't know that she succeeded, and we don't know how she was trying to do so."
Been a long time since I’ve seen the film but I seem to recall that mermaids had the ability to confer underwater breathing on people and rather than being dragged down by Syrena, Philip went with her voluntary as her lover. Of course, that doesn’t preclude the possibility that she kills him, but I think it’s implied that he is her love interest, not her lunch.
@GoldenNinja3000 said:
"I loved this set so much as a kid! The mermaid minifigures are still incredible and definitely my favorite part. "
Funny you say that. As a yellowist, I was very frustrated at the time that the mermaids had fleshy printing on their fish pieces where they meet the human torsos. LEGO would eventually release versions of those parts without the fleshy print, so it turned out OK in the end.
The mermaid figures are great, and the magnifying glass really does focus the light into a tight beam. This was an excellent set.
@Rogue10 said:
"If I recall correctly, there were downloadable instructions to combine this with the London inn set and make a half-decent Port Royale. I wonder if those instructions can even be found anymore."
It was an official instuction at lego.com? Never heard about that. Would be awsome if someone knows more about it!
Great to see a POTC set in RSotD. I had this one, along with a lot of the overall line. Loved the mermaids in this set, I think they were the highlight.
Sets have to be 10 years old or more to qualify, so POTC has just been put into the pot alongside the rest of 2011.
Is this the first 2011 RSotD?
@Wavelength said:
"Sets have to be 10 years old or more to qualify, so POTC has just been put into the pot alongside the rest of 2011."
What is the rule on repeats? How long after it has appeared as the RSotD can a set be featured again? If the answer is not until all other sets have been the RSotD, the pool of available sets will start to skew towards those that have most recently become eligible. Right now, as you point out, that means sets from 2011. So we might be seeing quite some 2011 sets as RSotD depending on what rule(s) of replacement there may be, how many eligible sets remain and the proportion of 2011 sets just added.
As the Black Pearl 4184 was only slightly more expensive with a similar number of pieces this was always going to be a 2nd, or even 3rd choice after the Queen Anne Revenge 4195 for those luckily enough to already have these boats. So glad to see some people do actually own. As for the combined instructions with the London Inn, Lego used to have on-line which is shown in the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2pfH0hwf4E.
@Zander
From what I can tell there are no repeats, so the observations above are correct. Huw provides the formula in the comments of this article: https://brickset.com/article/46368/random-set-of-the-day-analysis
We've had a few non-repeats, from the era where the same set would get different numbers in different markets for whatever reason.
As I think that we've generally had more sets annually over time, new years should be relatively more likely, but with more years in total the average liklihood is lower. Basically, in 2021, 2011 sets have higher odds than 1995 sets, but the odds of getting a 2011 set in 2021 could still be lower than the chances of getting a 1995 set were in 2018. The amount of 1995 sets which are out of the running is also a factor in favour of newer sets.
Hopefully that makes sense. It should be interesting when we reach 2024, since then we'll start seeing 2014 sets from the boom in Lego's popularity following the Lego Movie's success.
I agree with the other people in this thread, the mermaid minifigures are easily the highlight of this set. I am really glad we got that new mermaid tail mold, because the one we had before this set wasn't very good.
@PurpleDave said:
"Aye, Whitecap Bay!
Someone had to say it...
@Monopoly :
Generally speaking, PotC1 is considered to be the best of the bunch. They weren't trying to make a blockbuster smash hit, which is part of the reason why it ended up being a blockbuster smash hit. With all of the sequels, they kept trying to go bigger than before. PotC2-3, at least, built off of the first movie and told a cohesive story (fun fact: I used to work for a guy who builds small wooden boats, and I found out later that he supplied three boats for the 2nd and 3rd movies). But they'd also drawn that story to a conclusion. For the fourth movie, they bought the rights to a book called On Stranger Tides and basically shoe-horned Jack Sparrow et al into the story. The result is that there's a mix of returning PotC characters, and new characters who don't really feel like they belong in a PotC movie. PotC5 went even further in that direction, which is a large part of the reason that they've been looking to reboot the whole franchise for so long."
Pirates 2 and 3 have gone through a bit of a reappraisal in recent years. They hold up very well for the most part. The CGI looks amazing, it’s very tangible and used well. The stories are a bit convoluted but expand the world very well. And both are audacious enough to be serious sometimes. The tonal shifts are very noticeable in today’s lighthearted nothing-is-serious Marvel vs grimdark DC blockbuster landscape. Also, the score is incredible and both films end with 30-minute long,creative, perfectly choreographed, scripted, and filmed, and quite fun action sequences. I personally like Dead Man’s Chest more than the others, but all three are great.
@Rogue10:
Seriously? If I’d known that back then, I would have picked up extra copies...
@Zander:
They did in Splash, with Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks. I don’t remember anything specifically demonstrating that in PotC4, though. But, as I said, every time I watch the last two, I can never remember the plot from the previous viewing, so...
@Yooha:
Well...that depends on what you mean by “random”. The first Ninjago set was a rigged entry, so it would land on the 10th anniversary of the TV series’ premiere. This one is likely natural.
@Zander:
It’s a one-and-done affair. But with over 500 eligible new sets releasing every year, and only 365-366 being selected, the pool will start growing bigger every January 1st, if it hasn’t already. But if the same set was released under multiple set numbers, as was common when minifigs first hit the scene (Europe vs North American set numbers), each is treated as a unique set for RSotD purposes.
@Mr__Thrawn:
My opinion of 2&3 improved once they came out on home video and I was able to watch the special features, where they explain how the backstory ties all three movies together. That’s another point where 4&5 feel lacking, because they got tacked on to the backstory rather than being an integral part from the beginning.
As for CGI, the Kraken looks like extremely fake during the battle at the end of 2. I don’t know if the fault lies with the way they lit the Kraken, but it’s washed out like someone screwed up the contrast setting. It’s really disappointing to see that, because Davy Jones’ head is all CGI except the eyes (I think), and that still looks amazing. The most disappointing thing about those movies, though, is that they never produced a set based on Sao Feng’s Empress.
@CapnRex101 said:
" @brickengineeringdude said:
"Interesting how they used the magnifying glass there. I guess they were trying to intensify the light? It can't have made that much of a difference. Also, there doesn't appear to be too many rocks there, so perhaps they're just trying to warn boats about the angry mermaids?"
The magnifying glass somewhat restricts the direction of the light, creating the illusion of a focused beam which matches the searchlight from the movie."
They actually used the same technique on one of the BIONICLE playsets to create a laser in the Piraka fortress.
An interesting thing I found out last year is you could combine this set with 4193 to create Port Royal!
@Sandinista said:
""The searchers all say she'd have made whitefish, err, whitecap bay, if they put 15 more miles behind her""
Exactly what I was thinking!
@ambr said:
"As the Black Pearl 4184 was only slightly more expensive with a similar number of pieces this was always going to be a 2nd, or even 3rd choice after the Queen Anne Revenge 4195 for those luckily enough to already have these boats. So glad to see some people do actually own. As for the combined instructions with the London Inn, Lego used to have on-line which is shown in the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2pfH0hwf4E.
"
Thanks for linking the video! I always intended to build Port Royal but never got around to it...
My favorite PotC set! The building, the play features, the mermaid minifigures, the accessories, the color scheme - everything's perfect.
@SeekerBear said:
" @Sandinista said:
""The searchers all say she'd have made whitefish, err, whitecap bay, if they put 15 more miles behind her""
Exactly what I was thinking!"
I’m glad you know the song!
Stranger Tides--the only POTC movie I ever went to, and I wasn't a big fan. Honestly, I was dragged to it pretty much.
I’ve never seen these movies, although I did the ride at Tokyo Disneyland (I honestly thought that the real Johnny Depp got a job sitting in the various scenes). Definitely something I need to watch on Disney+.
But I find myself much more excited about this set than the new Ideas set as this looks a lot more like my castle set from the 80’s. What do you people mean it isn’t a castle!!!!
@alfred_the_buttler:
Because it’s not a castle. It’s a lighthouse, done in about the right scale for minifigs (real castle sets tend to be scaled down to something closer to fortified outposts). It’s just a lighthouse from the early colonial days of the Americas, so they weren’t really ready to start making them with sheet metal and I-beams. Whitecap Bay is also remote enough that they wouldn’t waste time and effort on lavish design. So you get a fairly blocky stack of bricks forming a tower consistent with the technology of the day. The fact that it looks like a castle is because that’s pretty much what you’d get with any utilitarian structure that was deemed important enough to not build from wood, but not important enough to sink enough money into that people could really tell you sank money into it.
@BovineBrick @Wavelength @PurpleDave , Thanks for the extra details. It sounds like it wouldn’t be hard to write an algorithm to work out the probability of any given set appearing as RSotD in a given time period (e.g. the probability of a particular set appearing on 1 February 2021 or the probability of it appearing at some point in February 2021). Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do it and don’t want to bother Huw with any data related questions.
@alfred_the_buttler said:
"I’ve never seen these movies, although I did the ride at Tokyo Disneyland (I honestly thought that the real Johnny Depp got a job sitting in the various scenes). Definitely something I need to watch on Disney+."
Random Trivia of the Day: The first PotC film was inspired by a Disney amusement park ride - yes, that way around. Maybe you already knew that :~)