I've always loved pirates. I loved Pirates of the Caribbean as a kid. I wasn't around for the original Pirates sets from the 80's and 90's, but always looked at them in awe. I finally got the chance to experience the Pirates theme with this set. It's one of my favorite sets of all time. The number of details and intricacy and care put into the build is incredible. The fact that it transforms from an island to a ship just adds to the value. The minifigs are excellent, I love Redbeard's hook hand. Parrots, pigs, crabs, etc- so many animals. I love the coral under the ship as well, and all the hidden details and Easter eggs that you will have to discover if you build this for yourself. I'm so glad I decided to get this over the Stranger Things set. Looks wonderful in either the ship or island form. The set also looks huge for 200$, especially when compared to other sets such as the Cantina while in the island form. My only gripe with the set is it's hard to access some of the interior and some parts fall off quite easily, particularly the palm trees which will break apart from the slightest touch. This is more of a display model, so I can forgive it in that regard.

Pros:

• Large variety of parts
• Impressive size
• Tons of detail
• Great minifigs
• Tons of animals and accessories
• Fun build experience
• Great box art
• Excellent value

Cons:

• Palm trees are very fragile
• Could use a few more minifigs
• A lot of the interior is inaccessible

Overall 9.6/10

Pre-Release Thoughts

I wasn't very interested in this set upon the time of its reveal. I thought i was just another IDEAS set and I also didn't have much space in my collection. My birthday happened though, and I decided that this was the one big set I wanted.

Build Experience

I definitely had a great time building this model. The strings were not a problem, thankfully, because I know we all HATE string in LEGO sets. The strings are studded, making for better connections, and you get an extra long and short strings. The only thing I had a problem with was the rigging. Those large pieces were a PAIN.

Model

The model is one of those large display and play models. I can see a small kid having a blast with this set because of the fun interior of the ship and I can see someone putting this up on display for large stature and vibrant colors. It's a sturdy model as long as you're careful with the masts.

The island build is strong, using many of the large curved pieces in tan to represent sand. There are plenty of details on the water, like rocks and a couple of crabs. There are 3 coconut trees located on the island, using minifigure head pieces in medium nougat to represent the coconuts.

The sand area has many details packed on top of it, like the remains of a statue, reminiscent of older LEGO sets. When the pirate ship is removed, you get a clearer look at the area. A lot of wood is still remaining, and one part of the ship remains intact. There is a balcony near the coconut trees with bright orange flowers hanging off of it. The wall of the pirate ship that remains is right above a stairway that leads to more sand.

The pirate ship itself is split into three pieces. The back of the ship has the captain's cabin and the kitchen underneath. The captain's cabin has a fancy chair, cleverly using the candle pieces in gold for arm rests. It also has a chest and a bed which can be lifted and put on the wall. The kitchen below has a furnace and a cutting board with a fish on it. The top of this section has a couple of crates and the ship's wheel. When attached to the island, a wooden board is hung off of the back of the ship that holds the ship's wheel. Along with that, the windows are boarded up and vines are coming out of the ship. Additionally, the rudder is placed as a door to the kitchen, which can be replaced with a wooden window when the ship is being rebuilt.

The middle section has the largest sail placed on it. The mast goes on the center of the deck, along with boxes and barrels. Stairs are placed on this section, which lead to the ship's wheel. When on the island, a prison cell is places in between the stairs which hold a skeleton, quite a grim feature in this otherwise lighthearted and fun set. Only one of the rigging pieces is places when on the island, while the other one can be attached when the boat is getting off of the island. Both of them are attached to the sides and the crow's nest. When put on the island, the interior becomes an inn named Jose's Inn. Bottles are placed on a table and a dispenser is placed alongside them. On the other side, closer to the ship's kitchen, two beds are placed, colored red and light blue. Eight windows are located on the sides of the ship. They are meant for cannons, but the ship only contains three.

The bow of the ship is attached to the island with ball joints, cleverly disguised as parts of rocks. They give this section an angle when displayed with the other parts of the ship. Inside, we can find the toilet and a small bucket. The anchor is placed on the deck. The ship is a yellow figure with a recolor of the Aquaman hair in yellow. Four yellow bendable joints attach to it. Another mast is attached to this section, and stair are placed to allow access to a balcony at the front of the ship. The rigging pieces are both attached to the crow's nest on top.

When on the island, the sails are rolled up and barrels are put on the wooden docks. Many sails and ropes are not used while the boat is stranded on the island.

I edited this model to include more cannons, which is a fairly easy modification.

Value

This has decent value. It feels like $200, although the price per part ratio isn't spectacular. Definitely worth it though, for the volume of things and for the playability of the model.

Minifigures

The standout figure of this set is certainly the iconic Captain Redbeard. His red bear still stands out and all the printing on him looks crisp and clean. He has a peg leg and a hook for an arm, and also wields a sword. Quartermaster Riggings comes with a new torso print and a buccaneer hat. He holds a map and a sword. Lady Anchor is also included, and her red outfit looks especially nice. She comes with a machete and a revolver.

Port and Starboard are basically color-swapped versions of each other. Port has blue stripes on his torso with a red beanie and pants. Starboard is the exact opposite. Both wield a musket and a sword.

Robin Loot uses a new buccaneer hat and hair combo, her defining feature. She is equipped with two revolvers. Jack “Dark Shark” Doubloons is included with short legs, implying that he may be a child. He has a satchel and a telescope as accessories.

Finally, Tattooga is present, named after the tattoos all over his body. He has a sword.

Pros:

• Gorgeous colors
• Great ambience
• Value is above average
• High play value for a large set
• Build can convert
• Fun build experience
• Interesting building techniques

Cons:

• Pricey
• Fragile masts
• Hard to build for younger fans

Overall

The set exceeded my expectations for it. The figures use a simplistic but nice design and the model is complex yet still fun to play in. Hardly any critiques with this one, and I recommend this for any big LEGO fans.

- Christmaskingcool

cette boite est magnifique, le bateau est entiérement aménagé et l'ile rend très bien même sans le bateau dessus.

Seul point négatif c'est le fait qu'il faille changer pas mal de choses pour passer du bateau à la baie.

(il y a aussi quelque références que je ne vais pas divulguer ici.)

This was one of the most fun LEGO sets that I have ever built. It has tons of easter egg throwbacks to the original Pirates theme, and was an interesting and creative build. My daughter absolutely loved building it with me, and it has appeal to both adult and child fans of LEGO (although it's probably too challenging for younger kids without adult assistance, since parts of the build are somewhat complicated).

I just finished building this, the largest and most complex Lego set that I own. There's honestly very little I can say about it that hasn't already been said, but I need to tell someone about it, so I'm writing this review anyway.

This set is incredible, and building it and playing with it are as close as I've come to recapturing the joy and wonder that Lego brought to my childhood. I have many smaller Pirates sets going back to the late 80s and early 90s, including the original Imperial Flagship (6271) and Trading Post (6277), both formidable sets in their own right. But the twin crown jewels of the original Pirates line were the Black Seas Barracuda (6285) and the Skull's Eye Schooner (6286), enormous and intricately detailed clipper ships with close to 1,000 pieces each (a staggering amount to an 11-year-old). I never had any sets approaching their level of awesome.

Until now.

I heard about this set right after it passed through the Ideas approval process, and I did my best to keep an eye out for it to be released. Unfortunately, the initial stock was gone in a flash, and I was relegated to reading about other people's experiences with it. Despite the mountains of hype that reviewers piled onto this set, I remained cautiously optimistic about it. But the minute I unboxed it and opened the (quite substantial) instruction manual, I knew this set was the real deal.

Putting this set together was a very rewarding experience. For as large and detailed as this set is, most of it is very solidly built with firm connections. I enjoyed the clever build techniques used to achieve the ship's form, like the angled walls of the hull and aft sections. I feel like a lot of thought went into creating something that straddled the line between being realistic and paying homage to a bygone Lego era. Some features genuinely surprised me, such as the way the aft wall swings down to allow access to the galley and captain's quarters.

I also appreciated the extensive attention that the designers paid to detail. The captain's quarters are packed full of interesting Lego rarities, like a fold-away bunk, an armchair, a plaster bust, and so on. The island also has plenty of appropriate detail strewn about: crates of food, barrels full of tools and weapons, a partially-sunken idol, etc. But, as odd as it may seem, the detail that stands out the most to me? The bottles. This set comes with an array of minifigure-scale bottles. This feels to me like a nod to the fact that this set is geared towards an older audience, because it would be a stretch (for adults, anyway) to assume they're for anything other than holding rum. For better or worse, drunken debauchery is a central element of the pirate genre, and it would have felt like a cheap sanitization if the set hadn't included some reference to it.

Speaking of pirates, the set comes with a suitable army of minifigures. Some of them are clear call-backs to earlier sets. The new Captain Redbeard is essentially a High-Definition version of the old one. The Broadside Twins are obviously updated versions of the generic moustachioed, striped shirt-wearing pirates of the old days. Other figures are new and unique, like Tattooga and Robin Loot, and this mismatched band of rogues fits together perfectly, like one big happy, dysfunctional family.

But this island set is massive, and I felt it could use a few more inhabitants, so I ordered a few loose pirate minifigures from sets spanning the years to join the fun. I appear to have overlooked the fact that Lego at some point produced a pirate cook, so I guess I'm going to have to track him down. After all, what's a shipwreck tavern without someone slinging drinks?

And somehow, despite the incredible detail and playability of the island, this set still has more to offer. The set comes with the necessary parts to transform the shipwreck into a seaworthy vessel, and the instructions to do so. I haven't tried to do this myself yet, but the end result is somewhat of a modernized version of the original Black Seas Barracuda. The decision to incorporate a second model into this set, and for that model to be a re-imagining of such a pivotal, historic set, was truly a stroke of genius.

Truth be told, there are only a couple of extremely minor things that I think could have been improved upon. Some areas of the ship are very delicately put together, and extreme care should be taken when playing with them. The ones I noted right off the bat were the crow's nests (merely affixing a minifigure to one of them is enough force to accidentally break off a part) and the exterior walkway directly outside the captain's quarters (it is held on only by a pair of technics pins, and I can foresee those becoming bent during play).

Otherwise, I can find no fault with this set. It's costly, yes, but I genuinely feel that it delivers more than enough value to justify its price tag. This set represents Lego at its very best: iconic imagery, exquisite detail, endless playability.