This set is a great one for anybody! A relatively large set with 5 minifigures including the skeleton. This is relatively good for price and a good pricetag would be about £75. Interactive with the ability to go around the rollercoaster. You also build it from one side to the other so you can easily tell how far through you are. With the 1000 pieces, it gives you a nice amount of time whilst being a long build but not too long. Overall, this is a great set.

My son "got me this set for Father's Day." I'm sure you can read between the lines on the intent there.

Anyway...An overall great set. I love the roller coasters sets since they offer a level of movement and interaction not found in static sets. It also has the added bonus of being a 3 in 1 set, which gives you diversity in the parts list. It also is quite a high piece count when compared to other 3 in 1 sets.

The buildability of this is pretty straight forward and not too advanced. It is above my 5 year old son, but can be done in the posted age group or even a bit earlier. Lining up the tracks and ensuring the elevations of the various posts are correct may not be overly intuitive for younger builders, so some help may be warranted. We all try to follow the instructions, of course, but things happen and the problem solving for why it's not quite lining up may be a little different than what we are used to on most sets. Don't be deterred, it's probably not a huge deal.

There are a few unique parts that you don't commonly see. The tracks, obviously are the main parts, but there are also jail doors, large plates, and pieces that tend to be common in the pirates collections: arches, rock formations, and the classic white and yellow color scheme. As pictured, there's also a wrecked galleon that flanks the track with the classic red and white pirate sails. As a kid, I mainly collected the pirate sets (circa 1992-2000) so this set hits a bit close to home and is a lot of fun. It also comes with an operable cannon as well.

As mentioned, playability is pretty entertaining. It's not automated like the Expert set 10261, so you have to manually push the train around. No biggie for me based on the size and price. There are a good amount of little details here and there that make is feel like an amusement park ride and given the free space in the middle, there's some good "blank canvas" area to work with. Examples include adding the underwater scene from the Diving Yacht set 6022, or adding elevated pathways that cross above or below the tracks, or a "water feature" that ties into the water aspects of the set. It's a good amount of space in the middle that allows for flexibility in your customization if you choose.

Overall a great set! It's a happy medium to those who want a roller coaster set without going bonkers with the Expert set (10261). It can take up some space, but you can gain that back a little with captalizing on the hollow center. Also, for those pirate fans out there, it's a must-have in my opinion. Cool throwback to the Legoland days that can still be easily integrated into city and fairground sets. Or, if you're like me and still have some other pirate sets, perhaps a pirate themed section of your world or a "pirate land" in your overall amusement park build.

Recommended!

This set is not only a neat build for children, but a decent collection piece for Adults as well.

First off, the Minifigures:

Pirate: The printing on his torso is rather simple looking, but he has printing on the back also, and his head is excellent, although unfortunately not double sided. His hat fits his nature perfectly. The only improvement could have have been dual molded legs showing shorts or the like.

Male rider: The torso design is rather interesting as the sweatshirt goes over a lime green unbuttoned shirt; this design also continues on the back. His head is my favorite of all those included in this set as it features a scared expression for the ride. No printing on legs.

Female rider: This minifigure features interesting striped shirt. The head is somewhat confusing as the reverse side seems to show her sleeping instead of scared or excited. I never heard of anybody sleeping on a rollercoaster. Maybe she is closing her eyes in excitement. I don't know.

Child rider: He has a sleeveless shirt on complete with the number 39 on the front and back along with a basketball symbol on the front. He wears a confident grin with freckles, but due to his hat, does not feature another expression.

Skeleton: I did not even bother assembling it because it is no different from others.

Minifigure verdict: These figures are excellent, but I would have like to have seen two or so ride attendants other than the pirate.

Build: The rollercoaster ride is the only one I built as the other two looked uninteresting. The parts come in unnumbered bags which makes it difficult to find pieces, but the 3 in 1 feature makes numbered bags impossible. It took me 1-2 hours to complete with a couple minor interruptions. It is surprisingly stable and I can carry it around without fear of breaking. My favorite aspect of the build is the ingenious build of the crooked pirate ship. The splash function is also neat and works fine. The ride itself with the (somewhat) new track pieces is very smooth.

I have a couple complaints: FIrst off, my set was missing a 1x2 white plate, which was frustrating, but I improvised. Also, the place where the riders are to embark is rather small--only 1-2 studs of room to stand and wait to get on--which I think could have (and can be) improved. Also, a chain carrying the cars up the hill would have also been welcome.

Overall: I completely liked this set and look forward to more like it!

The large colourful box displays the main roller coaster on the front with smaller images of the secondary builds, and all 3 builds are pictured in more detail on the back.

The contents (900+ pieces) come in several unnumbered bags which surprised me, I'm used to larger sets (such as Modular Buildings, which come under the Creator Expert Theme) having numbered bags matching each step of the build.

There is a single large instruction manual which covers all 3 builds, with advertising pages between builds for some of the other Creator Sets.

The parts in each of the unnumbered bags did not seem to be particularly grouped together, I'm pretty sure that different body parts for the 5 figures were mixed across bags - so the starting point is one big pile of pieces from all the bags. Pre-sorting the parts in whatever scheme suits you may reduce the amount of time you spend searching the pile for individual small parts, especially in the earlier stages where the pile of parts is larger.

Onto the builds - the main Pirate Themed Roller Coaster first:

The Pirate Roller Coaster

We start with the 5 minifigures. There is a pirate figure for the set who has an eye patch and a good beard (there being only 1 pirate was a little disappointing*), 2 adult figures and a child (short legs) with a ticket. The 5th figure is a skeleton, whose legs are more solid than I remember from pirate sets in days gone by, he can stand unsupported, and carries a golden goblet for this build.

The roller coaster has 1 separate mini-build, a balloon cart, with 2 balloons (1 red, 1 lime green) and a couple of gas canisters. This is a simple but effective build.

Now for the roller coaster itself. We start with the main Fort building, which is built up with a good variety of parts and colours, which look really very good and are quite reminiscent of the Imperial Guard Buildings from the Pirate Theme sets from the early 90's.

The Fort has a control room and 3 battlement sections, and there is a single cannon which can be moved to any of those battlements.

The use of a propeller blade as a turn style is quite clever, there is a palm tree, a parrot and pennants decorating the fort. There isn't really room for a minifig to stand behind the ticket booth window without getting themselves run over by the carriages though.

The build then proceeds counter clockwise around the track - the first part of which includes a water splash feature - with the brick block tipped up a small technic bar protrudes through the track, and the carriage knocks it down to lift 2 water splash pieces, which is kind of fun, though it might have been nice if the balance weight was enough to reset it automatically after the carriage has passed.

The track goes up to a rocky pillar and around, and at the top of the slope we build 2 halves of a wrecked pirate ship. The front and back sections are built separately and clipped at an angle to the support pillar. The builds are simple but quite detailed, and the resulting shipwreck is excellent.

The skeleton with his golden goblet, and a crate with some treasure is at the base of the half turn.

The track turns back around and goes up to a second pillar. This pillar has a brick built skull on technic pins allowing it to pivot out of the way as the carriages pass. It wasn't quite loose enough to consistently drop back down every time though.

The track base then completes its loop, but before we add the last of the track, there is one final mini-build, an orange octopus (albeit with only 3 visible legs) hangs from the pillar with the skull, positioned below the track once that is added.

The final part of the build is the 3 carriages, which are built to look like a shark (swimming around the track) - the front carriage has a snout, teeth and eyes, the middle carriage has an upward fin, and the rear carriage has a tail fin. The carriages clip together easily enough, but are solidly connected, and the whole 'shark' clips on the tracks easily but again quite solidly.

And the build is done. From the top of the slope, the carriages race down, through the water splash, up and through the fort to the back corner. The arches of the fort through which the carriages go are only just tall enough - a classic pirate captain with his taller hat was getting it knocked off as the carriage bounced up the rise after the water splash and through the arch - so definitely no standing for anyone but the kid!

The carriages have to be pushed up the back slope, through the skull and around the bend, before racing down the slope again, which is all part of the fun.

Overall this is an excellent roller coaster, and much more affordable than the big 10261 Roller Coaster. The pirate elements all look excellent, and the ride functions really well.

* For my build, the lone pirate was joined by some classic pirates and some Sky Pirates (from Ninjago season 6!)

Dismantling the roller coaster, and some basic sorting leaves us ready for the second build..

The Skull Ride

The 5 minifigures get a few adjustments - the pirate has some kind of stick (not really sure exactly what it is), the skeleton gets a cutlass, and the kid gets the gold cup with probably some sugary dessert.

There are 2 separate mini builds for this model - a small island with the cannon and a palm tree (different design to that on the roller coaster); and a more substantial ticket booth and control room, with some nice decorative elements, including 2 mini birds, a lamp, and the skeleton.

The ride itself starts with a base piece, then we build the frame for the round track, with the half barrel as a sort of handle, and mini ball and socket joints as the pivot elements. The track is attached to the base with through the b&s joints allowing it to pivot left-right.

Next there is the central core, which has a base with an axle through the middle, and topped with flats. The upper section builds up a rocky block, which can rotate on the axle from the base. The rocky block has a rather good white skull face, but the instructions and construction have the face at the back, and building it up doesn't reveal the face until the end! Before we get to the reveal, there is an arm with a three fingered hand attached to one side of the head block, and a double hinged arm with a tow-bar-ball-clip on the end, attached to the other side - at first this just hangs down because we need to build the carriages to which the arm is attached. The front and back carriages have forward and backward facing seats for 1 person each, with fairly minimal decoration. The middle carriage has a small ball joint to which the hinged arm is attached once the carriages are mounted on the track. It is only here that the white skull face is revealed in the instructions!

The Skull Head centre rotates taking the carriages round and around. The track tips left and right as the carriages circle from side to side, but the ball and socket joint pivots are maybe a little tight, as the track frame generally needs a little extra nudge to tip from side to side.

Overall this is a pretty good second build, the ride is simple but fun - the skull head is excellent, the mini builds are also very good.

There are a fairly large number of pieces left over, after this build.

Dismantling the skull ride, and some basic sorting leaves us ready for the third and final build..

The Ship Ride

This time around, the pirate gets a cutlass, the skeleton gets a pink jewel and the kid gets a camera.

There are 3 separate mini builds for this model. First is the cannon mounted on a pair of wheels with a flag/banner. The second is what may be a small concessions stand with a parrot on top. The third is a combined ticket booth, control room, entry barrier and ballon stand - which is a fair bit to squeeze onto a 4x10 plate!

The ride itself is a thin wide frame, with an access platform with steps and railings, and backward support base with bars for clips (to be attached a little later!). Building further out either side we start a small pillar on each side and the frame extends beyond those with clips at the ends. The pillars on either side are built up further, and decorative elements added - (water plants, fish, and in this build the red crab has the bottle of rum).

Next we build a semi-circular arch frame using 2 of the quarter turn track pieces. This clips to the back of the frame, and supports 2 water splash/flame elements and the skeleton at the top of the arch.

Next comes the track, which is interesting - the base U of the track is simple enough, but the upper side track pieces do not attach directly to the base U pieces. We build 2 support frames with clips at either end, and one each is attached to either of the base frame. The right upper track piece has a pivoting mechanism (used to hold and release the carriages) at the top, and a round brick with clips, clipped onto a lower rung. This brick attaches to the top of the right support pillar, and the support frame is clipped near the top of the track piece - this leaves the upper track piece touching, but not directly connected to the lower track piece.The left upper track piece is similar but simpler - connecting but not attaching in the same way.

Finally we build the carriages, which for this ride form a mini pirate ship - with a small mast on the middle carriage (still with room for a minifig), and the steering wheel on the back carriage. Mounting the carriages on the track completes the build.

There is a final couple of instruction pages to show us how this ride works. Pushing the carriages up to the top of the right hand track, allows the back carriage to be loosely hooked by the pivot mechanism on the end of that track. This holds the carriages up the side. Pulling back the flag on this pivot, releases the carriages which shoot down the track and up the other side getting a decent way up the slope - then back and forth a few times before coming to rest at the bottom.

Even though the track pieces are not directly connected, the carriages run smoothly with no signs of catching at all.

Overall this is an excellent third build, better than the skull ride in my opinion. The mini builds are good, although the refreshment counter is a little ambiguous in exactly what it is.

Conclusion

This is a great set, and well worth the money at full price (readily available with good discounts too). All 3 rides are fun with multiple play features, and they are all relatively easy to build with very few complicated techniques. The Pirate theme is carried through the 3 builds very well, but more than 1 pirate figure would have been nice. It provides all the basics for further roller coaster and other fairground ride creations. I can easily see multiple copies of this set being bought in order to build extended roller coaster tracks, or just to have all of the rides built at the same time!

Highly Recommended!

Additional thoughts on the track connections from the Ship Ride

The way the track pieces are connected but not attached in the ship ride, and yet run perfectly smoothly leads to some interesting possibilities for connecting different track pieces in more unusual geometries. For example, connecting the quarter turn track piece to the bottom slope track piece would give a banked curve. I look forward to seeing peoples creative geometries for these new roller coaster tracks.