Lego Pirates

Pirates is a Lego theme launched in 1989 featuring pirates, soldiers, islanders and sailing ships. The theme has been seen in minifigure scale, Duplo and the 4+ theme.

The original Pirates sets included the first Lego minifigures without the traditional head with simply two eyes and a smile; they had a variety of different printed features including hair, eyepatches and facial hair.

Alongside the Pirates released for 1989 were Governor Broadside's blue-coated troops who were to fight the Pirates. These forces were based upon the French navy and marines of the colonial era, being known as "Imperial Soldiers" by fans, though explicitly identified as "Governors" on page 16 of the 1990 American catalog. A comic book entitled "The Gold Medallion" was also released in that year, as well as a Ladybird Book series. From 1992-93, the Governors were gradually replaced by the red-coated Imperial Guards, while existing Governors sets that continued in production were considered part of the Guards. Both the Governors and the Imperial Guards used two crossed cannons under a crown as their emblem.

A sub-theme loosely based on a Polynesian concept, the Islanders, was released for 1994. For 1996 Lego changed the entire "feel" of the Pirates line and made it Spanish-influenced. This meant the Imperial Guards were replaced by the Imperial Armada, heavily based on the Spanish Armada. Along with this change, the pirates were also given new faces. For 1997...
Read More