Bon Voyage Buccaneers

[Draykov]

Avast!

Dear LEGO Pirate fans,

Today the burden to bring you sad news rests upon my shoulders. The LEGO Ambassadors have been informed that LEGO Pirates theme will be discontinued by mid 2010. We were told that the new Pirates line wasn't designed to be an ongoing theme this time, so it's only going to be on the shelves until second half next year by when it will disappear. This means there's not a new line designed for LEGO Pirates for 2010. There is some hope that LEGO Pirates might be back one day because the theme did sell rather well.

Share your thoughts and feeling about this sad news in this thread. Your feedback will be relayed to the LEGO Community team by your Classic-Pirates.com ambassador.

- Bonaparte, Ambassador Classic-Pirates.com

[Flynn]

Well that sucks.

At least I know to start buying stockloads of the Imperial base and cannon sets before 2010...

[ThinkingImpaired]

Ending in mid 2010. What's coming up in 2011? 4th pirates of the caribbean movie. Lego has already partnered with Disney on all these other themes, so that's clearly the unofficial future. They wouldn't have two pirates themes running together so naturally Lego pirates would be put on hold....and who knows, maybe they'd come back again after the potential POTC line is done?

I think this wave of pirate sets were horribly designed however I still want the line to continue just to see what else they make.

[Solo]

Wishful thinking. Would be interesting though.

[Blacknight]

The PoTC license is the only logical explanation for ending the pirate line after only 1 year. I can't remember any time this has happened before for such a core line. Unfortunately, even if a PotC line comes to pass it creates problems. The fleshie heads and torsos in a PoTC line will play havoc among existing collections, just as they did with Star Wars. And I don't really like this new trend of half the Lego catalog being devoted to Disney properties. Lego needs to realize that no licensed property will ever equal Star Wars so the road to $$$ does not lie in simply applying licenses to every one of your product lines. This saps them of the charm and creativity that Lego is so celebrated for. I fear this Disney-fying of the Lego product line will turn Lego into Hasbro. Can we blame the success of Star Wars for the death of so many original themes?

[ThinkingImpaired]

I would throw away all licensed themes.

[Jabba the Taff]

If it sold well, it's surely got to be due to a PotC tie-in, hasn't it? Does it make any business sense to sell the line for such a short time otherwise? They haven't even got round to making a big imperial ship.

[Solo]

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2009/09/1 ... sets-news/

A few days ago, Andrew reported that the Pirate Advent Calendar would not be available in North America. Now we find out that the entire Pirate line will be discontinued by the middle of 2010. This is not to say that it won’t be back, but there are currently no plans for new sets. This is especially frustrating given the fact that LEGO has repeatedly made comments that Pirates would now be a regular theme. In an interview with Gizmodo, LEGO said that Pirates would be an “evergreen” theme. Also, in the 2009 Company Profile, Pirates is called a “perpetual” theme, along with Town and Castle. However, Vikings is also listed and, as we all know, that theme had a very short lease on life. While I am not an avid Pirate collector, I have bought all the sets and I share the frustration of the Pirate fan community.

Ben Ellermann, on Forbidden Cove, has started a petition. You can also make your feelings known here and our resident Lego Ambassador will be able to forward that information onto LEGO.

There is also a thread on Classic Pirates discussing the same issue.

I did not know this part as I don't follow that theme at all, but that makes this a pretty lame move from the company. Pretty hard for us to believe anything they say if they flip sides so unpredictably.

[Joedward]

@ Original post - Holy crap, that sucks

@ Theories of PotC LEGO - Cool, yes, but I'm just not in the mood for another line that switches from yellow to flesh so long after everyone made a big deal about it the first time around.

[liquidcross]

This bites. Well, now I've got a solid reason to stock up on the existing sets! I've only got the five little ones (Kraken Attackin', Loot Island, Pirate Survival, Soldier Arsenal, and Cannon Battle), but I've been procrastinating on buying the larger ones. I'd better hurry up...

[Flynn]

Lego needs to realize that no licensed property will ever equal Star Wars so the road to $$$ does not lie in simply applying licenses to every one of your product lines. This saps them of the charm and creativity that Lego is so celebrated for. I fear this Disney-fying of the Lego product line will turn Lego into Hasbro. Can we blame the success of Star Wars for the death of so many original themes?

I think a lot of people are overexaggerating the influence of the liscensed themes on the rest of the themes. Currently, there are about 9 or 10 original themes, and about 3 liscensed themes. Yes, there have been a lot of liscensed themes in the past, but the ratio has almost always been noticably prevalent in the original themes. I think the only reason liscensed themes are more noticable is because of how long a few of them last. Some original themes (Like Pirates and Mars Mission, for example) will only last a year at a time, but some liscensed themes like Star Wars will last much longer than that. Still, there have consitently been more original themes than liscensed. True, we have less constants like there used to be (Space, Pirates, Castle, Town, etc...), but there's still more original themes.

[GrayMattR]

Update from Steve Witt for all you blubberin' swabbies:

Pirates isn’t gone, its on hiatus like every other line that isn’t one of our primary themes: CASTLE, SPACE, and CITY

Pirates isn’t going away, it’s just not going to be a constant theme. It’s going to phase in and out just like every other theme that isn’t one of those three… I just wanted to reassure you guys that pirates isn’t disappearing. Just taking a break. :-)

[Solo]

But... the sky is falling.

[ThinkingImpaired]

Just taking a break like last time. Only another 13 years guys. Don't sweat it.

[MrCRskater]

I think a lot of people are overexaggerating the influence of the liscensed themes on the rest of the themes.

Agreed! As evidenced by Steve's quote, this is not necessarily indicative of a switch to a Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Though some may lust at the notion, I think it's highly unlikely they'll do a PotC theme as a) it's already been produced by Mega Bloks, and b) the Disney license is centered almost exclusively around the Pixar films. Speaking of which, what about Wall-E?

[GrayMattR]

Steve Witt also said ...

You people are crazy

[Jargon]

Though some may lust at the notion, I think it's highly unlikely they'll do a PotC theme as a) it's already been produced by Mega Bloks, and b) the Disney license is centered almost exclusively around the Pixar films.

I wouldn't rule it out just yet. Only out of the three announced themes, two are Pixar and one is not. I would hardly say that's enough data to predict a trend.

- Aaron

[Draykov]

Just taking a break like last time. Only another 13 years guys. Don't sweat it.

While I have much love for brother Steve and what he does for our community (and I am happy to hear that space is, for the time being, considered to be a primary theme) I have to sympathize with TI's comment. I don't have any lost love for TLG because a theme rotates out...I just expected Pirates to hang around a touch longer before it went on hiatus again.

[Flynn]

What really annoys me with that is that Power Miners is going on for its third year in 2010. Regardless of your feelings for the theme, I think a classic theme like Pirates should at least live the same amount time that a theme like PM has.

[meeotch]

I'm not really sure where you're getting your numbers from, unless you're counting the year that you knew about PM before it was actually released. The first wave of sets dropped this January.