Our thoughts on… Lego, Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl

The author of this post is Craig (Perfectly Happy Dad) because you know what, as much as I love lego, this was all boy stuff and not enough pink on it… 

When the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl sailed through the front door, the boys excitement was huge. It arrived on a Tuesday and every evening, after I got home from work, they asked if we could build it “now!”, even if it was just five minutes before bed time!!  Finally in what I have been assured was “ages”, Saturday afternoon arrived and it was time clear the dry dock and construct the Black Pearl.

I have to admit the prospect of building a pirate ship out of 804 pieces of Lego was slightly daunting and I think Perfectly Happy Mum had the same thought, as she disappeared into town for some retail therapy.

So there I was, the opening weekend of the Six nations, France playing Italy on the TV, a large scale Lego project, two very eager assistants and to add extra pressure just two hours to finish the build before the start Scotland versus England game. Now those of you that know me will know that I am a huge Harlequins fan so an England team lead by Chris Robshaw and with two other Quins players in the squad was a serious deadline for the build to be finished.

So we opened the box and I was expecting a huge bag of mixed up Lego and had a dinner tray ready to put all the different pieces on it. What I found was six or seven numbered bags, each containing various pieces of Lego and a cardboard envelope with the sails.  Now this being such a big build I resisted my usual urge to ignore the manual and just start building and lucky that I did as on page one was clear instructions not to open all the bags at once and mix the contents but to open each bag in order when you reach the relevant section of the manual.

Bag one was duly opened, the contents tipped out and construction began.

We soon got into a pattern, where I showed the manual to the boys and we discussed which pieces we needed and how many, they then searched for them and gave them to me for the placement and to push them together.

We quickly emptied bag one and had the keel of a ship in front of us with only a few spare pieces. I checked the manual and they were definitely extra and not missing from the build so we went onto next bag.

In just under two hours the three of us had all participated in constructing the completed ship with no mistakes, mishaps or rebuilds.

The only issue faced was when, without telling me, E decided to organise the parts round the corner of the sofa and the V found the ideal part to attach to the helicopter he had built earlier in the morning. Both incidents had me searching fruitlessly for parts that were in the instruction book but not in front of me. I was convinced that they where missing. However after looking counting and looking again I asked the boys if they had seen the relevant pieces showing them the pictures in the manual. E replied “I have been helping you and that here all ready for you” and V replied “but Papa, that’s the gun on my helicopter”. However after a brief discussion the helicopter once again became a civilian helicopter and the critical part (the mast) was back on the ship.

Incidents aside the ship was built, I got to watch the match and since then the Black Pearl has weathered tropical storms, sea battles and even a hurricane, which saw it dismasted. However after the storms had abated, the seas had clamed and the gun smoke from the battles had cleared, I am happy to say the ship was quickly and easily repaired and ready for the next adventure on its voyage.

**We were sent the Lego set for the purpose of this review**