Scallywag Pirate appreciation thread - best Lego pirate ever (?)

[zinnn]

 

This Lego CMF series 16 gem is in my personal opinion the best Lego Pirate of all time in terms of design.

Whoever designed it (is there a way to check it?) nailed the theme 100%, giving the figure a modern look while paying homage to the classics. The torso, arms and legs prints are just fantastic, both in terms of the details as well as colours. The bald head/bandana piece was a fresh take on lego pirates' look (after years of basic bandanas and tricorn hats), and with the rough-looking and grumpy-yet-funny face it gives the figure a unique vibe.

Lego knocked this one out of the park, and I'm still amazed that those figures are so cheap to buy years later.

 

From Create the World Incredible Inventions Trading Card #054 Scallywag Pirate:

Edited July 7, 2023 by zinnn

[Mister Phes]

AWWWWWWWWWW!  So much wub for Scally Wag pirate!

11 minutes ago, zinnn said:

Lego knocked this one out of the park, and I'm still amazed that those figures are so cheap to buy years later.

Aye, they did well to find a pirate character concept they hadn't previously explored, being the first pirate without a hat or hairpiece and wearing shorts... or are those meant to resemble pantaloons?

[Alexandrina]

It bothers me that his shorts don't match his vest. If they were monochrome it wouldn't be an issue, but they've given him patterned shorts with two colours, neither of which is his vest colour? It's a cool figure but that detail bothers me.

[zinnn]

5 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

It bothers me that his shorts don't match his vest.

what do you mean? the vest clearly ends under the belt on his torso

[Alexandrina]

4 minutes ago, zinnn said:

what do you mean? the vest clearly ends under the belt on his torso

Yeah, but his shorts don't go with his vest. There's a colour/pattern clash.

[zinnn]

Just now, Alexandrina said:

Yeah, but his shorts don't go with his vest. There's a colour/pattern clash. 

No way, the plain navy vest goes really well with the green shorts with white stripes, I see absolutely no clash there. I think the colour balance here is spot on IMHO.

[Alexandrina]

41 minutes ago, zinnn said:

No way, the plain navy vest goes really well with the green shorts with white stripes, I see absolutely no clash there. I think the colour balance here is spot on IMHO.

Different strokes then I guess.

[Mister Phes]

1 hour ago, zinnn said:

No way, the plain navy vest goes really well with the green shorts with white stripes, I see absolutely no clash there. I think the colour balance here is spot on IMHO. 

Let's put this to the test...

Who loves their colour theory?

Using the eye dropper tool to extract the colour hexadecimal code from the original image (minifig's chest on our left), let's put that into a colour generator to determine complimentary colours:

 

And sure enough it's determined a shade of green as a complementary colour.

Now, using the eye dropper tool on the original image to extract the hexadecimal code of the green we get #00431B and #00310B

So it's not an exact match, but to account for this discrepancy let us consider other factors which may cause the exact shade to fluctuate:

• The light source which creates shadows (darker areas) and highlights (lighter areas)
• Texture rendering - very smooth and shiny

 

 

 

[Alexandrina]

I don't disagree that blue and green go together, but solid blue and green-and-white stripes are a jarring combination imo. Solid green shorts would have been perfect.

[Red Rackham]

This brave fellow has already become mad.
Next to the hat I find a tattoo, the three-day beard an important characteristic for a "real" pirate. I also really like the characters with a rope for a belt, so it's like..."I'll take what I can get".

[Jack Sassy]

Aye, he is one of the finest. 

5 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

It bothers me that his shorts don't match his vest.

Realistically, it could make sense that the shorts and waistcoat are so different, since, I believe, pirates wore whatever they could find.

[Sir Dano]

I thought pirates were supposed to look as garish as possible?

Personally, while that guy is great and all I much prefer classic Redbeard.

[Alexandrina]

2 hours ago, Jack Sassy said:

Realistically, it could make sense that the shorts and waistcoat are so different, since, I believe, pirates wore whatever they could find.

I can get behind that narratively. I just personally don't like the look of it.

[Pirate_King_1982]

He is a very, very good minifig in his own right as well as great fodder for Figbarf ing. However, I personally think that the POBB iteration of Captain Redbeard takes the moniker of best LEGO Pirate, at least in my eyes anyway.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Pirate_King_1982

[LegoAUT]

20 hours ago, zinnn said:

This Lego CMF series 16 gem is in my personal opinion the best Lego Pirate of all time in terms of design.

I am not a hardcore pirates expert so I wasn‘t aware of that fig at all, so thank you! I agree that it is an amazing pirate fig and I will surely try to get it on BL (if the price is reasonable).

[zinnn]

2 hours ago, Pirate_King_1982 said:

POBB iteration of Captain Redbeard

That's my #2! it beats the original design in every aspect, I'm super happy how well they reimagined him. Yet there's something down to earth and more relatable about the Scallywag, that's why he's my fav :)

[PxChris]

The mismatched clothing I think is part of what makes this figure look so authentically good!

[jodawill]

I don't have this one. I was never a fan of the hat piece in particular. There's something really odd about seeing a minifigure with a bald head. I had never really looked very closely at it before though, and I think the torso is terrific. I wonder what this would look like if you put a traditional bandana (not the new one) on him and used monochrome legs.

[LegoAUT]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:12 PM, jodawill said:

I don't have this one. I was never a fan of the hat piece in particular. There's something really odd about seeing a minifigure with a bald head. I had never really looked very closely at it before though, and I think the torso is terrific. I wonder what this would look like if you put a traditional bandana (not the new one) on him and used monochrome legs.

Would certainly look great as well! :)

[zinnn]

On 7/13/2023 at 9:12 PM, jodawill said:

I don't have this one. I was never a fan of the hat piece in particular. There's something really odd about seeing a minifigure with a bald head. I had never really looked very closely at it before though, and I think the torso is terrific. I wonder what this would look like if you put a traditional bandana (not the new one) on him and used monochrome legs. 

Here you go. The original design is still way way better IMHO, also that head is meant for this bald/bandana piece ;)

 

 

Here's also comparison with modern bandana:

[jodawill]

Thanks! Yeah, it does look a little strange with that face. I think the torso goes well with those dark green legs. It might look good if you just used the torso with the dark green legs, change out the head, and put a black tricorne on top.

[Pirate_King_1982]

This goes to verify what I said, not only is this dude great in his own right, but he’s also great fodder for Figbarfing.

[jodawill]

On 7/18/2023 at 4:14 AM, Pirate_King_1982 said:

This goes to verify what I said, not only is this dude great in his own right, but he’s also great fodder for Figbarfing.

It's that tattoo on the arm that really makes it great in my opinion. If you have enough of these pirates to spare, you could pull it off of the torso and put it on a different one to get more tattooed sailors. The legs are great too. I wonder if there's an existing pirate torso it would pair well with. I can't remember a dark green one off the top of my head, although there was obviously the dark green bandana.

[Bfin9691]

He's a great pirate figure but redbeard will always be the pinnacle for me