The LEGO Black Pearl is not complete without a figurehead – and Design Master Mike Psiaki carefully examined Pirates of the Caribbean to deliver just such a frontage on LEGO Icons 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship.
In the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the Black Pearl has a distinctive figurehead. When he was tasked with revisiting the iconic vessel for 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship, LEGO Icons Design Master Mike Psiaki had to determine how to build the captain’s cabin and the ship’s figurehead.
As a pirate ship designed to speed across the waves, hunting down merchant vessels or taking on the navy, the Black Pearl was ultimately utilitarian. Her decks were clear for manning the cannons, with only rum and gunpowder stored in the hold. Yet the ship didn’t need ornate carvings or lavish quarters to make a statement. With an iconic crying figurehead holding a dove and dramatic black sails, there was no mistaking this vessel for any other.
With LEGO Icons 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship at a far grander scale than the previous version form 2011, Design Master Mike Psiaki could include more of the subtle details, especially the carvings around the captain’s cabin. “I originally wanted to use the ice cream cones that have a connector piece. I wanted to use them upside down with the long skeleton leg, but it just didn’t quite fit,” explains Mike. “I thought that would just be a nice Easter egg to the skeletons from the first movie. But as it didn’t quite fit I had to use them with clip elements instead. But I was really happy with the way that it came together with the wheel arches.”
The cabin interior is based on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, with an array of maps, candles and Captain Barbossa’s iconic bushel of apples. Yet there was one more detail that almost made the cut. “The original model [4148 The Black Pearl] had a sextant in the cabin. And I went back and forth on whether it would be cool to have the sextant or not,” says Mike, which led him to consult nautical navigation history to search for an answer. “Based on the time period when the movies take place, you could make an argument for or against them existing at that point. And in the end, I chose to not have the sextant. But it’s tough to be historically accurate to a movie franchise about ghost pirates.”
With ghostly elements and a monochrome colour scheme, a plethora of black and dark grey pieces are used for every part of the ship. Yet rather than seeing that as a challenge, Mike leaned into the dark tones to create a striking display model. “As soon as I had the first version of the ship that was mainly black, it just looked so striking anywhere you put it that we never really worried too much about the colours,” Mike explains pointing out that it was more of a challenge to represent it in the instructions than the model itself.
“I think the colour was more of an issue from how we were going to show people how to build this in the instructions. When there’s so many black elements, it can be really difficult to differentiate between two similar shapes. We’re lucky to have the white outline on the bricks in the manuals. But that doesn’t mean they’re easier to see when they’re on the table together.”
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“The bigger question was, ‘what do we do for the bits on the ship that are obviously not black?’” Mike continues. “You have the figurehead and you have the roof of the captain’s cabin. And the deck of the ship is also an area where maybe we could have made it black – but we felt we should differentiate on colour there, just to make things pop a little bit more.”
On 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship, the figurehead is sand green and the decks are in dark brown. “We explored different versions where the roofing was sand green, others where it was in dark tan. Same for the figurehead,” adds Mike. “We were iterating through basically all of our muted shades. It’s very hard to find one that pairs nicely with with black that doesn’t suddenly overwhelm the model. We have grey sprinkled throughout the model as well, which is to give a little bit of variance in texture, but it’s also from the perspective of trying to make the hunt for parts a little bit easier.”
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