If you’ve ever had a chance to study one of those ancient maps of the world, you probably found your eyes bouncing from detail to detail while your smirk flashed a glimmer of wonder and fascination at our ancestors simplified understanding of the world. Hearkening back to an era when they scrawled cautions by the nature of “Beware! Here be monsters!” over uncharted waters.
But what if the maps didn’t lie and the monsters really occupied the realm past the known? What if some lucky mariners managed to survive and to return to tell the tale of their grim encounter with forces from beyond. Would we believe them?
Of course we would not, but still, anything may torment our playful mind when we dare to set sais to the world’s end, a place where imaginations run untamed. There we will find Julius and confirm his tale about a giant pirate squid ship which plunders the high seas.
Ah… yes Captain, it seems that those Hydra terrorists pirates are polluting our peaceful waters with their banners… it’s time for Imperial Avengers to assemble
Julius writes:
Built in a little under two month for the BrickNerd “pi-RATS & BUG-aneers” contest.
Architeuthis Pirata commonly known as “Pirate Squid, Terror of the Seven Seas”. Captain Kraken and his crew of Marauding Mollusks are not passing up any opportunity to pillage and plunder.
Based on the frame of the Silent Mary, the whole bow/head section can lift up to show-off the kraken’s fearsome mouth.
Thanks to the Eurobricks community for sharing so many great builds to use as inspiration.
The Squishy Sturdy Build
Julius settled on the idea of merging a ship with a giant squid right away after he read about the BrickNerd contest. As he is not much of a digital builder, and finds the process much less creative, he promptly ordered a bunch of parts, like the tentacles, sails, string, stickers, and a few minifigures to complete the crew, before proceeding to straight to a physical build.
The crew, compromised of various fishy folk with enough tentacles to rival Davy Jones‘ from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise – certainly none of Captain Redbeard‘s crew here!
The Pirate Squid in the “normal” sailing mode gaining distance upon her small and puny target
Right from the start Julius felt that there should be a play feature which allows bow/head raising. But with only two months until the deadline of the competition, finding the solution of a sturdy but playable frame structure (which would not require too many trial and error modifications) became a primary issue. To resolve the issue he cleverly stole, ahem, borrowed the well tested frame of The Silent Mary.
The Pirate Squid in the “ab-normal” attack mode, getting ready to devour the unlucky victim in the most unnatural way
While building the frame, Julius conducted a generous amount of research regarding hull techniques, masts and rigging, which prompted him decided to utilise grey Technic panels for the lower hull. After completing the frame he progressed to the main deck and forecastle, and before outlining the dimensions of the upper deck and the poop deck.
A bow with thousands teeth – you don’t see this everyday (and live to tell the tale)
The poop deck and captain’s cabin below, as well as, the squid’s tail, maw, tentacles and masts are all modular, held in place with Technic pins. Building them intentionally as separate assemblies allowed Julius to keep the overall build size maneuverable and easier to handle while building the Technic panel hull sections.
The best vantage point during the high adrenaline chase is right with your ass in front of the chasers guns – trust us
The stern required a bit of trial and error until he discovered the most suitable wedge panels that allowed smooth transitions. After the hull, the deck and guns were completed and it was time to dye the original LEGO sails (which looked far too clean for a slimy cephalopod ship – and complete the rigging with a few additional details and stickers.
Mirroring the bow, the stern of the ship is equally impressive in design and detail
If yer were wondering about those nice looking cabin windows here is the dirty secret behind them – ingenious idea
With a mere 5 days until the competition deadline, Julius didn’t want to fuss over the appearance of the waves and water splashes, so he ordered four blue 32×32 baseplates and went for a simple base design. But the final result left the ship looking too lonely, and with the clock ticking, there was only sufficient time to add the outrigger canoe surrounded by a small section of waves.
Case and example of the survival of the smartest, where the bluish shark-man bails from the boat on a pretext of “wait here buddy, I’m gonna get help”
Does make you wonder what would happen if the Kraken were to show up, what would it do? Would he take the ship apart, or fall in madly love with it?
After all that was said and done, can you believe that this splendid MOC did not win the pirate-themed contest? It didn’t even achieve second place, nor third… but who cares? It was plenty fine enough for the Classic Pirates to blog, and just as fine you for to read our post… and that’s all that matters!
About the Builder…
Julius Kanand is an AFOL who lives in the People’s Republic of China, and made his debut on the Eurobricks LEGO Pirates forum with this squidly build in the late summer of 2022. Since then we haven’t seen nor heard a word from him, so maybe the kraken latched onto him after all. But luckily he maintains an easily available Flickr account where he regularly shares finished builds and current work in progress projects.
Based on his Flickr portfolio, he proven to be a skillful and creative builder with a broad range of interests. So if you liked the Pirate Squid, definitely check out his other work, although you’ll peep nary a pirate there. He’s also amassed collection of various science fiction builds on Pinterest, should that genre be of yer persuasion.
What do you think?
So, what are your thoughts about this MOC? How original is it? Would you like to own it? Is there a working playable interior below the decks? How many bricks and pieces went into this floating monstrosity? Don’t be shy and shoot your question – or praise – inside the LEGO Pirates forum by clicking the big red shiny button below.
