Pirate ships are iconic. Be it in toys, costumes or in this case, LEGO, the theme of pirates is one that often appears, so it is no surprise at all that pirate ships make up a popular, yet unofficial ‘subtheme’ of LEGO sets.
The only issue with their popularity, though, is the sheer volume of Pirate Ships which have been released over time! So, I have put together this list of my personal favorite, which encompasses many different LEGO themes and different designs. Read on to see if we have some favorite sets in common!
13. 7880: Big Pirate Ship
RRP: $99.99 | £59.99
Year Released: 2006
Pieces: 60
Minifigures: 4 (2 unique to this set)
Big by name, certainly not big by piece count. This set is made from only 60 pieces, not that you would guess it from its fair size. The reason that the ship can still be a good size despite it being made from only a few pieces, is that it is a Duplo set. I feel that the set definitely deserved a place on the list because of this Duplo sets are often more popular amongst the little ones in the family, which ensures that people of all ages can enjoy LEGO!
One of the earlier pirate ships to be released in this list, first hitting shelves on the 1st of August 2006 until it retired a little over a year later on the 31st of December 2007. The set also has 4 minifigures, 2 of which are unique to the set. The current resale price of a new Big Pirate Ship is £372 according to brickset.com. Pretty impressive for a Duplo Set!
12. 11966: Pirate Ship
RRP: –
Year Released: 2022
Pieces: 33
Minifigures: 0
As a magazine gift, there is no RRP for this ship, however, I thought that it deserved a mention on this list as this is quite a unique micro set. As I have said in the previous ‘13 Bests’ roundups, I love things done on a micro scale, and this definitely satisfies that. The attention to detail on micro sets can be fascinating if designed well. This set is made from only 33 pieces, which is roughly half the number in the previous set, however, the size of this one is far smaller than half!
This free gift with the Magazine was available in 2022 as a polybag, under the creator subtheme.
11. 7753: Pirate Tank
RRP: $39.99 | £34.99
Year Released: 2009
Pieces: 372
Minifigures: 3 (2 unique to this set)
Although not strictly a traditional pirate ship, this set had to make it into my list for all the Star Wars fans! It’s a fairly small set, coming in at 372 pieces hence it sitting towards the bottom of my list. However, I particularly like the design of this pirate ship and even though it is a futuristic craft, the color scheme allows it to have a pirate theme to it.
The set contains 3 mini figures with two of them being unique to the set which makes it a fairly good set for collectors. Furthermore, you can expect this set to be achieving around £130 new – pretty good for a small set, but if you opened and built the ship, the price is slashed to around £52 (according to brickset.com) at the time of this writing.
10. 7075: Captain Redbeard’s Pirate Ship
RRP: $40.00 | £49.99
Year Released: 2004
Pieces: 131
Minifigures: 4
This is another set aimed at the younger crowd with a suggested age of 4+. This set contains 4 Minifigures, all of them being pirates dressed in different colored clothing, adding to the traditional pirate theme. The set only contains 131 pieces and it’s one of the older sets in this list; it was released on the 1st of June in 2004 and went on to retire on the 31st of December in 2005 giving it a shelf life of around one and a half years – pretty average.
The set has two sets of masts which are depicted to be blowing in the wind in the box. There are also cannons to add a good role play element to the set, making it even better for the kids! A large 4×4 tile has the treasure map printed for this set, much larger than the usual 2×2 which we have seen in other ships.
9. 43114: Punk Pirate Ship
RRP: $59.99 | £59.99
Year Released: 2021
Pieces: 615
Minifigures: 3 (3 unique to this set)
The aspect that attracts me the most about this Pirate Ship is the colors. It breaks the normal color theme of brown, woody and monotone colors. Instead, this set incorporates gorgeous shades of blue and pink. It is a small ship, but it is very intricate – it seems like it would be an interesting, and not too challenging build.
The set has a full house of unique minifigures: all 3 are unique to this set. Be it pattern, color, or whether they are a mermaid, they all are vastly different from one another. The set is fairly small coming in at 615 pieces, but costing 59.99 in both dollars and pounds, quite unusual! Despite my enthusiasm for the set, it unfortunately only had a shelf life of 6 months, retiring on the 31st of December of 2021, just half a year after its release on the 1st of June.
8. 75825: Piggy Pirate Ship
RRP: $59.99 | £64.99
Year Released: 2016
Pieces: 620
Minifigures: 4 (4 unique to this set)
Like the other LEGO Angry Birds set, the Piggy Pirate ship is modelled on the mobile game ‘Angry Birds’. The game involves the player launching different birds at the antagonists, the green pigs. This particular set includes two pigs and two birds, which are classed as 4 mini figures total. The pirate ship itself has a mast that tops the structure. On the deck level, there is an area for the ‘Piggy Pirates’ to sit and the bottom of the ship has some oars.
The set is built from 620 pieces and had an RRP of $69.99 when it was on sale from the 1st of March 2016 to the 18th of July 2017, giving it a shelf life of just under a year and a half. An unusual aspect to note about this set is its RRP in pounds is higher than its RRP in USD, which is uncommon!
7. 31084: Pirate Roller Coaster
RRP: $89.99 | £69.99
Year Released: 2018
Pieces: 923
Minifigures: 5 (4 unique to this set)
Strictly speaking, this is not technically a pirate ship, although it does feature one. It is a pirates themed roller coaster. So, I could not place it in the dizzying heights of the top 5, but 7th place is respectable for a set of under 1000 pieces! The roller coaster element of the set does work, and minifigures can ride on the shark, threatening the pirate ship.
This set reminds me of a fairground ride, with little stalls including a cannon which adds to the atmosphere. The set was released on the 1st of June 2018 and was available for purchase until the 31st of December, when it retired after one and a half years.
6. 31109: Pirate Ship
RRP: $119.99 | £114.99
Year Released: 2020
Pieces: 1264
Minifigures: 4 (3 unique to this set)
This would be a middle-of-the-road rank for a fairly middle-of-the-road LEGO set. This pirate ship does all the things one would expect a LEGO pirate ship to do and have, and it does them well, but it is missing a real unique selling point. Having said that, however, this is a 3-in-1 set which means there are two other builds that the pieces in this set can be used to make. Owners of the set are treated to not only the ship itself but a house, equipped with a water wheel and an island, presumably filled with buried treasure.
To stay true to the theme of the list, the pirate ship build is very good in itself. Particularly the skull and crossbones which are featured on the mast are great in their detail. It fascinates me to see how designers use LEGO to create artwork like that out of a few pieces considering this set has a total of 1264 pieces. The ship comes with 4 minifigures, 3 of which are unique to the set. It first hit shelves on the 1st of June 2020 and has not yet retired at the time of this writing, which puts its shelf life on the higher end of the sets in this list.
5. 79008: LOTR Pirate Ship Ambush
RRP: $99.99 | £89.99
Year Released: 2013
Pieces: 756
Minifigures: 9 (5 unique to this set)
Personally, I am one of the few who have yet to see the Lord of the Rings, however, this set has to score highly on the list because of its grandiose looks. The first thing that catches the eye is the 3 huge masts which tower over the fairly shallow boat. Despite it only being made from 756 pieces, the set is fairly large, measuring 48cm in length and 37.8 cm in height.
The set contains 9 minifigures, with 5 being unique to this set, and one of those being ‘King of the Dead’. The set was available for purchase between the 1st of July 2013 and the 2nd of December 2014, when it retired. The set had an average shelf life of one and a half years.
4. 21152: Pirate Ship
RRP: $39.99 | £49.99
Year Released: 2019
Pieces: 386
Minifigures: 3 (2 unique to this set)
Growing up, Minecraft was my favorite computer game, so naturally, I love this set. Like all of the Minecraft sets that The LEGO Group produce, this set is designed very true in character to how a scene might actually look in the game. Particularly the turtle, I love it! The set only has 3 minifigures, however, there are three animals that are also mentioned. In addition to the turtle, there is a dolphin and a parrot.
This set consists of a fairly average 386 pieces for a LEGO Minecraft set, and had a respectable shelf life of two years. This set was available for purchase from the 1st of January 2019 until the 31st of December 2021, when it retired.
3. 71042: Silent Mary
RRP: $199.99 | £179.99
Year Released: 2017
Pieces: 2294
Minifigures: 8 (8 unique to this set)
Boasting a full collection of unique minifigures, this pirate ship does not fail to impress with its detail or magnitude! This set is quite a great build with many intricate designs throughout. The Silent Mary is based on Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean and it’s composed of 2294 pieces.
The set was released on the 1st of April 2017 and retired on the 31st of December 2018. Coincidentally, these are the same dates as the set that received the number 1 spot in this list – only 3 years earlier.
2. 71705: Ninjago Destiny’s Bounty
RRP: $99.99 | £89.99
Year Released: 2020
Pieces: 1781
Minifigures: 7 (3 unique to this set)
There have been many iterations of LEGO Ninjago’s ‘Destiny’s Bounty’, but this one has got to be my favorite. Despite the set only having 3 out of its 7 minifigures be unique to this set, the ship itself definitely makes up for it and stands out on its own in this list.
My favorite feature of the ship itself is definitely the dragon’s head which adorns the bow. Set just a little further back from this is an anchor. The fan-like mast of the ship is a very different compared to the others on this list, and I think that this fresh style makes it stand out from other ships and would make this a very interesting set to own.
The set was released on the 1st of June 2020 and it retired at the end of the following year on the 31st of December 2021. This gave it a shelf life of one and a half years.
1. 21322: Pirates of Barracuda Bay
RRP: $199.99 | £179.99
Year Released: 2020
Pieces: 2545
Minifigures: 10 (9 unique to this set)
This final set comes to take first place in this top 13 list of pirate ships. I was first attracted to this set because of its intricate details as well as its interesting minifigures. With masts rolled up and palm trees sprouting from it, the ship itself would struggle to take to the water, but that is redeemable by the tropical paradise that it seems to have become. In fact, the only thing in the set which seems seaworthy is the small dinghy that is provided!
The set was released on the 1st of April 2020, and I brought it soon after. It went on to be on sale for a further year and nine months until its time on shelves ended on the 31st of December 2021. Luckily for me, the 2545-piece giant of a set is selling for around £254 at the time of this writing, a fair value!
Final Thoughts
Clearly pirate ships, although they are unofficial, are a very wide reaching theme which covers a variety of LEGO themes, from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings. My list of favorites sets encompasses quite a variety of ships, but which is your favorite? Was it even on this list? Let us know down below! You could also check out my opinion on the 13 Best LEGO Castles Ever Released which you can find here.
