Bring Back The Pirates! LEGO Creator Sets Are A Different Kind Of Fun

Reviewing LEGO’s #31109 Pirate Ship set.

This has been by far one of the most coveted sets of my childhood. Well, an iteration of this anyway, as of course LEGO sets, like everything else, have also evolved over the years. Age and cost be damned, I decided that life’s too short to let another opportunity go to waste and bought the LEGO Pirate Ship, set #31109 in December 2022, cleared my weekend schedule and built it over two sessions.

Before I get to the review part of this article, let me tell you a little bit about LEGO’s Creator 3-in-1 theme, and why I think it’s probably the most unique line that LEGO has to offer. The Pirate Ship taught me something about LEGO that I can’t say I ever forgot, but re-experiencing it as an adult left me with some profound learnings.

Back in the heydays of LEGO and most certainly during the 90s, every set would also come with instructions for an alternate build, and this would be very clearly advertised on the reverse of the box. While they were more often than not, a little less interesting than the primary build, LEGO, highlighting the fact that every set can be rebuilt into something else, nudging you to use and train your imagination, is something that today doesn’t apply to every set. In fact, it doesn’t apply…