Set Review - #31109-1: Skull Island - Creator 3-in-1

Here is the last review for #31109-1. The Pirate Ship is here and the Pirate Inn is here. Skull Island is the smallest of the builds and I found there were a lot of pieces left over when it was complete. The design includes a brick built raft, a brick built row boat, and then the island itself. The island includes a brick built palm tree and a brick built monkey. The skull itself protects a pirate treasure of gold coins (1x1 round plates) and the treasure chest. The skull is mounted by a Technic axle and you can spin a wheel to have it move up and down. It doesn’t move much, but it would scare away anyone trying to steal the treasure.

The pictures below include the front and the back of the build. Overall, I think the skull could look slightly more realistic, but I guess that’s what is left up to the builder to adjust as required. The three builds for this set are all great and I could see wanting to keep all three assembled (I don’t plan to buy two more of these sets). They all would be a great part of a pirate scene or layout.

I haven’t bought a 3-in-1 set in a while, but this one was definitely worth it. I highly recommend this one… especially if you can find it on sale like I did. The builds are great and the pieces available are useful in other builds.

What are your thoughts on this one? A great addition for your Pirates or a lame attempt?

Happy building!

Set Review - #31109-1: Pirate Inn - Creator 3-in-1

This is part two of the set review. You can see part one here. I built the Pirate Inn after the ship just based on how the instructions are set up. The ship is first and you build it following numbered bags. Then the inn is next. You had to take apart the ship first to get all the pieces. It then takes a bit longer to build as you aren’t building by bag, but searching for pieces through the 1,264 available. I could have made it easier by sorting the pieces first, but what’s the fun in that?

I didn’t take pictures of the build process, but instead included a few pictures of the final build. It appears as though the ship was designed first and then the designers figured out what they could build based on the pieces available. Or maybe the inn was designed already and they just had to tweak it for parts availability. Either way, you will have a bunch of pieces leftover when the inn is complete so don’t fret.

Here’s what you get at the end.
-the inn
-a brick built horse and cart
-the same 3 minifigures only one now has an accordian
-a brick built bird on the top of the inn

The build has some interesting features. The front has a small crane that you can crank up and down. I’m not sure what you’d use it for, but it’s a cool looking feature. The crow’s nest is on top so you can look out or maybe someone sleeps there?

I don’t know my styles of architecture, but I like the front façade of the inn. The angle of the roof, the windows, and colors all seem to make it fit right in with the pirates theme. The V roof in the front left of the house is made by connecting plates to ball and hinge joints. I had never seen that method of build before and I like how it was done.

The back of the inn folds out so you can have access to it. There are 3 beds on the upper level and then the lower level has a table and some cups for beverages.

Outside is a large wheel which I assume is a water wheel. It spins either by you rotating the wheel itself or by spinning the Technic pin that is inside the inn. You could hook it to a motor if you really wanted to. This feature would help you build out this set to connect it to a stream running down from a hill/mountain and meeting the bay that the inn overlooks. And in the bay would be a pirate ship… and you’d have to buy another set #31109… and LEGO continues to make money…

Last shot is a closer view of inside the inn. I’m not sure what the build in the center on the ground floor is. Maybe a clock?

Overall, it’s a good build with some good techniques. Since it is limited by parts, a few of the steps don’t make sense like using three 1x1 pieces versus a 1x3. I get why it’s done that way so not a major complaint. Along with the ship, this build would fit well with any pirate scene and is a welcome addition to the slight come back of the LEGO Pirate theme through other themes.

Onto the third build… Skull Island…

Happy building!

Set Review - #31109-1: Pirate Ship - Creator 3-in-1

The LEGO® Pirate theme is not back, but they found a way to bring back Pirates in some other themes. We had the LEGO® Ideas #21322-1: Pirates of Barracuda Bay and now this set #31109-1: Pirate Ship which is part of the Creator 3-in-1 theme. The set was released in the US on 24 August 2020. It contains 1,264 pieces and retails for $99.99 which works out to $0.079 per piece. I picked it up locally here for ~$74 as the set has been out in Germany since June 2020 so the stores are running discounts 3 months later already.

Is the set worth it?

The front of the box shows the pirate ship with the Pirate’s Inn and Skull Island designs smaller and to the side. The back shows a few of the play features and shows the sets at different angles.

The set contains 11 parts bags. The bags are numbered one through nine. There is one of each with two numbered six. There is also a non-numbered bag with some larger parts. There are no stickers. WOOHOO!!! There are two instruction booklets wrapped in plastic. The larger booklet has the instructions for the Pirate Ship and Pirate’s Inn. The second booklet has the Skull Island instructions.

I started with the pirate ship. The ship instructions follow the numbered bags while the other two just have the parts, but not by bags.

Bag one builds some of the accessories to the ship. To start, there is a shark which is brick built. I like it much better than the 2-piece molded shark from the pirates theme. The tail moves along with the side fins and mouth. Plus you can adjust pieces to create movement.

There’s a barrel to store some weapons, a treasure chest with some gems (I miss the old gold coins), and then a brick build bird.

The set contains four minifigures. There’s a pirate captain with two pirates and then a skeleton. It’s a pretty decent spread and they are all in line with the theme.

There are 2 cannons in the set along with some 1x1 round bricks to use as ammo.

The second bag starts to build the hull of the ship. Unlike the Pirates of Barracuda Bay, this is a brick built hull versus a large BURP type piece as the base. I like the brick built version better I think. It doesn’t look as realistic, but it uses existing pieces versus the giant piece. It’s structurally sound too although not as big as the Pirates of Barracuda Bay ship.

Bag three is the stern (back) of the ship. Each half of the build is identical except for one half uses red while the other uses green. I think this was done just to help make the build process easier.

The bow (front) is included in bag four. it attaches on as you can see in the picture. Like the stern, it has a similar build process for each half, but one is green and the other is red.

The fifth bag starts to add details to the ship as a whole. There are covers to the four cannon windows and some structure for the masts.

The sixth bag builds the cabin at the stern of the ship for the captain. It is not as ornate as the Pirates of Barracuda Bay ship, but still has a bunch of detail in it. I like how the designers created angles in the build instead of making it square. The red, black, and gold are a great color scheme.

Bag seven finishes up the stern of the ship and the compartment for the Captain.

The eighth bag puts more on the top to include the steering wheel at the stern and more detail on the front.

To wrap things up, you add the masts and rigging. The masts are all brick built. They look okay, but I think I prefer the cloth ones. I do like the brick built skull and crossbones though. That’s a nice touch. The rigging is all rubberized pieces versus strings. It looks a little thick, but it works.

The front of the ship has a brick built figure. I think I like the minifigure body for the front better, but I get the idea of what they built.

A few more shots of the completed set. The front view shows the brick built skull and cross bones well. The other shot is a little closer on the front. There are four ports for cannons, but it only comes with two. There is no covering so you have easy access to get to that part of the ship.

And for fun, here’s the ship next to the Pirates of Barracuda Bay ship. Definitely much smaller, but pretty similar in terms of rigging and masts. The brick skull and crossbones helps it to stand out, but it is missing the skull and crossbones flags.

Overall, it’s a great set. A fun build with a lot of potential for parts in future builds/MOCs. The price is decent considering the price per piece and I found it at a discount so even better. Definitely get this set if you’re looking to expand your brick pirates.

I’ll show the alternate builds in another post.

Happy building!