Minifigs: Fleshie Pirate Fixes

I've commented in the past about my general distaste for flesh-toned figs. They're one the more divisive issues in AFOL-dom, though both the gripers and fans have pretty much given up arguing about them, half a dozen years in. To only go by the very informal empirical example of comments I've read regarding the upcoming Lord of the Rings license, I think the fleshie-doubtful are of greater numbers than the fleshie-fans. Irrespective of numbers, however, I am one of the fleshie-doubtful crowd.

So what do I do, then, when I get a set with fleshies anyway? This will undoubtedly come up once the Lord of the Rings sets start coming out, since as Tolkien fan and a LEGO fan I will be practically required to buy them. It has also been an issue in the past, because while I've been able to give some themes a complete pass, such as Speed Racer, there have been some themes where this has not been the case. Pirates of the Caribbean is one such example.



When I first got 4192 Fountain of Youth, I wasn't particularly sold on Blackbeard. I bought the set largely because I couldn't pass over the Barbarossa-as-Admiral minifig, wanting his incredible hat and torso for future classic-Pirate endeavours. As a general rule, this is the main reason for getting Pirates of the Caribbean sets for me, because the chief use of my fleshies is as an alternate Science-fiction faction.

The problem is, however, that Blackbeard's hat and beard looked to be pretty much useless, too specific to use with any other fig.

Then I realised that Blackbeard's head existed almost identically in yellow: the dwarf from the "Evil Dwarf" from the Series 5 Collectible minifigs. While this somewhat sadly means that my "Nikabrik" is no longer quite so evil as he once was, I now have a perfect yellow-toned Blackbeard who has gone from being a castaway extra minifigure in my collection to a favourite.



Barbarossa from 4181 Isla de Muerta was "solved" in a somewhat different way: instead of converting him to a yellow fig, I've converted him to a white fig, using the Barbarossa-skeleton head from the same set. I'm less sold on him as I am on Blackbeard, but a white-Pirate ghost/skeleton has more place in my regular Pirates world than a fleshie fig.

Meanwhile, my Barbarossa has taken on a business suit... but that's a post for another day.