Despite being knocked out with a cold my wife brought home from school, I couldn’t resist the temptation of checking the local Toys R Us in Newington, NH for Lego Pirate sets today. The Lego group on Flickr started to have some photos of various pirate sets. Shortly after Amanda left to take the PRAXIS I decided to take what little energy I had from a full night’s NyQuil induced sleep and head down to TRU (they opened @ 6 today for a sale). As luck would have it, they had set 6253 Shipwreck Hideout! What a score. I had to pick one up.

Lego pirates was one of my favorite themes as a kid, but the sets were all too expensive to get that many. Of course, the re release of the Black Seas Barracuda was during my “Dark Ages” so I missed out on it entirely. This summer however, the Lego fan sites started to talk about a pirate theme being released in 2009. Soon after photos leaked, and now as we approach Christmas Lego is seeing it fit to release a few sets prior to the holidays instead of waiting until 2009.

Reports are coming in via flickr groups that various stores have them or don’t. It’s amazing actually, as the day has passed, how many people have been going to stores today and reporting what they found (or sadly, didn’t).

the set is great! It’s a quick build, if you don’t keep stopping to rest. Stupid cold. It features the return of a canon that really shoots 1×1 cylinders.

It also has a great cast of characters, including a pretty cool Pirate Wench. I’m a fan, as typically Lego doesn’t include a lot of female figs in sets other then town. Sad really.

According to notes and comments on Flickr, there seems to be a few different sets you may find in TRU, or if your lucky to be close to a Lego Store. Since the closest is an hour away, I called to find out they knew that there would be Lego Pirates in 2009, but they hadn’t seen any yet. Other Lego stores have some sets already. Folks have reported finding the impulse sets, averaging $5, and one person even claims to have seen the ship at Wal Mart.

Happy hunting!

More photos on flickr. Detail shots coming soon.