By Dylan Barlow (SAFOLs Brick Deputy, KZNLUG Founder)
Introduction
The LEGO® Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship (set 10365) is part of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme and is a rerelease of the Black Pearl from 2011. The last set released in the Pirates of the Caribbean theme was in 2017, nearly 9 years ago (71042 – Silent Mary). Before 2017 the earliest sets were all from 2011, so there is quite a big gap between all the sets from this theme. This could mean we might get another ship from the theme in a few years’ time…
this set has 2825 pieces with 8 minifigures (Anamaria, Captain Jack Sparrow, Cotton, Elizabeth Swann, Hector Barbossa, Joshamee Gibbs, Marty, Will Turner). All the minifigures are new and not reproductions.
Packaging and First Impressions
I was expecting a bigger box for the size of the ship, yet the box was tightly packed with 22 bags, instructions, sails , string and rope pieces and the boat hull pieces.
The booklet and the sails came in paper bags and in a separate box to insure they did not get bent or damaged which I was very happy about as I have seen some sticker sheets come damaged and did not want to get bent sails on such a beautiful ship.
The Build
The build is broken into different sections with the main hull, the stand and then the stern and sails.
The Hull
Most of the build consists of the hull and it’s not a simple hull like some of the older ships. This has some interesting functions built into it.
The hull is built from a combination of the large hull pieces as a base and slowly adding some slopes, opening it to create a beautiful shape, with the bow been raised and having two oversized anchors attached to them. No, you can’t release these two anchors into the deep as there is no winch for them. It is not the end of the world as this is a small play feature not included to allow for some amazing details and another feature.
The head figure is built from sand green with a dark tan bird in her one hand. I was expecting a detailed build but the minifigure suits the ship perfectly.
The interesting feature are the moving cannons. These are controlled by two gears on the stern. These gears open the cannon doors and extend the cannons into firing positions. One thing to note during the build, is to always test the cannons movement as the port cannons can get a bit stuck due to a piece that was not clipped in properly. The starboard cannons have no issues.
The mechanism is not the smoothest but is simple enough. I do feel that it’s something that could be improved.
It is really cool that the cannons are brick built but I would have preferred the old school cannons we got with the sets from the 90’s. These were more realistic and you could shoot the enemy ships as you attacked them. That is probably the one downside of this build for me.
The stern and display stand
The stern and captain’s quarters have the most amount of detail in the hull. There is about 30 pages dedicated to the stern which shows how much thought and detail went into it. It is very impressive and makes a huge difference.
There is also a lot of angles on the stern and the captains’ quarters which makes it a bit delicate but adds to the look.
The captain’s quarters have some small details like a dining table, sideboard with a few candles, some fish, apples in barrels and a map. Not a huge amount but with the limited space they did put as much as they could in that area.
The glass windows and the arches finish off the stern
The sails and deck
The sails, oh the sails, and how they blew me away. So many sails and the way they connected them really added to the look of the ship.
The rope ladders which were not a single piece was also a nice little touch.
The sails are paper sails which hold their shape and allows for them to look like the ship is moving with the sails rather than flat sails. This is definitely a very nice detail that was added along with the masts which were half built and half a single piece.
The masts and sails are the finish that this ship needed and was the perfect shape and look. If you compare it to the older ships, the sails were the disappointing part but not this ship.
Minifigures and accessories
- You get 8 minifigures (excluding the head figure) all with accessories and printed torsos.
- Only Marty has a single printed head, cause all the rest have hats and hair to cover the other printed face
- Barbossa and Sparrow have printed legs and dual moulded hats
- You get a lifeboat…
Is it swooshible or for a display?
No, it does not float… I did not try to float it but from working with the older ships I know it does not float.
It is definitely a display piece as there are only two rooms for minifigures and the stern is a quite delicate. The removable display shows that they thought that you have two types of collectors. One who will place it on a shelf. The second is someone who will build it into a scene. I am probably going to be the later once i start on my pirate’s layout.
As a display set, beautiful!
The Good and the Bad
The good
- Beautifully large vessel
- Sails… beautiful sails
- Lots of exterior details
- Display stand is removable
The bad
- Cannons are brick built
- Mechanism to open the cannon doors can get stuck
- Took too long between releases 2011 vs 2025
- Leans towards display and not a lot of hatches that open
- The name, should be called the black pearl
The Ugly
Overall and great build and lots of detail. If you compare this to the original black pearl from 2011 then this is miles ahead even though the 2011 was a set aimed at the older kids while this is aimed at the adults. The older set was smaller and simpler and that allowed it to be swooshible and had the correct name…. The Black Pearl.
The cannons and movable rudder are neat little features but the two main items which made the build was the removable stand and the details that was put into the sails. If the sails were brick built, I would not see this set been as amazing as it is.
