LEGO Black Pearl had a colour conundrum to make pieces stand out

LEGO 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Ship faced a colour conundrum during development to make pieces stand out, but blend in seamlessly.

The first LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean set in years is available now in the form of 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Ship, bringing the iconic ship to life with a myriad of black pieces. This distinct colour scheme introduced a big problem for the design team during the development of the Black Pearl build, though.

Speaking to LEGO Fan Media, LEGO designer Mike Psiaki detailed one of the biggest challenges the team faced while designing 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Ship and accommodating a mostly-black colour scheme.

"I had a first version of the ship that was mainly black, and it just looked so striking anywhere that you put it, that we never really worried too much about the colour." Mike shared. "The colour was more of an issue in terms of how we were going to show people how to build this in the instructions, when there are so many black elements.

"It can be difficult to differentiate between two similar shapes, and we're lucky to have the white outline on the bricks in the manuals, but that doesn't mean they're easier to see when they're on the table together."

Building a set is just as important as displaying it, and ensuring that fans can actually tell which piece they need next for the build, then find it in the piles of parts they have in front of them, is a crucial task. The monochromatic colour scheme of the Black Pearl made this job a major challenge for the team behind 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Ship, and amending it meant changing the colour scheme of the iconic ship.

"A non-black colour scheme was never really tried in person," continued Mike. "I don't even think I built it physically. I think I just made a render of it to see what it would look like if we made the ship with more dark grey and even dark brown. But we dismissed those almost without even a discussion. The bigger question was what do we do for the bits on the ship that are obviously not black – the figurehead and the roof of the captain's cabin, as well as the deck of the ship?"

By mixing in non-black elements into the build and focusing on the areas of the Black Pearl that aren't coloured as such, the team were able to find a better balance of parts for fans to sift through successfully while putting together the 2,862-piece set.

"We could have made the deck black, but that was an area where we felt like we could differentiate on colour to make things pop a bit more," explained Mike. "For the figurehead and the roof of the captain's cabin, we explored versions where that roofing was green, and where they were in dark tan.

We iterated through basically all of our shades, because LEGO colours – even the more muted ones – are still quite vibrant. It's very hard to find one that pairs nicely with black that doesn't completely overwhelm the model. So there are some bits of dark grey sprinkled throughout the build, which is to give a little bit of variance and texture, but it's also from the perspective of trying to make the search time for the parts a little bit shorter."

Those confused as to why their copy of 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship isn't entirely black can rest assured that the surprising mix of colours is to make the building experience easier, especially for fans with sight problems.

You can buy LEGO Icons 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship around the world now for £299.99 / $379.99 / €349.99, along with its exclusive GWP in some regions while stocks last.

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