LEGO ‘put no thought into’ whether the Black Pearl would be too black

The designer behind LEGO Icons 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship says he dismissed versions with more colour outright, and ‘put no thought into’ the Black Pearl potentially being too black.

LEGO Star Wars fans know all too well the hurdles of building predominantly in one colour, and the resulting mass of grey that often conquers displays from a galaxy far, far away. But black is almost a different challenge altogether, threatening to swallow up details and overwhelm the visual composition of a model. For LEGO designer Mike Psiaki, that was apparently never a concern with the newest Black Pearl.

LEGO Icons 10365 Captain Jack Sparrows Pirate Ship review 2 962x1024

“I almost put no thought into that,” Mike told Brick Fanatics and other LEGO Fan Media during a recent roundtable interview. “As soon as I had a first version of the ship that was mainly black, it just looked so striking anywhere that you put it, that we never really worried too much about the colour.

“I think 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’s so many black elements. It can be really difficult to differentiate between two similar shapes. We put 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.”

If sifting through a sea of black pieces was a daunting prospect, the obvious next question is: did Mike ever attempt to build 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship (see here for a brief note on that unwieldy name) in any other colours? There’s an argument to be made for both dark brown and dark grey for the hull based on the ship we see in the movies.

Disney Wiki Black Pearl 1024x658 — Image: Disney Wiki / GrubbyGrubster005

“I tried once, very briefly,” he says. “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?

“You have the figurehead, and you have the roof of the captain's cabin. I had versions where that roofing was in sand green, where it was in dark tan. And the same for the figurehead, iterating 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 suddenly just completely overwhelm the model.

“So again, there's some bits of dark grey sprinkled throughout the model as well, which is to give a little bit of variance and texture, but it's also from the perspective of trying to make the hunt for the parts a little bit easier.”

As is, the finished model is almost entirely dominated by black elements, and aside from the figurehead and the roof of the captain’s cabin, only the deck – which includes dark grey and brown elements – provides a break from the monochromatic colour scheme. “Maybe we could have made it black, but that was an area where we felt like we can differentiate on colour, just to make things pop a little bit more,” Mike adds.

You’ll be able to decide how effective the Black Pearl’s colour scheme is when 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship launches for LEGO Insiders on September 12. Anyone buying day one will receive 5009609 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Compass, which is free exclusively with the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean set through September 18, or while stocks last.