"Pyrates" is a 2005 toyline created by "Megabloks", now known as "Mega Brands". As I'm sure you can guess, this was a toyline centered around Pirates. Stylized to be spelt with a Y.
The toys were a knock-off brand from LEGO, that much is undeniable. No matter how much I love them. But Megabloks did go above and beyond to create a toy that could stand on its own when compared to its contemporaries.
Most notably, were the figures. In the past, with lines such as Dragons and the early Marvel stuff, Megabloks used figures that had more limited articulation, with only leg, arm, and head movement. But, starting with Pyrates, Megabloks rolled out their new figure style.
These were called "Micro Action Figures" and featured far more articulation than LEGO minifigures. They had ball joints for the hips, shoulders, and head. As well as having bendable knees and elbows. This, coupled with the awesome story, created a very stand out brand from LEGO. At least in my opinion.
The original Pyrates toyline started in 2005. And featured 27 unique sets as well as 6 combo packs. The series was then given a sort of "reboot" in 2011. Since dubbed by fans as "Pyrates 2.0", this line only featured 8 sets. All of which were remakes featuring only slight changes, most of which were downgrades.
Although its not part of the same line, its worth mentioning the "Pirates of The Carribean" toyline from Megabloks as well. Its easy to consider this a sort of sister toyline to Pyrates. They shared many molds, pieces, and set themes between the two.
This website is a spin off from my main site House of Doll Bones. It was originally created as a fanpage, but I decided it would be better fit as a standalone site. Since it deviated pretty heavily from my main content over there. I absolutely love this toyline to death. I have many nostalgic memories with it and I wanted to create this corner of my website dedicated to it.
Don't expect a cold and clinical wiki format. This site will be covered from head to toe in my personal opinions on the toyline. This is the part where I would suggest you to go to the Pyrates Wiki for that, but unfortunately, that place is kind of a mess. Its rampant with misinformation and fanmade content and really just isn't a great place for solid info.
Don't get me wrong. I love fancontent. Especially for a franchise as small and insignificant as this one. I love seeing that people are still passionate enough to write their own lore. But that kind of stuff shouldn't be paraded around the wiki as if it were canon. That's why I'm doing it here. In the privacy of my own website~
Like I said before, I had a lot of these sets already as a kid. And I mean a lot of them. Off the top of my head I can only think of a handful that I was actually missing.
Unfortunately, as children are inclined to do, I wasn't very respectful of my toys. Nor did I know that one day I would end up valuing them so much. As a result, most of my childhood sets and figures are completely gone. Destroyed or thrown away. In one particularly harrowing memory, I'm pretty sure I left my Admiral Scathe's Predator outside... Where it got hit by a lawnmower.
So I was left to pick up the pieces of what remained from my childhood. I was able to find a good amount of random pieces and parts in my attic. I currently have a rather large box full of random parts now.
Thankfully, one of the most important parts were pretty nicely tracked by Kid Me. The figures! I was able to find a large collection of my childhood figures. And with that, was able to piece back together a decent amount of characters.
Ta-da! Not a bad score for digging through toys that I hadn't touched in almost 20 years! I found characters for almost every faction.
Characters listed from Left to Right
I also found a lot of random unmatched body parts. From both Pyrates and Pirates of The Carribean. Though I'm not really into collecting for the latter. At least not yet.
The standouts from this haul are easily Bluebeard, Philias Plank, Ghoulluger, and Jonathan Juryrig.
Bluebeard speaks for himself. He only ever came in one set, Battle for Treasure Island. Though he's not super rare, he's not super cheap either... But yes. You're seeing that right. Child Me scribbled all over his beard with a sharpie. Ruining his look. Which means that, even though I have him here, I will need to buy a non-sharpied version eventually.
Philias Plank is a somewhat hard to find character. He only came in Longboat Lookout. Its not super common. But I was lucky enough to find him completely intact. Not a singlepart out of place. Lucky!
Ghoullugger was a miracle to get. I pieced him back together from individual scraps I found in my attic. Literally piece by piece. I was very, very lucky to have been able to piece him back together whole.
And Jonathan Juryrig... My boy. He was one of my favorites growing up. Though his legs aren't the right color, I was still very pleased to have found him in such good condition.
All in all, it wasn't a bad haul. All these figures plus all the miscellaneous parts I found, like I said.
I also found something I was quite pleased about!
This is the set known as Pieces of Eight. One of the four pouch sets. What pleased me so much about it was that I found it to be sealed! Brand new packaging! Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture before opening it.... But at least the set is here.
I know the decoder coin isn't in the picture, but I have that too. The copper one, to be exact.
Major site update! Blogs have been moved to their own page (link coming soon). And a major overhaul has been done to the home page. Links to the Reddit, Discord, and Guestbook have all been added!