Like a lot of AFOLs, I thought the idea of Angry Birds LEGO seemed ludicrous. It was hard to imagine sets that would have any redeeming value beyond the license. When they finally arrived, it was the pirate ship that caught my eye with clean cartoonish, lines and a reasonable price per piece.

One strange thing that I notices about this box was the prominent warning labels. Just about every LEGO set is full of choking hazards, but they don’t usually have such prominent warnings, it seems to be specific to this theme.

Six sizable bags in the box in addition to small packet for the sails. A lot of dark stone gray and reddish-brown, but that kind of bread-and-butter is always welcome in my inventory.

The well-known ‘Red,” the original angry bird, comes in bag 1. He is a new sculpt with nicely printed details and moveable arms. This guy comes in nearly every Angry Birds set, but with different expressions. This is one of his less angry incarnations.

From the side, it is easier to see the feather details on the arm. It would have been nice if these arms were more like regular minifig arms. They would have added some great customizing options.

The first bag builds the set’s catapult (just about every Angry Birds set has a catapult for flinging birds at the piggies) and begins the structure for the ship. There is a lot of rainbow elements hiding inside the otherwise drab exterior. certainly makes for easier building.

With the second bag, I found the first interesting elements in the set. The bright reddish violet half-bow is only available in one other set (it winds up hidden out-of-sight in this model). Each of the two deep window frames are unique to this theme (in these colors) and this set has the most of each. Those new snot bricks are pretty slick too and again, this is only the second set that they have appeared in red.

The rest of the second bag builds more of the ship’s internal mechanism that moves the oars as the wheels spin.

Bag 3 yields up six of these new printed tiles. The medium nougat really lets the wood grain print shine. In all, there are 10 of these in the set and they are exclusive to the Angry Birds theme for now. This 1x2x3 white brick is only in one other set and it will certainly have its uses in the future.

The wheels are on now and we’ve built up to the deck. Thanks to the mechanisms we’ve already built, the oars move back and forth as the boat drives on its wheels and those upper axles spin too (we’ll be attaching paddle wheels there eventually). The bow has a nice curve to it now.

This is Leonard and he comes in bag 4. The pig figs really capture their goofiness and each set has different characters (same mold, different prints). My son tells me that this is actually the pig king, so I will bow to his greater knowledge of the material. There is a crown hiding in the ship, after all.

No print in the back, but a cute little curly tail. I like that the pig figs use standard minifig arms.

Bag 4 has four of these hexagonal elements in medium nougat (only in this set). I’m looking forward to playing with these in the future. That big 8×8 bow has never been in reddish-brown before. There are a bunch of similar bows (and their inverted siblings) in this set in dark stone gray and I’m looking forward to getting some use out of them for space builds.

I’m a big fan of the 1×1 round plates with holes and there are 7 of them in this set in warm gold, which I hadn’t seen before. That last element is a crown in warm gold.

The ship is starting to get pretty tall now as we’ve added a little galley in the bow and built the mechanism for a winch. I didn’t actually put the thread on the winch, so you’ll just have to imagine that part. The belted wheels on the side control the winch.

The fifth bag had the other pig, aptly names ‘Pirate Pig.’ He’s kind of amazing with a great printed face and a unique pirate hat.

The most interesting element in the fifth bag is this recolor and print of Captain America’s shield. This is the only set it appears in and it gets used to make sure that our pirate ship has a pig nose.

The ship is almost done now, as the fifth bag finishes out most of the bow and the main deck.

We get the big guy in the last bag. His name is ‘Bomb’ and he’s built like it.

Unlike Red, Bomb has a couple of rubber parts: the ‘wick’ on top and his tail.

Nearly every bag in this set has had interesting elements inside and bag six doesn’t disappoint. This venerable flag elements have been around since I was a kid, but this is the first time they’ve been in sand yellow.

All finished, this is a tall model. The technic masts feel appropriately ramshackle, and I love the patchwork printing on the sails. The crane arm on the back holds a net full of eggs so that the pigs can make their getaway with the loot.

The finished model is a lot of fun. Anyone expecting a realistic ship might be disappointed, but I found this cartoonish model to be a great build.

Once I was done, my son and I took turns trying to catapult the birds at the piggies. It takes some practice to figure out how to launch Red for any distance, but we had fun trying. In out attempts, Bomb was just too heavy to get airborne. For a kid, the play value is immediately obvious.

Keep building and enjoy!