My submission to yet another LEGO Ideas competition, this time for pirates! Here’s an action-packed diorama featuring a team of pirates being ravaged by a gigantic shark as they flee to their secret hideout!

My original concept was to build a pirate ship being eaten by a large shark, similar to the climax of the film JAWS. I then retooled it to merely have the shark swallowing a small rowboat as the crew members escaped into the sea. The main obstacle of the entire project was building the shark: it ended up being much larger than originally planned, which required a lot of design changes. The shark’s construction uses various unorthodox building techniques such as usage of hinge plates to create the round shape of its face.

After completing the shark, I quickly built the beach scene by filling a 64×64 baseplate with fake water, sand, and bubbles, then topped it off with the pirate minifigures and splashing waves. If you look closely you can see a little monkey with a parrot, and an unfortunate skeleton of a conquistador!