LEGO BrickLink Designer Program Series 5 910053 The Thieves of Tortuga review

910053 The Thieves of Tortuga is a spectacularly detailed and enjoyable set that will delight any fan of LEGO Pirates – but you’ll need to act fast to get your hands on it.

Available for crowdfunding from June 10 through the BrickLink website, with a maximum of 30,000 copies – or potentially more – available to order (head here for more info), 910053 The Thieves of Tortuga feels like a theme park attraction in brick form, offering up a sense of scale and detail that has never been realised in a LEGO Pirates set before. Charming, colourful and full of whimsy, this build really needs to be seen to be believed.

910053 The Thieves of Tortuga

Release: Jun 10, 2025 (pre-order)

Retiring: N/A

Price: £299.99 / $339.99 / €339.99

Pieces: 4,002

Minifigures: 13

BrickLink Designer Program Series 5 has a couple of particularly large fan-designed LEGO sets that go up for crowdfunding on June 10. Of these, the one that will appeal most to fans of the old-school LEGO pirates theme will be 910053 The Thieves of Tortuga, a large, detailed seaside port town that’s filled with details across a smattering of buildings.

Nostalgic throwback pirate sets have not exactly been uncommon in recent years, but no official release has ever offered the same level of detail and quality that can be seen with 910053 The Thieves of Tortuga. This is a thoroughly enjoyable build from start to finish, and the completed model looks so spectacular on the shelf that it’s hard to imagine any other LEGO Pirates model ever proving to be more eye-catching.

It helps that not only is this set a gem in its own right; it also borrows from the design style of various other LEGO Pirates offerings that have been seen recently. This is most notable in the cobbled streets of Tortuga, which fit perfectly with the now retired 10320 Eldorado Fortress, while the size and shape of the display’s many buildings won’t look at all out of place next to 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay.

 The current incarnation of the BrickLink Designer Program is now into its fifth series, and it’s clear that lessons have been learned along the way. The success of the program comes down to the relatively hands-off approach that the LEGO Group has taken with these fan-designed sets.

Unlike LEGO Ideas, which sees LEGO designers take fan creations as a starting point and then polish them to create something that will be more accessible for the widest possible audience, the BrickLink Designer Program sets are made by dedicated LEGO fans, for dedicated LEGO fans, with minimal concessions to the needs of a more mainstream audience.

At first, this led to BrickLink Designer Program creations that could be a bit flimsy and tricky to assemble, but the program now involves a period of design alteration and polish in which a few of the rougher edges in some of these sets are smoothed out.

910053 The Thieves of Tortuga still has some parts that feel a little flimsy or insecure, but this build is a vast improvement from previous BDP offerings. There are pieces that can become dislodged easily from the model’s base, and a lot of foliage that can easily get knocked off, but this is not uncommon even with sets that come from official LEGO designers, so these minor weak points can be overlooked.

It’s hard to overstate it: actually putting this set together is an absolute joy. One of the best things about the assembly process is that fact that, for a build with over 4,000 elements, things never feel repetitive or predictable. The design involves constructing lots of smaller buildings rather than one large structure, so every individual house feels distinct and unique.

If this set were half its size, it would still be fantastic, but the BrickLink Designer Program’s tolerance for incredible excess means that this is a real Hobbit’s breakfast of a build: having completed the first entire half of the model, you’ll then start on a similarly large second chunk, before finally connecting everything together with a small bridge.

This makes, then, for a very long display piece once constructed, but removing the bridge also allows for the set to be displayed in two separate chunks if needed. Depending on your storage and shelf space, this will likely make the finished build a far easier thing to put on display.

While the set looks fantastic at a macro level, taking a closer look reveals a variety of adorable and very entertaining little touches. These range from the decorations in the various buildings, to things like bullet holes in a wall, a partially-buried treasure chest next to a sandcastle and a person tipping a bucket of dirty water from a balcony. These small touches contribute greatly to the model’s joyous, whimsical personality.

The minifigures in this particular set shouldn’t, theoretically, be anything to write home about. All BrickLink Designer Program designs use the same palette of pieces, and there are only so many minifigure torso options available. This build, though, does a fantastic job of remixing some of these few torso options to create dynamic and interesting characters to help flesh out the world of LEGO Tortuga.

While this model’s high price point and limited availability will mean that many who would like to buy it will inevitably be disappointed, it’s hard to imagine that anyone who does get their hands on 910053 The Thieves of Tortuga will be in any way underwhelmed by the completed set. It’s so fantastically decadent in its presentation that it can’t help but draw the eye, with an enjoyable and varied construction process that is lengthy in the most satisfying way imaginable.

Our honest opinion: For those who can get their hands on it, 910053 The Thieves of Tortuga will be a crowning jewel in their LEGO Pirates collection.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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