making the new release 6263 Imperial Outpost the sole Imperial Guards set, which essentially made the year a Pirates versus Islanders conflict. For 1996 Lego changed the entire "feel" of the Pirates line, giving the Pirates minifigs new faces, and made it Spanish-influenced. The Imperial Guards were replaced by the Imperial Armada (heavily influenced by the Spanish Armada), though the Guards' 6263 Imperial Outpost remained available in 1996 as a medium land base for Imperial side, as ending up only two sets were released for the Armada including the 6280 Armada Flagship (although Armada minifigures were guests in new sets of the Pirates faction). 1996 was also the last year for the Islanders who had not seen any new releases since 1994 nor had their minifigures featured as guests in other factions' sets. 1997 featured just the Pirates versus the Imperial Armada; however some of the new releases like 6250 Cross Bone Clipper and 6281 Pirates Perilous Pitfalls were not well received and this turned out to be the final year of the original Lego Pirates run. After 1997, Lego discontinued the Pirates theme to the shock of fans, because the Pirates line had always been a big seller. The original releases (1989–91) retrospectively were most nostalgic among Lego Pirates fans due to the sets' design and meticulous detail, which was sacrificed in subsequent releases for increased playability, which drew a mixed reception. For instance the 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner (1993), which succeeded 6285 Black Seas Barracuda (1989) as the main Pirates ship set, implemented a mechanism for the ship's wheel to control the rudder which necessitated a smaller and less detailed aft cabin, plus the Skull's Eye Schooner's cannons are attached to rotating turntables on sliders instead of the more realistic placement of cannons upon wheeled naval carriages like earlier Lego Pirates ship sets. 6289 Red Beard Runner (1996), which replaced 6286, drew criticism for "battle damage" features like the tumbling forward mast and collapsing quarterdeck as these made the assembled set unstable. The changes to Lego's set design direction, not just in Lego Pirates but also across their other product lines, have been attributed to the Lego Group's retiring of many LEGO Designers who had created the sets from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, replacing them with 30 'innovators' who graduated from the European design colleges around Europe who knew "little specifically about toy design and