Vaggelis Ntezes hid the Goonies’ route inside the ship they were trying to find
From one side, the Inferno is a pirate ship. Walk around it and the hull gives way to the chain of encounters that brought the Goonies aboard.
An old pirate fan’s dilemma
When Greece-based 3D artist Vaggelis Ntezes proposed The Goonies for LEGO Ideas, he had two childhood favorites to draw on: the film and LEGO Pirates. They suggested rather different things to build. A convincing pirate ship needs a recognizable outline. A Goonies adventure needs enough ground for a gang of children to get into trouble well before anyone reaches a ship.
The model that LEGO announced in October 2025 accommodates both on one footprint. The Inferno presents its hull and rigging to one side. On the other, the journey to the treasure unfolds through the Fratellis’ hideaway and the caves. Looking at the ship first gives away the destination. Turning it around restores the suspense of getting there.
What the key does
Take the Copper Bones Skeleton Key. It could have been a souvenir accessory lying alongside a row of minifigures. Instead it operates traps. A falling boulder has a before and an after; so does a trapdoor. Put a character in its path and a stretch of scenery becomes a scene with a punch line. The skeleton organ offers a different sort of invitation: anyone who remembers what a wrong note means can supply the tension themselves.
Those mechanisms make Ntezes’s interest in play tangible. The scene is legible as a display even when nothing moves, but an owner showing it to a friend can choose when the trouble starts.
Data gets to show someone around
For the launch, Ke Huy Quan returned to Data in a short film about the model. The press portrait catches a quieter joke: the actor who played the gadget enthusiast now stands behind the entire ship, large enough to reach into any of its workings. The miniature Data, by contrast, comes with his utility belt. His gadgets belong down at the scale where a boulder is still a problem.
That difference in scale is what makes this particular fan idea more than a ship with familiar passengers. The best view of the vessel and the best place to play out the story cannot be seen together. Showing someone the model practically requires taking them around it.
Reporting checked November 10, 2026. Plans and programs can change; follow the linked organizations for current information.