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Bruce's contest thoughts

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:31 pm
by Bruce N H
Hey all,

As per usual, it always kills me that I cannot comment on entries as they come in, so here are my thoughts from the recent contest. As before, I won't comment on all of the entries, but only those where I have something specific to say. So if I don't have any comments on a given entry, that doesn't mean anything other than that I had nothing new to add to the discussion of that MOC.

General thoughts - at first I was kind of down-hearted about this competition, because in the early days there were very few entrants. However, near the end there were a large number of very high quality MOCs, so that every category was a close call.
Also, a huge thanks to LEGO for providing the prizes and for participating in the judging.

Okay, first category, ballista

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Piotr's Dragon Ballista
won with a fun entry. The dragon on top is really cute, and the mechanism to use gearing to pull back the bow and then hold it until firing is clever.

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DARKspawn's Bat Lord Ballista
was my personal favorite, probably for the big skull thing. I also like the use of hook.

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Dan Hall's Black Falcon Ballista
was probably the most reallistic entry, though it loses a little for lack of functionality.

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Jansen's Soransan Ballista
has a nice mechanism for firing, with the rubberbands swinging the bow's arms out, which snaps the string forward.

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Piglet's Firing Crossbow
has another nice firing mechanism, with a ratchetd gear pulling back the rubber band and then released by pulling the lever.

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Kelderic's Medieval Ballista
has an interesting trigger mechanism, though I'm not sure how much I like the dino tail/spear combination on the bow arms.

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Ebu Deyyus
might get most creative piece use, with insectoid legs, and I like the feathers on the backs of the bolts.

Bruce

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:45 pm
by Bruce N H
Next up, Catapult

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Nelson's Skullroller
won with a fun entry. It fits really nicely with his theme and I really like the fire pit for heating up the rocks. The ruined tower does a great job of looking like its stones have been scattered, but if you look close you can see that everything is attached. I'll bet you could turn that upside down and nothing would move.

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DARKspawn's Bat Lord Catapult
is probably my favorite entry, though. The claw hand as bucket is great, and that little outpost tower is awesome. I would love it if that was a small set for sale.

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Ohm's Dad's Trebuchet Attack
is a really nice trebuchet design, though those little cart wheels do look really spindly. What I really appreciate here is the classic fortress being attacked and that great little tent on the side.

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Dr J.'s Rapid Fire Catapult
is one of the least realistic, but it's very playable with that great mechanism for the rapid loading. Also, the wheeled mantlet is a nice addition.

Bruce

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 8:09 pm
by Norro
And as usual I'll say how much I appreciate the details you point out before you've had time to cover all the categories ; )

Thanks again for doing this Bruce and God Bless,

Nathan

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 8:10 pm
by R_The_Falcon
Aha! Thanks for Bruce for doing this! I was even going to PM you about reviewing these because you do such an excellent job.

Once again, you're pointing out great details that I'm sure all the builders and readers appreciate.

Thanks Again!

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:30 pm
by DARKspawn
I wasn't sure you were going to do this, Bruce, but I am really glad you are :) It is an excellent summary of the contest.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 10:10 pm
by wunztwice
DARKspawn wrote:I wasn't sure you were going to do this, Bruce, but I am really glad you are :) It is an excellent summary of the contest.
I echo DARK here. I was hoping you were going to do this for this contest too! Great summary of great MOCs! Good work all of you.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 2:41 pm
by Bruce N H
Wagons

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Jens' Prison Wheeler
won with a fun idea. Does this actually work? It certainly appears to from the close-up pic of the gearing mechanism.

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Tim's Rescue
was my personal favorite. There are a lot of great details like the tire as hat, using a snake as a whip, and the SNOT detailing on the side of the cart. The two brick-built-beasts are really cool. I like the battle droid heads as ears on the daemon particularly - I do wish there were more pics of that creature without the net. Great action going on in the rescue scene as well.

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Nelson's Wolfpack Prisoner Transport
is a great set in the style of Wolfpack Renegades, including the secret compartment (though I always thought that compartment design was silly, where you have to swing up the whole wagon to access it). I don't know if people noticed, but the bars have a great pull-out design using taps as connecters. I like the skeletal beast a lot, but with the horns it looks to me like an undead cow (ooh, you could have a cattle drive at a wild west ghost town! :) ).

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DARKspawn's Bat Lord Prison Cart
uses upside-down construction interestingly. Was this completely to use the tooth/claw plates as ornaments on the top? Something I never noticed about the "bar 1x8 with brick 1x2 curved top end" is that triangular gap on the bottom, which makes an interesting ornament effect here.

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Imhotepidus' Bone Carriage
is way too big, in my opinion. However, I really like the use of skelly parts such as skulls as wheel spokes, legs as railing posts, and torsos as window bars. The additions to the elephant are also very cool, particularly the tooth/claw plates.

Bruce

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 4:39 pm
by Dr. J
On my catapult, my weakness in building med evil mobile stuff is my sense of realism.
I never seem to grasp the idea that those things back then didn't have motors.
And I'm not that good at attaching horses to the front.

I also didn't think about wether the large ammo holder would actually stay standing. :P

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:43 pm
by Spongey
Thanks for putting another one of these together Bruce. It's nice to see all of these great MOCs rated with an expert eye.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:39 pm
by gambort
I join in the thanks for these. It's good to get some feedback on our entries.

I'm sorry about the lack of pics of the daemon. I thought I'd taken more but looking again I noticed I hadn't. Unfortunately it's gone and sorted now so I can't take any.

I will say, though, that the torso and shoulders were the weakest bit so you're not really missing out on much. Were I to build something similar I'd use a better torso design.

Tim

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 9:35 pm
by DARKspawn
Bruce N H wrote:Tim's Rescue was my personal favorite. ...using a snake as a whip...
I missed this detail, very nice idea, consider it stolen ;)
Bruce N H wrote:Was this completely to use the tooth/claw plates as ornaments on the top?
Short answer - yes ;)

Thanks again for the comments, Bruce. Keep them coming :)

Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 8:05 am
by jangofett14
Nice Job Bruce :!: DARKspawn's tower and catapult is cool - tower is beautiful:!:

Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 1:02 pm
by g2
Very nice write-up/s Bruce. You have pointed out some details that I had missed when I looked at the entries – so thank you for that.

Well done to all the entrants who put so much thought and detail into their creations, it has given us other Lego builders some very interesting building ideas.

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 5:58 pm
by Bruce N H
Joust

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DARKspawn's Final Joust
won with perhaps the most beautiful MOC in the competition. This is in many ways a perfect creation. On the one hand it is simple and not too busy, but on the other hand it is filled with details. The tents are really interesting and achieve a rounded shape with, I am guessing, hinge plates. The royal pavilion has some nice details, like the turntable bases on the front and the fringe of the awning on top. Nice fences, both the one for the spectators and the one separating the combatants. Great fig placement--for instance the princess leaning forward for a better look at her champion and the forestman climbing a tree for a better view. My favorite detail might be the inclusion of the gong farmer with his cart.

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Nelson's Bone Bridge Joust
is the most creative of the joust entries. I love the concept of a bridge over a lava flow (presumably this bridge is on the road to his tower entry?). The cliff faces and the bone ornaments are also great. What really makes this, though, is the skeleton chicken (ostrich? chocobo?) mount. I particularly like the simple yet effective design of the head.

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Dillon's Forest Joust
was another creative take on the joust scene. Placing the royal pavilion in a tree is perfect for the forestmen, also the plant pieces on top of their weapons rack (and the horns on the weapons rack for the black knight. Good posing of the jousing knights.

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Mockingbird's What to do with two knights? Joust
has another great tent design (with coordinated color schemes). I also like the lances with flags for the fence.

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Brian's Joust
is creative in putting the skelly knight on a dragon. I also like the skelly knight's shield design.

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Burger's Grand Joust
was not in the contest (images were too large), but the rubber-band-propelled knights give this fun playability.

Bruce

Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 9:04 am
by DARKspawn
Thanks heaps for all the kind words, Bruce :) I hope you intend on finishing your review of the comp, as Tim said, it's great to get feedback on our entries.

I really thought Nelson would take the Joust entry - the Bridge idea was a stroke on genius :D