Paul Janssen MOC

[Magnus]

Paul, I enjoyed meeting you, I like you castle a lot and I'm sorry that it didn't get the attention it deserved when you first posted it online. I've also posted pic of great MOCs that no one responded too and it sort of sucks. Sometimes it happens.

I'm also sorry you feel bad about the way the competition turned out.

About the competition - I'm ready to take some criticism for the way that was handled. A couple of things:

Josh's winning castle fit the overall size requierments as best as I remember, it was on a 48 by 48 baseplate and I am pretty sure that it was no higher than it was wide. Or if it was, it wasn't ridiculously high. I had stipulated that I didn't want to see any 6 foot high towers and his castle certainly wasn't like that.

Here is where I may have been a bit too flexible with the observance of the rules. I had stipulated also that the castle be a complete self sustained castle, rather than a part of a castle - a great hall or a gatehouse or a big keep - which this castle kind of was.

At the same time it had the feel of a "self sustaining keep" - it had a big door, there were lots of rooms inside. It wasn't just some big hall with walls four bricks thick, which was the sort of thing I had wanted to avoid. There were some real life castles that were pretty much just big keeps with little in the way of a curtain wall.

There was another castle there which was a sort of floating sky castle that may not have fit into the size restrictions, but it looked approximately in the same size range as the other castles, so I chose to allow it in and let the AFOLs vote on whatever castle they liked best.

I'd also like to say that nobody came up to me during BrickFest to say that they felt there was unfair competition due to size. There were one or two pretty small castles but the others were all pretty much in the same size category - and that was my goal.

I'll be the first to say that I think Josh's winning creation was a great MOC. It had lots of cool details including a lighting up fireplace, and it opened up to show the interior very well. In the end I think people voted for the winning castle because they liked it better than the others, not because it was a little bigger than the others. In other words, I don't think that being slightly bigger gave Josh the flexibility to build a better castle than he otherwise would have.

I'd also like to say that if I had voted (which I regretfully didn't do because I was so busy on Saturday), I would have had a very tough decision in which MOCC castle to cast my vote for. There were lots of very cool designs and once again I would like to thank everyone who participated.

thank you

Magnus

[Glencaer]

First let me say that I really enjoyed your castle. Both at fest and in your pictures now. Thanks for sharing.

One gripe I do have was that the winning castle was clearly bigger than the instructions allowed

Huh? Clearly bigger? I don't recall any hard and fast rules as to what counts and what doesn't - furthermore, with only like 5 eligible entries into the MOCC, I think a bit of lax on the rules maker/enforcer is due.

What bothers me is that it feels like youre upset for not winning, and that you don't intend on playing along for any future contests. If it bothers you so much, why not say anything before hand to Magnus or me? And really, I have to wonder why is bothers you at all. Personally, I don't go to BrickFest in the hopes of winning anything, and I certainly am not sore with anyone else if they win something - and especially not upset at the organizers, who poured their personal time and money into the event/contest.

I'm hoping that I'm taking this out of context and that you didnt mean it as harshly as it sounds.

-Lenny

[architect]

First of all, I think that Magnus and Lenny did a very good job with the contest. It is true that there were not many entries and judging must have been hard for everyone. I think I, and perhaps Paul, just interpreted the rules differently to think that the castle entries were supposed to be small and somewhat like LEGOLAND or set scale. Maybe we we incorrect in this. All of the entries were great, especially Josh's castle and Paul's.

Ben E.

[Dragon Master]

Does anyone have any pics of all the entries, I've yet to see Lenny's.

[Glencaer]

Does anyone have any pics of all the entries, I've yet to see Lenny's.

I wasn't able to enter the MOCC Contest - I had several building projects I needed to get done before Fest, plus other duties that kept me from my building room. I have some photos of the Castle room that I'll post about latter today.

-Lenny