Colossal Castle Contest II - Winning Entries

[SavaTheAggie]

I apologize, Jeff, if you were still willing to donate your prize to the winner. I must have misread your post when you said:

Nothing personal, but I don't feel right giving away my $100 helm and stuff, to a generic monk.

to mean you were not willing to send the prize. If that is not the case, I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

--Anthony

[Legolas]

I would like to appoligize for starting this whole mess. I also feel we should end this issue, before it turns into something really ugly.

So on with the congrats to all that entered the contest, and lets hope this years CCC is as great as last years.

-- Joey

[Blueandwhite]

This is unbelievable.

I post my opinion, and I'm told it's wrong. And here
I thought people could actually post their views on
this stuff that we all "do". My bad.

No, but you publicly insulted many of the people who entered this contest of their own free will. Really, you should have taken this up privately with the admins. Instead you blast NickGreat for entering a non-european custom (even though he didn't win), and you put down most of the other entries for "missing the point". Most of all, you owe Legofreak an appology for publicly insulting his work. I'm sorry that he isn't "worthy" of your prize !

I'm told, that because a group of people have decided
that "Ninja" IS castle, that I must therefore follow.
Clearly, I'm not the sort to simply play follow the leader,
so forgive me if I don't jump on that wagon.

I'm given definitions of a word, like I don't know the
meaning OR how such a word could be interpreted.
(interpret - 1. to construe 2. to give one's own
conception)

Really!

You NEVER publicly expressed any discontent with the interpretation of the Historical Custom category when the contest was actually run. You had an opportunity to view the entries. You could have discussed it privately with the admins then, instead of wainting until the winners were announced! Until your post, NickGreat wasn't aware that there was anything wrong with his entry until you put it down.

Ok. You want to nit-pick, fine. It also doesn't clearly specify that
the entries must be no-name(or made-up named)personnas
of obvious everyday medieval people. And btw, I shouldn't
have to say anything about the entries being a problem.
It should have been obvious to the people in charge.

And how is anybody supposed to know what you mean when the category doesn't expressly call for an individual of historic importance. Nowhere in the category does it suggest that an entry must be based on an actual person. Further, the category clearly states that the entry be realistic/historical. This can easily be interpreted as either historical or realistic.

If you had a problem, you should have taken it up with Ben or Lenny privately!

Really, I think you should be appologizing to the contestants you've dumped on. You've been rude to them, and they deserve better!!

Later.

[Fry_slayer]

Woa woa... hold on there, before any one takes this any further, lets make few things clear:

1) Blasterman NEVER said he would not donate the price he promised,
yes he did said he dont feel like to, but hey, just imagine u being a top armourer donated a whole set of finest arms to a competition just to be won by a ... monk? No offense to Legofreak, but i can understand from a armourer point of view it is indeed a bit disappointing. HOWEVER he did not say he would not donate the price, he was just telling his feeling, may be not in a very public realtionship friendly way and i think it got carried away. Just think mad genius kind of people complaining, they might talk alot but no harm done.

2) Blasterman being a some what theme purist (you can see his love for mediaval castle in all his work), is not d@mning any of the Ninja/Samurai entry/theme, just that he feels awkward that ninja/samurai is allowed in this contest. Again this is just HIS PERSONAL VIEW, period. Not jumping into the wagon doesnot imply u have to blow up the wagon.

I can see in the thread exchange also may be Sava was having a bad day too, i call to all members of C-C to stop carry this further and let them settle the issue themselves.

Lets us continue the tradition of C-C being a fun place to be, remember Blasterman donated the price first, we owe it to him.

[Norro]

Well a quick (and late) congrats to all who entered...

My favorites? Hm... I really like the use of the blue and red "tooth" pieces on the Tournament Supply. The trough of water for dunking red-hot weapons to temper them is a very good touch.
D-Man

Thanks for noting the water (a little less obvious than the teeth and even harder to get in 'bulk')

God Bless All,

Nathan

[Jim]

Well, thanks to the Admins for this wonderful contest. I have never built as much, or as well, as in these last few months. The contest and discovering this site have rekindled and grown my Lego interest. Once again, many, many thanks.

There were so many great MOCs, its no surprise that the judging was difficult and that there are differing opinions on the relative merits of the entries. We will probably not adequately discuss and praise each of the entries, much to my sadness. If each of these entries had been posted as standalone MOC topics, thoughtful critique and kind words would have been offered by this group, especially the regular posters. I encourage you to post a dicussion topic about your MOC, especially if it did get discussed in the general contest discussion thread. I would certainly like feed back on my forest scene and war elephant. I am proud of these entries, and even though they did not get HMs, I still believe that they are good.

I saw this quoted in another post, but could not find the post it came from.

As Sava wrote -
Quote:
--Anthony - who is still giving up an authentic 375 Knight with original stickers and weapons even though I was not impressed with the number of Yellow Castle entries.

I assume that I'm seeing this out-of-context and that my winning entry actually does rate a prize. If there is a problem, of any kind, pls PM me and let me know. I certainly don't want an undeserved prize. The knight prize is of course totally awesome.

Thanks again to the Admins and everyone who entered.

Jim

[architect]

Well, thanks to the Admins for this wonderful contest. I have never built as much, or as well, as in these last few months. The contest and discovering this site have rekindled and grown my Lego interest. Once again, many, many thanks.

You are welcome. This was our main goal of having the CCCII or any other contest we do - To get people to enjoy building a variety of castle creations

We will probably not adequately discuss and praise each of the entries, much to my sadness. If each of these entries had been posted as standalone MOC topics, thoughtful critique and kind words would have been offered by this group, especially the regular posters. I encourage you to post a dicussion topic about your MOC, especially if it did get discussed in the general contest discussion thread.

This is an excellent idea.

I assume that I'm seeing this out-of-context and that my winning entry actually does rate a prize. If there is a problem, of any kind, pls PM me and let me know. I certainly don't want an undeserved prize. The knight prize is of course totally awesome.

Of course you deserve the prize. Your Norman Castle had the highest points total. I think Tony may have been getting at the category itself leads to creations with more basic bricks and perhaps a bit less detail. I think this is due to the category restrictions, not the creativity of the people who entered the Yellow Castle category.

Ben E.
Contest Admin

[Glencaer]

I assume that I'm seeing this out-of-context and that my winning entry actually does rate a prize. If there is a problem, of any kind, pls PM me and let me know. I certainly don't want an undeserved prize. The knight prize is of course totally awesome.

Of course you deserve the prize. Your Norman Castle had the highest points total. I think Tony may have been getting at the category itself leads to creations with more basic bricks and perhaps a bit less detail. I think this is due to the category restrictions, not the creativity of the people who entered the Yellow Castle category.

I'd like to 2nd Ben's notion.

The Yellow Castle category in general didn't generate the sort of entries that I thought it would. But your Norman Castle was very much the exception rather than the norm, and easily the best in the category. Legofreak's and Norro's entry were also very well done.

-Lenny

[Glencaer]

Also posted under Jeff's Thread
===
Okay,

TO everyone involved: This issue has been settled.

The key issue was some miscommunication between myself, Jeff, and Ben. I spoke to Jeff directly about what he would be donating to the contest, and about what the category would be. I then communicated that to Ben. However, the initial intentions for the category are irrelevant - the point is that there was ambiguity in the category, and that can't be applied against the different entries.

The key point of weakness in the miscommunication was me. I just wanted to step up and take responcibility for that. Sorry guys.

Jeff was given the ability to grade the particular category that he donated the prize to. He was donating more than his typical product - basically some very expensive, exclusive items that he had ear-marked specifically for this contest. Ben and I, as the Contest Admins, felt this was an appropriate measure- his grade had the same weight as all of the other admins.

Concerning, Jeff was expressing his dismay about what sort of entries the contest acquired - they didn't fit his understanding of what the category was asking for. However, Jeff respects the grading process, and the winner of the category.

Lastly, Jeff also told me that he would like to give a little something to each of the runner's up in the Historical/Realistic category - so if

Greg3
Nick Great
Joey Finnell
Jobiwan7

Could send me their snail mail addresses at lenny dot hoffman at gmail dot com.

Thanks guys!!

-Lenny

[Bruce N H]

Hey,

On the Yellow Castle category, I'd also recognize Yaron's Yellow Castle expansion. As with his Joust Pavilion, I thought this MOC perfectly fit the spirit of the original set and could easily have been sold by TLC on a shelf next to the original Yellow Castle. Others were nice as well, but this category certainly didn't bring out the outstanding creations like categories such as vignettes.



Bruce

[sith35]

I just want to say thanks to Lenny. He stepped up and cleared this up for people who did not know the whole story.

And a sorry goes out to those who were affected badly by all this. Although I did not have a part in all this, I did know the story as it unfolded.

Thanks again Lenny, and sorry to those who need it.

[Formendacil]

Of course you deserve the prize. Your Norman Castle had the highest points total. I think Tony may have been getting at the category itself leads to creations with more basic bricks and perhaps a bit less detail. I think this is due to the category restrictions, not the creativity of the people who entered the Yellow Castle category.

A totally understandable sentiment, but I think you have it right when you say it had to do with the category restrictions.

For one thing, most people here are too young to have been familiar with the Yellow Castle. And don't say that they could look at Bricklink or pics, because there is something about owning, building, and playing with your own set that gives you a better feel for the set than anything else. Many of the users here are of the post-Fright Knights era even, so it is quite natural that the response was weak, considering that a lot of people aren't familiar with that era at all.

Secondly, as I recall, the contest restrictions allowed for the use of pieces from a "similar era", eg. grill helmets, in place of authentic elements. This was rather unclearly defined. I can see people holding off from building rather than making something and finding out afterwards that their creations were invalid because of some piece they used.

In my opinion, the Yellow Castle category was a good idea, but I think it could have been done differently. It could have been more of a "Yellow Castle spirit" category, maybe as a brick-built castle category, where you could only use basic rectangular bricks (No slopes, ?plates?, tiles, minifigs, flags, etc.).

Anyway, that's what runs through my mind on the subject.

[ed_dotcom]

I was planning on making an entry for the "Yellow Castle" category, but after sorting through my LEGO I realized that I did not have very many plain yellow bricks...which considering the amount of LEGO I have, was very odd. I am one who remembers the Yellow Castle quite fondly (my neighbor had one growing up, I never got one, but wanted one). And as Formendacil mentioned, I didn't want to submit an invalid entry. Also, the last thing I wanted to do was put together something not worthy of being used as a companion to the original Yellow Castle

Life is Good.