Battles Contest Update (Winners Announced!)

[JoshWedin]

Okay, here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for! I want to thank everyone who entered, I was very impressed by the high level of the entries. It was hard to choose the winners this year. The contest was full of great entries, and many of the entries that didn't win deserved some kind of prize. I am only giving away three sets, but I could have used 15! I narrowed it done to the best 15 entries and then I had to agonize over which ones to cut.

Here are the winners in no particular order (except 1st to 3rd).

1st Place - Jungle Surprise by Stone Goblin
(Prize - 6040 Armor Shop and the forum title of "Master Tactician")

2nd Place - The Battle of Mistguard Pass by BreadMan
(Prize - 6034 Black Monarch's Ghost)

3rd Place - Shogun Showdown by SuvieD
(Prize - 6020 Magic Shop)

Congratulations to the winners! Please PM me with your addresses, so that I can mail out your prizes.

[Lord_Of_The_LEGO]

All well-deserving winners. Congratulations!


Note to self: put some effort into terrain next time...

[eNiGMa]

Congratulations, winners. I loved all your entries!

I have to enter next year....

[J_Chartowich]

very good entries, winners! I was really impressed with all of the entries, and i'm not supprised that jungle suprise won!

CONGRATS!

Josh

[smcginnis]

(To be an echo:) Congratulations, Winners!

I think all of the winners really deserved this. And Stone Goblin is going from special rank to special rank!

~smcginnis

[wunztwice]

Hey! Some of my favorite won! That's great y'all, congradulations on this momentus occation.

I am very pleased with the results and I'm sorry that not everyone could win. There were some superb entries which didn't win and my best wishes go out to them for next year.

Thanks for all this work Josh, and thanks for all the great MOCs everyone who entered!

[BreadMan]

A big thanks to Josh for running another successful contest, and for the set .

I'm really glad to see that SuvieD's placed, as that was my personal favorite. The detail work is wonderful, especially the cherry tree, and there's some great ninja/samurai action in there.

A few other personal favorites:
- Hordesman's Pub Fight for the creative take. Made me go "man, I wish I thought of that!" and then pick up a Discworld novel
- Fry Slayer's Pre-Dawn Assault. I like that it was shot against a black background so you have to actually look for the assassins.
- SuperRadz's Arising of the Demon Azbynmop. Nice construction on the skeleton demon, great way to use bionicle parts.
- Heck, there were so many other great entries, I can't list them all. Good job all, can't wait til next year!

[Lord Felix]

Wow! The people who won really deserved it! . Really nice building you guys!!! I like the use of Jar-Jar Binks for head dresses in the winning "Jungle Suprise."
I liked every entry. I really liked Hordesman's Pub Fight. I really like the idea of it.

Excellent Job Everyone!

[The Hordesman]

Congratulations all winners! I didnt win, but now Ive learned many more methods on how to pose a minifig, and will train on doing more creative posing.

Thanks all who liked my Pub fight, I think I shouldve made it more crowded and knew some posing I didnt know then, but we'll see something next time, though then I will try something compleletly different.

Its fun though, both Breadman and Stone Goblin got huge amounts of old figs and SuvieD is clearly a fantasy fan, so I guess no price was unwanted.

[Peppermint Pig]

Congratulations! All well deserved. Thank you for running this contest Josh. Hope you enjoyed running and judging it.

I definitely have to try harder next time, and find more time to do it in.

[Anubisconq]

Congrats Winners! It dos not surprise me that Stone Goblin won. Thanks for the contest Josh!

I'm coming back next year though!

[Fry_slayer]

Aye my prophecy holds true
Congratulations to all the winners, and yes, terrain seems to matter much, gonna retro my strategy next year...until the next great brickshed in the name of Josh then.

[The dark tide]

Yah, dido for me. I had plenty of guys I just didnt have any terrain. Congrats to the winners and thanks for running the contest Josh. Do you plan on doing it again?

[Stone Goblin]

Thanks Josh for making the contest possible and for giving away such cool castle prizes.

Sweet, I won. I finally have the Armor Shop set and my first black sword. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Josh!

Congrats to 2nd place BreadMan and his The Battle of Mistguard. Love the look of the king on the hill. It reminds me of those paintings of battles showing the champion clearly in a sea of chaos. I like the skeletons in the mud.

Congrats to 3rd place SuvieD and his Shogun Showdown which was one of my favorites(I love samurai/ninja battles). Cool idea with modified ropes for nunchucks. Awesome landscape design and a lot of good poses.

Other noted entries:
Hordesman's Pub Fight: Neat idea for a battle scene and nice bar details. Joe Vig sighting!

Erikutt's On the Edge: Cool vignette that's showing two ways to die. One by your foe and the other by falling. I like the guy that's just hanging on to the small branch.

Lego Knight's A Battle: Lava Elemental shooting flames and another cool lava terrain usage.

Sir Dillion's Outlaws Last Defense: Love the look of desperation for the peasants. Does the hostage survive? I say no.

MattH's Viking Siege on a Beach: Another good vignette with some excellent posing and details. A nice but gruesome scene of a viking hitting the ground.

Cornice's Lion Knights vs. Dark Wizard: Monkeys shooting flames out of their mouths and soldiers turning into trees/bushes , you got to love these ideas.

Super Radz's The Arising of the Demon Azbynmop: Excellent large skeleton demon design. Me thinks the other guys are wetting their pants. Also nice skeleton rhino/scorpion looking mount creature.

Stawastawa's The Monkees: Monkeys with swords scaring away forestman. Funny stuff.

Peppermint Pig's Falcon Fortress: A little bias here since I helped him on it and he's my brother. It's just to bad we ran out of time to finish and couldn't give it a proper battle scene for it's size. Should have a new and improved version in the future.

And to the many more not listed, I thank you for the battle entertainment and many new ideas. Everyone keep up the good work, improving your building skills and keep challenging yourselves!

[Sir Kohran]

I actually regret that I don't have the time to look through everyone's entries - there were so many brilliant models. The three top winners were incredible, though - I love the chaos in 'Jungle Surprise', the destruction in 'The Battle for Mistguard Pass', and the slickness and skill in 'Shogun Showdown'.

In some ways, I think the Battles Contest recaptures a bit of what we've lost somewhat in the rest of the forum - the feel of honour, and pride in war, and the thrill - and horror - of battle. There seems to be a lot more focus on towns and medieval life nowadays - so it's great to see a bit of what all these cities and farms are formed on - the warriors and heroes who fought to allow them to exist.

So well done everyone - I'm looking forward to next year's contest!

- Matt