Technic Challenge's july 2011 -" a Summertime Sport vehicle

[efferman]

many dune buggies, but the only real bug have my vote

[sideshow77]

The VW Beetle is a good Lego reincarnation of Tamiya's Monster Beetle

[P4trickvH]

Yup same for me, nr 49 has my vote to.

[vmln8r]

many dune buggies, but the only real bug have my vote

It also features a suspiciously placed sign...

[efferman]

you think the logo is photoshopped? hm, maybe you are right, but not sure to see in this small picture size

[Silcantar]

It also features a suspiciously placed sign...

Read: "badly photoshopped." I'm pretty sure I've seen it before, too. I'm looking for it currently. It's amazing, the ends to which these kids will go...

[P4trickvH]

Here the original on mocpages.com only problem is that the site it self doesn't seem to work at the moment. But google cache does wonders.

Source

google is my friend ;)

Edited July 23, 2011 by P4trickvH

[efferman]

oh no, and i walked in the trap.

[dolittle]

It is easy to spot fakes, do like so:

http://www.google.com/imghp

Click on the picture link (it is at the right corner of the search field)

Put the URL of the image, for example:

http://cache.lego.com/upload/Gallery16E7ACC4-674B-4FF1-B23C-AA3232300010/8c8940b2-d179-412f-8bd3-8bc7e49a4c5d.jpg

And you will find your original :D

[Erik Leppen]

I already thought it was "too good" (i.e. of "Afol quality", not what kids build with Lego, even very good kids).

Seemingly, the new rule isn't working very well. I still think there is only one solution and that is somehow using the collective knowledge of the Afol community somewhere in the process. For example, by showing the list to just the LUGs first to see if they find anything suspicious, and only after that, make the list available to the public. But I'm sure there are other ways to do this properly.

The only other alternative I'm seeing is scrapping the entire competition...

Either that, or delivering the awarded prize to the creator of the original!

Edit: by the way, dolittle, that's a genius method, never known it even existed! Thanks!

Edit:

It's amazing, the ends to which these kids will go...

What's also kind of surprising is how this has not been spotted by the judges. Why is it, I ask, that they do not see what we see?

Edited July 23, 2011 by Erik Leppen

[Nazgarot]

I did a Google image search, and got a hit on MOCpages.

I cant get MOCpages to work, but this is the information Google got out of MOCpages:

500 × 375

Suspension pics - Rock Crawler: A LEGO® creation by Morten ...

www.mocpages.com/moc.php/147876 - Cached

25 Aug 2009 – Suspension pics - Rock Crawler :: LEGO creations. Suspension pics of my Rock Crawling Bug

So this was at last built before August 25 2009 by some Morten... The design also seems familiar to me. I've seen at least one other Monster truck with identical suspension design.

-ED-

[DLuders]

(Sigh) I reported the cheater to Lego Customer Service, Jetro (the Lego Technic Ambassador), and Conchas (who seems to have connections). The Technic Challenge should not be stopped just because of some "bad apple" plagiarists. Instead, the offenders should be banned from future monthly Challenges. Maybe if the Lego Technic judges followed some of the suggestions on this forum, they wouldn't have 1/10th of the problems we've seen this year.

Just because some folks don't want to "play by the rules", it doesn't mean that the fun needs to stop for everybody else.

[JunkstyleGio]

@ Binkmeister: You've got PM

So far my investigations let to this!

The model found on MOC-pages has been presented by Morten Frandsen...

And if you google his name you get this:

Morten Frandsen

Sales Manager, Viper EMEA at Nilfisk-Advance

Don't think that he is a "TFOL named Yeeft"

Edited July 23, 2011 by JunkstyleGio

[Conchas]

(Sigh) I reported the cheater to Lego Customer Service, Jetro (the Lego Technic Ambassador), and Conchas (who seems to have connections). The Technic Challenge should not be stopped just because of some "bad apple" plagiarists. Instead, the offenders should be banned from future monthly Challenges. Maybe if the Lego Technic judges followed some of the suggestions on this forum, they wouldn't have 1/10th of the problems we've seen this year.

Just because some folks don't want to "play by the rules", it doesn't mean that the fun needs to stop for everybody else.

Hi David,

thanks for raising my attention to this discussion!

I've just reported this occurrence to those interested. Let's hope there is some consequent action.

Unfortunately the plagiarists will always try to find their own way to cheat...

Br, Fernando (Conchas)

[JunkstyleGio]

Left a message on Michael Frandsen's MOC-pages to inform hin on the plagiarist..

Let's hope TLG will take appropriate steps!

[Jetro]

(Sigh) I reported the cheater to Lego Customer Service, Jetro (the Lego Technic Ambassador), and Conchas (who seems to have connections). The Technic Challenge should not be stopped just because of some "bad apple" plagiarists. Instead, the offenders should be banned from future monthly Challenges. Maybe if the Lego Technic judges followed some of the suggestions on this forum, they wouldn't have 1/10th of the problems we've seen this year.

Just because some folks don't want to "play by the rules", it doesn't mean that the fun needs to stop for everybody else.

I've posted the issue on the Ambassador forum - I have better hopes of getting an quick answer/reaction from Conchas' contacts, but it is important that our concerns (and dislike) regarding this situation are voiced there too.

[Sokratesz]

Wow that photoshop was realy easy to spot even from the small pic. Can't believe the jury didn't notice that.

[Chasealex]

Error level analysis is always worth doing on competition entries:

http://errorlevelanalysis.com/permalink/9d2eab4/

[DLuders]

The plagiarized entry has been removed from the Lego Technic Challenge voting page.

"Error level analysis" for the 2011 challenges = 3 months out of 5 have had cheaters.

[Conchas]

Great!

I've also just got the feedback from TLG, that this entry was removed.

The Technic Challenge logo was copied in, which is against the contest rules.

[DLuders]

Concerning the plagiarism, I got this e-mail from Lego Customer Service today:

"Dear David,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

We do apologize for upsetting you with the winners we chose for the contest. Unfortuantely, our judges do not check fan based websites for previously made creations. The reason for this is because there are just far too many websites out there and millions of fans constantly creating sets, there's just too many to keep up with! We will be more than happy to forward on your comments to the department that is in charge of our contests.

Please get in touch if you need anything else. It's free to call our experts at 1-800-835-4386 (Monday through Friday, 8am to 10pm and Saturday & Sunday 10am to 6pm EST) or you could go to www.LEGOshop.com.

Happy building!

Katrina

LEGO Direct Consumer Services"

[roamingstop]

After a while I would suspect the constant cheats (probably a small dedicated group) will start realising that they cannot keep getting away with it, and that leaves more room for KFOL designs.

[Erik Leppen]

After a while I would suspect the constant cheats (probably a small dedicated group) will start realising that they cannot keep getting away with it, and that leaves more room for KFOL designs.

Yes. But, to take a random number out of the sky, 10,000 people is also "small" if you compare it to the number of children that play with Lego, worldwide. So this "while" can just as easily be 50 years.

[Luc2000]

Why don't they just check the image with google? You can search by image:

very long link

So the picture from the cheater is off the internet.

[DLuders]

Why don't they just check the image with google? You can search by image:

very long link

Yes, exactly, why don't they? How come TLG's Technic Challenge judges can't do this? We AFOLs on Eurobricks have done it to spot the cheaters, so why can't they? It's THEIR CONTEST, not Eurobricks'. I can't tell you how tired I am writing TLG about plagiarists, incorrect monthly contest submission deadlines, non-functional websites, etc., etc. This year's contest management has been a BIG JOKE.