March 2011 LEGO TECHNIC Challenge -- Linear Actuator

[DLuders]

On the Lego.com TECHNIC Challenge website , there is this announcement:

"Take the Technic Challenge - Linear Actuator!"

"This is the LEGO® Technic Challenge competition! - here you have a chance at showing the LEGO Technic designers your designs and your abilities with the Technic elements.

The competition is very simple

1. Build a model out of primarily LEGO Technic elements.

2. Take a picture of the model

3. Press the button below to Enter the competition

4. Enter your contact information

5. Upload your image

What to build?

This month (March) the competition focuses on Linear movement.

Build a cool model with nice functions based on linear movement – with or without the linear actuator!

Read a Designer's Blog entry explaining more about Linear Actuators.

How does it work?

Right now you can submit models - On the 15th of March - a panel of judges consisting of designers, marketing managers, building instruction artists and more will pick out (of all submissions) 10 finalists that will then be put up for voting here on the site. Considerations for the Nominees will be based on Model, Design, build to theme and age.

The winner will receive a prize and also continue to the Big Finale in October."

Here are the Prizes for this month's Challenge:

"Theme to build to: Linear Actuator!"

"So if your models get selected by the panel of judges to go into the voting round - and all of the visitors here on the LEGO Technic site like your model the most - you will win!

The prize is first and foremost a 8069 Backhoe Loader of the new 2011 assortment.

Furthermore, your model will go on to the Finale in October where it will compete with 7 other winners over the Grand Prize:

>> The Complete 2011 LEGO® Technic Novelty Assortment <<

This is all models from the LEGO Technic line that are new and have been launched in 2011."

To enter the Challenge, go here (but be sure to read the "fine print"):

"We need your consent! ENDS Friday 18th of March by 23:59 CET [Central European Time]"

[NOTE that there is a discrepancy between this and the "March 15" date listed earlier.]

"Before you can upload you image to us, we need your consent to be able to use your mail-address in case you win. This means that we will now require you to log in with your LEGO ID (if you do not have one, you must create one).

Then we will present you with the Terms and Rules for this competition, you must read and accept these in order to participate in the competition. If your age is below the legally required age to consent to the Terms and Rule, we will ask for your Parents/Legal Guardians email-address to have them consent for you.

In the fortunate case that you are the winner of this competition - we will be contacting you by E-Mail, therefore please make sure that the email-adress in your LEGO ID is a valid one."

Please note that we have had a lot of submissions with URLs and/or contact information in the description. Our Moderation team will be disqualifying those models before they even get to the panel of judges as it is in violation with our privacy policy."

Here are the "Lego Technic Challenge Official Rules and Regulations". Here are the highlights:

1) One must be at least 5 years old. "Entrants between 5 and 18 years of age must request permission to enter from their parents or legal guardians."

2) "LIMIT: Every person can submit more entries to the building challenge, but only one (1) entry per person will be considered when the final winners are selected. The 10 winners of the building challenge will be selected by a LEGO jury consisting of LEGO Technic designers and marketing responsible."

3) "File format must be in .png, .jpg or .gif, and NOT to exceed 2,5 MB in size. The entry must be the entrant’s own work. Once you submit your file, you will be officially entered into the Challenge. Challenge entries cannot be revised or altered once submitted. Once submitted, all submitted components become the property of the Challenge Entities and will not be returned. Should you experience any difficulties with any aspect of the LEGO Technic Challenge, please send an email to customer.service@LEGO.com and your request will be answered."

4) "EVALUATION OF ENTRIES: Building Challenge judging will begin at 01:00:00 AM Central European Time (“CET”) on March 19 2011 and will end at 11:59:59 PM CET on March 23 2011.

All entries will be reviewed by a panel of LEGO® Technic Designers based on the following criteria: creativity, originality and theme. Note, entries must be created using only pieces from the LEGO collection and primarily LEGO® Technic pieces. The 10 models that score the highest cumulative scores in the review will go into a group of Semi-Finalists from which One (1) Grand Prize Winner will be selected by online users of the LEGO Technic web site."

Edited March 1, 2011 by DLuders

[legolijntje]

So, do they have this year also an apart afol competiton, or are afol's "forbidden" this time?

[Alasdair Ryan]

i thought ihe challenge started in april ,but o well

[DLuders]

So, do they have this year also an apart afol competiton, or are afol's "forbidden" this time?

The rules do not limit the Challenge to 5-18 year olds, and AFOLs are not specifically addressed, so one could ASSUME that AFOLs could enter too. During the first month of the 2010 Lego Technic Challenge, lots of AFOLs submitted entries, and TLG then made it clear that AFOLs would be in a separate category than youngsters. I would imagine that the same thing would happen this year. There's only 2 weeks in which to submit an entry, so start building!

[Anio]

Fail again ?

[Conchas]

Yes, the AFOL entries are allowed also for the 2011 Challenge edition.

[Aqualize]

Fun!

I was semi-dark aged last year and didn't have pieces enough to do any entry into the technic challenge. But this year it's different :)

Tomorrow at work I will probably only be thinking of what kind of linear apparatus I can build.

Edit: I have a good idea now. Can't wait to get home and prototype it...

Edited March 2, 2011 by Aqualize

[JunkstyleGio]

@ Anio:

Subtle as ever.

Just be glad we'll get a chance at building and getting prizes!

[Anio]

@ Anio:

Subtle as ever.

Cause you think the way these contests are made is subtle ?

[RohanBeckett]

Would be good if they took up a suggestion I saw posted a few months ago: All entrants must take a photo with themselves - or maybe their model with a piece of paper, with a 'code word' for that competition... to prevent fake/stolen entries.

RB

[DLuders]

Hmmm, Linear Actuators and linear movement....

TechnicBRICKS had this excellent article about Lego Linear Actuators. Conchas/ Conchinchas posted lots of great pictures and videos on how to make Single Configurations and Twin Configurations. Here are just a few:

Edited March 4, 2011 by DLuders

[Alasdair Ryan]

Hmmm, Linear Actuators and linear movement....

Edited March 4, 2011 by Alasdair Ryan

[yoraish]

We are allowed to enter as many times as we want right?

Edited March 5, 2011 by yoraish

[Aqualize]

We are allowed to enter as many times as we want right?

Yes as I understood it. But only one creation can be selected for the 10 MOCs that goes to public voting on the website.

[vmln8r]

[DLuders]

@ VMLN8R: Interesting Lowrider car! It reminds me of the cars cruising the streets of Los Angeles, California:

[Alasdair Ryan]

i am haveing trubble up loading my creation the the lego site its saying missing or moved link any of you managed?

[DLuders]

@ Alasdair Ryan: Here is the direct link to the Technic Challenge upload page. Lately, the Shop.Lego.com webpage appears first and one has to click on the link a second time to get past it. Good luck on your entry!

[Alasdair Ryan]

i have tryed again one time it want back the the tecknic challage menu is that it uploaded?,i get the missing page after i enter the mode details and upload the pic

realy lego should have invested a bit more into this

[efferman]

do you use the firefox browser? try it with internet explorer

[Alasdair Ryan]

i tryed it with both and the same thing happened

[efferman]

that is not good

[Jetro]

i tryed it with both and the same thing happened

I have asked if someone can look into this asap. (thanks for the heads up DLuders )

I have also tried to access and have had no problem myself. (using Firefox which LEGO.com doesn't always like), but then again I haven't actually tried to upload anything. Can you be more specific as to what goes wrong and when?

[Alasdair Ryan]

after i have put in the details of my model and find the pic i want i click on the upload button but after a few minutes of waiting is says that it could not find the page and there might be a broken link

in the off change that some off my attempts completes will i be disqualified if there is more than one off the same pic's sent in?

[Splat]

Last night I was having trouble uploading my entry too, and again this morning. I tried using Firefox and Chrome. After filling in the form, I waited a few moments (uploading the image can take a little while), but then when the next page loaded it was a 'Page Not Found' error page. I sent Lego an email via their website, and got the following reply:

I am very sorry to hear that you had problems uploading your image to for the LEGO Technic Chellenge. We are already on the case and the issue will be fixed shortly. In the meantime you can send the pictures to Building_Competition@lego.com and we will then upload the pictures for you.

I would suggest including the following information in the email:

Lego ID

Model Name

Image (as attachment)

Description (less than 300 characters long)