Brick Train Awards 2021

[supertruper1988]

On 3/5/2021 at 11:05 AM, SteamSewnEmpire said:

I feel like some of the awards go to the people who are better at promotion - like framing their model properly, rendering, staging, decals, etc. - than to the actual best models (this isn't a universal sentiment - most of the winners were just 'the best' period). It's one of the reasons I don't enter. And that's not to say "haw haw, I'm actually the best but I ABSTAIN." Rather, it's that I just can't compete when it comes to the little details. I design - I don't photoshop (in fact, I can't even render anymore on this PC). And I doubt I'm alone.

Besides, the prizes would be of little use to me. I don't own a single Lego locomotive - track wouldn't do a person such as me much good.

Grats to the winners. The Hush Hush was particularly nice. That's a really complex shape.

https://www.facebook.com/bricktrainawards/posts/274299224318483

Is this not your design submitted by you? 

[zephyr1934]

I do not envy the job of the BTA judges, there were some really amazing builds and I cannot imagine having to pick just one winner per region in each category. Congratulations to all who submitted and a big thank you for everyone who worked so hard behind the scenes!

 

Two suggestions for future years:

(1) it would be great if BTA added a "pure Lego" category with no paint, no glue, no modified parts, no clone bricks, and no 3rd party parts. Potentially allow stickers though, since Lego does stickers. And if the pure Lego category proves crowded, in following years expand it accordingly.

(2) many of the categories focus on a single piece of rolling stock (car or locomotive). It would be nice to have a "train" category that requires at least one locomotive and at least one car (either of which could be replaced with self-propelled cars). For the first iteration let it be a single category that accepts both passenger and freight trains.

[BricksMcgee]

On 3/7/2021 at 4:18 PM, zephyr1934 said:

Two suggestions for future years:

(1) it would be great if BTA added a "pure Lego" category with no paint, no glue, no modified parts, no clone bricks, and no 3rd party parts. Potentially allow stickers though, since Lego does stickers. And if the pure Lego category proves crowded, in following years expand it accordingly.

(2) many of the categories focus on a single piece of rolling stock (car or locomotive). It would be nice to have a "train" category that requires at least one locomotive and at least one car (either of which could be replaced with self-propelled cars). For the first iteration let it be a single category that accepts both passenger and freight trains.

Yep, it seems to be a harder task each year to pick winners!

1. This is something we've considered both years. I think it is currently quite hard for "purist" LEGO builds to win, though Holger's 12V train shed slipped that trend - we decided it looked at home in a LEGO catalogue! Something we'll consider, but like you say it could end up very crowded.

2. Yep, was thinking a "train" category might be nice next year. We're a little limited on category numbers as that effects the cost of sponsorship, but as you can see from this year's entry stats, some categories had quite a poor participation level, so we can maybe look at swapping some around.