Generic Contest Discussion

[Ngoc Nguyen]

11 hours ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

How about a contest that uses light bricks? Specifically the two types from the set 42127.

I wanna see someone do a police car/ambulance with a rotating light made from this. Or an 7-bit display.

[mpj]

I'd like to encourage the use of the new small tractor tires (43x20) in Technic models, so why not a contest to build a model with (at least) 4 of these wheels?

I see a lot of potential, and models will not result too big or complex due to the size limitation of the wheels.

[Jurss]

Don't know, maybe better after some year, when more will have them, and include all small tractor tires.

Now really some monster truck contest would be OK.

[Jim]

On 5/3/2026 at 10:59 AM, Ngoc Nguyen said:

Contest idea: Build a monster jam truck. Entries are required to use one of the three currently available tractor tires. (I know there's a fourth from City this year but I'm not counting it)

I do like this idea.

[NV Lego technic]

On 5/3/2026 at 6:02 PM, Auroralampinen said:

Well, i normally don't have ideas for contests. But since 2026 has been kind of down fall for technic and one of the most hated year in technic history i got an idea:). 

(Sorry if my explanation what it would be is really hard to understand:).). 

So my contest idea is create brand new wave/line up of 2026 sets. 

The rules would be.

1, no combination models. All of the fan fiction wave models should be made using only one of the 2026 set pieces. But 42233 Mighty Machines and combination B model for pullback models are the only excemptions.

2, you have to create full wave/lineup using only the pieces from 2026 sets.

3, you can make a transforming/interconnecting robot(like the lego voltron) from all of your 2026 fan fiction models.

4, you can make for you fanfiction A models a B model's too:). The fanfiction 2026 wave pullback models can have 2 model combination B model. 

5, you can't use any other pieces. You can only use pieces what comes in 2026 set. No combining sets. Except the pullback B model and 42233:).

6, have a lot of fun time creating fan fiction 2026 Wave. 

So hopefully TC31 would be 2026 Fanfiction wave only using 2026 technic set pieces contest:). 

Let me know if this is a cool idea:). 

This sounds really good 

[Jim]

On 5/3/2026 at 6:02 PM, Auroralampinen said:

Well, i normally don't have ideas for contests. But since 2026 has been kind of down fall for technic and one of the most hated year in technic history i got an idea:). 

(Sorry if my explanation what it would be is really hard to understand:).). 

So my contest idea is create brand new wave/line up of 2026 sets. 

The rules would be.

1, no combination models. All of the fan fiction wave models should be made using only one of the 2026 set pieces. But 42233 Mighty Machines and combination B model for pullback models are the only excemptions.

2, you have to create full wave/lineup using only the pieces from 2026 sets.

3, you can make a transforming/interconnecting robot(like the lego voltron) from all of your 2026 fan fiction models.

4, you can make for you fanfiction A models a B model's too:). The fanfiction 2026 wave pullback models can have 2 model combination B model. 

5, you can't use any other pieces. You can only use pieces what comes in 2026 set. No combining sets. Except the pullback B model and 42233:).

6, have a lot of fun time creating fan fiction 2026 Wave. 

So hopefully TC31 would be 2026 Fanfiction wave only using 2026 technic set pieces contest:). 

Let me know if this is a cool idea:). 

The idea is interesting.

1. Why no combination models?

2. What do mean by full wave? Does one need to make an alternative model for all 2026 sets? Not sure how you see this.

[Auroralampinen]

7 minutes ago, Jim said:

The idea is interesting.

1. Why no combination models?

2. What do mean by full wave? Does one need to make an alternative model for all 2026 sets? Not sure how you see this.

Well, my reason for no combination model is that if you can make it. Then this would not be difficult because you can build a model with all of the pieces from 2026 sets and what's fun with that:). 

Second question, yes a full wave from all of the 2026 wave sets pieces. But again no combination models because it's much easier then to create model's:). 

Edited May 14 by Auroralampinen

[Jim]

So you want participants to create alternative models for ALL the 2026 sets? What if a member only owns a single 2026 set? Or do you mean that every participants picks a 2026 set and creates an alternative model for that one?

[Auroralampinen]

1 minute ago, Jim said:

So you want participants to create alternative models for ALL the 2026 sets? What if a member only owns a single 2026 set? Or do you mean that every participants picks a 2026 set and creates an alternative model for that one?

Well, if it's difficult to create full wave. Then a single model is accepted and you can do rest digitally if you want to:). 

[Jim]

That doesn't really fly. Optional digital entries etc.

I do like the idea, but we do need to set some boundaries. Creating a single model is difficult enough, so creating multiple seems too much to ask.

The question remains...do enough people have 2026 sets? Or do we need to use 2025 sets?

[dhc6twinotter]

I like the idea of another alternate build contest, but I think we should focus on a single model.  Nobody has time (or money) to create alternates for every set released in 2026 (or whatever year--do we need a specific year?).  Unless I'm misunderstanding something. 

Other competition ideas:

-Rescue vehicles (Firetrucks, Ambulances, etc)
-Flying things (airplanes, helicopters, etc--must not be fictional)
-Fictional flying things (futuristic, steampunk, etc)
-Movie contraptions (any contraption found in a movie...007 car, boat from Water World, train from Back To The Future, Dr Who phonebooth, etc)
-Household appliances (mixers, hair dryers, washing machines, etc)
-1920s (any vehicle, airplane, ship, machine from the 1920s era)

That being said, I rarely participate in the competitions, so my opinion is probably irrelevant.  

Edited May 14 by dhc6twinotter

[Jim]

10 minutes ago, dhc6twinotter said:

I like the idea of another alternate build contest, but I think we should focus on a single model.  Nobody has time (or money) to create alternates for every set released in 2026 (or whatever year--do we need a specific year?).  Unless I'm misunderstanding something.

Exactly

[howitzer]

The alternate model contest of 2026 models could be fun with everyone picking a single set and making an alternative of that. It would be a good way to showcase the possibilities of Lego even with the limitations of currently produced parts palette. The one additional limit I'd impose would be: the model has to be decidedly different from the original, so car alternatives of car sets.

Not that I see myself participating this time, I don't there's any sets worth of buying this year (unless something hugely impressive comes later but that's a slim chance) and my building time is mostly directed elsewhere anyway at the moment...

[Auroralampinen]

7 minutes ago, howitzer said:

The alternate model contest of 2026 models could be fun with everyone picking a single set and making an alternative of that. It would be a good way to showcase the possibilities of Lego even with the limitations of currently produced parts palette. The one additional limit I'd impose would be: the model has to be decidedly different from the original, so car alternatives of car sets.

 

I agree, you said it best:). 

[msk6003]

I asked one set alternative model contest before.

My suggestion

set limit - must be over 100$(or 99.99 something. least 50~60?) price tag.

part limit - No spare part, No extra string or rubber band except already included in set. (Extra string or rubber band part rule can change but I can't acceptable spare part.)

Edited May 14 by msk6003

[2GodBDGlory]

10 hours ago, Jim said:

That doesn't really fly. Optional digital entries etc.

I do like the idea, but we do need to set some boundaries. Creating a single model is difficult enough, so creating multiple seems too much to ask.

The question remains...do enough people have 2026 sets? Or do we need to use 2025 sets?

Apparently I don't have anything newer than 2022! Though there's gotta be some newer sets I could part out?

I probably wouldn't have time to make an entry anyways (Just moved and need to unpack; starting a new job with 50+ hour weeks; got a 1:8 car MOC to finish; and have projects from other hobbies to finish...)

Limiting it to just 2026, or even just the last couple years, could be fairly limiting for members, though. Especially given how much we like to complain about the recent sets, it wouldn't be too surprising if some of us actually didn't buy them!

[langko]

2 hours ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

Limiting it to just 2026, or even just the last couple years, could be fairly limiting for members, though.

I agree: since 2020 I have:
1 model from 2026
1 model from 2025
0 models from 2024
1 model from 2023
1 model from 2022
0 models from 2021
1 model from 2020

Edit: I do like the light brick idea suggested above!

Edited May 15 by langko

[Ngoc Nguyen]

How about monster truck contest for summer and light brick contest for winter

[Jim]

6 hours ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

Limiting it to just 2026, or even just the last couple years, could be fairly limiting for members, though. 

Yeah, this is also one of my concerns.

[Jim]

On 5/15/2026 at 5:06 AM, Ngoc Nguyen said:

How about monster truck contest for summer and light brick contest for winter

Monster Truck sounds cool. Not sure about the Light Brick.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

For summer 2027 we can do a Technic Fan contest: build a fan. Any kind of fan works. The only requirement is that it must create wind.

[steph77]

Monster truck sound good to me too . Finally something i typically havent't build yet. Still not sure abourt the scale and functionalities. Should depand of the contest final rules. I will definitely be in if this pop out.

 

Edit. Maybe we could take a member of the cartransporter gang and turn it into monster truck. Lots of choices and should be cool to see a bugatti monster jam...

Edited May 17 by steph77

[Jundis]

45 minutes ago, steph77 said:

Edit. Maybe we could take a member of the cartransporter gang and turn it into monster truck. Lots of choices and should be cool to see a bugatti monster jam...

Interesting idea for a leveling/limitation... as this would mean using the medium tractor tires. But as most cars are sports cars and the same size it would highly likely result in kind of similar builds...

Also when we go with all tire sizes, more people would participate and try their luck with smaller builds :-)

[Lipko]

Was there an animal cntest? I remember it was considered a good idea by many members, and maybe I just missed it.

[howitzer]

2 hours ago, Lipko said:

Was there an animal cntest? I remember it was considered a good idea by many members, and maybe I just missed it.

No, there hasn't been one and it indeed has been suggested before. I'd make an effort to participate if there was an animal contest but I'm not sure how popular it would be... often when there's a contest themed outside of typical Technic builds,  they tend not to be hugely popular while themes that include stuff you could buy in an official set (vehicles, construction equipment) get a lot of attention.