Jim

Generic Contest Discussion

Contest Setup  

309 members have voted

  1. 2. Publish result list including...?

  2. 3. Preferred building period?

  3. 4. Preferred voting period?

  4. 5. Favorite voting scheme? (multiple answers allowed)

    • 20 points (distribute all, max 10 per entry)
    • 10 points (distribute all, max 5 per entry)
    • Old Formula One style (distribute 10, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points)
    • New Formula One style (distribute 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 ,4, 2 and 1 points)
    • Eurovision Songfestival style (distribute 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points)
  5. 6. Public or private voting?

  6. 7. Should we allow digital entries?



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1 hour ago, Dazzzy said:

I'm really excited about this contest, as i've got a lot of transformable ideas buzzing around in my head.  The only thing that i can see being a limit (for me anyway), is the potential costs involved.  If my budget was broader, i think i'd be attempting something along the lines of those old 'Kenner Parker M.A.S.K' vehicles.

You would definitely get my vote LoL. We already had a MASK-like contest btw, which was awesome.

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2 hours ago, Dazzzy said:

Edit:  I've just remembered and was wandering whether anybody else here remembers, the MK1 Toyota MR2 , a real life car that was entered into a Toyota contest, that transformed it's wheelbase?  I've searched for images on the internet, but to no avail, as it's decades old. I think a motorised technic version would be excellent!

I'm not familiar with that, but I believe Audi recently revealed a concept vehicle with an adjustable wheelbase.

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33 minutes ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

I'm not familiar with that, but I believe Audi recently revealed a concept vehicle with an adjustable wheelbase.

Maybe the same concept, but the steering wheel could slide sideways in a concept car. Left, mid, right. Steer-by-wire obviously.

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30 minutes ago, Lipko said:

Maybe the same concept, but the steering wheel could slide sideways in a concept car. Left, mid, right. Steer-by-wire obviously.

Interesting!

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2 hours ago, Jim said:

You would definitely get my vote LoL. We already had a MASK-like contest btw, which was awesome.

Ah man, i can't believe i missed that one. Sounds awesome though! :thumbup:   Can you remember what TC number it is? As i'd love to check out the entries! 

 

1 hour ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

I'm not familiar with that, but I believe Audi recently revealed a concept vehicle with an adjustable wheelbase.

 

59 minutes ago, Lipko said:

Maybe the same concept, but the steering wheel could slide sideways in a concept car. Left, mid, right. Steer-by-wire obviously.

I've seen the Audi concept (it's pretty cool), but the Toyota contest entry was executed differently.  Imagine if you will, a car split into 3 segments (the driver and passenger compartment being the central section), lifts up with the front and rear sections of the car reducing it's wheelbase footprint, and sitting below the middle (raised section). It's certainly an odd looking thing (looks like a jacked up Smart Car). But it wasn't the strangest entry to the contest, as there was a vehicle that traversed using fibre optic bristles. :laugh:

Edit:  I remember seeing it/reading about it in an old weekly car magazine called 'Auto Express' (i think the German sister publication is called 'Auto Bild'). Bare in mind though, this was probably around the early to mid 90's, so it's quite old. 

Edited by Dazzzy

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1 minute ago, Dazzzy said:

Ah man, i can't believe i missed that one. Sounds awesome though! :thumbup:   Can you remember what TC number it is? As i'd love to check out the entries! 

You can check out the Index. I keep track of all the contests.

[TC7] Wow......time flies. I would have sworn it was only a couple of contests ago.

Check the contest info or entries.

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2 minutes ago, Jim said:

You can check out the Index. I keep track of all the contests.

[TC7] Wow......time flies. I would have sworn it was only a couple of contests ago.

Check the contest info or entries.

Thanks ever so much for pointing me in the right direction. :thumbup:   

TC7 sounds like it was from way back. I was definitely not a member back then, but i'm gonna enjoy checking out all the cool entries. :thumbup: 

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1 hour ago, Dazzzy said:

Ah man, i can't believe i missed that one. Sounds awesome though! :thumbup:   Can you remember what TC number it is? As i'd love to check out the entries! 

 

 

I've seen the Audi concept (it's pretty cool), but the Toyota contest entry was executed differently.  Imagine if you will, a car split into 3 segments (the driver and passenger compartment being the central section), lifts up with the front and rear sections of the car reducing it's wheelbase footprint, and sitting below the middle (raised section). It's certainly an odd looking thing (looks like a jacked up Smart Car).

As a third option, you could always try to emulate Red Green and do it with a K-car and a boat trailer! I think that would be an awesome contest entry, actually...

I've already got my imagination fired up, though, with a completely different model in mind. Does anyone else find that planning models is more fun than building them? Thanks for starting contests and sparking ideas!

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This TC idea sounds very interesting!

Will be much more complicated than the previous ones I participated in but I am already excited about the challenge!

How am I going to focus at work for the rest of the day?!

On the weight/part count limit, need to take in consideration the different battery options (rechargeable weights less than 6x battery box).

Also would it be allowed to have the power supply being outside of the MOC and connected via cables? Just thinking if I didn't manage to locate the box on the bottom, would produce extra effort on the mechanisms to move things around

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I do understand we might want to set some restrictions, but I am not in favor of weight. In the past we used a boundary box as limit and I reckon that might be a good idea for this contest as well. 

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I like the idea of transforming vehicles. But yes, there should be some kind of size limit (bounding box seems the easiest one to check through images over the internet) and some kind of scope of what counts as a transformation, as in, what should the transformation be for. TC7 had a very clear goal: the vehicle had to transform from a civilian mode into some kind of weapon. This added a "game-like element" to the transformation aspect: the transformation wasn't just a transformation, it had a goal. If the goal of a new contest will be just "any" transformation, it will be hard to come up with something that is not "transformation for the sake of transformation".

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24 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

it will be hard to come up with something that is not "transformation for the sake of transformation".

Crane goes up, crane goes down, that counts as a transformation righttt :laugh:

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On 10/20/2021 at 1:27 PM, Jim said:

I am glad the idea for this contest might be feasible after all. So, we do need to think about:

  • Scale limitations (yes or no. if yes, which scale)
  • What exactly is a transformation?
  • ...

While I'm in for the scale limitation, this will be really, really hard to tackle here, I think, because we could have some great big models, but at the same time there will be no competition between a model that fits one motor and a battery versus something that has 6 motors and programmed stages of transformation. I would try to think about limiting it in a different way than sheer scale/dimensions/part number, like for example limiting number of motors for transformation to a single motor or motors working in sync. Not saying this specific way is good, but just as an example of where this could go here. 

The question about transformation is a good one from the rule standpoint. We had a contest on Technic subreddit some time ago about walking mechanism where the requirement that the construction should be able to mechanically walk on its wasn't precisely specified and so the winner was a bumblee transformer with poseable arms and legs. At the same time, I'd like for the rules to not specifically state it to transform into a humanoid, but rather something like that it changes the way the model moves, so there will be some room for creativity left on the table and if someone makes something boring, it's fine as long as it's not about some loopholes to squeeze in ton of features just because he can.

Anyway, I'm hyped for this contest.

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My initial thought was to use a single motor for the entire transformation. 

33 minutes ago, SaperPL said:

I would try to think about limiting it in a different way than sheer scale/dimensions/part number, like for example limiting number of motors for transformation to a single motor or motors working in sync. 

Something like this indeed.

1 hour ago, Erik Leppen said:

I like the idea of transforming vehicles. But yes, there should be some kind of size limit (bounding box seems the easiest one to check through images over the internet) and some kind of scope of what counts as a transformation, as in, what should the transformation be for. TC7 had a very clear goal: the vehicle had to transform from a civilian mode into some kind of weapon. This added a "game-like element" to the transformation aspect: the transformation wasn't just a transformation, it had a goal. If the goal of a new contest will be just "any" transformation, it will be hard to come up with something that is not "transformation for the sake of transformation".

True that!

Maybe I do like this contest to go in the direction of "Transform from vehicle to robotic/humanoid form". Basically an remote controlled 8852 of sorts, using a single motor.

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20 minutes ago, Jim said:

Maybe I do like this contest to go in the direction of "Transform from vehicle to robotic/humanoid form". Basically an remote controlled 8852 of sorts, using a single motor.

Personally I'd prefer a wider scope, but that's probably mostly because I've already got a vehicle-to-vehicle transformation planned out. This is just my preference, though, and it may not actually make for a better contest.

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33 minutes ago, Jim said:

Maybe I do like this contest to go in the direction of "Transform from vehicle to robotic/humanoid form". Basically an remote controlled 8852 of sorts, using a single motor.

 

12 minutes ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

Personally I'd prefer a wider scope, but that's probably mostly because I've already got a vehicle-to-vehicle transformation planned out. This is just my preference, though, and it may not actually make for a better contest.

I'd also like a wider scope because then you can make a car change into an aircraft or some kind of walking thing, but not necessarily a humanoid form.

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29 minutes ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

Personally I'd prefer a wider scope, but that's probably mostly because I've already got a vehicle-to-vehicle transformation planned out. This is just my preference, though, and it may not actually make for a better contest.

What do you have in mind? Let's see if it could fit a contest.

16 minutes ago, SaperPL said:

I'd also like a wider scope because then you can make a car change into an aircraft or some kind of walking thing, but not necessarily a humanoid form.

Yeah, humanoid is bit too limiting. Agreed.

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24 minutes ago, Jim said:

What do you have in mind? Let's see if it could fit a contest.

The plan was the rather predictable car-into-jet-aircraft, but I think the way I was planning on achieving it would be fairly unique. I'm rather excited about the challenges this model would present, so I expect I would build it, contest or no.

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7 minutes ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

The plan was the rather predictable car-into-jet-aircraft...

Car-into-jet-aircraft sounds fine. That's the kind of transformation I'd like to see.

Short-chassis-to-long-chassis is not something I was aiming for.

 

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Limit on part count is impossible to enforce, unless it's also required to provide a CGI-model or building instructions, which are tons of extra effort and prone to errors so I don't think that's a good idea.

Weight limit would reward good chassis design but penalizes those who like to decorate their creations a lot so unless pure functionality is what the contest is aiming for, it's not so nice either.

If there's a limit, I'm also in favor of either having limited amount of electronic components or specifying a bounding box, like the small car contest.

 

Either way, I wonder if only the Technic hub will be allowed or also RI hub or Move hub? What about external sensors?

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15 minutes ago, howitzer said:

Either way, I wonder if only the Technic hub will be allowed or also RI hub or Move hub? What about external sensors?

I'm in favor of allowing all hubs and possibly external sensors.

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4 hours ago, Jim said:

Maybe I do like this contest to go in the direction of "Transform from vehicle to robotic/humanoid form". Basically an remote controlled 8852 of sorts, using a single motor.

Suggestion: "Build a vehicle that transforms from a wheel-driven mode to a mode where the wheels are off the ground (and back)"?

Does the vehicle in transformed state still have to be able to move? Then "Build a vehicle that transformed from a wheel-driven mode to a walking mode (and back)".

If you want any kind of steering, this will be very hard for 1 motor.

 

And I really like the "1 motor" limitation :)

Edit: maybe, 1 motor for "thrust" (driving or walking, depending on the mode) and 1 motor for "switch mode"? Then, it would be limited to 2 motors, and still usable using 1 normal PF remote :)

Edited by Erik Leppen

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1 hour ago, Erik Leppen said:

Edit: maybe, 1 motor for "thrust" (driving or walking, depending on the mode) and 1 motor for "switch mode"? Then, it would be limited to 2 motors, and still usable using 1 normal PF remote :)

That is actually something I have been thinking about as well. 1 Motor for the transformation....and ....

So one mandatory motor for transformation and 1 (optional?) motor for propulsion/thrustt/driving sounds nice. If the driving motor is optional, we could allow the optional motor for another function. That would give the participants more options.

And for the transformation;

Transforms from one type of vehicle to another. And another can be something like the 8852. Not sure if it should be more restrictive.

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I will try to get this going the upcoming week.

Are the two rules okay?

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On 10/21/2021 at 7:38 PM, Jim said:

Transforms from one type of vehicle to another. And another can be something like the 8852. Not sure if it should be more restrictive.

I think the higher the difference between the two vehicles and the more complex the mechanism, the higher will be the reward in form of votes. Restrictions should be fine. PF and PU are allowed, third party motors and battery boxes (buwizz etc.) are also allowed?

On a side note: This is in my opinion a way harder challenge than before, maybe give a little more time? Like till the end of the year as many of us mostly have more free time during christmas...?

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