Space contest final poll

[Optimax X]

Okay, here we go, this poll will last for 5 or more weeks depending on the voting response, is there is a tie, i will either

1. Pick a name randamely out of the hat

2. Make another poll with just those 2/3

The runners and riders.

Gravytrain- Spacerake

Brainbox- Rookyr

Optimax X- F1F super fighter (first 3 pics)

Ghoulrealm- Cetus-01

Dino bot- CX thunderbolt gun fighter (no brickshelf gallery suplied)

imhotepidus- Homba 7033

Kikuichimonji- The sphere Mk. II

Voting for yourself is aloud, can a moderator pin this please?

[Kikuichimonji]

I just couldn't vote for myself in this one, because that Homba is such a beauty *wub*

[mutex]

I just couldn't vote for myself in this one, because that Homba is such a beauty *wub*

I voted for Cetus-01 because I find the greebles cool, and the spaceship has a true "space feel".

The Homba is cool too but I find it a little disproportioned and lacks details.

[xwingyoda]

I shall pin this for you asap ;-) and unpin the other contest topics ;-)

I need more time to pick my choice hehe :-P

Space On !!

*yoda*

[Khorne]

It was a close one between the Homba and the Cetus, but I went for the Cetus. Although it ain't airtight, I just love how it's build *wub* . Good job, Ghoulrealm *y* .

[casewindu]

got to be the homba the way it is so smooth and elegant! real top quality! :-D

[phoinix]

brainbox and rookyr have my vote!!

originality all the way!! *y*

[Brainbox]

OK, I'll admit it... I gave in to temptation and voted for myself. But not solely because I'm feeling arrogant. No. To be honest, the others don't feally float my boat. As phoinix said, originality is important. I just don't feel that the opthers are all too original. However, I'm not saying they're bad MOCs because they aren't.

[Holodoc]

Nice Mocs! *y*

I chose the outstanding Homba *wub* 1st with a close 2nd, the Cetus 01.

The "unusual color scheme award" goes to The sphere Mk. II. and "special organics award" to Rookyr. ;-)

Both "fighter"-spaceships would be a lot better with some more discrete colors.

Space on and on and on...! :-D

[casewindu]

OK, I'll admit it... I gave in to temptation and voted for myself. But not solely because I'm feeling arrogant. No. To be honest, the others don't feally float my boat. As phoinix said, originality is important. I just don't feel that the opthers are all too original. However, I'm not saying they're bad MOCs because they aren't.

actually brainbox your ship was my second favorite! ;-)

[xenologer]

This is actually a fairly tough call for me.

The mocs are at a wide spread of experience levels...

While the Homba(current vote leader) is the 'shinyiest' and is clearly the most technically accomplished in terms of building methods; I actually don't find the overall shape/concept to be my liking, makes me think of podracers or naboo starfighter, or something from wwII.

The Cetus and Spacerake are actually a bit closer to what I like to see in fighter design, long dagger-like shapes.

Between those, I thought the Cetus's triple wing/fins with the 'pontoons' on the lower ones reminded me very much of buckrogers/battlestar galactica era design. Which is ok... but I'm not that much into anymore.

The Spacerake, has very simplistic contruction with seemingly missing hull armour in many locations; but the overall concept I do like. Reminds me of a few WingCommander4 era ships. -Noseguns, cockpit, sweeping wings, engine. In that order from front to back.

So I voted Spacerake. -just fix the engine, its too high. and put a few plates on the wings, then the sides

P.S. how longs this poll running? ??did you say 5 weeks?? that seems a little excessive.

I'd say 1 week At Most.

[Brainbox]

brainbox and rookyr have my vote!!

originality all the way!! *y*

"special organics award" to Rookyr. ;-)

actually brainbox your ship was my second favorite! ;-)

Forgot to say thanks. :-$ So, thanks. :-P

[Dino_Bot]

Mine is just classics style from 70s-80s. I like my ships to be STUDDED.

[imhotepidus]

I just wanted to thank those people who have voted for me so far, and to point out that I will be out of town until Sunday, and not likely to be able to post until then.

At the moment I am leading in the poll, and I do not want people to think I am ungrateful if I end up winning and do not post some comment or thanks at the time.

So, just in case I do win - thanks ahead of time!

Of course, this is far from over, and I am not so arrogant as to think that things cannot change! Who knows what will happen ;-) So, if someone else wins, let this be an early congratulations to them as well.

Roy

[White Lightning]

I think there is a lot of good entries, and i voted homba, very good otherwise, i liked F1F superfighter and that was second.

[ghoulrealm]

I voted for Cetus-01 because I find the greebles cool, and the spaceship has a true "space feel".

The Homba is cool too but I find it a little disproportioned and lacks details.

I'm glad you liked it. :-)

If by the Homba lacking details, you mostly mean lacking greebles then I agree. I would like it even more if it had more expossed internal parts. :-$

It was a close one between the Homba and the Cetus, but I went for the Cetus. Although it ain't airtight, I just love how it's build *wub* . Good job, Ghoulrealm *y* .

I wanted an airtight canopy, but I couldn't achieve the overall rounded form I wanted with the enclosed variations I tried ;-) I am content with an implied extension of the window.

Between those, I thought the Cetus's triple wing/fins with the 'pontoons' on the lower ones reminded me very much of buckrogers/battlestar galactica era design. Which is ok... but I'm not that much into anymore.

You mean the battlestar Viper fighters? ;-) That is the only thing I like about that show :-P :-D

My 'pontoons' are slightly derived from the starfox arwing, but mostly I just needed some extra character to the wing ends.

__________________________________

I voted for Rookyr tree fighter. I like the organically grown feature. I love the idea of strange alien lifeforms be it plant, animal, fungus, or whatever. The more unusual, the better ;-)

[Brainbox]

I like the organically grown feature. I love the idea of strange alien lifeforms be it plant, animal, fungus, or whatever. The more unusual, the better ;-)

Thanks. I don't think I've built a proper fighter before, so when I approached this I thought of making it organic. I think I was intrigued by the idea while looking at another organic fighter (not Lego). I forget what it was, but it might have been a Yuuzhan Vong Coralskipper from Star Wars.

EDIT: OK, since Optimax says he's decided to go (in his sig), we may need someone else to decide when we close this contest in case he sticks to his word and doesn't come back. I think we should find out what other people think, so as not to close this before anyone wants. One idea is to stick to what Optimax said originally and to keep this open for 5 weeks. Voting would therefore cease on 7th May. Is this too long?

I don't want this to sound like I'm jumping the gun and hi-jacking Optimax's contest, but if he is gone we need to plan.

[Dino_Bot]

Agreed. Someone else, please come forward! come forward!!

[Brainbox]

Agreed. Someone else, please come forward! come forward!!

Perhaps someone with a reasonable amount of authority here. hint hint

[xenologer]

EDIT: OK, since Optimax says he's decided to go (in his sig),

What? 'treated badly'? was there a flamewar or something that I missed? Whats the story behind that?

I personally don't see all that much point in keeping this contest open any longer.

It looks like everyone pretty much loves the Homba.

BTW:

How do you deal with an obvious age/experience gap in a contest? As I'm sure happened here.

This might also work into, whats the purpose/motivation/philosphy of a 'contest'?

P.S. I know a few people (snefroe comes to mind) had an interest but not the time to participate... any of you still working on your projects anyway? I know I am... Always nice to see more space fighters...

[imhotepidus]

BTW:

How do you deal with an obvious age/experience gap in a contest? As I'm sure happened here.

This might also work into, whats the purpose/motivation/philosphy of a 'contest'?

I think that this is an important issue to consider, but also a very difficult one. The complication is that there are two factors here (1) age, and (2) experience, and neither automatically leads to better building.

In fact, I think that in general, experience (i.e. how long you have been building) is far more important than age. Age, in particular, mainly factors in when you consider how big people's collections are, since adult jobs with adult paychecks allow for much higher rates of LEGO acquisition (and I realize that part of the reason people find the Homba so cool is the smooth exterior, which requires hundreds of those arches, and all the chrome, so lots of pieces to work with CAN definitely be an advantage). Nevertheless, all those pieces are not going to be much good without some experience and skill to back it up.

One should keep in mind that the older one is, likely the less time they will have to actually build!

Experience (and thus skill level) are much harder to judge. I have only been building again (after a 20 year dark age) for a little less than two years. I know people who have been building for shorter periods who are better than me, and people who have been building for much longer who aren't.

To sum all this up - I think there definitely is an issue here regarding 35 year olds with 500,000 bricks competing with 13 year olds with maybe 20,000 bricks. But it is not clear how to solve the issue without being unfair to lots of people (i.e. the 35 year old who just started, and has 10,000 bricks, or the lucky 13 year old with 500,000 bricks - and there are some of the latter, they just have AFOL's as parents!)

Roy

[Brainbox]

What? 'treated badly'? was there a flamewar or something that I missed? Whats the story behind that?

I presumed it's because he was put on the 'bad kids' list. I don't know though.

Experience (and thus skill level) are much harder to judge. I have only been building again (after a 20 year dark age) for a little less than two years. I know people who have been building for shorter periods who are better than me, and people who have been building for much longer who aren't.

To sum all this up - I think there definitely is an issue here regarding 35 year olds with 500,000 bricks competing with 13 year olds with maybe 20,000 bricks. But it is not clear how to solve the issue without being unfair to lots of people (i.e. the 35 year old who just started, and has 10,000 bricks, or the lucky 13 year old with 500,000 bricks - and there are some of the latter, they just have AFOL's as parents!)

Roy

Whereas I've been building solid for about 10/11 years. It's not necessarily how many bricks you have though, it's what you do with them. Less is more and all that. Which is better: a simple elegant MOC with a small piece count; or an overcrowded, 'ugly' MOC with vast numbers of pieces used for the sake of it, doing nothing for the MOC in question?

Contest's are mainly about having fun and sharing what we can do, not just about winning. Obviously someone has to win, but other participants should be pleased that they at least entered, and shared something they've achieved.

[imhotepidus]

Contest's are mainly about having fun and sharing what we can do, not just about winning. Obviously someone has to win, but other participants should be pleased that they at least entered, and shared something they've achieved.

Hear, hear.

(Of course, this is easy for me to say, given that I am currently winning!)

Seriously, I look at contests as a way to compare a lot of different models, built by different builders, but all in roughly the same 'theme'. That is why I actually prefer contests with stricter guidelines - it is interesting to see what other people come up with within those restrictions, and each Moc is always unique, regardless of how strict one sets up the initial guidelines.

If I do well in the contest, that is bonus, but really it is about getting feedback and ideas!

Just to take one example - Brainbox, your own ship has inspired me to attempt to build a completely 'wooden' spacecraft, i.e. to try to visualize what a spaceship would be like if build using no metal (much like old-time sea-going vessels). Now, this is of course not exactly what is going on in your Rookyr, but the inspiration came directly from there.

Anyway, I enjoyed all the entries, and got some new ideas. So regardless of what happens, I feel like I won. Thanks all.

Roy

[Brainbox]

Just to take one example - Brainbox, your own ship has inspired me to attempt to build a completely 'wooden' spacecraft, i.e. to try to visualize what a spaceship would be like if build using no metal (much like old-time sea-going vessels). Now, this is of course not exactly what is going on in your Rookyr, but the inspiration came directly from there.

Cool. Kind of like pseudo-Steampunk. I'm glad to see I've inspired someone, and I look forward to seeing the results.

I've also taken something from this contest. It gave me a chance to try building something I've not tried before. 1) a space fighter and 2) an organic vehicle. So that was good. I've also got feedback as well, and the chance to inspire someone else's MOCing- yours.

[imhotepidus]

Is this contest over? Defunct? Null and void?

What happened, exactly?

Roy