busboy489 has produced another fantastic entry for Classic-Castle‘s annual contest. I particularly like the gentle curve of the walk-way between the two towers over the water. It’s quite elegant.
Tag Archives: Contests
Mini Castle Contest declares its winners!
Dan Joosten’s contest on Classic-Castle has run its course and he’s declared winners in all categories:
Miniature Set: Bartosza6m with his version of 6081 – King’s Mountain Fortress:
Miniature Castle: Chris Edwards with his Castle on the Lake:
Check out the second place, third place, and runner-up entries here! Congratulations, everyone!
Here’s your third chance to control the action
Keith Goldman presents his third You Control the Action Contest with a unique twist. The theme of the contest is “a celebration of minorities in sci-fi,” which prompts you to think beyond the ordinary yellow minifig and come up with new situations involving the misrepresented, misfits, mavericks, Mace Windu, and in simple terms – the minority. Click on the banner below to read the details of the contest to see if you’re up to this interesting challenge.
The Colossal Castle Contest has begun [News]
Now in its seventh year, the massive multi-category contest, run annually by Classic-Castle has gone live.
Categories include Technological Advances, Alternate Sets, Medieval Mariner, Outlaw Escape, Eastern Medieval Life, Religous Life, Knight’s Training, Custom Castle Figure, Brick Castles, Fantasy Castles and Misc. The prizes are quite impressive, including vintage Castle sets, new sets, older MISB set, custom accessories and more. So get out there and get medieval!
Win 6299 LEGO Pirates Advent Calendar in the FC Seed Part Challenge [Contest]
Sorry folks, we won’t be getting 6299 LEGO Pirates Advent Calendar here in North America. That decision was apparently made before the whole Castle Advent Calendar drama last year.
Fortunately, the Forbidden Cove October Seed Part Challenge gives you a way to win one — for free!
Click the graphic to read the rules and check out the discussion on ForbiddenCove.com.
Pimp Louise Dade’s wheelchair! [Contest]
Louise Dade (Bladewood) and Reasonably Clever are teaming up for a very cool contest — build a pimped-out version of Louise’s wheelchair!
The contest runs from today through November 15th. Click the graphic to check out the rules and prizes.
Pillage the Village II: The Calm After the Storm [Contest]
The second Pillage the Village contest has been launched on Classic-Pirates.com.
Prizes will be awarded for large, medium, and small LEGO creations, with a deadline of November 30th, 2009.
The new sets just keep getting smaller and smaller...
In addition to the fantastic new creations coming out of Dan’s Mini Castle Contest V, we get to see immense creativity in micro-scale recreations of our favorite classic castle sets.
Griffon brings an excellent rendition of 6080 LEGOLand Castle, originally released in 1984:
It even opens up, just like the original! Check out the rest of the photos on Brickshelf.
I’m sure I was told not to judge something by its cover.
The same applies to this creation, from Jonathon Derksen. An entry for the 23rd Challenge over at LUGNuts, the red truck is quite unassuming:
But have a look inside and see why you want this truck on YOUR side during the Zombie Apocalypse.
Vespas and Harleys of the future
The deadline for the LEGO Speeder Bikes contest just passed, and there are more than a hundred entries for the judges to peruse. A couple of my favorites from late in the contest are from mr. eugene. Eugene says that these are his first LEGO creations after emerging from a decade long LEGO hiatus. Welcome to the fold, Eugene!
Here’s his Vespa VRS 390:
Taking inspiration from the opposite end of the two-wheeled spectrum, here’s his Harley FXST-6000x Softail:
Announcing the 23rd LUGNuts challenge: Zombie Apocalypse Killfest ’09 [News]
With exactly one month until BrickCon, we’re teaming up with LUGNuts for their 23rd build challenge, Zombie Apocalypse Killfest ’09.
Naturally, we’re hoping that those of you who build something for this challenge will also bring it for the Zombie Apocafest 2009 collaborative display at BrickCon.
As with other LUGNuts challenges, this is sure to generate some truly creative builds. And creativity is key! We won’t be awarding prizes at BrickCon for Biggest Guns, Most Chains, or Best Use of Brown and Gray.
This challenge is about apocafied civilian vehicles, like my S&S Wildland Ultra XT brushfire engine. Note the bright red color and complete lack of chains, though I must admit that the crazy Bionicle spike strip proved irresistible…
So, head on over to the Zombie Apocalypse Killfest ’09 thread on Flickr, read Lino‘s hilarious challenge, and build something awesome!
Zombie Apocafest 2009: Strategy, Tactics, & Logistics
BrickCon 2009 starts in exactly two months. That means it’s time to start getting down to details on all the collaborative displays being planned for the con, starting with our very own Zombie Apocafest 2009. (We’ll be doing a roundup about all the other displays soon.)
Like last year’s zombie apocalypse display, Zombie Apocafest is sponsored and organized by The Brothers Brick, with additional sponsorship from the generous humans at BrickArms. Look for more information about prizes and giveaways here on the blog between now and the con.
Got builder’s block? Not sure what the heck we mean by “apocafied”? Unsure what the standards are? Read on…
Inspiration for the LEGO zombie apocalypse
There’s plenty of inspiration for your LEGO creations to be found in movies like George A. Romero’s Living Dead series, the hilarious Shaun of the Dead
Personally, music inspires a lot of my LEGO building. Here’s my personal soundtrack, heavy on metal and light on funny novelty songs. Hey, this is serious stuff! Also, the only convergence of AC/DC, W.B. Yeats, zombies, and LEGO in the history of the human race.
Zombie literature and films are full of social commentary — a dystopian reflection of our present or near future. In other words, the real world we all live in is unfortunately full of examples of the things survivors would encounter in a zombie apocalypse.
Improvised fighting vehicles — civilian or non-combat military vehicles with armor plating and weapons systems tacked on — are the archetype for the chained-up, cage-encased, spiky bad boys we all know and love from our favorite ApocaLEGO builders.
Not cool in real life, but good against zombies.
Finally, here are a few ideas we’ve had at The Brothers Brick — we can’t possibly build them all ourselves in the next two months.
- A commuter train on fire that streaks around the perimeter of the layout. (9-volt would probably be easiest to power over the weekend.) Bonus points for smoke effects.
- Helicopters on rooftops evacuating survivors. Bonus points for motorized rotors. Extra credit for hovering action.
- A security wall. Again, not at all cool in real life, but effective against the 90% of zombies who can’t use ladders.
- Elevated highway.
- Boats. Lots of boats.
Building and vehicle standards
As silly as it probably sounds, realism is one of our primary goals for this display. What would it look like if zombie minifigs invaded the Town display?
No giant robots to sweep through the streets, no deus ex machina with laser cannons and railguns.
Buildings follow the “Cafe Corner standard”:
- Building stands on one or two Baseplate 16 x 32 with Square Corners.
- Two connectors on each side of the building: Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole placed on studs #10-11 and #22-23 (from the front of the baseplate).
- Floors can be any height (though 9 bricks high appears to be the standard).
- Curb at edge of baseplate built from 1 x n light gray tiles, and sidewalk built from dark gray tiles, seven studs from the curb to the building (curb + sidewalk = 8 studs).
- Building can be any size (though 16 x 16 or 16 x 32 appears to be the standard), built eight studs back from the front of the baseplate with an eight-stud “alley.”
Vehicles should be minifig-scale, though look for details about opportunities to build zombie apocalypse vehicles at other LEGO scales in September.
For the Zombie Apocafest display, though, most vehicles should probably be in the 4 to 10-stud-wide range (construction vehicles excluded).
How it’s going to work
Remember, the Zombie Apocafest display is only open to registered attendees of BrickCon. We won’t be able to accept contributions or drop-offs from the general public.
Doors open on Thursday morning at 9:00 AM on October 1. I’ll be there with Thanel soon afterward, helping out with the con in general, and keeping an eye on early additions to the display. The man, the myth, the legend, LEGOLAND Master Model Maker Gary McIntire has generously agreed to add his artistic vision and organizational skills to the display, so look for him as well.
We’ll give out prizes on Saturday night (or whenever the rest of the prizes are awarded). There will also be giveaways aplenty again this year. However, quantities of each item will be limited, and we’ll give them out with fairly specific requirements. We hope everybody leaves BrickCon with something, though.
As a reminder, here are the four prize categories:
- Best Original Vehicle (last year’s winner: Andrew Lee’s Truck)
- Best Apocafied LEGO Vehicle (new category; example above)
- Best Original Building (last year’s winner: Paul Hetherington’s Casa Baron)
- Best Apocafied LEGO Building (new category)
Okay, enough reading. Get building!