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LEGO contest story: Build Your World Part 1

(Written by Fikko3107)

I suppose I should start out by saying how I got into this. Well, it all started one day (June 21st to be exact) when I got an e-mail from Bricks Indonesia, the largest (and more-or-less the only that I know of) LEGO fan community in Indonesia. I’m subscribed to their email updates to receive notifications on LEGO fan events. As every other e-mail sent by Bricks Indonesia, it simply consisted a picture. See below:

LEGO Contest - Build Your World

I doubt you understand any of that unless you’re Indonesian or perhaps Dutch. Basically it says that there is a competition where you “build your story” and stand a chance to win 2 VIP tickets to LEGOLAND Malaysia. You can actually find an English version of the LEGO contest details on the Singapore LEGO site, although there were some differences. In my country the contest was divided to two categories: 7-12 year-olds and 13-15 year-olds, and we got 2 hours to build instead of only 45 minutes. I instantly got my parents’ consent, sent in my application via e- mail from an airport lounge (don’t ask), and got confirmation of my contest entry shortly after. Then I went on vacation and only returned on the 26th. The LEGO contest was set to happen on the 29th, so I made it just in time. 🙄

LEGO Contest - Build Your World Details

So I guess now I better start from the morning of the 29th. I woke up earlier than usual, feeling slightly groggy, and I quickly took a shower and opened my laptop to brush-up on some unconventional building techniques from this builder’s guide (which proved to be very useful later). Then I chugged down a man-mug of milk and wolfed down a plate of eggs. Then I went with my mom to work. Her office just happened to be across the LEGO contest location. I arrived there at about 9 AM. The LEGO contest was held within the Bobo Fair, which is based on a popular Indonesian children’s magazine called Bobo. Arriving so early wasn’t too smart as the fair didn’t open until 10 AM and the contest wouldn’t start until noon (and didn’t actually start until 2 PM) . Nevertheless, I got in as soon as I could. I thought it would be tough to find the LEGO section and the LEGO contest registry-booth, but not at all. You couldn’t miss it:

LEGO Contest - Build Your World Location

After registering for the contest, I walked around the LEGO section only to be horrified by the prices (the #21007 LEGO Architecture Rockefeller Center set was $62!). They were also displaying some of the LEGO contest entries from the 7-12 year-old category.

LEGO Contest - Build Your World Entries

There was also a LEGO Legends of Chima Speedorz display, and this was the very first time I tried to play with Speedorz. I hated it. It’s even tougher to use than Ninjago Spinners. Then after some aimless strolling around the fair, I decided to go to Pacific Place, a mall which doubles as a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and my mom’s office. So I went there, but not before catching a glimpse of a box full of LEGO Legends of Chima stickers and LEGO Hero Factory polybags being carried by the LEGO contest committee. I wondered what they’re for. Participation-prize maybe? Anyways, I met up with my mom on her lunch-break, and she showed me some bookstores where I could hang out. On my way back I got lost by making a wrong turn, so the contest had more-or-less started already by the time I got there. I darted to the competition area, got my name-tag, and also to my surprise ran into an acquaintance who was also participating.

So the LEGO contest begins! First I started making a thing that vaguely resembled a car. But I’m kind of lame at making automobiles, so I scrapped it. Then I tried making some floating-garage-thingie. But I’m pretty lame at making structures too, so I scrapped that too. By then I had begun eyeing my competitors’ models. They were all generally building blocky houses. I saw one which employs an opening back like the LEGO Creator Log Cabin set. Smart. (Later I found out he won 2nd place in my category. I have good taste after all!) So I thought to myself, “I should do what I do best, and start thinking about using unconventional and illegal LEGO techniques.” So I decide to make robots, my style! 😎

The first LEGO robot was more of a warm-up. Therefore, the legs ended up kind of droopy. I couldn’t think of any ways to fix them with the available LEGO bricks and without ruining the aesthetics. So I just propped my first robot against a fence and started on the second one.

LEGO Contest - Build Your World Robot 1

Now I was feeling more serious. For the second robot I was only sure of two things while building: It’s got to be more slender than the first, and wanted to incorporate those wheel-arches on the shoulders. However in the end it was the feet I was most proud of; I used a car door. Sadly, I was in a hurry taking pictures so I didn’t quite get the legs.

LEGO Contest - Build Your World Robot 2

By the time I made the third robot, I was on fire. It had been more then an hour and a half of backbreaking building. I love the torso of this robot, and the shoulder-pads made of car doors – at least to me – resemble the shoulder-pads of the body-armor of Saiyans from Dragon Ball.

LEGO Contest - Build Your World Robot 3

Below is an overall picture of my submission to the LEGO contest. All creations had to be on a 32×32 stud baseplate, so I decided to build a fence around the robots. Also, remember earlier when I said reading the LEGO builder guide would come in useful? It did. If it wasn’t for that, I doubt I would have used a fence in a SNOT technique. And after this whole contest, I now have a new favorite LEGO element; the car door. It’s just so useful for so many things! Basically, all the robots have aspects that fulfill the four criteria of Fikko-Style Robots: weird angles, weirder LEGO building-techniques, tons of pose-ability, and alarming fragility.

LEGO Contest - Build Your World Entry by Fikko

I was one of the last to finish my creations for the LEGO contest. After that the organizers took pictures of me with my model – which proved to be a grueling task, for simply lifting up the robots made their limbs fall. We did it at the end though. On the way out, the lead committee handed me a LEGO Legends of Chima sticker-sheet and the LEGO Hero Factory polybag set, so I was right about those! She also asked me to accompany one of the committee and bring my model, for it was too fragile to be carried. This was true, as mine was a delicate trio of bots while other entries were mostly sturdy houses. So I placed the model where it supposed to go and fixed any damage.

Well, that’s the end of Part 1 of my adventures at this LEGO contest. Stay tuned for Part 2, where I will finish my tale and tell you how I did at the contest! So what do you think? Have you ever participated in a LEGO contest? Or would you like to? Feel free to share your thoughts, and if you have any questions, in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out some of my other articles or visit my Contributors Page for more. Thanks for reading and commenting!

{ 37 comments… add one }
  • ntk743 July 10, 2013, 11:31 AM

    Nice article! If anyone needs help on the Hero factory contest I have tips! http://thebrickcenter.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/lego-contest-lego-hero-factory/

    • Gabriel July 10, 2013, 3:26 PM

      These contests are fun, but I’ve stopped participating because I’m too old: the winner always seems to be below the age of 15.

      • Legoman640 July 10, 2013, 3:34 PM

        Can I still enter if i’m in Nassau?

        • admin July 10, 2013, 3:46 PM

          Fikko can anser this better, but I think he is sleeping right now. In the meantime I shoudl mention that this contest was in Asia only and is already over. But if you have a local LEGO magazine or LEGO club, they may have some contests for you to participate in. 😉

          • Fikko3107 July 10, 2013, 5:53 PM

            I’m not! Wow, I’m getting way too little sleep these days. It’s nearly 5 A.M here.

            Gabriel; Yeah, the winner in LEGO competitions never seems to be the oldest contestant, unlike a few other competitions where being oldest gives you a perceived disadvantage.

            Legoman640; As admin says, this is an Asia-only thing.

            • Legoman640 July 10, 2013, 8:53 PM

              That question was meant for ntk743.

              • ntk743 July 10, 2013, 9:10 PM

                That’s what I thought, I’m not sure. Do you recieve the LEGO magazine? If so I’m guessing you could.

                • Fikko3107 July 11, 2013, 3:50 AM

                  Based on some poking around, I can confirm it’s a US and Canada only thing.

                  • ntk743 July 11, 2013, 8:48 AM

                    That’s what I thought because you could only print the submission form in Canadian or American, but it made sense if he got the magazine he could enter. My bad Legoman640 🙄

                    • Legoman640 July 12, 2013, 10:39 AM

                      Darn it. I’ll either make a hero or villain and put it on Flikr or something.

            • ninja of stealth July 11, 2013, 1:26 AM

              airport lounge? interesting (I know you said not to ask but…) and then when you said “man-mug of milk” that was hilarious! that’s all I got to say ”spot on!” or as some people would say “spot on… 🙁 ” I’m being really random… har, har, har. 😀

    • Håkan July 10, 2013, 5:40 PM

      Brains are evil now? I remember when Lego used to cater to the imagination…

    • Ike July 16, 2013, 3:42 PM

      my little brother has Lots of hero factory and bionicle pieces, so we made a huge character, a mech for hero factory characters! Hope that it will win!

      • admin July 16, 2013, 8:47 PM

        That sounds really fun! I hope you guys win! Let us know! 😛

  • Strider July 10, 2013, 12:54 PM

    This was really interesting. I would love to do something like this, but I am a very relaxed builder so the time and pressure wouldn’t go very well with me. Also, I can be ambitious so I might start to build something I wouldn’t be able to finish. But I loved reading your post and am looking forward to part two.

    • admin July 10, 2013, 3:39 PM

      Yeah, time-pressure is a big thing for me too. I rather participate in online contests where you have like a month to build! I’m also a perfectionist, so I must have all the right parts to build – which I get from Bricklink. But I’m so proud of Fikko! You are awesome! 😀

      • Fikko3107 July 10, 2013, 5:56 PM

        Yeah, time is tough. However, I do not recommend taking 30 minutes only to create a model where you have 2 hours. Not only because you could add more detail, but some judges may perceive the contestant to be “lazy”.

        • Håkan July 13, 2013, 6:55 PM

          I don’t know. If you get the essentials down fast, sometimes extra time doesn’t add much to the finished product. People work in different ways.

  • Håkan July 10, 2013, 1:22 PM

    Botilicious! Where can one find the Lego builder guide?

    I can read basic Dutch. It doesn’t help.

    • Fikko3107 July 10, 2013, 3:01 PM

      Well I figured that since Indonesian and Dutch shares a few similar words due to the 3-century long occupation, I figured Dutch-readers might get the gist of it…I was horribly wrong. It was included mostly as a joke.

      • Cross July 10, 2013, 4:48 PM

        I’m Dutch, and to be honest, I couldn’t understand a single bit of the text. 😛

        • ninja of stealth July 11, 2013, 1:28 AM

          really! me neither! wow! (I’m not being sarcastic.) awesome! I could do my own little victory dance! ok time for me to go to bed! ha-ha!

    • admin July 10, 2013, 3:42 PM

      Hakan, the link to the builder’s guide is included. Just click on it where Fikko talks about it at the… let’s see… third paragraph of the article, right below the second yellow picture. 😉

      • Håkan July 10, 2013, 5:09 PM

        There it is…

        Fikko should have written a pointer in Dutch…

  • Legoman640 July 10, 2013, 3:41 PM

    Cool! Are you enjoying the Hero Factory set? By the way,if I could chose what to build in that contest,i’d try to build something from The Missing Series by Margret Peterson Haddix.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missing_(novel_series)

    • Legoman640 July 10, 2013, 3:41 PM

      Awesome books. 😉

      • Fikko3107 July 10, 2013, 6:10 PM

        Well, the next part will include a review of the sticker sheet and the polybag, so you can wait till then to see how I “enjoyed” the Hero Factory set.

        I think I have the second book of that series, although I haven’t quite touched it yet since it looked quite tough to catch on without reading the first one. Despite really fitting the theme of the contest, which is to build something you can connect with, (although this theme wasn’t strongly reinforced in Indonesia.) If you were in my position you will see that contests where they provide you the bricks rarely has useful, often-used bricks that you really need, let alone in the color you want.

        • Legoman640 July 10, 2013, 8:59 PM

          Trust me,you won’t understand the second book if you don’t read the first. You should read the whole series! It’s really good! It’s about……. well……. it’s hard to explain. To sum it up,it’s about time travel.

          • Håkan July 13, 2013, 6:52 PM

            But considering the subject, if you start with the second book, you should always be able to go back to the first afterwards…

            (Sorry, lame joke…)

            • Legoman640 July 27, 2013, 2:58 PM

              That would mess up time a lot.

  • Gabriel July 10, 2013, 3:42 PM

    I am totally digging the shoulder adornments (both the wheel rims and the car doors). Great work!

    • Fikko3107 July 10, 2013, 6:03 PM

      Funny that I practically only have very few of the car-door piece, but now it’s a couple of bricks I find very useful! The pile of bricks they gave us to build with has some pieces which people rarely use outside context, such as satellite dishes, Doors, etc. I saw a large number of those car door pieces and I just decide to start using them. The second model used 2 pairs; a pair in the shoulder assembly, and although you can’t see it, to make the soles of his feet. The third model though used 3 pairs; one for shoulder pads, one for the the torso assembly and one for the knee.

      Although I said that there were lots of car doors, it was so frustrating finding a pair- I’ve found like a dozen of the left car door but not a single right car door!

      • Gabriel July 11, 2013, 3:27 PM

        Yeah, I hate that!

  • Lileigh September 27, 2017, 2:00 PM

    I have created so many things out of Legos. I want everyone to see them,I have 4 Lego friends and one of the Lego mini figure sets and I have built one huge store out of Legos,I enjoy playing with the cool sets sometimes they inspire me to make my own, Me and my brother made a mall once and a bank and more,there are many things I love about Legos.My dad built a limousine for my sister once.My whole family likes Legos my mom and dad have times they play with us and they build cool houses and cities! . Love Lileigh, 9 years old

    • admin September 27, 2017, 3:23 PM

      Lileigh, thanks for sharing! Wishing your family lots of LEGO play! 🙂

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