Darkkazmo

I believe Jake has brought TLC much closer to the AFOL community than ever expected, and our vision of the LEGO products couldn't have been translated to the company in such transparency if Jake wasn't in the picture. Finally, the old glory LEGO days have been resurrected from their ashes, and I believe the future of our beloved product looks bright from now on, and I strongly believe valuable elements like Mr. McKee had to do a lot with it... I'm saddened to see him go, but the show must go on, and I wish Jake the best of luck in what ever he's pursuing.

I couldn't agree more : 2005 was bad for our wallets, 2006 will kill them :biggrin: Tell me about it Jipay, I even still haven't bought all the Technic sets yet, and some of those city construction sets! Now, not only I need to buy those, I also need to buy them in multiple quantities for parts... And yes I'm still talking about the 2005 assortment! :$ As for 2006, man, I guess I'm gonna be intensely broke this year! Looks like the Star Wars sets were only the icing on the cake... LEGO for sure have out done them selves this year, now, if they only bring the Space theme back! I mean for 2007

Oh my lord of darkness! After seeing all those pics, definitely I'm gonna be broke this year! Look at all those goodies, and those really nifty parts! Why oh why I'm into this cursed hobby called LEGO? *wacko*

Why do LEGO toys have value to you? LEGO to me is a great and a simpler way to build some of the Toy design ideas that I keep visualizing in my head. I don't need to use glue, paint or other special parts like some other craft mediums require in order to see those ideas materialize in front of my eyes. Plus I would like to experiment with a lot of engineering designs and tricks, and LEGO is a perfect medium for that. The only major con for me is the high cost of the LEGO products. What makes LEGO brand construction toys worth your money? Primarily, the high quality. But as of late, many of the bricks don't seem to have the same quality that I've experienced when I was a kid, they don't hold together like they used to for some reason! In what way has the LEGO brand let you down? Same as above, the high price, the lower quality and the some of the variety of the lines and themes... Many of the system sets lack of good quality designs, and suffer from juniorization. The Technic line lack the studded beams and bricks, and don't appeal to many of us like the older sets that were introduced back in the eighties. Although I have to admit, some of the newer Technic sets like the big yellow crane is a step in the right direction, and I would love to see the future Technic sets bring back the studded elements in them. Recently, how has the LEGO brand improved? I can see the use of the SNOT techniques are getting better in many of the System sets, and the Technic line is way more impressive than one that wa offered in the year before. And Thank you so much for the "Designer Sets" Line, it's one of the best source for the LEGO elements so far, keep those sets coming, and never discontinue them, please. What would you like to see LEGO (re)introduce in the next three years? Get back to the original lines, Space, Pirates, Castles, Trains, Technic and continue to offer new themes like Mecha and other Fantasy ... Plus I would like to see a new line of some kind that fuses the System and Technic lines together. Also, I would love to see LEGO offers continuous bulk packs, single bricks and special elements. Something that replaces the need to buy from Bricklink or other online outlets. What does LEGO need to do to sell more products for less cost to them? Cut on the licenses, and focus on the originality, lower your prices a bit. Try to improve on the quality and knock off the extra cost of stickers, light-up sabers and other fancy useless marketing tricks. What reason(s) do you have for not buying new LEGO sets? Read above... What would it take for you to spend more money on new LEGO products versus buying sets/parts on the second hand markets? Like I've mentioned above, offer more and permanent bulk and a wide variety of loose parts in useful colors, like grey, dark grey, white and brown. What will it take for LEGO to remain the best construction toy for all ages and be a profitable company? It's a hard question to answer, it needs a lot of research, but if you start with the some of ideas mentioned above, I think LEGO will be heading to the right direction IMO. What are your home country, first name and age? USA, Joseph, 30+. Is there anything you would like to say with this last question that you feel someone at LEGO should not go without reading? Back the to basics like in the eighties (The glory days for LEGO) is the way to go.

Great review Jay, so it's kinda back to basics type of build. Although I don't dig the construction methods on this one that much, but it will be an awesome set to customize for sure!

Huh, what do you mean by this? Darkkazmo Quote: " I took into consideration everybody's skill and guessing what parts collection they've got..." I don't think thay means I get extra credit for having alot of parts or being older than the others do you ?.....perhaps it means quite the opposite (reminds me of a government policy here in the States called "Affirmative Action") bfs Bigfatslob, I didn't choose your entry to be the winner simply because somebody beat you up there. But that doesn't mean your skills aren't as good, on the contrary, you showed the rest of us how talented you are in this medium, no question there, but this contest was mostly about using the common regular bricks, Bionicle or Technic were not the preferable choice in here, yet you came up with some great designs that I let them in. And to clarify things around, you aren't in the third or the second place here, I just said those are the top three on my list that I think they were the best in there, but I had to choose one to determine the winner. Obviously the winner entry was my favorite one out of the three. As for my comments about being a bit fair to some, that doesn't mean I'm gonna put them above the best ones, not at all, I'm just letting them know that they have tried hard, and their work is appreciated, and there is more to improve on.... BTW, if I had to choose the winner entirely on his/her building skills alone, the results could have been a bit different. And I think your comment up there wasn't really justified IMO, I thought you were a sport! So what if you didn't win, it's not like that I was looking for the best builder in here... The whole idea from these contests was about encouraging the community to get at building, and the best entry will win, as simple as that... Cheers

All-righty, after reviewing every entry carefully by looking back and forth on most of the available pictures that were posted, actually it was a bit a difficult for me to choose only one winner here since I took inconsideration everybody's skills and guessing what parts collection they've got... But since I'm hosting other contests as well, honestly I can't reward more than winner at this time, but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate some of the great work that has been spent on those well thought entries.. Although some did lack some of the artistic vision that I was looking for in a Mech, and some did lack some of the building techniques I was awaiting for... And some had great customs but bad quality pics. And here are the top three: - Snowleopard.> (The winner) A very well constructed mech with one of my favorite color scheme, plus Mark is one of the well known pioneers at building some of the coolest stuff around. - Mike-Psiaki. Although not totally original in concept, but the building skills of this dude is beyond many at his age or even some of the AFOLs that have bigger reputations than many around . Watch out of this kid people, he is one of the chosen ones. - Bigfatslob. This gentleman is probably one of the most innovative people that I saw at using the Bionicle parts. I never thought one day I will be actually promoting anything that has to do with Bionicle, but here as you can see, A master's work that stuns. Unbelievable craftsmanship. Congrats to the prize winner, and kudos to all participants on all your efforts. I can't say much except, keep it up and see you again in future contests. Cheers Joseph

Languages: I refrained from adding the Crab Mecha up there since it doesn't show that it could be piloted by a Minifig (one of the rules), if I'm wrong, please let me know. OK, this post means that the contest is up. I will declare the winner sometime next week. Thanks for all the participants, your efforts are much appreciated... And special thanks goes to the Eurobricks administration for helping me out with this. Guys, you are the coolest, thanks a million. :-D

OK, one day or so left to submit your last entries. ;)

Amazing work you guys... Love to see more of your talents. :^D

Apo, your efforts are commendable here, but I think this particular Mech looks very unstable! Probably you could modify it a bit and work on its construction flaws. Again, I can tell that the building force is very strong with you. Keep it up. ;)

Languages, your entry now has been added. :) Thanks.

Three great new entries. Very nice, and keep them coming. Languages, I can't add your last entry, simply because the pics are tilted sideways! Please fix them. ;) BTW, I just updated the color rule, now we have seven color limit instead of five.

Remember people that you could enter multiple entries, and that's why I gave you enough or an extended time! ;)

Well, the results are finally in! Remember, that we are four judges and every one of us had his own way of looking at things when giving the scores, and the winning entry had the most accumulated points. So... The big winner here in the minifig scale is: Mike Psiaki. (The prize winner) Second place: Schism. Third place: ApophisV. As for the MINI scale, I felt that I would give away a small complimentary prize for the best one made, and Pepa-Quin's was the chosen entry. The prizes are SW EPIII sets: In the minifig scale: $ 14.99 Droid Tri-Fighter set # 7252. In the MINI scale: $ 6.99 Darth Vader Transformation # 7251. It may take me few weeks to get the sets and ship them to you, so Mike and Matt, please PM your addresses. And of course CONGRATULATIONS. :D Now, I will post my own personal top three entries: 1- Huffy 1968. Best resemblance and clean construction. 2- Mike Psiaki. Best color scheme and style. 3- Pepa-Quin. Best overall construction and abstract design. Again, it was very tough to decide what was the best one, but somebody had to win this, so we had to rely on the numbers. Congratulations to all for pulling out some very decent stuff, and hope to see more of your amazing MOCs in the upcoming contests. Cheers Joseph