[TC24] Space Police Contest - Information Topic

[Jim]

SPACE POLICE CONTEST - DISCUSSION TOPIC

Space Robbers are present in all corners of the LEGO Galaxy. They are trying to rob honest civilians flying through space. Lucky for these space faring citizens, the Space Police is here to save the day.

DESCRIPTION
Build a Technic Space Ship! 

CHOOSE SIDES
Join the Space Police to uphold the law and capture Space Robbers or join the Space Robbers to wreak havoc in space. The choice is yours! There are no extra restrictions for either side and you can choose every color scheme you want.

FEATURES
Regardless of the side you choose, your space ship needs to have some features and one cool main highlighted feature. Be creative!

DEADLINE
Since this is a winter contest and we like to be indoors, the allotted time for this contest is around 7 weeks.

Deadline date is March 27th, 2023. Contest will be closed on Tuesday the 28th OR LATER.

Disclaimer: I will close the contest when I see fit and when I have the time to process the results. This can be later than the deadline date. Please don't complain about this not being fair and all.

RULES AND REGULATIONS
The following section describes the contest specific and general rules and regulations. But before that, please take notice of a simple motto regarding the Eurobricks Contests:

CONTESTS ARE FOR FUN!

Of course there's competition, but at the end of the day, LEGO is just a hobby and the main goal for each of us is to have fun!

CONTEST SPECIFIC RULES AND REGULATIONS

• Each vehicle needs to have a cool name (no name, no entry).
• Each contestant needs to choose a side (Space Police or Space Robbers).
• Each entry needs to have one cool highlighted feature (and possibly more auxiliary features)
• Some studded System parts are okay, but model team is not permitted.
• Pneumatics are permitted.
• Cutting pneumatic hoses is permitted.
• 3rd party strings, hoses and rubber bands are permitted.
• LEDs are permitted.
• Pullback Motor is permitted.
• Electronics (PF elements, SBricks and Mindstorms) are permitted.

GENERAL RULES AND REGULATIONS

• The contest is open to all EB members (also new members).
• Members who joined EB after the start of the contest can be banned from voting (when vote rigging is suspected).
• Voting rules will be explained later in the voting topic.
• One entry per member.
• Entries need to be new (never posted anywhere previously).
• Only physical builds, so no LDD or other virtual entry.
• If you have any doubts about the suitability of your entry contact me.
• All entries are to include only real LEGO. No clone brands, 3rd party parts, or digital entries allowed.
• No cutting, sculpting or modifying parts.
• Entries are to be placed in the entry topic in this forum.
• Entries not in the entry topic are not eligible for voting.
• The entry post may be edited at any time up to the end of the contest, so feel free to make improvements if you wish.
• The contest might be closed later than the deadline. Don't complain about this not being fair.
• You have enough time to build. Don't ask for more time.
• We reserve the right to disqualify any entry that does not follow these rules.
• These rules can be changed whenever we see fit to ensure that people follow the intent of the contest.
• Staff members are not eligible for winning prizes.

WHAT DO I NEED TO ENTER?
All participant need to create a discussion topic and create a post in the entry topic.

DISCUSSION TOPIC

• A discussion topic starting with [TC24].
• A discussion topic needs to show some actual progress (i.e. pictures of the build in progress) and should not be used to "reserve an idea".

ENTRY POST

The entry post in the entry topic should contain:

• Entry name
• Short summary of the functions.
• One or more images (max 4).  You can have combined pictures (4 in 1) as long as the picture isn't bigger than 1024x1024.
• Embedded Youtube video (not mandatory)
• Link to the discussion topic

PRIZES

There will be prizes. More on that later.

[MangaNOID]

Sounds like a fun contest theme! I’m going to try and sneak some time somewhere to contribute a build.

[Jundis]

1 hour ago, Jim said:

Each vehicle needs to have a cool name

Just to make sure: Only spaceship, so no wheels/tracks/...?

[Jim]

1 minute ago, Jundis said:

Just to make sure: Only spaceship, so no wheels/tracks/...?

Yup, no spacetanks or spacetrucks 

[msk6003]

More about wheels - Can I make transformation vehicle from car/rover to spaceship? Will not exactly same type but BTTF2 delorean can be example.

[Jim]

Nope, iit needs to be a spaceship. It can have some transformations though. But not to a vehicle with wheels.

[msk6003]

32 minutes ago, Jim said:

Nope, iit needs to be a spaceship. It can have some transformations though. But not to a vehicle with wheels.

So can't make this kind of thing?

Or how about add wheel for 'slide' looking like this?

If not, than I think add on rule about is better.

Edited January 11, 2023 by msk6003

[Jim]

1 hour ago, msk6003 said:

So can't make this kind of thing?

If not, than I think add on rule about is better.

Why do we need an additional rule? The contest is about making a spaceship. Not a spacecar, not a landspeeder.....but a spaceship! 

[RazzPinazzo]

2 hours ago, Jim said:

Why do we need an additional rule? The contest is about making a spaceship. Not a spacecar, not a landspeeder.....but a spaceship! 

And what about Space Police 3? Where spaceships likes cars.

Something like that

 

[Jim]

1 minute ago, RazzPinazzo said:

And what about Space Police 3? Where spaceships likes cars.

Something like that

That is fine and that is actually what we like to see. As long as it's a spaceship and it "flies" through space. No driving, no hovering. 

[Erik Leppen]

Good to see the contest has started. I hope people can exchange some ideas for functions here :) I'm thinking of some ideas and I hope to join this time (unlike last time, when other things took my time).

What's interesting is that the typical functions of Technic vehicles - gearbox, suspension and such - don't work this time. So we need to find other things to make it an interesting Technic model. I can't help but think of the space shuttle set that has some kind of crane arm in a cargo bay with doors.

I'm also thinking that having a fake engine with pistons is kind of weird in a spaceship. I may add it though, as some kind of metaphor/placeholder/designation for where a thruster would be, similar to how modern software still uses a floppy disk icon for the save button.

[Saberwing40k]

Surprisingly enough, having a piston engine is not that weird in a spaceship. I heard of a design for an APU for a rocket that is an inline 6 cylinder engine. It uses hydrogen and oxygen that would otherwise be just boil off. It's made by Roush Racing, and is actually a really clever design to streamline systems in upper stages. Here's an article talking about it:https://jalopnik.com/a-nascar-team-is-building-the-first-internal-combustion-1783198912

 

Now, regarding the rules, what about having a spaceship with a deployable rover? Whether something like the real Lunar Lander where the rover has to really fold up to stow, or the Mars Mission 7692 MX-71 Recon Dropship, or any of a number of other space sets, I think it would be an interesting function. However, the emphasis should be on the spaceship aspect. As in, the rover should be less than half the size of the carrier ship.

I don't agree with the rule about having no land mode. I think transforming spacecraft would make for an interesting function, but it becomes sticky really quick. Like, how do you delineate between a spaceship that has a land mode, and a flying space car? The Space Police set shown earlier in this thread definitely is just a flying car, as the flight form is clearly secondary. In the end, it may just be easier to exclude land modes entirely, otherwise this could degenerate into arguments pretty quickly.

Come to think of it, what about legged vehicles? What about a spaceship that can turn into a legged mech/robot, Macross/Robotech style? Would that be allowed?

Edited January 13, 2023 by Saberwing40k

[Jundis]

11 minutes ago, Saberwing40k said:

I don't agree with the rule about having no land mode. I think transforming spacecraft would make for an interesting function, but it becomes sticky really quick. Like, how do you delineate between a spaceship that has a land mode, and a flying space car? The Space Police set shown earlier in this thread definitely is just a flying car, as the flight form is clearly secondary. In the end, it may just be easier to exclude land modes entirely, otherwise this could degenerate into arguments pretty quickly.

Come to think of it, what about legged vehicles? What about a spaceship that can turn into a legged mech/robot, Macross/Robotech style? Would that be allowed?

The thing is, we already had multiple vehicle contests and also a robot contest lately. I think @Jim saves the idea of a legged walker contest for a later TC.

It comes down to this:

Edited January 13, 2023 by Jundis

[Jim]

4 minutes ago, Jundis said:

It comes down to this:

Amen 

I don't care how many piston engines you use in your spaceship, but NO rovers, NO walkers, NO other things than a spaceship 

[Jim]

PS The spaceship can have transformations, sure. Bot no transformation to legged walkers, vehicles, etc.

Think Star Wars X-Wing like stuff. Useless transformations which are cool to look at 

[Seasider]

Well I think you’ve got the photo to go with this competition care of @Jundis. I’m hoping to get cracking on this at the weekend. Not sure what it’s going to look like as yet and think I’ll start with a random collection of mini builds and just see how it goes together. No idea on functions!

[dhc6twinotter]

This is a really cool contest idea!  I’m really looking forward to what ideas people come up with!

[efferman]

On 1/11/2023 at 7:22 AM, Jim said:

But not to a vehicle with wheels.

but it can have a landing gear?

[Jim]

20 minutes ago, efferman said:

but it can have a landing gear?

Yes, it sure can! 

And it certainly doesn't have to be a realistic spaceship, as long as it's a spaceship 

[Lira_Bricks]

Are arms allowed as long as they are not used to walk on? Like in the set 4792?

Spoiler

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Lira_Bricks
Place image in spoiler since it is big

[Jim]

Yeah sure! Absolutely 

[Jundis]

Looking at the planned entries so far I think we have a slight disparity against the police :D

[GerritvdG]

10 hours ago, Jundis said:

a slight disparity against the police :D

So we need some robbers to catch  

[KirTech LAB]

It sounds very interesting. I'm sure we'll see a lot of awesome models soon!

[Erik Leppen]

Is there a reason why there are so few entries?

There were quite a lot of people who started building something, and there were a lot of promising builds underway. After this enthousiastic start, it seemed to wade into oblivion a bit. Will more people be entering? Three entries is a bit few. I had a lot of fun building, but also want to see some more finished entries :)

So, where are all of you? 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Erik Leppen