Nice Parts Usage! Weeks 15 and 16: Keep Your Shirt On!

chuxtoybox

Greetings, Brickset comunity! I am your host, @chuxtoybox  and this is Nice Parts Usage! Where, you may ask, is are beloved @LordofLego , the originator of Nice Parts Usage? I don't know, but he's not under the floorboards of my kitchen in dismembered pieces I assure you! Wait! Do you hear that heartbeat? It's getting louder!

Oh, well, never-mind!

 Speaking of dismembered bodies, I have picked an element that every LEGO enthusiast must have at least one of:

6058855: Mini Upper Part 2K

The object is, of course, to use this element in an original MOC (My Own Creation) in an original way. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but is does have to be LEGO!

You can use any minifigure torso you want to no matter what the design, but you can't use it as a torso for a minifigure! I will be flexible and allow the use of the torso without the arms, or  without  the hands. Pull off one hand on one side and a complete arm on the other if you wish...just have fun with it!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I seem to have misplaced my saw...

MattsWhat

Can you legally attach anything other than a head on the top of a body? I've never thought about it before but I am now. This is a good one - I might actually make a submission if I can build something my 2yo doesn't take apart for me. 

ColoradoBricks

Some the ghosts have a 1x2 brick instead of the legs, so that is legal.

chuxtoybox

I would think that anything that fits onto the neck exactly as the head would would be considered legal, but It's definitely not something I've ever thought about before.

For these challenges, I don't really care so much about a legal use of the piece as much as a possible use of the piece. For example, if you look at a lot of @vitreolum 's MOCs, he sometimes uses elements in ways that aren't "legal" but still practical and unique, like placing a hairpiece on the base-plate so that it looks like a plant.

Using LDD and making an element float in the air by itself is obviously not possible in the real world and I will wag my finger at you and give you a disappointed look.

Of course, if someone wishes to challenge them-self by only using legal techniques that is their prerogative. :) 

chuxtoybox

I've seen a MOC that used minifigure torsos without arms to make a pattern on the ground of a battle scene. Legal? No. Frickin' cool, original and inspiring? Yes.

Shib

LEGO themselves have used bricks instead of heads behore to make robots.

snowhitie

I've never took arms from a torso so will have to scratch my brain to fit them in or to pry them off anyway...

chuckp

@snowhitie If you do take the arms off a minifig, I would recommend using a torso you don't really care about. I've removed a few arms for a couple of MOCs and the arms seem a little loose after being reattached. Plus there is always the possibility of cracking the torso, usually down the sides or near the shoulder area. 

snowhitie

@chuckp yeah, thats what I am worried about, thanks for letting me know. I think I'll try to incorpate the arms in the build, been thinking about it, inspiration has not struck yet.

andhe

I'm always removing arms and mixing and matching. The older stuff can be brittle and has a danger of cracking and CMF arms and hands tend to have a slight different tolerance to 'normal' figs so it's just a case of trial and error sometimes.

To avoid cracking the arms I find moving them horizontally to the body (or turning the arm upwards to the torso) is the easiest way to then pop them off.

LordofLego

Any 1x1 brick fits on the head post except the older headlight bricks.

dannyrww

Arghhh....been so busy at school...I miss participating in these.

Shib

Found a bit of time to do a little LDD build... a laser canon

dannyrww

I miss these

snowhitie

^ I was thinking the same thing...

Shib

I think the weekly setup was it's undoing, for most people a weeks not enough.

Shib

If I were to bring this back but perhaps slightly differently on a monthly basis (perhaps with a polybag level prize) are there many who would be interested? (Of course this would need approval from @Huw but I can't imagine there would be a problem)

Having just checked @LordofLego 's profile he hasn't been active since November (with the comment above being his last comment) so I think checking in with him here is just as likely to get a response as a pm might.

MattsWhat

It's having time and ideas to do it but a month might be easier. Also choosing parts its difficult to get something people have available - most of my bricks are tied up in sets and mocs for example (or random categorised groups). I think it would be awesome with a prize, although I do feel it would be divided into the limited few who could win and us mere mortals who wouldn't stand a chance!
It would also be cool if we could pay say £10 upfront and be sent the parts need to enter for a year say. If you sent several each of 24 different parts to anyone who wanted them (anyone could enter with their own parts of course) then you could have rounds each month where two parts had to be used to stop people pre building. Just a thought, but yes I'll try and get involved, work being with me of course. 

rdflego

I'm game for a Monthly Brickset Build-off type thing if others are. I've gone over some of the previous threads and I have a few questions. Such as 'should we focus on a piece based or idea based challenge' & 'would it be everyone vs everyone or everyone initially then eliminations until we reach a champion'. A lot participation is what we would need to keep this running month to month so discussion is needed to make this work I think.

Not like I've been thinking about this or anything guys...

Fauch

it's also not clear how it is judged. is it just the way the piece is used which is important, or do an impressive moc have higher chances to win even if it uses the piece in a more mundane way?
also, I remember we had a winner which could only really be looked at from one angle. can an entry win if it only really work on pictures?

Shib

i felt a month was a good length of time of time to allow for a build while not being too open ended as to make it impossible to track. I have also considered the issue of part choice and have some ideas around it, I'm thinking of something a little different in terms of a slightly different build criterea each month, therefore some might be down to part use, some might be theme for the build among other things.

As for who wins, I believe anyone who is prepared to get involved will have a chance, if I'm running it I'd act as judge (perhaps with guest judges when appropriate) so as to allow the maximum of participants. If there are any specifics about judging criteria I would always make those clear on the monthly announcement.
 
Also I'd rather play it month by month rather than having a mass sign up now as it would allow for people to enter on any months they want, rather than feeling it an obligation and also allows newer members to join in after they sign up.

the £10 to sign up and get seed parts is an interesting idea, but to be honest i think it would make it a bit too much like hard work to organise and would also set up that obligation to enter rather than just being about having a bit of fun.

MattsWhat

I agree selling parts would make it hard work and I wouldn't want to do that to anyone, but it's not an obligation as you got the parts at approx bricklink price. If you don't take part you just got some random parts.
I like the idea of not just using seed parts, like a pirate month or a 50 parts or less month, stuff like that. 
An impartial judge works, and maybe a win once out of contention for a month or two. But criteria are important. A 20,000 piece moc looks amazing but if the seed part appears once, is it really as impressive? And do existing mocs count etc. 

Shib

MattsWhat said:

 But criteria are important. A 20,000 piece moc looks amazing but if the seed part appears once, is it really as impressive? And do existing mocs count etc. 

100% agree, if the month is about using a certain part then that's obviously going to be the main criteria.

i think it should be new builds, the limited time on the build adds an element of fairness.

rdflego

I think impartiality should be key to choosing a judge. I know that I would prefer these to be judged either by everyone or by a different guest judge each month who is not involved with the competition that time around. Perhaps we could assign criteria to mark with like creativity, community response, difficulty, etc.

Shib

I think you're potentially worrying too much about the judging, its more meant to be about encouraging a bit of build sharing, the prize will only ever be a polybag (former freebie daily mail ones), so It'd really be more about taking part than winning. In terms of running a monthly contest i'm really just looking at encouraging building and sharing, if people are looking for something more serious then I'll hand over to someone else to take it on.

dannyrww

I would support this @Shib This was one of my favorite activities here on brickset so I would love to see it come back. I am by no means as good a builder as many here, but I always enjoyed the little sparks of creativity this challenge gave me.

MattsWhat

^this. I'd rather the poly went to fairy bricks Tbh. I just like people showing off original works and having to come up with something new. I didn't get time to do the torso build, but I like having something to challenge me to actually build something real (rather than just order bricks for the next dream project that might be months away).  
We went away over the holidays and the place we stayed had a little crate of lego. Something about getting back on the floor with the children and building bmax (sp?) and windlifter with only 6 snot pieces and very little of the correct colours reminded me that it's not always about the next gbhq. This is what this 'competition' is actually about. 
Maybe if we can get 12 people involved we can each have a month and choose the theme and judge it for that month. Other people can drop in and out too. That means one person doesn't always have to be available or do all the work. This might just make it more complex. I don't want @shib to always have to judge and not get to take part. 

Shib

@mattswhat - I'll be taking part with example builds where possible. ;-)

MattsWhat

not a lot of love for the idea so far then :(

Bumblepants

I would enjoy bringing back a building contest of some sort. Maybe the objective can change every so often to keep things fresh. Maybe one month we create a ~$20 set for a new, non-IP theme we think up for example.

snowhitie

I also don't think it needs an actual prize, the honour is worth a lot already! Monthly time-table is more feasible. I also would not mind alternating and doing the organising/judging for a month but we do need enough participants first.

A part usage or theme would be fun, and I agree it's more about people sharing ideas...

cheshirecat

Maybe if you could get Huw on board - not physically but you know what i mean - he would let you make use of the poll feature as an official brickset forum activity once a month. We used it for the decision on keeping the new mobile theme or not and it was pretty good.  Announce the comp, three weeks for build, one weeks voting, declare a winner. Rinse and repeat.

Having any one single judge even if rotating can mean a very skewed result with something as subjective as a moc, or even more so if you widen it to concepts etc. Using the poll overcomes this, involves more people (even those that don't build) and i think will give the entire thing more buy-in. 

MattsWhat

^except that there are people on here who I find annoying (pretty easy to avoid reading posts by them) and I wouldn't vote for the MOC even if it was awesome because I am like that (mean).  That is not objective and fair at all... democracy is flawed, I vote for a dictatorship!
N.B. as I have replied to your post @cheshirecat you know you are in the clear ;)

plasmodium

Tbh, I quite like the idea of a poll. I'd like to be involved even though I don't really have access to the resources to build on a monthly basis! Though you could always have a 'community favourite' and a 'judge's favourite' each month, I guess. Especially if the judge is the one who set the challenge, then they're kind of different things - one is which one the voters thought best, the other is the one that the judge thought best fitted his original idea. And if they're the same MOC, then it doesn't really matter!

I suppose as prize maybe you could be permitted to put something like "NPU winner Jan 2016" in your flair next to your name/location - but only keep it there for a month so it stays somewhat exclusive and doesn't get cluttered.

SteveDJ

Just found this thread and wanted to chime in ... I'd love to participate in such a monthly contest myself.

But then the topic of voting came up, particularly voting by 'the public', and it kind of sours me on the contest.  While I would hope it wouldn't happen here, public voting turns too many contests into nothing more than a popularity contest.  If I had 500 friends here (I mean real friends, like I'm super popular, etc.), then I could ask them to go help me... support me... by voting for my item (whatever it is)... and swamp the polls to give me the win.

But, I'm not that popular/social.  However, perhaps someone else is, and I cannot compete with that. :-(

So I would favor a more official judging process vs. a simple pole.

plasmodium

I would like to believe that Brickset is above that kind of popularity politics, but that may be me being optimistic. And it wouldn't be like 'public' public anyway. It would just be open to Brickset members - I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you'd be lucky to get over 100 votes in a single month (for that months whole contest, not per entrant!) unless it's very well promoted.

Anyway, that's the sort of thing we won't really be able to tell until it's tried out. It's also kind of why I suggested two 'awards' - one for the judge's favourite (where the judge is the one who suggested the topic) and one for the 'public' vote. Then those who like a public vote will be happy, those who can't build will be included and those who don't like public votes can just ignore the poll for what it is - people's opinions on the internet. :)

dannyrww

While I don't think people on brickset are the type to not vote for someone because they don't like them, I do feel we would tend to vote for someone we know better. I worry that a voting system would lead to us voting for the more well known bricksetters and there are people who would participate who may not be as well known (for instance I don't think people know me all that well around here). I'd rather one judge or a group of judges....that being said I do think it is less about a prize and more a chance to share our creations and to get inspiration.

MattsWhat

Well, however we judge it, we're now a full week into January without a theme.. the days are slipping away @Shib - what are we building?!
But seriously - if we actually start uploading some builds over the next couple of weeks we might get more interest and it gets going, it might not work but we can only try.  So I say, name the game and let's try to get a couple of pics in by next week to try and get those lurkers involved!

Shib

I'll try to set something up for February to avoid confusion on length of time and keep it as a month. From the looks of things there is still only a small amount of interest, but we'll see.
I have a theme in mind and it will be nice part usage based to ease into it.
For the first one I'll just act as judge and see how it goes, if there is call for voting or something I'll ask @Huw, but I while it's a fine idea I think it's probably an unnecessary complication based on the low number of people who have expressed an interest here.

Bumblepants

Another pitfall to avoid is not to confuse 'best Lego model' with 'best pop culture or running Brickset joke reference' when deciding a winner. Not that I am against either, in fact, I enjoy both quite a bit. For a contest though those sorts of things should be secondary to the quality of the build and how well it fits the guidelines of the event.

MattsWhat

^I think it is reasonable to go with a more serious judging criteria, much like LEGO use themselves.  I'm going to make helicopters out of every seed part and add flick fire missiles to them, thats a sure fire way of winning then.
(Okay, maybe we shouldn't judge just like LEGO do)

MorkMan

@Shib @chuxtoybox
When I took a shot at the monthly build contests (here and here), it didn't really have a 'winner', but was just to showcase the MOCs:
I just created a survey with some possible questions. Let's see if this works for us:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H96Q967

tallblocktoo

Does sound like fun honestly.  I have as of yet only really built sets so not sure if I have the creative juices to compete or even complete a model.  My other hesitation is wether I would even have the required pieces as my collection is not that large. 

Galactus

I'd like to participate.  At the moment I'm probably limited to using LDD though.

catwrangler

This sounds really fun and I'd like to join in! I'm so caught up in sorting my Lego and building my Star Wars sets that I haven't done much MOCing lately and I like the idea of a challenge on the forum to inspire me. I've seen stuff like this work very well in fanfiction/other writing groups - you might not carve out the time to write a 100K story, whereas a drabble (a story of exactly 100 words) based on a prompt on a forum is accessible yet challenging...

MattsWhat

One week to go @Shib, I've started sorting some old stuff just to make sure I can start building quickly. I'm thinking if I upload a moc first I might be winning for a bit at least!

77ncaachamps

MorkMan said:

@Shib @chuxtoybox
When I took a shot at the monthly build contests (here and here), it didn't really have a 'winner', but was just to showcase the MOCs:
I just created a survey with some possible questions. Let's see if this works for us:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H96Q967

I don't understand survey question #3.

Care to elaborate or clarify?

MorkMan

73% of you said "bragging rights" while 27% said "a prize".
28% of you are American
18% of you are Canadian
18% of you are British
9% of you are from Afghanistan
9% of you are from Belgium
9% of you are from Netherlands
9% of you are from Switzerland.

 @shib

 @chuxtoybox