2017 Monthly Building Competition - December: Twenty Parts or Less

Mynatt

Hello and welcome to the final monthly building challenge of 2017!

For this month’s challenge, I would like for you to take a very minimalistic approach. As I figure some may be traveling this December and may be away from their collection of bricks, I wanted to make a challenge easy and accessible for all to participate in. That being said, for this month’s challenge I would like for you to make a creation in under 20 pieces. Your creation may be a representation of absolutely anything you please.

Here are the rules:

-You may use no more than 20 pieces. You are allowed to use less than 20 pieces.

-Add a title or small caption describing your model.

-ALL parts count. Say for example you were to use a mini figure torso, that would count as five pieces.

-Please only post up to two photos to give the page an easier time to load. If you would like to post more, feel free to add a link to Flickr. 

-The creation must be new and should not already exist.

-The competition will end December 31st PST.

-You may enter multiple builds.

I will try to get out the final verdict the following week. The prize has yet to be decided.

For a bit of inspiration here are some previous Toys r Us builds:

And two from Christopher Neimann (would recommend taking a look at this link here for further ideas:http://www.christophniemann.com/portfolio/i-lego-n-y/):

One comment that I really enjoy is one said by prevere and is also the comment from where I got my inspiration to do this competition (http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/514639#Comment_514639). Your model can really be anything. It can be as minimalistic as possible. It can be one piece or 20. I would be happy to answer any questions about the challenge that you may have. Very interested to see what models come from this! Enjoy!

FowlerBricks

Time to get buildin'!! 

M1J0E

Somebody has to be first!  & a 20 piece limit is about right for my size of collection.

Inspired by the Duplo thread, I present to you the most delicious, or tallest at least, lego sammich ever!  Made of 16 parts of 10566 goodness.  Set 6785 donated the 4 pieces making up the plate, so a cake themed duplo entry might not be far behind.

Bumblepants

Just got Horizon Zero Dawn and am loving it so I tried to make a Watcher. Here is the real item and my attempt with 20 parts.

Bumblepants

Since it is a lazy, rainy Saturday here is another one. 10 piece Blacktron ship (with a dash of Firefly class design inspiration) and a 10 part Space Police Interceptor in hot pursuit. Please ignore the stands, it was the only way I could get a decent photo.

FowlerBricks

After seeing the micro-scale Ghost build from the Star Wars advent calendar, my appetite for mini Star Wars ships was whetted. When I pulled out the Box Of Random Parts, divine inspiration struck and my entry was born: The Mini-Phantom II. It has all...er...well, a few functions of the bigger one: there is a storage bay in the back for stolen Imperial dust particles plus if you get into trouble, you can eject the cockpit escape pod! The ship is built with a mere 14 parts. More pictures, plus a couple of comparison shots can be found here: https://postimg.org/gallery/2aac9jxts/

FowlerBricks

Here's another Advent Calendar-esque build: Kai's Mini Fire Mech! (Ninjago Movie version) Unfortunately I don't have to big one for comparisons. The Mini-Mech has great poseability that is almost the same as the large one! It even has no knees! The parts count on this one is exactly 20 pieces. This build leads me to wonder why Lego has never done a Ninjago Advent Calendar? There's a few more pictures here: https://postimg.org/gallery/gqmyy3pc/

mafon

I'm planning to submit another model in the future... but as for now here's a little space ship / futuristic aircraft. 20 pieces exact.

truck730

truck730

Upside down not Australian tractor had a trailer but piece count kills it

truck730

truck730

Micro scale sucks , I do like tractors though

truck730

truck730

Hope NASA doesn't steal my design

FowlerBricks

^Um...wow, that's a lot of entries in a very short time.

mafon

Ok, the 1st time I read the rules I was thinking "How large can you go?", "Can I manage to build system-scale space craft?". The answer is probably. But screw it!



Still, it's pretty big! If only I had 2 more UFO pieces, I would have totally cheated and made a sauser :). Not very elegant (esp. the tail), but I just had to try. 19 pieces total, as you can see, some of them from one of my 1st lego set. Building it, I was targeting the scale.

If I'd submit more, it'll be micro.

stecre

My micro-version of the Friends Sunshine Catamaran which is one of my favourite sets from this year (20 parts)

Robbzy88

Stupid question but does a horse count as one piece or many since they aren't designed to come apart.

FowlerBricks

I would say one part, as long as it doesn't have a saddle or anything else, but that's just my opinion.

Mynatt

@Robbzy88 I would consider a horse to be one part. 

The entries are looking great so far! Many great small models and also loving the ambitious builds that go big! Can't wait to see what the rest of the month has to offer.

the_creative_box

The Spinner from Blade Runner. It uses exactly 20 pieces.

Cyberdragon

A working 20 piece mule/donkey engine (aka a winch).

bandit778

As this is the last build of the year and I haven't had the opportunity to enter the others due to the usual life issues I thought I would have a bash at this one.

Behold, my 20 part NCC 1701 (ironic I know being such a Star Wars fan).



The captain of this ship should be able to fly anywhere as long as they don't fly upside down as the top dish isn't held on by anything else except about 3mm of axle. :)

Pebbles

I hope i'm doing this right, it's the first time i've ever entered a building competition.

Here's Jumbo, a teeny tiny elephant with a big personality.



He uses 19 parts, which can be seen on the Flickr album.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141680511@N06/albums/72157667255186639

Pebbles

Whilst I was building a family member wanted to have a go. They don't have an account here so I hope i'm ok posting on their behalf.

This is Mech dog, also known as Frank.





He uses 18 parts, which can be seen on the Flickr album.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141680511@N06/albums/72157690142515174

Cyberdragon

A tiny Hogwarts Express. Pardon the white piece, it was only available in white or yellow. Either with coal car or passenger car.

mafon

Red Airliner, 19 pieces. Shot for the Instagram, so the quality of the image suffers.

vizzitor

A horrifyingly large reindeer compared to the microscale Santa in the sleigh. This might not be a valid entry since it uses 20 parts but that depends on whether the antenna/lever counts as one part or two.



I'm going to say this is after Santa's Christmas Eve run since there's no sign of any presents, coal or sacks in the sleigh itself and he seems to have mislaid 7 reindeer and Rudolph.

The antlers are the same colour in real life but look odd in the terrible photo.

mafon

^

That one's awesome, especialy Santa and his sled! You look at the right color combination and you see jolly Nick and these curves are perfect for the sled shape.

Here's some from me.



(it's a garbage truck, 18 pieces)

C'mon, everybody, let's see more models!

FowlerBricks

I've got a mini lightning jet on the way!

truck730

Hmmmm...don't really taste 
like kebabs!

truck730

MattDawson

How about some carollers in front of some snow-topped trees?

Mynatt

Wanted to go ahead and give the challenge a go myself but didn't have too many bricks available to me. Tried seeing how large I could go with the pieces available. I decided to go with a model of a floating duck.

FowlerBricks

As promised, the Mini Jay's Lightning Jet has arrived! (Sorry about the pictures. My camera would not, and I mean would not focus on this model. Something about my lighting and the color scheme) The Jet uses 19 parts and is based off the Ninjago Movie version. It's also semi-scaled to match the Fire Mech. More crappy images of this build can be found here: https://postimg.org/gallery/kzlkiqrk/. Building instructions for this and the Fire Mech will soon be available on the Free Instructions Thread, so keep an eye out.

mafon

Well, its time for ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas.





20 pieces.

Pebbles

These dinosaurs were created by members of my family at a relatives recent coming out celebration. We had great fun trying to create 6 different types of dinosaurs in each of the colours on the pride flag.





They each use 20 parts or less, which can be seen on the Flickr album below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141680511@N06/albums/72157689932772201

the_creative_box

^Interesting, very creative concept and designs there! Really fun that you and your family had a great time building those dinousaurs. I have yet to see another MOC based off of Pride, but Lego is a great choice when you want to reflect this subject in an artistic way (:

esfrolios

13 parts, a small Renault formula one car.

Mynatt

Less than three days remaining! Still time to slip a few models in before the competition ends.

snowhitie

I'm taking on the challenge I thought, but my son wanted to take part too.. He's made a catapult, and it launches a tree stump with spikes on it. It's called 'brown catapult' (he said it needed a name).

snowhitie

This is mine, 'on the street where you live'



19 pieces

Bumblepants

My elaborate plans to build a giant Sawtooth model from Horizon Zero Dawn kept ending in failure so I ended up shrinking the scope and ended up with a 19 piece model so I thought I would enter it here:

Fauch

last minute quick one



pyramids of Gizeh
20 pieces. yeah, the pyramids have some hidden gaps in them

Mynatt

Before I announce who won I must say thank you to all who entered. There were plenty of great models and it was a lot of fun seeing the mocs being entered into the competition throughout the month. 

@M1J0E I must say that when creating the challenge I did not expect to see a Duplo entry. Nevertheless here we are and you created a very nice and delicious looking sandwich.

@Bumblepants I have not played any of the games that you mentioned and had to look up the source material but you captured the creatures/mechs very nicely. I love the part usage of using the rollerskate and the Ninjago sword hilt part as it does an excellent job of capturing the shape of the head. The blacktron ships were also a great addition to the competition. 

@mafon Thank you very much for all of the entries into the competition. Many great small builds but I would have to say that my favorite out of the five would be the spaceship made up of the very large parts. I can't say that it is easy to create a large build at with 20 pieces but you did a great job making it work.

@truck730 Another person with many entries. I am always a fan of seeing brick separators work their way into people's creations so it was cool seeing them in the back of the kebab model. Great other small models as well.

@stecre I really enjoyed your catamaran model. Really captured #41317 very well. I do have a question if someone could answer. I can't for my life figure out what piece is used to hold up the sail. What is it?

@the_creative_box This year it was one of my favorite movies and I found that it was captured wonderfully in this small scale. Great use of parts to get the details in.

@Cyberdragon I was very surprised to see a power function model entered but it seems like a cool gear set up. The train is also a cool set up and I really like the use of the piece to create the smokestack of the engine. Also a cool detail with the changing coal tender and the passenger car.

@bandit778 Another build that was pretty large. I thought that for the scale of the enterprise, while large, turned out very well for 20 pieces. 

@Lego_Minon 's The elephant was super creative and had some great personality to him along with nice part usage for the trunk and legs. It makes me happy to see him now as your profile picture. I was also glad to see you got other people involved in the competition and the pride dinosaurs turned out very nicely.

@vizzitor Glad to see that some Christmas themed entries were built. Love the way the antlers to the reindeer are attached. I don't think I would have ever thought to connect those parts as you did.

@MattDawson I always enjoy seeing lego hairpieces used as trees and the technique is used very appropriately here. Very nice mini build. 

@esfrolios Very cool little formula one car. I really wish the advent calendar mini toy cars looked like this. 

@snowhitie I am very glad to see your son wanted to enter the competition! I hope you can pass on the words that I enjoyed his entry of the catapult. I also very much enjoyed your build of the street. Very minimalistic but at the same time it is able to capture a very homely feel.

@Fauch I was quite pleased to see you sneak in last minute entry when I had assumed that there was going to be no more. Once again it is captured very nicely in 20 pieces and I could absolutely tell what it was the moment I saw it.

If there is anyone I missed I am sorry but let it be known everyone did very nice twenty piece builds this December.

And now for the winner. @FowlerBricks had three very nice entries but the one that he won for would have to be Fire Mech build. I found that it was a very well rounded build that did a great job capturing #70615 at the size of 20 pieces. One technique that stood out to me was how the flames were attached as I never considered that those flame pieces would fit into those arm pieces. I think that it is also cool how it can be a stand-alone mech ending up close at minifigure scale. Congratulations! Please pm me your address so that I can send a prize your way. 

To everyone else, thank you very much for joining this month's competition and Happy New Year!

Pebbles

Thank you very much for a brilliant competition, it was my first time entering and i've had a blast. :D

esfrolios

Thanks for your beautiful comment. I really like part-limited/ set-limited constests!

FowlerBricks

Great contest! I have to say, it was probably my favorite building contest that I've entered. It's amazing what you can make with only 20 parts!

FowlerBricks

There will be instructions for the Mini Fire Mech on the Free Instructions Thread sometime within the next week or so. 

Brickfan50

Too late for the entry - I was busy cleaning hotel rooms. Just came home and present a picture I made today of my hotel room cleaning cart, 18 pieces.

M1J0E

Thanks for a great contest!  I’d never even thought of anything like this, but what I expected was awesome micro builds like so many featured.  Of course mine was a somewhat different tongue in cheek entry, but sometimes you just have to add in something a little different for fun.  I couldn’t believe watching this, some of the cool parts usage that you’d never think of!