Winner Picked: CubeDude Vigs

[Chief]

ugh tell me about it. which ones do you think were outsourced?

[kyphur]

ugh tell me about it. which ones do you think were outsourced?

Where do I start?

Slave Leia, Cad Bane, Jedi Luke, White Boba, Mace Windu, Luminara, Barris, Aurra Sing, Asajj Ventress


LIKES:

Bomarr Monk, Jabba, Rancor

The rest don't bother me as much. One of the things I don't like are the immobile arms. Sure they're not action figures but they should be posable (in a limited capacity) in my humble opinion.

[Robzula]

Can I pose a friendly challenge to you? Build one of the ones you've highlighted, but do it the way you think it should look. I just want to see what that would look like.

That's venturing dangerously close to "If you can't build better, you can't criticize it" thinking...

[JD4M]

Zing. How about just saying WHAT it is you don't like abou those certain ones, then you don't have to build anything

[Chief]

Can I pose a friendly challenge to you? Build one of the ones you've highlighted, but do it the way you think it should look. I just want to see what that would look like.

That's venturing dangerously close to "If you can't build better, you can't criticize it" thinking...

You're right, and I knew as I was writing it that it would come across wrong. I intended no such message. He didn't elaborate on the criticism of his particular choices, so I challenged him as a fellow builder to build it the way he would rather see the CubeDudes. There are 3 different Gamorrean guards from three different builders in our Blitz: which one is the "right" one? Or any of the Clonetrooper CubeDudes we've seen in recent weeks?

Kyphur's interpetation of one of these SW characters would be another CubeDude for everyone to enjoy, no right or wrong about it.

[kyphur]

Wow, I didn't think I'd get a serious answer.

Hi, my name is Ryan. I'm one of four members of BlockoLUG. Nice to meet you!

Nice to meet you Ryan, I'm Bob.

CubeDudes from the start seem to have been more about display than play and pose-ability, so your criticism about immobile arms/legs doesn't bother me much. You went for extreme pose-ability in your entry with Grievous, and I think it works for him in particular. Also, vignettes by nature almost demand pose-ability to depict action.

I don't have an issue with the immobile legs, Even my Grievous has immobile legs. My personal preference is for mobile arms and neck so you can get a little bit of pose-ability. That bugs me about some of Angus' designs also. The only "Extreme" Pose-ability n Grievous is that his torso can rotate on his hips and the arms angle out in addition to raising/lowering at the shoulders. I agree they are more about display which is why I'm okay with limited mobility

But the BlockoLUG ones you've listed as inferior? Man, now I'm going to get defensive, and I didn't even have a hand in any of those particular ones. Aurra Sing is arguably one of the best of the entire Blitz, and the others aren't far behind her. Ventress has some solid color blocking and the detail in her face is really impressive.

Since you singled-out Aurra & Ventress I'll tell you what bothers me about them. They feel like they're trying to capture the Clone Wars animation style too much instead of focusing on the character. Maybe CubeDuding already stylized characters is just too much for me.

With Barriss & Luminara I don't like the sand green flesh, maybe there isn't a better LEGO color but it just seems too green for me.

On Cad Bane, the hat bothers me. I think it's too tall and should be tiled to cover the studs. His face again seems like it is again trying to capture the CW animation style more than the character.

Can I pose a friendly challenge to you? Build one of the ones you've highlighted, but do it the way you think it should look. I just want to see what that would look like.

Sure, I'll choose one and give it a build. FWIW, I didn't take offense at your original post...

[JD4M]

Those are all very fair criticisms, although it sounds more like you dislike Ventress and Sing more as characters than as Cube Dudes...

Oh and the Barriss Cube Dude didn't get finished which was an accident (lots of 'Dudes to keep track of!)

What's wrong with White Boba? Google "Ralph McQuarrie's White Boba,"
/so totally offended you aren't in love with White Boba, I made that one :P

[kyphur]

Those are all very fair criticisms, although it sounds more like you dislike Ventress and Sing more as characters than as Cube Dudes...

Oh and the Barriss Cube Dude didn't get finished which was an accident (lots of 'Dudes to keep track of!)

What's wrong with White Boba? Google "Ralph McQuarrie's White Boba,"
/so totally offended you aren't in love with White Boba, I made that one :P

To be fair, the White Boba doesn't bother me as much as the others. Here is what does bother me about him: Arms are too thin, tiles on the side of his legs, the 2 holes in his chest.

As characters I like Ventress & Aurra, I just think the Dude versions of them would look better if the starting point was them normalized instead of the stylized CW animation form. Even Mace Windu suffers from this, too much focus on slender jaw with wider skull and not enough on capturing the character. Dudes are supposed to be short & Blocky (makes them wide) not tall and slender.

[MrAnderson]

I built the Cad Bane 'dude, and I agree he is not the strongest. But part of the reason I'm not happy with him, I think, is that he does not come off tall and slender enough. Even though 'dudes come out short and blocky, if the relative proportions of the actual character aren't at least in some degree reflected in the 'dude, it feels wrong. MacLane's IG-88 is very tall, but still reads as the same form of caricature. I built the Jafar 'dude as well, who is extremely tall and slender, and I think if I'd made him short and blocky you'd be wondering who it was supposed to be.

Anyway, agree to disagree. : ) One of our goals was to inspire others to build even more CubeDudes. So if you're out there thinking we posted some weak ones (and we did), take a crack at making better ones! (They're really fun to make!)

[kyphur]

I guess I never really read Cad as all that tall & slender, just figured it was the Animation style as everyone except Yoda seems to be tall & slender in CW.

FWIW, I'm not trying to knock anyone, I think it's great to see so many Dudes floating around.

My Grievous is quite tall for a Dude exactly because it works that way. I've been thinking of Cubing Cad Bane myself, yours has some good ideas that I just might use.

[MrAnderson]

Sounds good -- would love to see it!

[Chief]

Admin note: I attempted to split this topic and move it to the blockolug topic, but things went disastrously awry, so I've put it back the way it was. Maybe a more experienced moderator can do it for me.

Guess I should spend less time cubeduding and more time learning the workings of the forum :P

[onions]

what were you trying to split / merge?

[Robzula]

I'd imagine he was trying to get all this talk about BlockoLUG that isn't about the contest out of the contest thread and into the BlockoLUG thread...

[bigospedros]

Looks like we have a clear winner ... well done :-)

[banthafodder]

Congratulations! This was my favorite of the bunch. The dudes were well done, but it was the sense of action and the forced perspective that put this one way over the top for me. Congratulations to all the other participants for some awesome cube dudes. All of the participants have great talent for this.

[kyphur]

Yep, when I saw that one I had a feeling it was the winner, the forced prospective was just the icing on an already great cake.

As any Klingon will tell you, there is no shame in losing to a greater opponent.

This was my first contest entry and won't be my last. It has also boosted my desire to build more CubeDudes.

I currently have:
==============
General Grievous
Jango Fett
Phase 1 Clonetrooper
Phase 1 Jettrooper (Red Clone)
Phase 1 Capitan Rex
Phase 2 Clonetrooper
Stormtrooper

I have designs for:
================
Zuckuss
Boushh

I am working on designs for:
========================
Cad Bane
Snowtrooper
Scout Trooper

I will use other's Images to build:
============================
Jabba the Hut
Various Jedi

By Christmas I plan to have CubeDudes of my wife & myself to present as a gift to her!

[Jabba the Taff]

Congrats! Although there were fewer entries than the Bounty Hunter comp, I found this much harder to vote on. I found reasons to consider voting for all of them. It was the imagination to use the forced perspective that just tipped in for me.

[MrAnderson]

Um...wow! There must be a lot of Harry Potter fans on here... are we sure FBTB isn't From Bludgers To Beauxbatons?
Congrats, really, to everyone who entered -- there were some incredible entries in this contest!! Each time a new one was posted I got more nervous!

And once thanks to FBTB for running it-- can't wait for whatever one is next!
-Andy G.

[MisterFubar]

Congrats to the Winner. You managed to take two things I don't really care for and make a very interesting display.