Announcing Palpatine's Shrink-O-Matic Ray Contest

[Solo]

Rules:
- Build a star wars vehicle, starfighter, or capital ship in microfig scale.
- If the normal vehicle has an enclosed cockpit, your micro vehicle must have an enclosed cockpit. If the normal vehicle does not have an enclosed cockpit, your microfig vehicle should not have an enclosed cockpit.
- Can use any microfig from any of the LEGO games as a stand-in.
- If you don't have a microfig, you can use a brick-built model that is two 1x1 bricks tall or something 6 1x1 plates tall as a stand-in.
- Microfigs must be oriented vertically in the vehicle/fighter/ship as if they are piloting it. In other words, no lying down unless the ship is meant to be piloted while lying down.
- Any vehicle from any of the films plus Clone Wars cartoon are eligible.
- Creatures are not vehicles (no banthas, dewbacks, tauntauns, etc).
- Don't try and be clever and pick the most obscure vehicle seen in the background of Coruscant that can only be seen with a microscope on a 1080p screen shot.
- If you do try and be clever, at least link some source material. You'll end up losing votes anyway.

How To Enter:
- Post a reply to this thread and embed up two pictures.
- One of your pictures MUST be of your microfig seated at the cockpit.

Deadlines:
- Submission window starts now until 11:59pm PST Thursday January 31, 2013.
- Voting will be open from February 1 through February 7, 2013.
- Only one round of voting.

Prizes:
1st place:
- 1 copy of 3866 Star Wars Battle of Hoth board game
- 1 complete Planet Series 1 set (9674 Naboo Starfighter & Naboo, 9675 Sebulba's Podracer & Tatooine, 9676 TIE Interceptor & Death Star)
- 1 copy of 30059 MTT
- 1 copy of 30056 Star Destroyer
- 1 copy of 8028 TIE Fighter

2nd place thru 5th place:
- 1 copy of 30059 MTT
- 1 copy of 30056 Star Destroyer
- 1 copy of 8028 TIE Fighter

Standard Contest Restrictions:

• No more than one entry per person.
• No modified parts or cut stickers.
• No unofficial elements.
• No pre-existing or virtual models.
• No changes allowed after the deadline.

Submission Guidelines:
Simply post your submission photos in a reply to this thread before the deadline.
You must have a forum account to enter. Entries by proxy will be not be allowed.
Optional: include a link to a gallery or MOC Showcase post with more images.
Do not post non-entry photos to the contest thread unless you want to be disqualified.

You must use Flickr to host your entry pictures because we rely on the built in image resizing feature. If you do not have an account, you can sign up for free, or ask someone to upload it for you. Once uploaded you will need to embed the photo in the forum. To do so:

1. go to the flickr photo page for your image
2. click the Share button
3. click "Grab the HTML/BBCode" from that drop down menu
4. check the bubble next to "BBCode" (HTML will not work) and select "Medium" for the image size
5. copy the code from the box above and paste that into a reply here
6. do not add any more code tags
7. click Preview to verify that it worked, then Submit.

If it didn't work, PM me.

Photography note: be sure to submit the best pictures possible. Color and contrast correction is recommended if necessary. The only other image enhancement allowed is replacing the background with either a solid color or simple gradient. Your photo cannot be altered in any other way. For example; no composite views, special effects, text, graphics, or scenery will be permitted. Remember, the contest is about the models - not your image manipulation prowess.

[onions]

reserved for rules clarification

1/6: updated rules for pilot orientation: must be standing while piloting the vehicle/ship/fighter

[itchybreath]

deathstar for the win!

[b4p]

it's a shame this set was not allowed on sale in the US and it's kinna pricey now. boo hoo and all that :P

[dodge]

Very interesting challenge Solo. I've just begun to appreciate the micro-figs and the potential they have.

[murphquake]

b4p, I got 2 copies for just over US$70 shipped from Amazon.it a few weeks back, sweet set, I love the SW micros, I hope the continue the series. Best part was it was slated to come around this week but showed up before xmas!

Don & Ace, gotta admit I'm mildly disappointed you aren't allowing aminals, the tauntaun from the game is kinda cool. I actually like the snowspeeder (looks way better with the pilots in) tho, so I can't be trusted :-)

[Mister Ed]

I'm a little perplexed by the "oriented as if they are piloting it" requirement. Most ships are piloted sitting down, and microfigs obviously cannot sit. Personally I feel that, for a bunch of ships, the sitting position in which they are piloted is actually closer to lying down than to standing up (legs stretched out in front, while leaning back to some degree). Is this really a way to say, "sitting down equals standing up, and ignore how it looks"?

[GIR3691]

I can see the logic. You want your pilot to be able to look straight out. Just have a little pit where the seat would be.

[onions]

I'm a little perplexed by the "oriented as if they are piloting it" requirement. Most ships are piloted sitting down, and microfigs obviously cannot sit. Personally I feel that, for a bunch of ships, the sitting position in which they are piloted is actually closer to lying down than to standing up (legs stretched out in front, while leaning back to some degree). Is this really a way to say, "sitting down equals standing up, and ignore how it looks"?

i was trying to avoid the scenario where someone will build something and have the pilot lying down. look at angus maclane's chibi at-at:


Chibi AT-AT Driver by MacLane, on Flickr


as much as i love the model, the at-at driver is lying down. you can't tell me he can effectively drive the thing like that. like you said the microfigs cannot sit, nor bend at the waist, so the challenge was to build something tall enough to accommodate the microfig yet small enough to appear chibi-like and disproportionate.

and i'd have to disagree: piloting something lying down is not closer to sitting down. you have no field of view. i updated the rules to explicitly state that the microfig should be standing up when piloting the vehicle/fighter/ship.

[Ultron32]

This sounds fun. And amazon does have it for about $37 i believe. I'll see what i can do in a contest where there is no possible way to involve penguins.

[sparkart]

We starting a pool for the number of Slave I entries? The mini Slave I is half-way there, just need to re-engineer to fit a microfig. Easier said than done?

[Mister Ed]

and i'd have to disagree: piloting something lying down is not closer to sitting down. you have no field of view. i updated the rules to explicitly state that the microfig should be standing up when piloting the vehicle/fighter/ship.

I disagree. I think lying down at an inclined angle (not flat on their back, I'll grant) is a lot closer to sitting in a cockpit than standing is, and in most of the cockpits I'm thinking of would give you plenty field of view that way.

But I'm not arguing the rule, really. I'm perfectly fine with a rule saying they have to be standing. I just wanted to be clear that that IS the rule, regardless of the reasoning behind it (which I find less than totally convincing). Thanks for the clarification.

[banthafodder]

Does the windscreen for the cockpit have to be a physical windscreen or can it be inferred such as with the UCS falcon?

[Margot]

If you are talking about an airplane cockpit, then no, lying back is not closer to normal. You need to be able to see forward and down. Like onions said.

[Solo]

Mister Ed : no. Pilots generally face forward so they can see where they are going. Since these microfigs cannot bend at the waist to sit, they have to stand. Leaning back at an incline might appear more natural from an outside point of view but from the pilots perspective they are no longer looking forward, but upward. That is a terrible position to fly in. It's really that simple.

banthafodder: physical windscreens please. The UCS Falcon would not clear the enclosed cockpit rule.

[onions]

Mister Ed : no. Pilots generally face forward so they can see where they are going. Since these microfigs cannot bend at the waist to sit, they have to stand. Leaning back at an incline might appear more natural from an outside point of view but from the pilots perspective they are no longer looking forward, but upward. That is a terrible position to fly in. It's really that simple.

banthafodder: physical windscreens please. The UCS Falcon would not clear the enclosed cockpit rule.

if only lego followed this logic. that pilot in the new a-wing looks like he needs a drink in a coconut with a fun umbrella and a palm frond waved at him

[agrahmann]

Here's my entry, a microfig-scale Escape Pod from Episode IV. It was somewhat tricky to meet the requirement of showing the "pilot" inside the "cockpit," since this vehicle isn't designed for much visibility. Still, the two droids are in there, pushed up only a little bit for the photo (the black bar you see just stabilizes the inner structure, which you can see more clearly in the photoset).


1 by agrahmann, on Flickr


4 by agrahmann, on Flickr

Check out a few more pictures in the flickr photoset here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agrahmann/ ... 459264914/

Thanks for a great contest FBTB team!

[DanBinks]

I got inspired and made a (chibi) Starspeeder 3000 from Star Tours, but since it does not appear in an actual Star Wars movie, do I need to consider making something else?

[Mister Ed]

Mister Ed : no. Pilots generally face forward so they can see where they are going. Since these microfigs cannot bend at the waist to sit, they have to stand. Leaning back at an incline might appear more natural from an outside point of view but from the pilots perspective they are no longer looking forward, but upward. That is a terrible position to fly in. It's really that simple.

Looking more natural from an outside perspective WAS what I was going for, to be truthful. Given that we have to pretend these guys are bending at the waist, I saw no problem with pretending they are bending at the neck. Leaning back at an incline better represents the average whole body position of the pilot. Standing only better represents head position. It seemed a little odd to worry about the exact field of view of a microfigure with no mobility, since he hasn't any hands to fly the vehicle anyway, if we are getting into that level of "practicality".

But I acknowledge that it is a perfectly pointless discussion, since the rule is clear, and I'm not trying to dispute it. I'm just being pedantic and obsessive. It happens from time to time.

[Solo]

I'm just being pedantic and obsessive.

As to be expected on a forum like this. It's why we're here right?

agrahmann: Your "cockpit" shot is fine for the escape pod. I was going to complain about them not being oriented correctly, but it turns out my assumption was wrong and you got it right. Nice entry.