Subject:
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Re: Anyone going to the Galactic Challenge?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.legoland, lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 26 Sep 2000 14:23:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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3925 times
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Hi!
With regard to David's and Thomas' success at LEGO competitions, people should
know that they are not alone in having made multiple appearances over the
years.
From my personal knowledge, I can state there also exist:
A family from Michigan with 2 national champions (2 in 2 attempts!). They both
also attended world championships and one of them won.
A boy from Virginia who won a national championship in 1997 and returned to
the national finals 1998.
A family from Texas that sent a boy and a girl to national championships and
three other family members won the recent national LEGO video competition.
(Five national winners in 1 family!)
A boy from Oregon who attended the last 3 national consecutive championships!
And when the 16 year old winner of last April's US Galactic Challenge national
event from Ohio fractured both legs in a collision with an automobile last
week, this boy from Oregon was invited by LEGO Systems (as the national runner-
up) with practically zero notice to represent the US at the Galactic Challenge
on Friday. And he did a great job.
I think there are a number of reasons why some people do well at these events
and their names appear more than once. Mainly, I think it's for the same
reasons that some people contribute to lugnet and rec.toys.lego and most
don't. It's because for them LEGO is more than a toy and LEGO building is more
than a diversion. It's a passion and a big part of their life.
Thomas and David are unique because they have been extraordinarily fortunate
to win 5 of 5 of the in-person building events at the 3 contests they have
been finalists in. It's a record to be very proud of, but their level of
interest and frequency of appearance at these events is comparable to, indeed
less than some, others.
I should also point out that building a model in 2 hours in a space the size
of two doormats for yourself, your model, and 10 boxes of LEGO bricks while
photographers hover inches away with 2 foot long video cameras is no easy
trick! (David spent the entire two hours of the Galactic Challenge squatting
on two feet, building in the air or on top of 3 stacked boxes!). Contestants
are not told what parts they are going to get, let alone how many. Very often
the contestants must build with themes they never use at home. Adaptability is
everything. (What would you do with one LEGO soccer set, one LEGO Mickey Mouse
set, and one LEGO Racer set?) There is also an a major element of luck in
these things: luck that you get the right pieces, luck that your model doesn't
get smashed by you or someone wandering through the area, luck that the judges
will see things the way you hope (someone posted some nice comments about a 3
foot ship that Thomas displayed at the Kidvention last summer. Consider
this: that ship was just 10% of the 14,000 bricks that went into Thomas's main
mail-in entry for the Galactic Challenge that also included a 2000 brick VAB,
a 3000 brick C shaped 5 story building, a 1200 brick space elevator that was
seeming suspended by only cross axels (there was actually an aluminum
yardstick out the back), two helicopters in mid air, a VTOL on a roof pad, a
control center, a space shuttle and numerous comic touches including a diver
being chased out of the water by a shark and a person who had lost the
contents of his briefcase, and other items all bundled on an island as part of
a futuristic environmental research center. He spent half of his entire summer
vacation on it. LEGO didn't select it).
We had a wonderful time at the LEGO Star Wars Galactic Challenge at LEGOLAND
Carlsbad this week.
-Ted Michon
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