25th Anniv GI Joe Club Custom Contest voting misconception

[Jin Saotome]

After talking with people and reading posts here and at other forums there's an obvious air of 'unrest' about how the whole GI Joe Club 25th Anniv Custom Contest went down. Some people agree it could of been set up better, others put the blame on the staff choices, but the real fact is the majority of people here (including me) totally missed the point of the contest.

When voting started I asked GI Joe Club staff member Commander why the picture of the light-up feature of my SWARM wasn't used. As Commander explained it me, we were only suppose to be voting for our favorite "Custom figure design" and nothing else. His explanation clicked in my head and explains why certain customs were chosen for the top 25 while others customs fans thought that would be an 'obvious choice' were not. The quality, time spent, materials, skill, or techniques used on the custom had no bearing, only the design.

I will admit had I of understood that from the start I wouldn't of spent time designing the light-up feature in my SWARM or bothered with spending much time on my entry. I now feel bad my Swarm was chosen solely for the figure design; not for my effort or time that went in to creating it because I also misunderstood and thought we were voting for the actual custom. This means my entry booted someone else's out of the top 25 who may of spent more time on their design that I had.

I think this general misconception caused the votes to go the way they did and I'm sure some worthwhile designs were overlooked for customs of a different level of skill or technique. If I had not entered a custom and been a member voting, I would of voted for the Snow Viper or Baroness due to the level of sculpting and technique. But if I had known I was only suppose to vote on the -design- of the figure, then I would of voted for the Steel Cobra or Red Laser because I consider those designs to be the coolest.

The instructions on the top 25 page here http://gijoeclub.com/custom_contest25.cfm were unfortunately very misleading. They said to "vote for your favorite 25th Anniversary custom figure" and that mislead everyone who read that and voted. I honestly believe that fatal communication flaw has caused the majority of our voting problems and the tensions that followed at the end of this contest. Hopefully in the future this kind of incident can be avoided and other great contests from the GI Joe Club can be held for customizers.

[BOMBSHELLMIKE]

I thought your swarm was rad dude!...It lit up too?, I missed out voting and I admire your comradery and compassion for other customizers. Maybe the 'Tank will have its own contest

[Captain Hydra]

Part of the reason I did not submit a custom for the contest is that they did not explain what they were looking for. New characters?, updates of existing ones? Creative use of existing parts? I never saw the results of the contest and was not aware there were complaints, but as far as I know people were simply voting for what they liked best. Was this not the case? Unless I'm mistaken, the voting was ultimately left to the club members with no criteria given as to how to vote, other than "pick the one you like best". So what happened? Who won?

[Jin Saotome]

The top 3 were chosen but I don't agree as to how it was done. Here's the thread. There's a troll, Montery slamming one of the customizers there and I'm pretty tweaked at that.

http://www.mastercollector.com/pforums/msgs.cfm?msg=16296&forum=31

[Shogi]

Here's the top 3:

RED LASER
RIP CORD
S.W.A.R.M.


Apparently there was some ballot stuffing that disqualified a few entries

Would have been nice if they were clearer on what they were looking for since it appears they were looking for something specific and not just a cool custom. But eh, oh well :) I got to see the talent that's out there and that's cool.

Jin, is there a place where you have tutorials on how to add light features to Joes? I'd love to learn that trick
(Nevermind, I just saw your sig :) )

[GI Guppy the third]

swarm's design wasn't featured enough in the photos they showed. If I had seen all the photos you showed on here, I would have voted for it. Design wise, it was the best, and the light is a very design feature that was overlooked. The photos on the club site didn't do it justice.

[Jin Saotome]

swarm's design wasn't featured enough in the photos they showed. If I had seen all the photos you showed on here, I would have voted for it. Design wise, it was the best, and the light is a very design feature that was overlooked. The photos on the club site didn't do it justice.
What's funny about that is the staff left the light-up feature out on purpose. Commander said it wasn't part of the 'custom figure design'. It would of been nice to know what other restrictions to the contest.

[Alyosha]

Jin- While I agree that the judging criteria was lacking, the club did reserve the right excercize their own judgement in regards to the rules and so forth so we were forewarned in a manner of speaking.

Personally, I would like to see a bit more clarity in the specific judging criteria for all the contests the club holds (Con icnluded) but that's another kettle of fish. Also, tentative announcement that Broken Arrow Toys is holding a customs contest. Official announcement in a week with rules and guidelines. Cash prizes for the winners.

[rateeg]

i still don't get why newly registered trooper members were not considered a legit vote.
i mean, i have posted baroness everywhere, and maybe some of the people who saw her wanna vote for her, making them register as trooper level on that site.
i have nothing against that snake eyes vietnam era, but that custom had 30 votes in one day, making him overtake baroness and S.W.A.R.M. maybe that is where the suspicions began and maybe it affected the votes of baroness.

oh well.
the contest is finished and i cant do nothing.
i had fun and i wanna congratulate the top 3 who were chosen.
goodluck guys. :)

[Jin Saotome]

Jin- While I agree that the judging criteria was lacking, the club did reserve the right excercize their own judgement in regards to the rules and so forth so we were forewarned in a manner of speaking.

Personally, I would like to see a bit more clarity in the specific judging criteria for all the contests the club holds (Con icnluded) but that's another kettle of fish. Also, tentative announcement that Broken Arrow Toys is holding a customs contest. Official announcement in a week with rules and guidelines. Cash prizes for the winners.
I agree with you. And a simple 'Hey, we're changing the rules' notice would of put everything in order. I have no problem with how they judge something. But if you don't let people know the criteria for judging then it gets all screwed up.

Hey, that's your site! I use to visit your old one when people directed me to an Ultra Magnus helmet/headsculpt I believe. I'll keep an eye out man.

i still don't get why newly registered trooper members were not considered a legit vote.
i mean, i have posted baroness everywhere, and maybe some of the people who saw her wanna vote for her, making them register as trooper level on that site.
i have nothing against that snake eyes vietnam era, but that custom had 30 votes in one day, making him overtake baroness and S.W.A.R.M. maybe that is where the suspicions began and maybe it affected the votes of baroness.

oh well.
the contest is finished and i cant do nothing.
i had fun and i wanna congratulate the top 3 who were chosen.
goodluck guys. :)
You got the raw end of the deal man, I'm sorry. I was hoping to see yours right alongside mine. Again, GIJoeClub should of communicated all this better to us to keep these kinds of things from happening. Now all those people who signed up to vote will be getting newslestters and what not, that's free marketing for GIJC. And for what, their votes didn't even count. The whole thing went down badly.

[WildWeasel]

No offense to the person that made Red Laser, but that particular one didn't have anything on quite a few of the others (S.W.A.R.M., battled damanged Baroness, Ripcord, Snow Serpent to name a few). I think there should have maybe been two criterias. One with more basic/generic customs and one with more high-end ones. Just seems a little unbalanced if you ask me.

[NeoDragonKnight]

dispite all the problems the contest had. Id just like to say I really enjoyed seeing all the cool customs it produced. It does suck the way it turned out in terms of who won, hopefully they will learn lessons from this contest and improve it next time. But again, on the bright side of the contest we really saw some truely awesome stuff.

[Shogi]

dispite all the problems the contest had. Id just like to say I really enjoyed seeing all the cool customs it produced. It does suck the way it turned out in terms of who won, hopefully they will learn lessons from this contest and improve it next time. But again, on the bright side of the contest we really saw some truely awesome stuff.

Well said Neo,

And for whoever wins the main prize, Let us know what it is!

[Jin Saotome]

Well said Neo,

And for whoever wins the main prize, Let us know what it is!

I'm wondering what section on the official GI Joe Hasbro website will feature the top 3. Anyone know?