Revell has announced the winners of the Revell Contest

[2002p51]

Well, now... that's odd. Because the official rules have a very specific list of criteria that the models were supposedly going to be judged by.

Okay, maybe criteria wasn't the best word. I know there were rules, what I meant was I wasn't told how to do my job.

[Terry Sumner]

Wow Drew...only 28 entries in that class from a nation wide contest. I really thought there would have been hundreds of entries in each of the classes! In fact, that was one of the reasons I didn't enter anything....because I thought there would be so many entries and all the best modelers around the country would enter! I'm very surprised....

[Dr. Cranky]

Well, percentage wise, that gives you clear idea of how many youngsters are in the hobby. Very few.

[Harry P.]

Okay, maybe criteria wasn't the best word. I know there were rules, what I meant was I wasn't told how to do my job.

I don't remember the specifics, but there were 4 or 5 categories that the models were supposed to be judged on.

[shucky]

Wow Drew...only 28 entries in that class from a nation wide contest. I really thought there would have been hundreds of entries in each of the classes! In fact, that was one of the reasons I didn't enter anything....because I thought there would be so many entries and all the best modelers around the country would enter! I'm very surprised....

Or Revell already filtered out what they wanted and gave Drew the remaining 28. 28 entries is very hard to believe.

[2002p51]

Wow Drew...only 28 entries in that class from a nation wide contest. I really thought there would have been hundreds of entries in each of the classes!

Well, to tell you the truth, I was glad there weren't any more. They gave me a very short turnaround.

[Harry P.]

I say it's probably best to drop the whole 'conspiracy theory' garbage & move on.

Hmmm, I must have missed that part of the conversation.

When was a conspiracy theory mentioned?

[Harry P.]

Is there any "politically correct" way for the judges to verify a hunch?

I mean, say that there's a model entered in a junior class that's clearly better than all the rest. Flawless paint, PE, correct detail, etc. It almost looks too good for a 12-year old to have built it.

But it is possible that the 12 year old is just that good.

How do you ask the kid (or parent, if present) in a diplomatic and non-accusatory way if the kid really built the model or if he had "help?"

[Harry P.]

Seriously harry? nearly everyone has eluded to it - " Was ford a sponsor?" - "A national contest and that's the best they could come up with?" - "Great they sold some models and got some exposure for the hobby but that is only half the story here." - " I get it...I read the list...they limited the choice on purpose for whatever reason. In the process they included a number of older cars (nothing post '58) much of it from older tooling that a newcomer may struggle to get built." - " I sure hope they gave the judges an honorarium so that they could buy a bit of Tylenol for those impending headaches." - " From the beginning I've had a hunch the renown hobbyist judges, whether they knew it or not, were probably invited on board to add credibility. But nothing happens by accident on produced programs." - " Well, now... that's odd. Because the official rules have a very specific list of criteria that the models were supposedly going to be judged by. " - " Or Revell already filtered out what they wanted and gave Drew the remaining 28. 28 entries is very hard to believe. "

But I digress.... you either enter a contest or you don't. Unless you have first-hand knowledge of the who/what/when/where/why of the inner workings of a contest - it's just speculation as to what happens.

I did only see what, 3 or 4? people who actually entered into the Revell / gearz contest post in here? That should state all that needs to be said.

None of that adds up to "conspiracy theory." I'm pretty sure nobody is suggesting that the contest wasn't 100% on the up and up. Just questioning certain aspects (low number of entries, etc.)

And in the case of my comment on judging, that was directed at Drew specifically, because he said that he judged the models the way he wanted to, with no "guidelines" from the contest sponsors... which contradicts the rules of the contest that spell out very specific criteria that the models were supposed to be judged by. I wasn't questioning the contest's legitimacy, I was questioning Drew's statement.

[James Flowers]

Conspiracy theory much?

Insinuating that there is some sort of foul play / judging faults / incorrect entries / Conspiracy going on here is pretty ridiculous.

This contest is what it is. A temporary sales boost for Revell / increased interest in the TV show Gearz.

One thing you have to remember - there is a pretty limited audience. Advertising on their respective websites, in hobby shops, & on the TV show - still is a pretty limited audience. After that - how many people were actually interested in purchasing a kit & then building it in the time-frame allotted & then photographing it & submitting it?

I say it's probably best to drop the whole 'conspiracy theory' garbage & move on.

No conspiracy theory at all. Just a limited audience and advertising. I would say not to many kids or adults watch the show Gearz ? Where did they do all of rest their advertising?

[Scale-Master]

I have had adults on more than one occasion gnaw me out when their “kid’s” model didn’t place at our show, and tell me why it should have; only to accidently show they actually did the majority of the work. And as Mr. Taylor alluded to, the kid is obviously bored and had no clue as to the construction.

As for calling someone out for not being the builder, it is very touchy, and having verifiable proof is really required to be fair. Sadly a few underhanded people “win” that didn’t earn it because of lack of proof. Much like our legal system, better to have a few guilty go free than to punish one innocent…

One instance I had a guy come to me during judging and tell me to “disregard” the sink mark in the roof of “his” Sublime ’72 Charger, because he missed it while building… (Not the brightest thing to say to a head judge.)

Just a month earlier at a contest one state over I attended and helped judge, (overseen by one of our MCM members), who had shown me proof that same model had been purchased through Ebay and was not built by the entrant at all. That one was disqualified but it was such a sloppy build it was not in contention to place. Same guy used to bring a lot of models in a rolling cart, and try to enter more than the allowable five per person.

About ten minutes before the close of registration his wife would bring another batch of five from the same load, now claiming "she built them". We gave up trying to reason with them as it was an annual thing, (and he entered the same models at other shows as his), so we just disqualified the "wife’s" entries. Not that they were all that competitive anyway...

[shucky]

I'll raise my hand. I'll say that the "skills contest" wasn't on the "up & up." No problem. Could I be wrong? Sure. But lets see.... I'm not the only one to state that "they" (Revell/Judges/whoever) most likely picked "average" type builds as the "winners" ... that does seem to be the feeling here for some. As many have stated, picking highly detailed builds or as some say "above average" builds as the "winners" would have discouraged builders from entering in future "contests." As one gentleman said "most people are average builders...." Sooooo, I conclude that IF true than that friends is NOT a legit contest. There is no "contest" at all when picking the best of the "average." Too funny.

You guys are amusing also. Lots of people stating it was a fabulous marketing campaign to promote and sell kits and attract future, younger, more modelers back to the hobby. So it achieved THAT but little few entered? Limited audience and advertising? This is posted in every hobby / toy shop around the country. I dont get it. If it were such a wonderful thing for the hobby and great for Revell PR where are the entries? 28 in one category? Really? CALLING it a SKILLS contest? Yet NO heavy detailer/scratchbuilder entered this contest in the ENTIRE COUNTRY? You believe that? I smell fishy fish fish.

[shucky]

I'm not saying you're wrong since I have no firsthand knowledge, but the category that had 28 entries was the "Under 15 Unlimited" class, that allowed for kitbashing, etc. It's just my guess, but I would think that of all the classes it's likely that one might have the lowest number of entries because the number of 15 year olds using non-kit parts might not be that high. At 15 I think most people were still building mostly out of the box. Add to that the very limited number of base-kit choices given, it's likely any kid with access to a parts pile may have had nothing suitable to mix-and-match, either.

I would love to know the overall number of entries, and what classes they were in. I would think that even though there are classes for kids the target audience watching Gearz on TV, or seeing the Revell point-of-sale material would be mostly adults.

At 15 most kids are building out of the box? An outstanding contest in the middle of nowhere (Montgomery, IL) back in the day had a couple hundred KIT BASHED builds in the novice class. At 15 I was at the Hot Rod Model car Nationals at the Hoosier Dome. Out of the 22 or so kits you could build from the unlimited category allowed kit bashing. Any builder could do LOTS with all of the kits on the list.

[MikeMc]

Or Revell already filtered out what they wanted and gave Drew the remaining 28. 28 entries is very hard to believe.

That would make sense......

Well, to tell you the truth, I was glad there weren't any more. They gave me a very short turnaround.

Which is the nature of the Video Beast.......

As far as 28 in that age class...those are final entries..I participated in the JWAC..only a handful of the year long build finished the photo contest entry format...The Gearz contest had a shorter time , so the total entries is Revells key to sucess....for future contests...I hope they read some of this...then listen to Drew...

[Ryan S.]

Just to chime in here on the unlimited categories; the 'rules' stated that one had to use at least 50% kit parts. Now, observing the winning models for the unlimited category, I see (to my eyes at least) very little kit bashing or scratch building. Regardless, I wonder how Revell and the judges quantified weather a model met that 50% qualification. On the submission form there was nothing to note about what other kits or parts were used in the final build.

On the model that I entered, I feel that I probably toed the 50% line as I did a complete engine swap, aftermarket wheels and tires and kitbashed seats. Now, I didn't count the number of parts that I swapped out from the original kit, but based on appearance it could have gone either way. I entered anyway just to see what would happen.

When looking at the builds generally posted here on MCM, I'd say that there is a lot of kitbashing and scratch building that goes on. Based on trying to stick within a 50% kit parts guide line could be difficult for a lot of experienced builders and I wonder if that kept the number of entrants down at all.

Edit to say, after looking again at the unlimited winners both of the 16+ entrants used a lot of what look like non-kit parts. Which still validates my question as to what point was a model 'disqualified' by the judge for having less than 50% kit parts?

Edited August 11, 2011 by Ryan S.

[crazyjim]

Nowhere, IL (Montgomery,IL). I used to attend the Fox Valley HOG Chapter meetings in Montgomery. Couple of good bars with great burgers too.

[2002p51]

Okay, there's a lot of theories being thrown around here and a great deal of speculation. Let me interject my 2 cents. (Well, it may end up being 25 or 30 cents, we'll see)

First of all, a couple of you need to lighten up. In the overall scheme of things, this was done for a TV show, nothing more and you shouldn't be trying to make it out as the savior of the hobby, or the death of the hobby, or any indication of the state of the hobby, because it was none of those. It was a product promotion for a TV show. And just because they called it a "national" contest, you should not compare it to any other truly "National" contest, either past or present.

As for the judging "criteria", let me go over that item by item;

I actually dug the papers they sent me out of the trash when I got home from work tonight. (I had just done a little housekeeping in the hobby room and tossed them out.) So here is the list of criteria that I had and my interpretation;

(And I'm talking about those 6 or 8 models that made the final cut)

1) Creativity and originality. None of the models I was judging displayed much of either. In spite of this being the "Unlimited" class, they were all pretty much straight out of the box.

2) Use of the Revell/Monogram kit. All entrants were from the Revell/Monogram kit. So, a wash.

3) Adherence to the theme, Hot Rods and the product list provided. Again, they all were, another wash

4) Fit and finish. This was one of things that was difficult to judge critically from photographs. There were no major gaps or flaws visible in any of them. That could be as much due to the lack of crisp detail in the photos as anything else.

5) Use of color. All of the entrants I got full credit for this.

And that's it. These very basic "criteria" leave a great deal to be desired but, and I have to repeat this again and again, the photos made it nearly impossible to be anymore critical than this. I was asked to pick one winner, and one Honorable mention for Best use of Color, and one Honorable mention for "Most Out of The Box", which I thought was very odd to be included in an "Unlimited" class. This one was a very difficult choice too because, like I said, almost all of the entrants were pretty much out of the box. Included in the photos they sent me, I got the name and address of each builder (which I didn't need or care about) and what basic kit he used. I was not given any other information like modifications, paint used, other parts used or anything like that.

As to the low number of entrants I have no doubt this was all there was. Didn't surprise me at all since this contest was really not aimed at the hard core modelers.

And to the point of trusting that the entrant named was the actual builder of the car, I will tell you that my original pick as the winner of the class was later "withdrawn" and they came back to me to make another choice.

So let's drop the whole debate about why the number of entrants was so low, and any speculation of weeding out a few before I got my hands on them. It was for a TV show, nothing more should be made of it.

Are we all happy now?

Edited August 12, 2011 by 2002p51

[mistermodel]

that should close the door on this ,but it wont

[Lunajammer]

Thanks Drew, that was informative and interesting.

[Ryan S.]

Thanks for taking the time for the explanation Drew.

[Danno]

Thanks, Drew. I appreciate the expanded information, and I appreciate your willingness to be open and up front with it.

[BKcustoms]

if you dont mind me asking, what car got disqualified????

[Tony T]

Thanks for the explanation, Drew.

Personally, I was excited that there was a contest involving a TV show that I have watched and Revell. I read the rules and being from Canada I was not eligible to enter. Still was nice to see a contest involving a motorhead celeb and a model company!!

[2002p51]

if you dont mind me asking, what car got disqualified????

Honestly, I don't remember who it was. I intentionally ignored names.

The model was a very nice '32 5-window.

Edited August 13, 2011 by 2002p51

[bsoder]

MAN!!..lively topic..I didn't even know about this till I looked at this thread, I like that Revell did this although obviously their are some issues that have been well pointed out and hey they're a biz so trying to promote their product is understandable. I to was surprised that none of the winners really grabbed me, but hey I hang around here and I'm spoiled!! I also thought of what I've seen from the Tamyia contests which is some blow your socks off stuff...but I think you have to like go to Japan Another thing is how many people even get the speed ch. I have premium comcast Infinity but no speed! I also wholeheartedly agree about the comments alluding to learning how to take a decent pic. to me that's part of finishing my build, I'm no expert photographer but it aint that hard to learn some basic composition. As for promoting the hobby to new builders...it can't hurt. My personal experience is my son, he got into building in his late teens (28 now) and really enjoyed it buttt...in his early 20s he started getting into R/C which he thought was a lot more fun and something he could go out and do with his buddies whereas I find building for me at least is sort of a solo type hobby the majority of the time.. which is why I for one, and I notice a number of others return to this hobby , how shall I say..."later in life"