Anyone have any guesses on the next BrickPoints Contest? I am going to guess that the prize is going to be eithe a LEGO Shop at Home giftcard or one of the following:

- 10228 Haunted House

- 10224 Town Hall

- 10225 UCS R2-D2

- 8110 Unimog

- 10227 UCS B-Wing

- 10232 Palace Cinema

Based on the results that Ed got from the survey on a "Hypothetical Contest", looks like the Gift Card is the most popular, though it would pose a couple difficulties, as we also have many international members here who have inflated set costs (I feel for you guys! ). You can see that thread HERE.

We will get the to know the actual contest tomorrow, April 1st, which also happens to be April Fool's Day. Any correspondance there folks? Lol. I know the the Macks wouldn't trick us like that, right?

If I personally had to guess, I would say that the contest has something to do with the new update(s) for BrickPicker. As we don't even know what that is, this is all speculation, just like the EOL dates of sets!

It's like Christmas morning, you'll have to wait for it the same as everybody else my friend. And besides, tomorrow is just a couple of hours away. Take it easy.

There will be a new contest released shortly. If you haven't already figured it out, it will be based on set reviews once again. Jeff and I are tweaking the current review setup to be a little relative to the BrickPicker site. There are going to be some serious prizes awarded, so some serious "investor oriented" reviews will be required to qualify for the contest. Many of the reviews that have approved in the past will not meet the new standards.

We want other BrickPicker members to get useful information about various LEGO sets they want to invest in, so reviewers will have to incorporate all ten aspects of the current set review bullet points. There will be a first, second and third prizes awarded and content counts as much as quantity...maybe more. The contest will run over several months and special awards will be given out to select reviews that qualify for a spot on our Evaluation Corner.

There will be more information to follow, so start thinking about possible sets to review. You do not have to own a set to review its potential as an investment, but it would help. You can post any questions below...Thanks.

Sounds awesome Ed!! Looking forward to this!

Basically write up a detailed set review as though you were writing it for the Evaluation Corner. Aye Aye, Captain!

Thanks for telling us! Finally... :D

So wait...No lifesize Mr. T? Sad. Seriously though - I am totally down for this contest, looking forward to the details!

Jeff is modifying the current review section so that a BrickPicker member will have to input a description or comment after each of the 10 bullet points(instead of writing one large summary at the end). They will then be placed into one large summary when the review is submitted. The individual bullet points should blend into one large article, with an introduction and conclusion for each set. I replaced the first bullet point, WOW FACTOR, with FIRST IMPRESSIONS/WOW FACTOR/INTRODUCTION. It is basically asking what your thoughts are when you first see it...Does it have a WOW FACTOR? I am trying to make this idiot proof and informative at the same time. I also changed the last bullet point, OVERALL, to a OVERALL/FINAL THOUGHTS/CONCLUSION. There might not be a lot of things to say about some bullet points, but other bullet points can have several paragraphs full of information. The point is to give members direction and focus and to produce a review with relative points about value and investing. As for the contest, like I said earlier, it will be about producing quality reviews. They will have to be a minimum of 1000 characters and they all don't have to be pages like my Evaluation Corner articles. But for those who want to go above and beyond, there will be rewards for those people as well. The top reviewers will not necessarily be the ones with the most reviews, but be the ones with the most quality content. Spamming the review section will not work this time. First place prize will be a Haunted House/LEGO Gift Card...Second Place a Modular/LEGO Gift Card...Third Place, maybe a Jabba's Palace or Helm's Deep/Gift Card. Plus there will additional prizes for exceptional single reviews. Jeff and I will judge the contest and everyone is welcome to join...even Mods. There will be more info as soon as Jeff tweaks the review inputs. I will write a sample review to show people what is expected. Thanks.

*Goes dig for my old economics books* On a serious note, nice prizes. I am surprised you would give THAT much for a prize but why complain about that haha :)

*Goes dig for my old economics books*

On a serious note, nice prizes. I am surprised you would give THAT much for a prize but why complain about that haha

Site content is important in many ways. It helps with Google searches and keeps the site active. These prizes are a small price to pay if we get the feedback and quality content we desire. If people put an effort into it, we can do other contests, maybe even giving away a 10179 away as a top prize.

Site content is important in many ways. It helps with Google searches and keeps the site active. These prizes are a small price to pay if we get the feedback and quality content we desire. If people put an effort into it, we can do other contests, maybe even giving away a 10179 away as a top prize.(Picks up oneself from fainting)

This would be some grand prize. First 100,000 Brickpoints, GO!!!

I'm looking forward to this quite a bit. Well thought out reviews are much more helpful that someone saying a set sucked, or was great, and that's it. Are you going to remove old reviews that don't meet this criteria and usher in a new wave of better, more refined reviews? Like a bunch of 6 Million Dollar Men? Better, Faster, Stronger. I would have no problem re-reviewing sets to meet a higher level of criteria.

I personally like the idea of only reviewing sets that you A) Currently own or Owned in the past. It's hard to give an impression/Wow factor claim on something you've never seen or touched, but that's my personal soapbox. I know that this would also be a disadvantage to anyone that is younger or hasn't been around a ton of Lego sets, too.

I had that same question. What will happen to reviews previously submitted? Will old reviews, that are good enough, be able to enter the contest or just new reviews from the moment of the announcement?

Interestingly, some of Ed's (earlier ?) reviews may not pass this new review guideline / standard either. I wonder if there is a way to update the old reviews or if they will be removed altogether.

Best thing is to remove OLD LEGO reviews or simply put them in some archive.

Best thing is to remove OLD LEGO reviews or simply put them in some archive.

Old reviews will remain until there is enough new content. This is all a work in progress and to remove that much content would hurt search engines.

Old reviews will remain until there is enough new content. This is all a work in progress and to remove that much content would be foolish and hurt search engines.

I agree

However it is right to define the rules for reviews so that they are useful for every type of buyer, player or investor who is

The new template will be very similar. The only difference will be how the summary is produced. In the older version, I gave members the freedom to write what they want. The new way keeps it structured and addresses major points. As for older reviews, they cannot be used again unless you wanted to take one and improve upon it to submit for the Evaluation Corner. New reviews will be shown first, so people will just have to figure out what is new and what is older.

Site content is important in many ways. It helps with Google searches and keeps the site active. These prizes are a small price to pay if we get the feedback and quality content we desire. If people put an effort into it, we can do other contests, maybe even giving away a 10179 away as a top prize.(Picks up oneself from fainting)

This would be some grand prize. First 100,000 Brickpoints, GO!!!

I'm looking forward to this quite a bit. Well thought out reviews are much more helpful that someone saying a set sucked, or was great, and that's it. Are you going to remove old reviews that don't meet this criteria and usher in a new wave of better, more refined reviews? Like a bunch of 6 Million Dollar Men? Better, Faster, Stronger. I would have no problem re-reviewing sets to meet a higher level of criteria.

I personally like the idea of only reviewing sets that you A) Currently own or Owned in the past. It's hard to give an impression/Wow factor claim on something you've never seen or touched, but that's my personal soapbox. I know that this would also be a disadvantage to anyone that is younger or hasn't been around a ton of Lego sets, too.

April Fools...

This sounds great! looking forward to reading some quality reviews and maybe having a go at writing a few. This will be awesome content for the site, top stuff!

April Fools...

Rug pulled from beneath me! Okay maybe no 10179, but is the contest going to be real?LOL...Yes. Contest is real.

Hoo man...I'm pumped! Is it ok if our "review" covers a large number of sets, for example modulars (like some of the other Evaluation Corner Articles), or do you want it to be specific to a set?

Hoo man...I'm pumped! Is it ok if our "review" covers a large number of sets, for example modulars (like some of the other Evaluation Corner Articles), or do you want it to be specific to a set?

Great question! I was just about to ask the same thing ;)

Great question! I was just about to ask the same thing

Yes, that is definitely possible. Many of my Evaluation Articles covered multiple sets.

As for older reviews, they cannot be used again unless you wanted to take one and improve upon it to submit for the Evaluation Corner.

There's a thought. A couple of my very first reviews could use a major rewrite anyway. I guess they kind of worked but I'm not that proud of them. Then again, I was learning the ropes as it were. I have become better at the whole thing to include a more robust investment side besides the build and included parts.

This will certainly be an interesting contest and I'm excited to see everybody's writeups!

"When the going gets tough, the tough gets creative."

Besides rebumping this, I'm not sure which one I'm more excited about. The contest coming up or the new review format? I'M SO EXCITED I COULD PEE MYSELF!!!!