Competition: Build a Bonsai

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It's going to be a depressing couple of months, here in the UK at least, so to help take your mind off things, we're launching our first building competition of the year today!

As you probably noticed, I had great fun altering my 10281 Bonsai Tree this week, and we want you to do so too.

So, we want you to do one of two things: either modify 10281 Bonsai Tree, or come up with your own bonsai, complete with pot, tree and foliage.

We'll be awarding prizes in both categories and the prize pool will include Brickset minifigures and bricks, and goats!

Find out more after the break...


In the first category, modify 10281 Bonsai Tree, we'll be awarding prizes for:

  • The most aesthetically pleasing tree
  • The best 'nice parts usage'

In the second category, build your own, we'll be awarding prizes for:

  • The most aesthetically pleasing combination of pot, tree and foliage
  • The best 'nice parts usage'

Will your entry be inspired by a particular tree, like the acer above that I built yesterday, or something weird and whacky? Does it bear some strange fruit, or is it home to some fearsome creatures? The set uses frogs, one of my trees used goats. What weird and wonderful LEGO elements will you use in yours? Anything goes!

Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

  • As stated above, plus
  • Adherence to the rules below

We won't be judging your photographic skills, but we suggest that you make an effort to present your models as well as you can, because first impressions count when we are looking through the galleries of entries.

Rules:

  • If you build your own bonsai, it should be life-size
  • If you modify the official set, your entry should still be recognisable as it, but you can change the pot and soil beads should you wish
  • Your entries must be your own work, and new and unseen prior to this competition.
  • You may submit multiple entries
  • Virtual creations in LDD, stud.io and other CAD program are permitted

How to enter:

You can submit your entries in three ways:

Sorry, we can't accept entries by email this time because it increases the amount of work needed to prepare for judging considerably, and we found that last time we did so, it encouraged a high number of low quality entries.

Prizes:

  • First prize in each category: Four goats, Brickset printed items, first choice from our stock of 2020 gift with purchase sets (40409, 40410, 40412, 40413), and whatever other LEGO goodies I can fit in the shipping box.
  • Second prize in each category: Two goats, Brickset printed items, second choice from our stock of 2020 gift with purchase sets (40409, 40410, 40412, 40413), and whatever other LEGO goodies I can fit in the shipping box.

Other information:

  • Please do not include any references to sex, drugs, alcohol etc. in your entry
  • Custom and non-LEGO components are not permitted
  • Please upload your entries by 23:59 GMT on Sunday 14th February 2021
  • The winners will be announced shortly after
  • The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into

Please ask any questions you might have in the comments, and we shall answer.

Good luck -- we look forward to seeing what you come up with!

40 comments on this article

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By in Switzerland,

Hooray for the goats!
Bring back the farm theme (which never really existed)!

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By in United Kingdom,

no email :’( hopefully next time...

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By in United Kingdom,

I'm hoping to be able to announce a third method suitable for the social-media-averse shortly.

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By in United Kingdom,

Hurrah! If there was one thing I could remove from the 21st Century by snapping my fingers, Thanos-style, it would be social media!

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By in Germany,

@Huw: would really appreciate that, because even though the prizes would definitely be worth it, I still would like to keep my connections with social media to a bare minimum. I am sure there are many people who feel the same.

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By in United Kingdom,

Brilliant Idea This will make those dark winter nights fly by Planning already.

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By in Netherlands,

Brilliant idea! compliments for this competition!

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By in United Kingdom,

I can't believe how many people don't realise what a comments section is.

I mean there's even a like button right there.

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By in Germany,

I can't believe how many people don't realise that it's all about the collection of personal data and making that data economically usable.

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By in Germany,

I am waiting eagerly for my ordered Bonsai to arrive and start working on it. In the meantime Studio will be used.
Thanks for the competition, Huw! The goats sacrifice will not be in wain. :)

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By in United Kingdom,

I am in the Uk, and according the the Lego website, my order may sit in the warehouse for sometime, due to high demand, also something to do with DPD not working?? Eek, I would really like my shiny new Lego asap please. So my bonsai kit may take a while to arrive.

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By in United Kingdom,

I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t use social media. My main reason... too time consuming and stressful. I’m not bothered about being ‘watched’ and monitored, having a smartphone and an email address means you’re tracked 24/7.

I totally understand about the work involved in not allowing entries by email.

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By in Poland,

and just yesterday I ordered one for myself :>> I wonder if I even have some parts I can customise it with X"D

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By in United Kingdom,

@Flowerpotgirl said:
"I am in the Uk, and according the the Lego website, my order may sit in the warehouse for sometime, due to high demand, also something to do with DPD not working?? Eek, I would really like my shiny new Lego asap please. So my bonsai kit may take a while to arrive."
Should only be volume of orders now.

DPD just had a freeze on Europe to UK deliveries on the 30th and 31st for the run up to brexit.

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By in Canada,

@Flowerpotgirl said:
"I am in the Uk, and according the the Lego website, my order may sit in the warehouse for sometime, due to high demand, also something to do with DPD not working?? Eek, I would really like my shiny new Lego asap please. So my bonsai kit may take a while to arrive."

Huw, any chance you would consider extending the deadline? I also ordered my bonsai tree online and given the current circumstances and recent experience with LEGO delivery it might take a while to arrive. I suspect there are others like us in the same situation. Thank you for putting together this competition!

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By in Sweden,

"Your entries must be your own work, and new and unseen prior to this competition."

Worth pointing out that the official instructions for the set includes a gallery of custom designs, so people may want to look at those so to not accidentally copy one of the "official" custom ideas (there is a tree made with brick separators for leaves, for example).

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By in Serbia,

@Huw Question: Is it a valid way to enter, to build the official set digitally and modify it there? Or that category is only for physical builds?

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By in United States,

I’m not a fan of digital entries. Too often what you think works (in digital space), you try and build in real life and find out, “oh, it doesn’t quite work like that.”

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By in United States,

I've never tried a competition, and I'm not particularly interested in the bonsai, but I might be tempted to try just because of the goats!

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By in Canada,

An exciting project for lockdown! I'll have to wait for mine to arrive though...

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By in United States,

@Huw said:
"I'm hoping to be able to announce a third method suitable for the social-media-averse shortly."

Thank you! I love these competitions, but never get to enter because of my unsocial- medianess.

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By in United States,

Is Flickr really social media? It’s literally just image sharing. If Flickr is social media then I don’t see how having an account here isn’t social media. Do people not see the first entry method or am I missing something?

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By in United States,

I have no experience with digital design and so thought about entering this contest with the actual model. That was until I just now received an e-mail from LEGO telling me that the Bonsai Tree I was finally able to order at 3:00 a.m. on January 1 is now out of stock, even though my order was previously confirmed and the order status was listed as "In Warehouse." Now it says it should be shipped by January 21. :-(

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By in United Kingdom,

"It's going to be a depressing couple of months"

Meanwhile, in New Zealand...

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By in United Kingdom,

Don't worry about the deadline. I'll extend if needed.

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By in United States,

@nashikens:
It works both ways. There are tolerances that can be cheated a bit in real life, like building a wall of 1x2 bricks or plates and pressing it into a gentle curve. Digitally, these parts would intersect if you did this, and any program that incorporates collision avoidance will prevent you from doing so while it's turned on.

In this case, if you're just modifying the existing set, you _KNOW_ the pot and trunk of the tree work (though I don't envy anyone who attempts to build that trunk digitally, especially if they try to work the wrap-around vines into the model). All you'd need to come up with on your own is the foliage, which leaves less opportunity for impossible construction. But the two biggest drawbacks with building digitally is you may not have the entire existing parts catalog to work with, and you may not be aware when you're using elements that don't exist or aren't easily obtainable in real life.

@Schmopiesdad:
If I hadn't been trying to nab a copy of 40453 (still "Coming Soon!" at 11:20am on January 2nd), I could have pushed an order through right after midnight, before things started going squirrely. But no, I waited. And I ran into the red error bars that made it nearly impossible to add or remove cart items, and I crashed my modem and had to reboot it, and finally I had just figured out what I was going to add to get the car GWP, and I hit the screen that informed me the site was down for updates. I did finally get an order for the Bonsai through, apparently about 2:30am Eastern. So, depending on which of six time zones you're in, you may have missed it by no more than half an hour.

But it could be worse. My Black Friday and December 1st orders are buried in the backlog of packages. The former went from my regional sorting facility to a post office that's over 30 minutes away in the other direction, got scanned in there twice on the 26th, and then went silent. The latter was last seen leaving Illinois on the 12th. I've got a coworker who also placed a Black Friday order, and hers has been scanned in to a post office that's not hers _three_ times. I actually expect my Bonsai to arrive first, but probably not without delays of its own.

I was trying to explain the problem to my dad last night, as he was very irate that they're not "doing their job", and that people should be getting disciplined or even fired over this. The problem is they've got government union contracts, with very lax leave policies. As long as they stick to the policy, they can't be punished for it. This year, many postal employees have been taking advantage of those leave policies to stay away from their job as much as possible, which leaves them short-staffed in general. Then buildings have restrictions on how many people can be inside at any given time, which restricts their ability to supplement with seasonal staff. 2020 has seen a huge surge in online purchases in general, which were probably already causing backlog during the summer, so things just went from bad to worse when the holiday shopping crush piled on top of all that. This year, the US Post Office has seen a surge in use that it has never been prepared to handle in the entire history of that organization.

I've read an article where they quoted a truck driver who waited two full days in line to get into the yard, and another 52 hours to get her trailer unloaded before she could leave. My coworker said where she lives, it was taking up to five days for inbound trucks to get back on the road. That backlog isn't just going to disappear now that Christmas is past, and it's going to take a while for them to catch up with their current staffing issues. Hopefully nothing critical got delayed, like prescription meds, and hopefully anyone who ran into such a problem was smart enough to seek an alternate solution immediately, before it was too late.

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By in United Kingdom,

Good news for the social-media-averse: you can also now submit your entry at https://blockheads.builders  and tag it BricksetBonsaiCompetition.

I will extend the deadline to the end of February given likely supply chain issues.

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By in United States,

I've always wanted a LEGO goat! Going to try to enter!

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By in United States,

Unfortunately our copy will be a birthday present in March so probably too late. Can't wait to see the entries, though! Can someone do a multi-colored classic space helmets one?

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By in United States,

This is rad! Thanks Brickset! FYI for US readers - Target has the Bonsai in stock online ($49.99 w/ free shipping).

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By in United States,

Neat idea; I look forward to seeing the entries. Doubt I'll have the time (or the set) to make one myself.

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By in Germany,

I just uploaded my first entry. Hope it's allowed the way I did it. If not, let me know Huw.

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By in United States,

I've had my eye on this set but probably won't get around to it till the competition's over.

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By in Netherlands,

@Huw said:
"Good news for the social-media-averse: you can also now submit your entry at https://blockheads.builders  and tag it BricksetBonsaiCompetition.

I will extend the deadline to the end of February given likely supply chain issues."


Great, thanks!
I placed an order for both the bonsai and the flowwers on january first when the site showed these as 'in stock', but have now received an email that they wont be back in stock 'till february fourth...

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By in United Kingdom,

Just for clarity (as I've not partaken in one of your competitions before and don't have an extensive collection) do all parts in a digital creation have to conform to real-world part/colour combinations? So no red leaves if Lego don't make them in that colour etc? I don't know if they fall under the banner of "custom". Seems only fair to not allow parts in digital creations that can't be used in physical ones.

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By in United States,

Can anyone clarify what "life-sized" means for building your own bonsai? For example, would a nano-scale bonsai be allowed?

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By in United States,

Huh. I've placed orders on Black Friday, December 1st, January 1st, and January 2nd. Today, I got the middle two orders. Still waiting on Black Friday, which got misdirected. Anyways, the Jan1 order included a copy of Bonsai, so I might have to consider doing something for this now.

For those who are considering ordering online in the US, it's worth noting that your delivery experience depends on one crucial factor: Did you make the FedEx cut? Everyone was buying everything online, so FedEx and UPS got hammered last year, to the point that they actually jacked up prices and started imposing a cap on how many packages they'd accept from businesses (possibly excluding "essential" deliveries). They're allowed to do that. USPS also got hammered, but they have to accept any and all comers, so all the overflow went straight to them. And they've been operating at a fraction of normal staffing levels and can't raise prices without an Act of Congress. And they basically got buried in parcels (it can take almost a week for a truck to actually get unloaded once it shows up at a sorting facility). My first two orders missed the cut and went straight to USPS for the entire process. My Bonsai shipment has a FedEx label on it, which means at most it saw "last mile" delivery and never had to go near a USPS regional hub.

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By in United Kingdom,

@BobTheMadCow said:
"Just for clarity (as I've not partaken in one of your competitions before and don't have an extensive collection) do all parts in a digital creation have to conform to real-world part/colour combinations? So no red leaves if Lego don't make them in that colour etc? I don't know if they fall under the banner of "custom". Seems only fair to not allow parts in digital creations that can't be used in physical ones."

Good question, and I'm not sure how to answer. Ideally you'd use existing parts but given that is not a restriction LEGO designers have to adhere to I'm inclined to allow them here.

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By in United States,

Hi all... we've been discussing this set over at www.bonsainut.com

(Here is the direct thread link. https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/just-when-you-thought-youd-seen-it-all.47640/)

Interestingly, I had already changed my build based on some fundamentals of bonsai design - using only pieces from the kit! Great kit, great fun idea for a contest, and I will definitely enter as soon as I can take some nice pics!

I think I need to up my game though... the changes I made might not be enough :)

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