The "Let's Get Tropical!" LEGO Speeder Bikes (LSB) contest ended last week, and it is finally time to announce the winners here on BrickNerd. Before we do that, however, we do have a few “thank yous” that we need to distribute.

You may recall that the first article I wrote for the relaunch of BrickNerd was about the speeder bikes (flying motorcycles) built by Dan Ko (Instagram / Flickr). A couple of weeks later, Dan reached out to me about bringing back the LSB Contest from its two-year hiatus. One thing led to another, and he joined both myself and Cole Blaq in running the contest this year. In addition to Dan’s enthusiasm, he also contributed all of the wonderful graphics and posters to promote the contest. Thanks again, Dan!

Next, a big “thank you” goes out to everyone who entered this year, making it yet another successful LSB contest. In total, we counted 146 individual entries that made the deadline. Our mission statement in running any contest has always been to “inspire lots of people to build cool things out of LEGO, and to have fun doing it.” We feel that contests are at their best when they can be the catalyst for someone to build something new, especially something that they wouldn’t normally have considered.

One of the great appeals to building speeder bikes, besides the fun of swooshing them, is that they are quick to build with minimal parts required. This usually results in a lot of new participants ready to give it a try. I’m glad that this year’s contest was no exception. In addition to contest entries needing to resemble a speeder bike (flying motorcycle), the rules of this year’s contest were:

Minifig scale only, with a rider shown on the speeder bike,
Built out of physical bricks, and
Judged largely based on the bike itself, not the background (with presentation style used for breaking the ties between close competitors).

Otherwise, the rest was “ANYTHING GOES!” in both the building and displaying of it. In addition to official LEGO parts, entrants were encouraged to use anything else they wanted to detail their speeder bikes and to show them off (custom parts, chromed parts, stickers, photoshop, etc.).

This year’s contest had three main categories in which to enter: Bounty Hunter, Island Racing, and Musically Inspired. The winner of each category receives a custom trophy bike, a $25 (US) LEGO Shop-at-Home gift card courtesy of BrickNerd (or equivalent prize), and an assortment of chromed parts provided by Chrome Block City. The title of “Grand Champion” is also awarded to the person who has entered a speeder bike into all three categories and had the best overall showing in the view of the judges. The “Grand Champion” receives a custom trophy bike and a $50 (US) LEGO Shop-at-Home gift card courtesy of BrickNerd (or equivalent prize). That’s a lot of prizes!

Therefore, our final “thank you” goes out to BrickNerd, its Patrons, and Chrome Block City for sponsoring the generous prizes this year, as well as to the judges who built and donated trophy bikes to send to the winners. Now, who will be receiving all of these wonderful prizes, you ask? … And will there be any SPECIAL AWARDS given out this year? It’s time to find out!

Bounty Hunter

“They know how to track things down, and their reputation usually arrives before they do. For their speeder bikes, consider including a weapon, tracking equipment, or something else to help corner their prey... whatever you think fits the personal style of your particular bounty hunter.”

When creating the Bounty Hunter category, one of the concerns we had was that if we required the speeder bikes to carry their bounty they might become too huge. That is why we chose to leave that part out of the category description. We figured that instead, maybe a “clean-up crew” could swoop in after bounty capture and make the final delivery. However, there seems to be little trust amongst bounty hunters, and most included ways to carry their collected bounties themselves.

One of those carrying their bounty is the winner of Bounty Hunter category: The Judge, by Oscar Cederwall (oOger).

Here is a gallery of the Top-10 finishers in the Bounty Hunter category in order of placement:

Island Racing

“Even folks living on ‘island time’ have the need for speed. Think up what an Island Race Course might look like in your world, and the type of speeder bikes best suited to race it. We were originally thinking of a tropical beach scene, but if jagged shores or islands in the sky are more your thing, then have at it.”

The idea here was for bikes to include special considerations for a race within island geographies. This could mean races over sections of water, but could easily have meant other things as well—including simply a standard race course with a pretty island view. This category is what led to our overall “Let’s Get Tropical!” theme for the contest (along with Dan and I being fans of the rallying cry for the Flint Tropics basketball team, from the movie “Semi-Pro”).

The winner of the Island Racing category: The Sport Racer, by aido K.

Here is a gallery of the Top-10 finishers in the Island Racing category in order of placement:

Musically Inspired

“They know how to pump things up. They don’t just arrive at the scene, they ARE the scene. You can take inspiration from the recent Vidiyo minifigure series, rock royalty, reggae music, rap stars, or anything else along the broad spectrum of sound. Set the mood with your rider and speeder bike.”

This category was admittedly a bit too conceptual for many, however there were still plenty of people who were up to the challenge. People seemed to take three different building strategies in this category: flying instruments, massive speakers and stereo systems, and bikes more styled to a theme of music or minifigure.

The winner of the Musically Inspired category: The Frequency Clipper, by Mitch Phillips (and yes, he used an actual LEGO CD up front).

Here is a gallery of the Top-10 finishers in the Musically Inspired category in order of placement:

LSB 2021 - Grand Champion

As stated above, the “Grand Champion” is awarded to the person who has entered a speeder bike into all three categories and, in the views of the judges, had the best overall showing. We had 22 people eligible this year, and the following builders were viewed as the top three:

Congratulations to P.B. Deltassius who is our Grand Champion for the 2021 contest!

Our first runner-up was Mitch Phillips.

Followed by Julius Kanand as second runner-up.

SPECIAL AWARD - Boundary Pusher

Pushing the boundaries of contest rules is a calculated risk that can lead to innovative designs and a victory (see the Musically Inspired category above). Other times, however, they can lead builders astray when pushed too far, overshooting the mark of what the contest is all about. In the case of the Speeder Bike Contest, it is all about building “flying motorcycles.” There were quite a few entrants that pushed those boundaries over that edge, seemingly having stopped reading at the word “speeder” and built things that more resembled flying cars, hoverboards, wave-runners, hobbit-holes, musical instruments, etc.

However, if you go back up to the intro and read our contest mission statement, we did state that contests should be all about “building cool things.” The rest of the team at BrickNerd agrees and has decided to sponsor a special prize to award to the best of these “Boundary Pushers” a $20 (US) LEGO Shop-at-Home gift card.

After careful deliberation, the Boundary Pusher award goes this Island Racer, by 4estFeller.

Here is a gallery of other builds we considered that “pushed the boundaries” in either designs or functionality in order of placement:

SPECIAL AWARD - “Let’s Get Tropical”

Finally, we wanted to give an award to someone who really took the “Let’s Get Tropical!” rallying cry to heart. Cole Blaq built a special “Tropical Banana” speeder bike trophy to be awarded to a builder who created a wonderfully tropical scene. For this award, the judging included both the bike and the overall tropical scene that was created for the entry.

The “Tropical Banana” award goes Checkpoint 13_01 by Julius Kanand.

Here is a gallery of the other builds considered for this special award, in order of their placement:

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the contest this year! We hope you had fun building and enjoyed yourselves. Before you go, be sure to go watch this final wrap-up video, that includes all of the entries submitted to the contest this year.

Please be sure to congratulate the winners in the comments below or in the contest discussion of the LSB Flickr group, and we’ll see you again next contest!

What speeders were your favorites? What should the theme of the next speeder contest be? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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