The Inspired Builds of Bio-Cup 2021
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Bio-Cup 2021 is now well underway, and on Thursday the field of participants was culled down to just 27 remaining builders. This means that we are only three elimination rounds away from learning who will be crowned this year’s Bio-Cup champion! Hopefully you have been following all of the action in the contest’s Flickr group, or reading the weekly round-ups by our friends at BZPower (a great go-to resource on the latest happenings in the world of Bionicle building).
In our contest announcement article, you may recall us mentioning that some of the best MOCs-of-the-year would get built during Bio-Cup. Based on the entries we have seen thus far, this year will be no exception. We reached out to the contest judges to get their overall impressions, and they heartily concur:
“The one thing that sticks out to us is how stiff the competition has been this year. These past two rounds we have witnessed some of the most consistently high-quality MOCs being built that we have seen since Bio-Cup restarted in 2017.
We are also happy to see the growth that many repeat competitors have made over the years, along with all the new faces that completely surprise us too. It's always a pleasure to see this occur every year, and one of the highlights of the competition for us.”
With so many top-quality builds having been submitted thus far, it is certainly a challenge to highlight them all, let alone feature them all with our usual “BrickNerd” level of detail. That said, we certainly wanted to highlight how the Bio-Cup continues to inspire its participants to build creations across a broad range of unexpected themes.
For example in “Round 1” which just wrapped up, the 108 survivors of the Preliminaries were challenged to take their inspiration from various sub-themes of “Media and Entertainment.” Those remaining competitors were sorted into 27 four-person brackets and then assigned a sub-theme in which they had only 12 days to build their entries. Participants could choose to make a 1-for-1 copy of something that inspired them or simply take that source of inspiration and craft something entirely unique.
Here is a rundown of those Round 1 sub-theme categories, and some highlighted builds from each… paired with the muses that inspired them that we could identify.
Books
Description: “Pretty simple, anything regarding books! Inspiration from a character from a story, a librarian, maybe someone reading at their favorite coffee shop!”
Matthias of Redwall by Matt Goldberg
The Vraal by Jayfa
The Veiled by buttloaf_builds
TV/Film (Animation)
Description: “Any sort of animated movie/show is fair game here! You can make a Gundam, a Disney princess, maybe even a Disney princess Gundam! Plenty of forms of animation exist so feel free to explore (claymation counts for those wondering).”
“Hybrid Rainbow” (Canti) by calcifer_project
Zeruel by Iache
Doctor Animo and the Dragonfly by The Underscored Double
TV/Film (Live Action)
Description: “Take inspiration from any live-action show/movie! Popular media like Breaking Bad and Star Wars to cult hits like Donnie Darko and The Room. Or feel free to have some actors rehearsing a cut, or taking a rest in the breakroom. Take it wherever you want!”
The Shimmer by alex_mocs
Arachnid Warrior by Mucus Drizzle
Music:
Description: “Have a favorite song? Maybe a band? Go crazy! You can be inspired by a song, build out a moment from within it, maybe even include a famous convertible...”
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by VelociJACKtor
Bye Bye Babylon by Cryoshell by Alex Mertens
Comics
Description: “This includes Manga and Graphic Novels. Obviously superheroes come to mind, but there's a ton of cool stuff out there worth exploring!”
The Apostle by Max Howell
Johnny Lightfoot by Kevin H.
Captain Haddock by Just Torp
Video Games
Description: “Lots of inspiration here, and lots of scenarios outside of a game worth exploring!”
Hollow Knight by _Quanto_mocs_
The Beheaded by Toa Aparu
Zagreus by Dylan Mievis
Paintings/Drawings
Description: “Look for some great static visual art! Let’s see some builds inspired by Salvador Dali, H.R. Giger, Picasso, etc.”
Pet Metal by Djokson
The Temptation of St. Anthony by Mitch Phillips
3D Art
Description: “To clarify, this is specifically Architecture & Crafts (e.g. sculpting, pottery, smithing, etc). Maybe some inspiration by The Thinker by Rodin, some brutalist architecture, or a metalwork sculpture being made by a blacksmith!”
Tête de taureau by G B
Wasp Wing Table Lamp by Ted Andes
Meara the Metalworks Tiger by DanielBrickSon
Performing Arts/Theater
Description: “Time to look up some wonderful theater to draw inspiration from! From classics like West Side Story and Phantom of the Opera to modern-day hits like Hamilton!”
Rigoletto by Yannick Godts
Impressive stuff! Having run many contests myself, it’s always rewarding to see so many awesome creations that likely would never have been built without the contest’s inspiration… I mean, I think it is fair to say that there aren’t too many LEGO social groups, LUGs, or forums out there dedicated to building MOCs for the Performing Arts, of historic paintings, etc. By the way, does anyone want to start a “Picasso LUG” with me? Fellow cubists, unite!
We hope you have enjoyed seeing how these builders took inspiration from their assigned themes and crafted some truly inspired builds. Be sure to check out the rest of the great Bio-Cup entries over in the contest’s Flickr group... And to close this article out in true Bio-Cup style… “results when”
What inspiration has helped you get started on a MOC? Let us know in the comments!
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