LEGO BrickLink Designer Program Series 3 mini-build contest mired in controversy

BrickLink has announced new winners of its Series 3 mini-build LEGO contest following a backlash to the initial selection – but has now come under fire again with the new assortment.

Each series of the BrickLink Designer Program has been accompanied by a building contest to recreate the finalists in microscale, which has so far gone down well with the community. But Series 3’s contest is currently mired in controversy after the LEGO Group (which owns BrickLink) selected three winners that apparently broke the rules of the competition.

In a post on reddit, user Good_Personality_110 wrote that three of the five builds initially chosen as winners did not fit the contest’s size parameters. The microscale Harbormaster’s Office and Lost City builds apparently extended beyond the allowed dimensions, which dictate that entries must be eight studs/bricks or less in two of either height, width or length. The Art of Chocolate, meanwhile, reportedly exceeded the maximum number of pieces allowed.

Reactions were pretty much what you’d expect. “This feels very unfair, and super disappointing for everyone who tried their best to build within the given constraints,” said redditor Jakisirtaki, while NoahDavidATL was a little less constrained in their summary of the situation: “What a slap in the face to everyone who actually followed the rules.”

The issue was also flagged in BrickLink’s forum, which prompted one user to contact the platform’s help desk. They then reported that the company was ‘aware of the issue’, and the original contest winner announcement disappeared from BrickLink’s social channels not long after, to be replaced last night by a fresh post confirming a new selection of winning entries.

“Thank you to everyone who reached out about the previously announced winners,” the new post reads. “We found that three of the five winning entries didn’t adhere to the contest guidelines. This was our mistake and should have been caught before the winners were announced. We sincerely apologise for the error and are currently refining our procedures to ensure another situation like this doesn’t happen again.”

Readers: it did happen again. And literally in the same post, as one Instagram commenter pointed out that the revised Art of Chocolate winner still breaks the dimension rules, coming in both taller and wider than eight bricks/studs. BrickLink was quick to respond this time, writing back: “It seems we’ve been a little blinded by all the amazing entries in this competition.

“We apologise for the repeated mistakes due to minor discrepancies, but the five winners announced today will be final. While we must draw a line, we acknowledge the dimensional guidelines have caused confusion and will review them for future competitions. Thank you for your understanding.”

Back on reddit, some users also called out a problem with the microscale version of Camping Adventure, which would apparently not be possible to recreate in physical elements because the studs on its headlight bricks extend beyond the space they’re occupying in the digital build. The builder responsible then clarified that Studio’s collision detection software didn’t flag any issues when they initially designed the model.

If you want to get your hands on the full-sized versions of these mini-builds, you can still pre-order three of them at BrickLink. Forest Stronghold and Camping Adventure have already sold out, but Harbormaster’s Office, The Art of Chocolate and Lost City are all available through October 31 (or while stocks last, which will likely only be a few more days for two of the three builds).

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