Legonardo Davidy:
Building skill: 18/20
Presentation: 17/20
Use of mystery part: 15/20
Total: 50/60

6kyubi6
Building skill: 16/20
Presentation: 16/20
Use of mystery part: 16/20
Total: 48/60

I really thought David did a nice job with keeping the element easily identifiable in his MOCs. I particularly like how the part is highlighted in the metronome. The silver foil against the warm browns of the metronome really make them pop. Similarly, the foil is an integral part of the compass and an obvious choice of build for that part - so simple, it's genius. His Enigma machine also was a very clever use of the foil, in repetition, to keep it a visible part of the MOC. It worked very well, and probably just as well as the strings in the grand piano. Again, very clever.

I found Jimmy's builds to be more subtle with the foil pieces, which I really appreciated. Most of his builds incorporated the part without blatantly saying, "I build this because I had these foils." A great example of this was the sewing machine. It is a beautiful MOC and the use of the foil is inspired. Another example is the voodoo doll. The foils are a necessity within the overall MOC, but they are a subtle addition to make the entire MOC cohesive. Great work there. I also liked the hairbrush for its inspired simplicity, and the swami on the bed of nails. He truly looks as though he is in no pain. Well done.

This Iron Builder round had a seed part that I didn't find particularly stimulating; upon seeing it my mind tossed out a half dozen or so ideas that could be the crux of a decent build, and that was that. My foil-aversion made the contestants' brilliant and well-executed entries all the more of a pleasure to pore over, and I am still surprised by many of the uses in both Jimmy and David's builds. However, I am extremely disappointed that neither of the contestants created a fencing scene. Something that awesome would have made me a completely incompetent judge and blinded me to the contestants' flaws, earning them both perfect 60/60 scores. Oh well.

Before you get too far in, I'll apologize in advance for the abnormally long judge's comments. I could blame them on myself, but I'll choose to blame them on a particularly build-dense competition that requires extra analysis. Here are the scores for all you TL;DR'ers:

6kyubi6:

Building skill: 20/20
Presentation: 20/20
Use of mystery part: 18/20
Total: 58/60

Legonardo Davidy:

Building skill: 20/20
Presentation: 19.5/20
Use of mystery part: 19/20
Total: 58.5/60

Comments for 6kyubi6:

The sheer volume of builds that you made during this relatively short round puts you at an average of nearly two builds per day, and considering the high quality of each build, that's incredibly impressive. However, there was a concession in some ways considering build complexity and composition, which fluctuated but, notably, did not decline over time. On the other hand, though many of your integrations of the foil were perfect, toward the latter end of the competition many of them seemed unnecessary or redundant. As for presentation, it was almost consistently perfect. Some peaks and troughs:

Ceci n'est pas une ampoule is so realistic I initially was unsure if it was brickbuilt. Even now, it only takes the slightest crossing of the eyes to turn one sharp plastic lightbulb into two blurry real ones. Skill, usage, and presentation would all have scores of 21/20 if that were possible.

One, two....one, two, three, four!!! is unmistakably you. Presentation is perfect, the part is used in various ways, and it's all built rather well. Even though the drummer doesn't actually incorporate any foils into his person, which probably wouldn't make sense, he fits right in without overshadowing the seed part.

Lets play arcades! has arguably the highest volume of different seed part uses and is a huge pleasure to study. The hockey pucks are probably the most perfect use of the foil in this entire round, and the other two games are in no way lacking with a pinball spring mechanism and joystick using the same short lengths of foil tip, but taking very different forms of motion in context. Having them all grouped together with no happy kids crowded around seems odd, but the space invaders background redeems you.

Checkmate!, Monarch Butterfly, Geisha, and Tex Avery all seem like the seed part inclusion was an afterthought. The chess scenario might have worked better if the chess pieces had been more foil-centric, but the seed part is used as ornamentation. The butterfly looks like it lost its antennae and got expensive prosthetics that also pick up FM radio; the disparity between colors just doesn't work. In addition, it's one of your less impressive entries buildwise, though the Bionicle integration for the abdomen is a great touch. The foils used in the geisha fit in more, but the use is somewhat redundant, as the foils were already used as needles/spikes in Fakir (which is an excellent build, by the way). Lastly, Tex Avery looks more like an entry for an Iron Builder round featuring magenta balloon segments (can that be a thing, please?).

Comments for Legonardo Davidy:

Though your building rate relative to your opponent's was much slower, it's still remarkable; over one per day. Looking at all of your builds, however, I come to the conclusion that you decided to build on the principle of quality over quantity; almost all of your builds contain a higher degree of detail and structural complexity than Jimmy's. Your use of the seed part was not necessarily superior in general, but you had fewer trough builds where it seemed out of place or redundant. Lastly, though presentation was mostly top-notch, there were a few builds that seemed underwhelmingly packaged, so to speak. Again, here's some highlights and weak spots:

Meorw! is simply fantastic. It achieves a great atmosphere with the background props, the piece is at home as Gary's eye stalks, and it's all solidly built, of course.

Building Blocks of Building Blocks is truly inspired, and contrasts nicely with your more complex models by being delightfully minimalistic. It's poetic, relevant, witty, cool, nerdy, and altogether my favorite build from you during this competition.

Concert Grand is made more impressive by the fact that you made it at the end of the competition (or did you save it for last...sneaky dacidiciter) when it seemed like everything you could do with a foil (except fence) had been done. Yet it contains a new range of uses, from the obvious and ingenious piano strings to the wheeled feet and pedals. A perfect finish.

RC car is probably your weakest build. The seed part is not really integral, and the build itself is not poorly built in any way, but neither is it particularly interesting. Presentation is misdone; it would have made more sense to display it with a natural backdrop if it was a working RC car, besides being more interesting as a kinetic model. As it is, it would be better suited to a brickbuilt terrain (I still have to give you credit for the ABS batteries though... heh).

Teeny Tiny Cho Cho! and Microscale is fun! have a lot of untapped potential; their presentation is sorely lacking. The train could have benefited from a generous smattering of microscale trees and a more natural terrain for a full scene. I imagine it passing through the forest, which you have liberally applied speed blur to, to show just how fast the train is going. But alas. The chapel, on the other hand, suffers mightily from its black rectangle base and would have been better off with its own more landscaped patch of microscale trees, or perhaps a city block surrounding it, or a tiny town nearby. With a title like “Microscale is fun!” you need to deliver a bit more.

The Venus Piranha Flytrap and Iron Microchip both have different reasons they don't really work. A microchip was a ripe opportunity for this part to be used, as Jimmy did considerably better. Yours seems to be a little cluttered and might not be recognizable if it weren't for the green board. The flytrap just doesn't make sense; the colors are off. If you had tried to go for something more absurd, like a piranha-flytrap hybrid swimming around, or a cyborg flytrap, it wouldn't seem so out of place.

Legonardo Davidy:
Building skill: 19/20
Presentation: 18/20
Use of mystery part: 18/20
Total: 55/60

6kyubi6
Building skill: 19/20
Presentation: 19/20
Use of mystery part: 18/20
Total: 56/60

Comments from judge for Legonardo Davidy:
Great job using a difficult piece. I am amazed at how many things you were able to build with the piece. My favorite builds from this round are yours. The Enigma machine, Molecules, Amp, Darts all are incredible builds. However, overall I saw a lot of repeated use of the par as a needle. I also felt that the presentation of the mystery piece in some of the builds was a bit lacking and not easy to identify the piece quickly.

Comments from judge for 6kyubi6:
You really did an incredible job of using the part in a wide variety of ways. It can't be easy to find new ways of using a thin gray stick. Like David, I felt like there was a little overuse of the part as a needle. This was a really difficult round to judge because it was so evenly matched. What made the difference for me was presentation. You were able to more clearly highlight the mystery piece in your photos and builds.