VGS Pumpkin Carving Contest 2022 [ENDED]

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

1 hour ago, Krunch said:

Respect my authorita!!  

Lol I found a huge pumpkin that was perfect for Cartman, this is copied by hand since I couldn't print a stencil large enough.  I might update or add more pics later once it's dark outside but yeah that's one more submission!!

I can hear your pumpkin!

Edited October 31, 2022 by JamesRobot

[MegaMan52 | 2,441]

Last year's Pumpkin: 

THIS year's Pumpkin: 

I thought about carving a picture of Mega Man, but I was too busy playing through Resident Evil 4 on Professional difficulty and have been watching several horror movies so there was no time. I didn't even have time to carve a Pumpkin earlier this month, because I visited some Theaters and had my Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese (which required some travelling, since there's no Chuck E. Cheese where I live) among other things. I barely had time to carve this Pumpkin tonight, and as a result it looks unfinished. It's alright I guess, but I think my Pumpkin from last year turned out better (I had a little more time last year). This Pumpkin is also kind of a weird shape compared to the one I had last year.

Edited November 1, 2022 by MegaMan52

[Makar | 1,946]

If it’s not too late, here’s mine 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

@bag@darkchylde28@drxandy@JamesRobot@jonebone@Kguillemette@Krunch@LutherDestroysTheGond@Makar@Mega Tank@MegaMan52@NESfiend@RegularGuyGamer@Renmauzo@SailorScoutMandy

The voting has begun! A poll has been added to the original post, please everyone vote for your personal favorite carving of the bunch via that poll! As a reminder, the only rules here are that you can only vote for one carving, and you CANNOT vote for your own carving, you must vote for someone else's! The poll will be open until 11/10/2022 at 12 AM EST. Whoever gets the most votes will win $25, 2nd most votes $20, 3rd most votes $15.

The original post has been edited to include pictures of everyone's submissions, so you can all quickly glance at those to refresh your memory. Curious to see how this goes, there were several really really good ones this year!

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Oh, and one quick point of clarification: Anyone can vote for their personal favorite carving, it doesn't specifically have to be those who submitted a carving themselves

[MegaMan52 | 2,441]

@ZeldaFreak Remove my name from the poll. Most people here pretend I don't exist.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

3 minutes ago, MegaMan52 said:

@ZeldaFreak Remove my name from the poll. Most people here pretend I don't exist.

You submitted a carving for the contest, so your submission was added to the poll. Likewise, I'd also expect you to vote for whoever's carving is your favorite in the poll, same as everyone else. If you wanted to submit a carving but didn't want to participate in the actual contest, that's fine, but you should've said you didn't want to participate in your initial submission, you gave no indication that you didn't want to participate.

[MegaMan52 | 2,441]

7 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

You submitted a carving for the contest, so your submission was added to the poll. Likewise, I'd also expect you to vote for whoever's carving is your favorite in the poll, same as everyone else. If you wanted to submit a carving but didn't want to participate in the actual contest, that's fine, but you should've said you didn't want to participate in your initial submission, you gave no indication that you didn't want to participate.

I just like showing pictures, that is all. Remove my name.

[Gloves | 11,761]

1 hour ago, MegaMan52 said:

@ZeldaFreak Remove my name from the poll. Most people here pretend I don't exist.

You really need to get over this victim complex thing, man.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

On 11/1/2022 at 12:00 AM, MegaMan52 said:

Last year's Pumpkin: 

THIS year's Pumpkin: 

I thought about carving a picture of Mega Man, but I was too busy playing through Resident Evil 4 on Professional difficulty and have been watching several horror movies so there was no time. I didn't even have time to carve a Pumpkin earlier this month, because I visited some Theaters and had my Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese (which required some travelling, since there's no Chuck E. Cheese where I live) among other things. I barely had time to carve this Pumpkin tonight, and as a result it looks unfinished. It's alright I guess, but I think my Pumpkin from last year turned out better (I had a little more time last year). This Pumpkin is also kind of a weird shape compared to the one I had last year.

I like the classic look. Good work!

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

19 hours ago, Gloves said:

You really need to get over this victim complex thing, man.

I guess I'm missing some kind of context since I was seriously going to vote for it.

Edited November 3, 2022 by Bearcat-Doug

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

On 10/26/2022 at 9:27 PM, SailorScoutMandy said:

I think carving white pumpkins is my new favorite. They light up so cool. 

 

That reminds me of the ones I used to carve as a kid. It's awesome!

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

Gotta go with @bag.  I'm mostly jealous of everyone who can do the reductive sculpting.  For me, everything needs to be cut out of the pumpkin.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

18 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I guess I'm missing some kind of context since I was seriously going to vote for it.

In the past couple of months he's had the bad habit of getting furious whenever he's tagged in anything that he previously participated in or (such as in this case) posted in a thread where it appeared he was participating but is vehement that he's not.  I think Gloves' response was fairly spot on, as I can only imagine how tired of those types of posts the mods and admins are at this point.

[PII | 1,883]

Me trying to make a decision: Hmmm, JamesRobot or bag?

My brain trying to make the decision:  J.Robobag!!

[bag | 58]

22 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

Gotta go with @bag.  I'm mostly jealous of everyone who can do the reductive sculpting.  For me, everything needs to be cut out of the pumpkin.

Haha thanks. I started doing this style pumpkin in 2009. Did the sharks logo and a not so great batman. I used a flat head screw driver for the first 2 years until I got an actual carving kit. Slowly got better at it. Just wish the carvings would last more than a couple of days.

I was never that great at cutting all the way into the pumpkin. Like someone else said, bend the saw trying to do precision cuts, or break off pieces. Do you thin the inside to make it easier to do the cuts? Though that would make it more likely to accidentally break off cut parts back into the pumpkin, which again is one of my problems.

 

Really want to get some clay sculpting tools and try and 3d one some time.

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

48 minutes ago, bag said:

I was never that great at cutting all the way into the pumpkin. Like someone else said, bend the saw trying to do precision cuts, or break off pieces. Do you thin the inside to make it easier to do the cuts? Though that would make it more likely to accidentally break off cut parts back into the pumpkin, which again is one of my problems.

Oh, I make mistakes and cut through at least one critical piece on every pumpkin.  If it's bad and falls through, I'll use a toothpick to stick it back on.

This was the first year the thought occurred to me that I should thin out the backside before carving.  After I was done if course.  This year's pumpkin was particularly healthy and had very thick walls.  I usually have to carve the whole thing then go back over it to widen out the backside cuts using obtuse carving angles so the light shines through nice and bright.  It takes forever.

Edited November 5, 2022 by JamesRobot

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Looks like first and second place, as well as third place are all tied up right now! I do have a plan for what to do if it remains tied, but I'll let the poll fully run its course first just in case there's any last minute voters.

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

@bag@darkchylde28@drxandy@JamesRobot@jonebone@Kguillemette@Krunch@LutherDestroysTheGond@Makar@Mega Tank@NESfiend@RegularGuyGamer@Renmauzo@SailorScoutMandy

Heya folks! Sorry, meant to get to this earlier, but... well, I had one hell of a day to put it lightly, haha.

So, now that the voting has concluded, JamesRobot and bag are tied for 1st place, and SailorScoutMandy and Makar are tied for 3rd place, respectively. As such, here's the solution I've come up with to (hopefully) resolve the ties:
SUDDEN DEATH VOTING!

A couple new polls have been added to the original post. From now until 11/13/2022 at 6 AM EST, just about 48 hours from now, you all may vote for which carving you all like most between specifically JR and bag's, and which carving you all like most between Makar & Mandy's. This is the tiebreaker vote! Or, well, votes in this case.
Now, in the event that at the end of that voting period there's STILL a tie/both are still tied, I'll get myself and a few other members of staff together (an odd amount, to ensure a tie cannot still happen) and we'll discuss which ones are overall our favorites between the tied carvings, and pick the winners that way. I considered simply flipping a coin, but even in this case I'd prefer not to leave it up to random chance if I can help it.

I'd ask that @JamesRobot and @bag refrain from voting in the poll between their own carvings, and same goes for @SailorScoutMandy and @Makarfor their carvings, however you guys can of course vote in the other poll, so JR and bag can vote in the poll between Makar and Mandy's carvings, and vice versa.
Anyway, that's about it, hopefully after this we'll finally have some clear winners, and I'll finally be able to dish out some prizes!
(Also sorry about all the pings again, but we gotta decide on the winners here!)

Also, real quick, while I have your attention, I added a THIRD new poll, since I wanted to get your guys' opinions on something: For future pumpkin carving contests, should I allow more than just carvings? As in, other types of decorated pumpkins, such as painted pumpkins. For this year I wanted to keep things fairly simple and allow only actual carvings to count for the contest itself, but I wanted to get some opinions on allowing things beyond specifically carvings for future contests, since I know some people, particularly a couple other members of staff, expressed interest in doing that. Let me know, and feel free to discuss this in general outside of voting in the poll itself!

Please refer to the original post if you need a reminder on what the tied carvings look like!

[Krunch | 303]

Ooh interesting I almost voted Makar first time instead of one of the two leading so gotta go with that.  And I think painted pumpkins are cool.

 

---- Seems like it won't let me vote on the new polls though

Edited November 11, 2022 by Krunch

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

7 minutes ago, Krunch said:

Ooh interesting I almost voted Makar first time instead of one of the two leading so gotta go with that.  And I think painted pumpkins are cool.

 

---- Seems like it won't let me vote on the new polls though

Really? @NESfiend seems to have voted fine, not sure why it wouldn't be working on your end. Seems to be working as far as I can tell. I could even vote if I wanted, haha.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

1 minute ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Really? @NESfiend seems to have voted fine, not sure why it wouldn't be working on your end. Seems to be working as far as I can tell. I could even vote if I wanted, haha.

The only thing I can think of is maybe since you already voted in the original poll, it won't let you vote in the new ones? That would be pretty dumb, but if that's the case I can just remove the original poll anyway and hopefully that would resolve the issue, the tiebreaker polls are what matters right now anyway.

[Krunch | 303]

4 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

The only thing I can think of is maybe since you already voted in the original poll, it won't let you vote in the new ones? That would be pretty dumb, but if that's the case I can just remove the original poll anyway and hopefully that would resolve the issue, the tiebreaker polls are what matters right now anyway.

That was my best guess as well

[NESfiend | 1,514]

39 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Really? @NESfiend seems to have voted fine 

And that dude has trouble copying files from his cell to his laptop. Its a miracle he got it even assuming its working properly