Missed Opportunity -- SHIPtember 2022
The post that kicked off this whole blog was 22 Things To Do In 2022. That post outlined my goals for this year. The sixth item on that list (which was in no particular order) was Participate in SHIPtember.
So,
with the beginning of the event kicking off in just a few short days, am I
indeed going to participate this year?
[Spoiler Warning: No, I’m not. Hence the phrase “Missed Opportunity” in the
title of this post.]
Month-Long Build Challenges
Today’s post is about one of the month-long build challenges for the AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO) community. Sometimes the challenge is to build a MOC or MOCs (My Own Creation, to differentiate an original model from a set mass produced for sale, complete with instructions) within a certain theme. And sometimes the challenge is to build one comparatively large MOC within the confines of the month.
I know that there is at least one month-long build challenge for every page of the calendar, but I don’t know them all. I know that SHIPtember starts in a few days. [And is not to be confused with Shiptember (with no extra capital letters), which is a month-long artists’ challenge to draw 30 relationships – fictional couples, love triangles, and so on.)]
The next month is Ma.Ktober (sometimes Ma.Ktoberfest). Ma.Ktober is a challenge to build soldiers and combat technology based on the very specific esthetic of the Maschingen Krieger universe, about which I know absolutely nothing other than its name. (And I had to look that up online just now.)
The month after that is NNoVVember, which is dedicated to building Vic Viper style starfighters. The double V in the name is obvious based on the theme, but the double NN is in honor of an AFOL called Nnenn who was known for, among other things, his incredible Vic Viper MOCs.
What are the challenges for December and January? No idea. FebRovery is dedicated to building rovers. Think high-tech, quasi-robotic planetary exploration units and vehicles.
And
then there are all of those other months too.
May and August and so on. Maybe
some others. They’ve all got monthly
build challenges, and I’m currently blissfully unaware of them all.
What Is SHIPtember?
The purpose of those who accept the SHIPtember challenge is to build a SHIP in September (and only September.)
As the story goes, back in 2013, Simon Liu (one of the major players in the AFOL community who goes by the nom du brick Si-MOCs) decided that he wanted to build a SHIP. Realizing that his chances of actually completing a SHIP would be much greater if there were other people building SHIPs as well, he issued what he probably thought was a one-time challenge. The first SHIPtember.
He was expecting maybe a handful of builders to take up the challenge, but by time September was coming to a close, there were far closer to 100 than a handful. SHIPtember had been born, and much like Frosty the Snowman, would be back again someday. September 1st of the following year, in fact. And the September 1st after that. And the September 1st after that. And so on…
The word SHIP has two meanings here. The first obvious one is that it denotes a spaceship. The second meaning is the acronym. SHIP is in all caps because it stands for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts. Because building a typically sized SHIP requires lots and lots (and lots) of LEGO pieces.
The exactness of the acronym varies. I’ve seen ‘Seriously’ replaced with Significantly, Super, and other convenient s-words. I’ve seen ‘Parts’ replaced with Pieces. I’ve even seen people focusing more on the temporal than the physical, and replacing that last word with Time. But the specific acronym that produces is not really family friendly, and I get the idea that the SHIPtember people discourage its use.
My good close personal friend the Internet tells me that way back in the day, the acronym was originally Seriously Huge Interstellar Plastic.
At
any rate, SHIPs are big.
SHIPtember Rules
Size: So just how big is SHIPtember big? For this challenge, your spaceship has to be a minimum of 100 studs in one of the classic dimensions. SHIPs are typically long, but I’ve also seen them built either wide or tall. (For those of you trying to visualize this – If you’re familiar enough with LEGO to know what I’m talking about between these parenthesis, 100 studs is three standard sized baseplates plus a standard two by four brick long.)
I was in the midst of writing this post when all of a sudden, one of the less sane voices in my head started whispering: “Borg Cube… build a Borg Cube”. Which made me think, what a SHIP that would be. 100+ studs wide AND 100+ studs long AND 100+ studs tall. Fortunately, several of the other voices in my head wrestled that first one to the ground, pried open his skull, and stabbed him in the brain with a pickle fork. So I’m good now.
Timetable: As the name of the challenge would seem to indicate, you build it during September. You can begin building your SHIP at the stroke of midnight on September 1st, but you have to be finished by 11:59:59 on September 30th.
But those start and end times only apply to building your SHIP. Designing your SHIP? Sourcing parts for your SHIP? That sort of thing? Not only allowed but likely encouraged to take place in the months leading up to SHIPtember.
Scale: Builder’s choice. It can be any of the standard LEGO scales (primarily minifig-scale, miniland-scale, micro-scale), or possibly even a non-standard scale. (What’s smaller than micro? Nano, maybe?)
Most of the SHIPs that I’ve seen coming out of SHIPtember seem to be all smaller-than-micro-scale. Representing colossally huge capital ships and the like. My intention when I finally attempt SHIPtember is for a minifig-scale SHIP. (More on that later.) If you’re using miniland-scale, you’re probably building a small 100+ stud starfighter. And, I suppose, if your pilot if in the same scale as the 10” tall figures (like the Harry Potter & Hermione Granger set that LEGO released last year), you can probably get away with building a one-person escape pod.
Type of SHIP: Spaceship. So don’t try to build a 100 stud+ rowboat or schooner or some other traditionally ocean-going vessel, and try to count it as a SHIPtember project.
And while it does have to be a spaceship, it’s also indicated that the exact definition of spaceship is up to a certain amount of interpretation.
Materials: When I was preparing to write this, I discovered I was wrong about something. (Making me very glad I did some research to verify this stuff.) Because I was almost positive that one of the SHIPtember rules was: to qualify for SHIPtember, your MOC has to be built with real LEGO bricks. Not real as in LEGO rather than MegaBloks (although, please don’t build with MegaBloks), but real as in physical as opposed to virtual.
But reading the rules for the current year, they say that your SHIP can be built out of real LEGO bricks, or digital LEGO bricks assembled in a virtual environment. (And, right there in the rules, it mentions that the virtual option has always been allowed, so I’ve no idea where I picked up the opposite impression from.)
Other Rules, Suggestions, or Traditions: It’s fairly common (okay, incredibly common) to document the construction of your SHIP with photos, posting WIP (Work In Progress) shots to the appropriate places on the internet. (These places are currently Flickr and Discord.)
And once your SHIP is complete, you upload your official SHIPtember SHIP photo. Sometime in early October, a poster is created of the annual SHIPtember armada.
And while these spaceships are optimally to be seen from the outside, if time permits, you might consider building your SHIP’s interior as well.
It’s probably just common sense, but in case it isn’t, I have to address the concept of structural integrity. If you neglect some kind of stable structure inside of your ship’s hull, then one night you’re going to hear a crash coming from your LEGO build space, only to find that your SHIP has fallen apart into large (or possibly small) chunks. This is even more likely to happen if you own a cat. (Another reason why I live with a plush walrus. Cyrus rarely ever knocks my MOCs over.)
I,
personally, have never seen any official stance on swooshability. (The ability to pick your SHIP up and
‘swoosh’ it around in the air while making laser blast noises with your
mouth.) I would assume that
swooshability of a spaceship isn’t taken into consideration for a SHIP.
SHIPtember Results
I think that the primary goals of SHIPtember are personal honor and bragging rights. Yeah, inclusion on the armada poster is a nice perk. But is there anything else? Glad you asked…
There
are awards. Sometimes trophies. Also, and you all know this is of specific
and personal interest to me, there are badge bricks. (How many badge bricks each year? The classic amount. As in, not-enough-for-everybody.)
SHIPtember Morn
Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I’m a big Neil Diamond fan, and ever since I started writing this, I keep finding myself singing “SHIPtember Morn”.
Okay,
look, maybe just skip this section, move on to the next one.
My Involvement In SHIPtember
The first time I heard about SHIPtember I thought to myself, “That’s awesome! I am definitely going to participate in that next year!” And then during the course of the next year, I did absolutely nothing to prepare for the event. No gathering of parts, no conceiving a design. Nothing.
And, it’s been like that pretty much every year. But I decided that this year would be different. I decided that 2022 would be my year. Clean out the LEGO room. Order parts. Sketch out designs. Spend that magic month building the ship. Get my ship included on the poster. Maybe even get one of those SHIPtember bricks for my brick bandolier. It would have been glorious! Had it actually gone to plan.
But instead of doing any of the necessary prepwork, my body opted for this ungodly insomnia I’ve been suffering from all year, and of course, those 58 days of the flu.
I can actually step foot inside of the LEGO room, but I cannot yet walk into the room to where the table is. (More accurately, where I suspect the table should be, underneath all those heaps of stuff.)
I’ve gotten no parts specifically for this year’s SHIPtember. And the design ideas that I have are vague at best.
But
next year…
Musings on My SHIPtember
I’ve currently started the process of stockpiling parts. Spending an unhealthy amount of time on Bricklink. Gazing longingly at parts bins from photos on Facebook’s LEGO Pick a Brick Exchange Group, and wondering how many 2x8 curved slopes will fit into a large pick-a-brick cup. (And then what shipping will cost to get it to me.)
The parts that I know I’m going to need a lot of I’m trying to acquire quickly, so that I know which parts (if any) I’ll need to request this winter during that phase of LUGBulk. (I’m hoping to avoid needing parts from LUGBulk, as that would probably push my first SHIPtember all the way back to 2024.)
I’ll probably write a post about LUGBulk as we get closer to preparations for the 2023 LUGBulk. (Unless on some dark stormy night I’m visited by a group of black robed LEGO ambassadors with orders to “change my mind”.)
So
far I have no designs down on paper, but since I can’t draw worth a tinker’s
damn, that’s not unexpected. But the
ideas in my head? Beautiful! Absolutely gorgeous!
SHIP Specifics
Upon exiting my most recent dim age (unlike most AFOLs, I’ve never had a long period of ‘dark age’ time that was completely without LEGO), and discovering that internet LEGO fandom existed, one of my goals was to produce a webcomic.
Build sets, pose minifig characters, take photos, add speech balloons and captions in some kind of photo editor, and then move onto the next panel.
I’ve had probably a dozed reasonably good ideas for a webcomic, all of which I ended up talking myself out of. The most recent of which was for a strip called “Ship & Crew 4 Hire”. And I wanted to build the titular ship for SHIPtember. The Astrochelonian. (Space Turtle).
The plan was to build individual rooms – ‘sets’ like in a movie studio – to photograph the characters in, and then build the SHIP around those. But the more detailed my plans for the story got, the bigger the Astrochelonian needed to be. And at minifig-scale, that started to get pretty damn big indeed.
Then the entire format of Ship & Crew 4 Hire changed from webcomic to prose novel (or something) and I no longer had the legitimate reason to build its vessel. I’ll be talking more about Ship & Crew 4 Hire sometime next month.
The current SHIP in my head is once again minifig-scale, and not tied to a specific story from my head. (Well, not a developed and fleshed out one, anyway.)
I’ve decided to not go into details about just what that SHIP is until we get closer to SHIPtember 2023.
But that’s it for me for now. I don’t have an onrushing SHIPtember to prepare for this year, but I do still have blog posts to write. Oh, so very many blog posts…
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