"It was a close fight between Entry #2 and #4 but the community
(and our judges) have voted Entry #2 by Miguel Angel as the winner
for XM 2017 Hulk Transformation Contest! We would like to also take
this chance to explain our approval process.
As stated in our
official Homepage, apart
from Creativity, we also factor in Engineering, Licensee Approval
and Production Feasibility. Creativity is important but execution
is just as, if not more important. This is why we didn’t ask for
line art this year – we asked for 3D sculpts.
Our position is creativity isn’t everything (and creativity is
subjective btw). Some of the entries that didn’t make finalists
actually have more creative ideas than the finalists. However they
lost points due to gaps in practicality, composition, details, and
overall sculpt quality. It is important to distinguish concept from
execution.
We have never claimed that all entries will be revealed for voting.
In fact on our official page, it is clearly stated only finalists
decided by XM will be posted on Statueforum. In addition, the final
decision remains with XM and not entirely based on Votes. Even if
we let all entries in, the results would not have changed – the
entries that didn’t make finalists then, still wouldn’t have won
for the same reasons they didn’t make finalists in our books. There
is nothing unfair or at foul play here.
As with any contests, there are always different sides. Everyone is
entitled to like what they like. We don’t ask that everyone agree
with our decision but we ask that everyone respect all the
participants, respect our entitlement as owners of the contest to
decide what is best for our products, be a good sport, be gracious
and stay classy.
Once again, congratulations to Miguel Angel for winning the Hulk
Transformation Contest!"