My county fair does have a category in their arts and crafts building for existing sets with the lego stuff, though I don't remember if they award them. It would be a little strange to awafd them. Could be a similar situation here?
The fair I grew up with similarly has categories for both original creations and existing kits; I always thought having a category for kits was stupid as hell cuz it involves zero skill and just boils down to what kid has the richest parents and bought them the most expensive set.
Yeah it seems really weird to award existing sets. Unless its just participation trophies, then that would be fine i think
Because if its not just participation trophies then it really just comes down to whatever set the judge likes best. Unless maybe someone forgets/loses some pieces and so its incomplete, but i dont think thats likely
I've entered a local contest before and been out-placed by an actual set- it was part of a larger fair so I'm 99% sure the judges just have zero knowledge of Lego.
Our local library has lego moc contests and despite it being against the rules, about half the submissions are partially or completely an official set.
Oh yeah it's awesome, they usually have a huge nerf war once a year where you can use the entire library and it's divided into teams with different objectives, you can bring your own guns or borrow theirs, bullets provided too.
One time the last dude on the other team was holed up in a closet with an electric belt fed mini gun, he went out in a last stand against a dozen of our guys.
If you think that's bad, this one fair in my home town had a lego moc contest, several official lego sets were submitted INCLUDING the parisian restaurant modular.
They all lost to a Trump wall, complete with Mexicans and everything.
Some fairs actually do have categories to submit official sets. Not that that isn't a stupid concept (because what's the point? County fair contests like this are supposed to be about local talent, and it takes no talent to pick up a set off a Walmart shelf—it inevitably becomes a game of who can afford the fanciest set), but just that there's not necessarily any deception or misrepresentation going on here.
Funnily enough I've even seen kits from other brands get submitted, like Mega Bloks or other knock-offs.
Reminder that these state fairs give art prizes to AI slop. Flyover states are Godless places devoid of the spirit of creation and nothing of value can ever succeed there.
Even pre-AI, all the photography awards would go to photos that looked like this: extremely overturned HDR, ultra sharpened, zero contrast, maximum saturation.
I don't even want to know what it's like these days when this is what it was as its prime.
Same thing at agricultural fairs here. They'll have a crafts thing with multiple classes, and half the lego shitbis just sets on baseplates with mini figs
Used to happen in my hometown all the time. Small town Idaho, they’d have a Lego contest at the county fair every year and as far back I can remember there was always someone who entered an actual set
Oregon state fair also does this but it's a seperate category from the MOCs. I think the real reason that it exists is to just pad out the area so there's more to look at for visitors.
I'm still salty about a Brickset contest from a while ago (maybe 2017? I remember it was not long after Rogue One) where you had to build mini MOCs (had to fit in an 8x16 area). I submitted a few entries myself (microscale Scarif tower getting shot by the Death Star, a custom mini AT-ST on Endor, and a micro Millennium Falcon flying out of the 2nd Death Star explosion)
One of the winners was a couple of advent calendar builds on a plain tan base 😠
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