69.5: Apollo 11 Lander – Winners Announced

1st Place: Glen

Landing in first place is Glen with this impressive interpretation of the Apollo 11 lander. If you’re curious as to how he nailed this, the answer is research: “I built my Apollo 11 Lander by first finding a 3D model of the lander to give myself a better understanding of the lander and its components. I then broke the lander down to its simplest geometric shapes and constructed them first.” Great job, Glen. For first place, Glen is awarded $100.

2nd Place: BCZMC

Floating into 2nd place, we’ve got a lander made of 1350 magnets (aka build-able with a Mandala Set). BCZMC had this to say about their method, “I noticed the strong base of the module and decided it would be best displayed with big hexagons.” I would wager most of our participants made the same assumption. 2nd place earns BCZMC $75.

3rd Place: tend2it

In 3rd place we have tend2it’s lander made of 1045 magnets. This build is a tricky mix of parallel and antiparallel connections, but he made it work. $55 is awarded to tend2it for 3rd place.

4th Place: Cody

Hovering in 4th place is Cody. His build features a nicely faceted base and sturdy legs. He had this to say about his method, “The base was the most difficult piece to design. It had to look accurate and also be stable enough to support all the weight.” For 4th place, Cody receives $40.

5th Place: Chupacabra

Finally, we have Chupacabra in 5th place with the smallest of all the submissions. Further proof that you don’t need a lot of magnets to make things, or win Zen contests for that matter. Chupacabra gets $30 for 5th place.

If you haven’t already, click on the images to check out the original size. And keep in mind that contests held here are independent of the Zen Gallery. Magnet sculptors can always submit photos to gallery.zenmagnets.com to win magnets as well. Spectators, keep your eyes peeled for the next contest, because you choose the winners. Contest Winners, we’ll email you your prizes soon.

Results are in for the 50th anniversary moon landing contest. We had 9 valid submissions.

To recap, the contest was to build a replica of the Apollo 11 Lander entirely out of only Zen Magnets, with no quantity limit. A metal building base may be used, and no photo manipulation is allowed. Check out the valiant entries below:

The Eagle, AKA the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander, is much more that a boxy frame with four legs. Reproducing the geometry of the body was perhaps the primary challenge of this contest.

For some reference, see this NASA published 3D model of the Apollo 11 Lander in 3D by clicking “Thingiview”. If your browser doesn’t support WebGL rendering, you can download the 3D file to view locally, or update your browser.

Follow the voting button below to cast grant your Gold, Silver and Bronze votes. We’ll pick the winners after collecting votes for a few days. The prize pool is $300.