Joystiq pumpkin-carving contest - vote on the finalists!
by Christopher Grant 
{ Oct 30th 2007 at 6:30PM }
Peep the 25 finalists after the break, and vote for your favorites by selecting your favorites in our handy, embedded poll at the bottom. When you're all done, take a leisurely stroll through the gallery to take in all of the entries. We'll close the poll and select our final winners tomorrow, Halloween day, at 6pm ET. Good luck!
Gallery: Joystiq Pumpkin Carving Contest '07
Michael's Wario pumpkin
Stephen's Nintendo pumpkin lineup
V!K Ressy's Raving Rabbid
Tucker's Pac-Man pumpkin scene
Dominic's Raztacular Psychonauts pumpkin
Corey's Mortal Kombat pumpkin
A.S. Kelley's (Shadow of the) Colossus GETTING STABBED pumpkin
Dan's Bubble Bobble pumpkin
Roy's Illidan Stormrage from World of Warcraft pumpkin
Michelle's Moogle pumpkin
MSU_CokeBoi's Guitar Hero pumpkin
Chuck's Master Chief-splosion pumpkin
Kyle's Elephanilla Viva Pinata pumpkin (SMASH IT!)
Eric's Paper Mario pumpkin
Ben's 8-bit Mario pumpkin
Sherita's Resident Evil chainsaw pumpkin
Cory's Weighted Companion Cube pumpkin (won't stab you)
Misako's Master Higgins (yeah, Adventure Island) pumpkin
Nick's Resident Evil pumpkin
Rob's Kirby/Starman pumpkin
Sherita's Shadow of the Colossus pumpkin
Adam's Wind Waker-era Ganon
Christopher's Stubbs the Zombie pumpkin
Michael's Portal pumpkins
Takayoshi's Mario pumpkin sculpture
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
toLkKi @ Oct 30th 2007 6:49PM
GO COMPANION CUBE!
Hashbrown_Hunter @ Oct 30th 2007 9:13PM
Vote for him! He won't stab you...
StalkerB @ Oct 30th 2007 6:49PM
Gah, they're all pretty much awesome, how am i supposed to decide?!
rom @ Oct 30th 2007 6:57PM
You can pick multiple pumpkins. Thank you for that!
Donald @ Oct 30th 2007 7:26PM
There are 10 winners, so you can vote for up to 10 pumpkins.
And GO COMPANION CUBE!
BigDanG @ Oct 30th 2007 6:57PM
Go Bubble Bobble and Adventure Island! My girlfriend and I made it to the finals!
James @ Oct 30th 2007 6:58PM
Pixel Mario deserves to win.
This comp open to US only?
Edog Lost @ Oct 30th 2007 7:03PM
Mario (the sculpture) WTF
Einhanderkiller @ Oct 30th 2007 7:07PM
The World of Warcraft one is amazing.
Darayz @ Oct 30th 2007 7:12PM
Roy's Illidan Stormrage from World of Warcraft pumpkin FTW. Great job. wish I could carve like that.
Mr Khan @ Oct 30th 2007 7:15PM
I like Wind-Waker Ganon
Although Warcraft and Kirby are good, too
Mr Khan @ Oct 30th 2007 7:36PM
Damn, i didn't see the Wario one the first time, page must've loaded unevenly
Is it cool to vote twice?
Magetto @ Oct 30th 2007 7:22PM
Too bad a lot of those were made using pre-made stencils/pumpkin cut-out designs.
Psaakyrn @ Oct 30th 2007 11:42PM
Magneto: Who wouldn't first prepare a stencil to trace on the pumpkin before carving? Seriously, that's a lousy excuse.
Magetto @ Oct 31st 2007 9:48PM
What I meant was that they took stencils off the internet that were made by other people. The Mario, Wario, Bowser, and Stubbs stencils are found on a pumpkin carving website. The Companion Cube one (that won) has been floating the 'round the interwebs for a while now.
Basically I was bit displeased with people not making their own designs.
Sakeyoko @ Oct 30th 2007 7:38PM
The wario and the stubbs pumpkins are Templates from that one site. They shouldn't be in the contest. : (
Arturo @ Oct 30th 2007 7:27PM
Which to pick arggh, so many good ones!
Arturo @ Oct 30th 2007 7:31PM
ok i picked the wow and resident evil umbrella pumpkins
gamabunta @ Oct 30th 2007 7:39PM
The Jack Thompson pumpkin should have been a finalist. Then at the end, we could all see it 'splode.
Chris @ Oct 30th 2007 9:59PM
I wish I would have gotten mine in on time. I goofed up and set it to the wrong email address
http://gameapparent.com/2007/10/28/jack-o-lantern/
JL @ Oct 31st 2007 5:32PM
I would have voted for that!!
Yourself @ Oct 30th 2007 7:53PM
Aren't you not supposed to use premade stencils? Wario, the second entry with Mario, Luigi, etc., Stubbs, all literally came from the same site. Illidan Stormrage and Master Chief also look like stencils, but I don't really feel like doing the research to check, and for all I know, those guys couldve made their own, it's as easy as changing a drawing to black and white and pressing "print". Though nice work on the carving, its still tough to be that delicate.
Chuck @ Oct 30th 2007 8:26PM
Howdy howdy :)
I made the master chief one and don't mind sharing with you that it's not from a template. I did reference a cool image of M.C., but it's pretty hard not to make *anything* without *something* to start with, no? (It would be pretty hard to make a mario head without looking at a pic of mario).
I started with a sheet of notebook paper, designed it in such a way it could be cut without falling apart, then taped that to the pumpkin and etched it with an xacto, which pretty much destroyed my original design (I didn't copy the notebook paper first.)
Btw - In the process I did learn you have to be smarter than an xacto to properly use it. MC is mostly pre-ER visit, the flames are entirely post-ER visit...
What I want to know is -- HOW did he/she make that Mario sculpure???
stephenzerotwo @ Oct 30th 2007 8:00PM
for the record, i made the designs for the luigi and pixel mushroom pumpkins myself, i did not take it from a site. mario and bowser were stencils
Sakeyoko @ Oct 30th 2007 8:23PM
does that mean we should close our eyes for half of your pumpkins when we vote?
DomoBraden @ Oct 30th 2007 8:52PM
Indeed, as others have said, the Wario, Stubbs, Mario and Bowser are pre-made stencils. Proof: http://www.zombiepumpkins.com/pixel.php
That's not cool at all...epic phail.
Anyway, I voted for the Raving Rabbid. It was a tough choice. I really liked the WoW one, both Portal entries, and Nick's RE one. Oh, and the 3D Mario one is really impressive also. Good job everyone, you blew away my expectations...well, except for the cheaters..
Rob Accomando @ Oct 30th 2007 8:58PM
OMG. These are ALL so cool. I cannot pick ONE
Noshino @ Oct 30th 2007 9:21PM
The Shadow of Colossus one looks amazing...!!!
Ben Friedberg @ Oct 30th 2007 9:21PM
8-bit Mario was entirely free-hand. Almost two hours of just playing with graph paper and trying to trace it well onto a pumpkin. I used one of those $2 carving kits from wal-mart and it took another two hours of tricep-torturing carving, trying to make sure that I didn't give him a pixel-ectomy. Needless to say, I woke up the next morning and my arms hurt almost as much as the time I stayed up all night getting WII tennis elbow!
rhoymand @ Oct 30th 2007 9:22PM
yup, I referenced mine (the WoW one) from the official Illidan wallpaper. If anyone wants a copy of the pattern I made let me know. Just be warned, it took me about 6hrs of carving time.
SenseiJinx @ Oct 30th 2007 9:36PM
Holy crap...you're kidding me, right? You actually expect me to be able to PICK one of those?! They're all amazing!
Jeremy @ Oct 30th 2007 9:49PM
That Wario pumpkin, the mario, bowser, luigi, and Stubbs the zombie are bought patterns. I think they should lose points for lack of creativity.
Rob Accomando @ Oct 30th 2007 9:57PM
Joystiq needs to give away 25 copies of Dracula X. One for each contestant.
ThornedVenom @ Oct 30th 2007 10:46PM
SHiiiiiiitt!!!!
Wario or Illidan?!
Damn you contests with only one winner!! >.
Christopher Grant @ Oct 31st 2007 9:38AM
There's 10 winners! Pick your 10 favorites, don't be shy.
ThornedVenom @ Oct 31st 2007 3:42PM
10 winners?! Sweet! Voted, and Happy Halloween!
TWD Industries @ Oct 30th 2007 11:21PM
Wow, I did not expect to get in this (Pac-Man). I decided handle it philosophically; retro carving techniques for a retro concept. Freehand, single knife, pulled the insides out with my hands. It's how we roll.
Christopher7xii @ Oct 30th 2007 11:15PM
Yeah, the Stubbs was stencil from a site (My Bro's pumpkin). Apparently stencil > Creativity, as mine and my fiance's pumpkins weren't chosen (a tetris level in action, and Link's hyrulian shield) and were done free hand.
Eitherway, still takes a steady hand and a bit of skill to do a stencil.
I
dangalf @ Oct 31st 2007 12:59AM
Hey -- I can't believe the editors didn't choose the most impressive entry (and the scariest) as a finalist!
Did anyone else recognize our good friend and patron saint of the video game industry, Mr. Jack
Thompson??? ...
http://www.joystiq.com/photos/joystiq-pumpkin-carving-contest-07/464712/ ...
Completely amazing! Nice work whoever you are, wherever you are.
Sakeyoko @ Oct 31st 2007 1:30AM
that's a really sad story there-- The artist accidentally sent to the wrong e-mail, and the deadline was too late before he finally got it right. (^see post by chris^)
It really is a great pumpkin.
Cheezeman3000 @ Oct 31st 2007 1:27AM
I don't know why it hasn't been mentioned yet but that last Mario pumpkin looks like it took a lot of skill to do... like, not just carving skill, but sculpting skill as well. It gets my vote.
Pierre @ Oct 31st 2007 2:11AM
I like the "Chuck's Master Chief-splosion pumpkin"!!! :)
Rex Dart @ Oct 31st 2007 5:48AM
Just suggesting here that you disqualify all the lame-o scraped pumpkins since this is a pumpkin CARVING contest, not a scraping contest.
Player1 @ Oct 31st 2007 10:10AM
Just suggesting that you may want to look up the definition of carving.
DomoBraden @ Oct 31st 2007 12:06PM
**gives Player 1 a high-five**
Player1 @ Oct 31st 2007 10:07AM
Jack Thompson FTW (that is the only time in my life I will ever say that).
Jackie @ Oct 31st 2007 10:17AM
As the wife of the Jack Thompson pumpkin carver, I wish the rules and other publications were proof-read so the email addresses were correct. Some of the entries are awesome, but I wish stencils were excluded (although hard to tell sometimes). Chris took hours carving this pumpkin and I think Jack is the scariest thing of all!
Monster @ Oct 31st 2007 12:16PM
Takayoshi's Mario pumpkin sculpture FTW for sure. The WoW one is great, but the Mario sculpture is amazing.
Justin @ Oct 31st 2007 1:48PM
To the stencil haters: Where are your pumpkins?? Post some links to the ones you did! If you didn't do one, quit your bitching! If joystiq had said no stencils how would anyone enter?? Only videos of you doing the carving are allowed?? The cool kids like to h8te on 3v3th1ng on teh N3t!!
-I do feel bad for the Thompson guy, but you should have double check the address, somehow everyone else sent theirs just find.
BigDanG @ Oct 31st 2007 2:05PM
Actually Joystiq did say stencils aren't allowed:
http://www.joystiq.com/the-2007-joystiq-pumpkin-carving-contest-official-rules/
Read item #6:
"Designs must be original. No template cutting/carvings allowed."