Joystiq pumpkin-carving contest - vote on the finalists!

56 Comments by Christopher Grant Oct 30th 2007 6:30PM
Filed under: Sony PSP, Joyswag

Over the last week you've gotten a sneak peek at some of the entries into our pumpkin-carving contest. Now we've whittled down the entries to only 25 finalists and, believe us, picking those 25 proved to be quite a chore! Now it's your turn to select the 10 winners, each of whom will receive one copy of the beautiful 2.5D Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP, courtesy of our pals at Konami.

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

Tags: Castlevania, Dracula-X-Chronicles, jpcc

(Page 1) Reader Comments

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.

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

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. : (

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!

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

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.

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."

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