"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!"