Gallery: The No-Foil Stanley Cup contest honorable mentions

In case you missed it over the weekend, we revealed the top three finishers in our No-Foil Stanley Cup Replica contest. Which means it's time once again to publish some of the honorable mentions in our competition, allowing you good readers the opportunity to tell us how completely wrong our selections for the finalists were.

Like, for example, longtime readers Allison Lujan, Stephanie Lujan, and David Avila from OC, Calif., who entered the No-Foil Cup above:

We have an ice Stanley Cup (because you have to have at least one ice cup in this contest.) The base is one entire piece and the entire thing was made out of nothing but ice. It was really annoying to put together but we think it actually came out better than we thought it would. That's Stephanie in the Ducks jersey and Allison in the Red Wings jersey.

Indeed. Like we've said in previous post, the ingenuity of these entries was inspiring and astounding. (You have to see the Lujans' other submission involving fish later in the post.) Here are some No-Foil Cups that impressed the hell out of us but just missed the final cut.

And here ... we ... go.

Darren C. created ... uh, whatever this is. Darren?

Built from LEGO. Six pieces to be exact. Pictured with two octopi and three bushes on a blue base. I didn't time it, but construction took what felt like 17 seconds. 

Funny, we would have guessed 18 seconds.

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: OK, not every one impressed the hell out of us. Because we're not giving out an award to something that looks like a cork surrounded by some barber shop clippings.

From reader Steve B. comes this image which is all sorts of adorable:

Love Puck Daddy - long time reader, first time email sender.

Attached is my lame snow Stanley Cup entry. Annually, when the rink is made in the backyard, the snow Stanley Cup is made too.

The attached 1996 version was waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy ahead of its time with my son James showing off some new Phoenix Coyotes Hamilton Tiger Cats paraphernalia soon to be available at NHL.com (over GB's dead body!) and Copps Coliseum.

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: What, no names? If you're going to do the job, kid, do it right. Slacker.

This was a really, really tough one for the judges. From Cezar Soares and Brad Brooks:

We made our replica cup for work purposes about 2 years ago and then entered and won a National contest in Canada last year in the Scotiabank Build Stanley contest.  For winning this contest we won 4 tickets to Game #2 of the Stanley Cup Final in Detroit last year, $2,000 spending cash ($500 each person), transportation to and from Detroit and a 2 night stay at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center. Our trip also included a guided tour of the Joe Louis Arena by Al Sobotka and a private 1 hour session with the real Stanley Cup hosted by Mike Bolt, one of the keepers of cup.

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: Honestly, this is what made the contest tougher than we figured it'd be. How does one judge a note-perfect replica "with over 100 hours invested into design and fabrication" against something someone baked in someone's kitchen? Basically, we decided that ingenuity, rather than precision, would be weighed more heavily. Hence, a Stanley Cup made out of wood in 100 hours got the nod over an admittedly awesome piece by these cats.

From 'kukicker17' comes this beauty:

Our Replica is made completely out of foam. Working in the exterior insulation industry made the task of constructing the Cup not too difficult. The dimensions are 20% larger than the actual Cup and it weighs the exact same as the actual Cup. This is an older photo, and since it was taken, 2 coats of 'mud' have been applied to strengthen the foam itself, leaving just the finish coat to be applied. The design is flawless, and it's served it's purpose EXTREMELY well since it's construction was completed, just before game 6 of the finals last season...

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: Uh ... er ... uh ... poop, we got nothing. Great job, fellas.

From Puck Buddy John B.:

This is Lord Stanley's Cup in 1/35th scale. As a plastic modeler, participating in this contest presented an interesting challenge as material for this topic is not readily available at my local hobby shop. Or any hobby shop for that matter. (No, Tamiya doesn't offer a kit of the '95 Stanley Cup winning devils, sorry Wysh. They'd probably have difficulties scaling Brodeur down to that size any how.)

So everything featured in the picture is scratch built, for the most part. The cup is to scale, down to 1/35. Since I'm not perfect, I'm quite positive that it may be off by a fraction of a millimeter or two. The cup is fashioned out of three sections of wooden dowel, cut and shaped with a Dremel tool. Then it was painted with silver and finished with a coat of floor polish. Then I applied decals to represent the inscriptions.

The man hoisting the cup is wearing Edmonton colors, circa 1980's, but has no logo or name. The reason for that is simple. I didn't leave enough room on the front of his jersey. Also, my moderate skills at small, detailed painting would probably have not been sufficient enough to scribe the various complexities of an Oilers logo, or any other logo come to think of it. I figured if I omitted the logo, I would also omit the name and number. Whatever, I'm sure some haters are gonna gimme flak for that.

In any event, I had to scratch build a jersey, hockey pants, shin pads, and skates for the player, which was once a 1/35 scale Marine, out of putty. I then proceeded to attempt a half decent paint job for the jersey. In my opinion, I think he bears an uncanny resemblance to Maximus Decimus Meridius from Gladiator, but that's just me.

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: We felt this one was more about the figure holding the Chalice than the Chalice itself. Well, that and we didn't want to give our Calgary readers any more night terrors from Edmonton championships.

Bangin Panger's entry. Hot damn, was a glorious mess.

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: Leahy said, we kid you not, "It's too big." Like Han Solo looking at the Death Star for the first time, or someone seeing Marty Turco's five-hole during a shootout.

Michael F. came to our NHL Awards Party in Arlington and wondered where the hell his entry was for the contest. The answer: SPAM filter. (D'oh!). From Michael:

My cup was hand crafted from Solid Oak.  It is regulation size and weight. The construction was done using a segmented bowl technique on a wood lathe. It is made from 552 individual pieces. Over 100 hours went into the construction.

Wait, that was my other entry.......

My cup was hand crafted from an Apple that has been aging on my counter for a month.  It is 1/3 the size and weight of a normal apple.

The construction was done using a pairing technique with a knife.  It is made from one piece.  Over one TV timeout went into the construction.

Its tough to read because I am using a Cell Camera (you never said it was a photography contest) but the names on the cup are "Fiji" "Gala" and "Green"

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: Apple? Snore. Had this been a nectarine ...

From Joseph Fleming of Cole Harbor:

A couple years ago, I was doing the finishing touches on my Rec Room, designed in everything that is my Blessed Habs. I needed a cup. I tried to find a nice one on line. Something life size. But to no avail. I then figured, hey, the guys I play Shinny hockey with every week will never get to hoist the cup, even though we all grew up with that exact dream. So I'm gonna make us one we can all hold dear to our heart. Hence, the COLANDER CUP was born.

So I went to Canadian Tire to begin my search. In less than 10 minutes, Not only did I have an idea, but I had a Garbage Can, 3 Mixing bowls, a Spaghetti strainer and receipt that I had to hide from my wife. Because it was all going to be destroyed. And there'd be nothing to eat when I was done. I figured showing the receipt when I was done was the best course of action.

I put a rod through the whole thing, my wife and I (mostly my wife) designed a nice plaque, and after the next season. All of our names were engraved on it. As will happen every year from now on.

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: Because we won't be swayed by babies. And because Cole Harbor has won enough this season.

Matt G. offered this amazing cake:

This photo was taken October 5th 2007 at our rehearsal dinner.  Husband is from Pittsburgh, wife is from Detroit. The entire cake is edible, our baker made silver icing and the cup is pure sugar. It was about 2 ft tall and showcased with the Penguins and Red Wings pucks on either side. Little did we know that 8 months later they would be playing each other in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Wings took the first one, here's hoping the Pens get it back.

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: Operative word was "baker." We have a Cup Cake in the finals, and it was made by a cop instead of a pro. So this was a technicality.

Finally, back to the Lujan family:

Reason It Didn't Make The Cut: Because we stink.

Seriously, great job, and thanks to everyone who entered this contest. Our next bit of fun will hopefully be later this summer. And we have an epic plan for another reader participation contest for the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Oh yes, we do.