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DVICE, SCIFI.COM and MAKE present the 'Make a Cylon' contest

dvicemakecylon.jpg

OK, we know you guys are psyched that the new season of Battlestar Galactica is starting up soon (April 4, in fact). So are we. In fact, today DVICE, SCIFI.COM and MAKE magazine are kicking off a big contest to celebrate the return of the show. The plan: design a Cylon and win.

You know the Cylons — that fanatical race of genocidal robots? There are a bunch of different kinds, from toaster-like automatons to human-looking androids to fighter planes, and the idea is for contestants to mod something (or create something from scratch) to make it look like a Cylon. You can put photos of your entry on Flickr or video on YouTube with a special tag or just send them in to a specific e-mail address we've set up (details after the Continue link below). Judging the entries will be none other than BSG cast members Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. The best ones will be featured on the SCI FI Channel!

Read the full details by clicking Continue. (And feel free to shout out "By your command.")

"MAKE A CYLON" CONTEST
The Cylons were created by the people of the Twelve Colonies. Intelligent robots, they were used as slaves and soldiers to fight humanity's wars. But the Cylons became sentient and they rebelled. Man and machine fought to a bloody stalemate, then the Cylons withdrew to a remote region of space. A truce between the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons lasted for 40 tense and silent years. Then, on the 40th anniversary, a stunning blonde — a Cylon in human form — met the human envoy… moments before the Cylons vaporized the station and launched a genocidal attack on the Twelve Colonies.

Now DVICE, SCIFI.COM and MAKE are giving you the opportunity to create (or recreate) the Cylons for fun, a chance to win prizes, and the possibility of seeing your creation on the SCI FI Channel.

HOW TO ENTER
"Make" a Cylon: Use whatever you like: blinking lights for eyes, metal armor as a costume, toasters… anything to show the world that you're a Cylon maker. The only caveat is that it has to be something physical (no Photoshop/art entries). Your Cylon can be of the humanoid or robotic variety, real or abstract, or anything else you can think of. We'll also accept entries for creations in the general Battlestar universe (ships, devices, etc.), although our preference is for Cylons.

To enter, make your Cylon or "Battlestar-related project" and put photos/videos online. If you use Flickr and YouTube, tag your project with "dvicemakecylon" and add it to the MAKE magazine Flickr photo pool.

Or just e-mail a link to the project(s) or photos to: dvicemakecylon@gmail.com

PRIZES
The best entry or entries will be featured on the SCI FI Channel. Other prizes include:

  • Battlestar Galactica DVD box sets for seasons 1, 2 and 3
  • • Battlestar T-shirts, posters and other exclusive swag
  • • 10 MAKE year one box sets signed by the MAKE team!

Prizes are limited by supply.

JUDGING
Cylons Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer) will judge the entries.

RESOURCES
You can design your Cylon any way you want, but here's an "open source" kit that makers have used to make things more "Cylon-y":

MiniPOV kit (with Cylon firmware, we can have one the code on the chip in advance)

MiniPOV Cylon firmware

Each week on DVICE, SCIFI.COM & MAKE we'll have examples, projects and ideas for building your own Cylon, you can enter as many times as you wish.

WHO CAN ENTER
Open only to entrants who are permanent, legal residents of and physically residing in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia (excluding Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands and all other US territories), who are 13 years of age or older at time of entry. To be considered, all entries must include the Entrant's full name, date of birth and a valid e-mail address.

END DATE
The contest will end at 12:01 a.m. the day after the premiere of the mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica, which will air on SCI FI at 10 p.m. on June 13, 2008. So the contest ends at 12:01 a.m. on June 14.

UPDATE
Hey folks, thanks for the entries so far. Hope you're having a great time designing your Cylons. A few good questions have come up about the contest, so we've updated information about the contest's end date and who is eligible to enter. Also, to clarify: 1) Yes, your Cylon can be modeled after a centurion (new or old), a "human" Cylon, a raider or even a basestar. So say we all.

 
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(48) Comments

PeterPachal:
The results are finally up! Check them out here: ht...More »


Comments

By cylonlover at 3:46 PM ON 03/21/08

I'm sumitting my toaster, as is.

By Al at 4:00 PM ON 03/21/08

When will the contest end?

By blade at 5:50 PM ON 03/21/08

i think the showe is the best scifi seares ever

By jumper at 8:43 PM ON 03/21/08

can you make a radier

By DeathToll_David at 10:03 AM ON 03/22/08

I'll just send in a picture of my wife. She has to be a cylon.

By Roboman at 10:33 AM ON 03/22/08

Too Cool, I just entered my robot Boomer!

By Quinn at 2:31 PM ON 03/22/08

BSG Rules

By Jakab at 1:39 PM ON 03/23/08

Hi!!

By Jakab at 1:42 PM ON 03/23/08

Hi!!
It's a good show!
Maybe the Best...

By KRISTIANSEN at 9:07 PM ON 03/23/08

This is a cool contest. I say leave good enough alone.

By CptXavier at 12:03 AM ON 03/25/08

What about a cylon ground unit that is simialar to a tank that can also change into a plane to return to the base star??? Sorry, had to go Transformer on this one. LOL

By spaci at 12:00 AM ON 03/26/08

Gotta know - can Canadians enter this one???? I think I may just HAVE to enter. Suppose a papparazzi pic of Tricia Helfer from the BSG set wouldn't count, huh?

By Linza at 2:34 AM ON 03/27/08

Is there a deadline, and if so, what is the final date to submit? Are schematics or blueprints appropriate, or will photos do?

By stanman01 at 10:37 PM ON 03/27/08

love the shows and number six

By Iridium at 1:08 PM ON 03/28/08

Sorry this might sound redundant...
Do we have to use cylons from the recent BSG or can it be from the original series? When is the deadline? Are there any age requirements?

By rick at 11:16 PM ON 04/02/08

Kitt could whoop a centurions tail.

By Merat at 5:26 PM ON 04/03/08

When does this thing end? Rather an important bit of information to leave out!

By HowardC at 12:49 AM ON 04/04/08

IRIDIUM... if you had seen the BSG razor special you'd know that the old bsg cylons have been incorporated into the new cannon as the original cylons from the first war 40 years ago. They have been designated as centurion model 0005.

By imelroy at 2:12 PM ON 04/04/08


Hillary Clinton is a definitely a Cylon. Note the ability to cry on cue and the lack of emotion or reprisal when her husband was caught in a game of hide the salami with his intern. Also, she is bent on world domination no matter how many fellow Cylons are lost in the process.
Cylon for sure.

Cylon for sure.

By MightyDogFood at 7:53 PM ON 04/04/08

Ooooh. Fun... Let's all build a clay model of some crazy @$$ cartoon Billary and send THAT in.. maybe a toaster model with her voice? And definitely wearing pants...

By HyBridE at 11:39 PM ON 04/04/08

I will design and construct my version of the Basestar.

By EPacioles at 1:58 AM ON 04/05/08

Sound interesting! Game ON!

By Sanfritto at 1:04 PM ON 04/05/08

wow cool.. this is gonna be fun .. am not an artist but will do my best

By Roboman at 8:02 AM ON 04/06/08

When does the contest start and end?

By anon at 12:04 PM ON 04/06/08

Roboman,
It started when they posted this.
According to http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/03/battlestar_galactica_cont.html
the deadline is:
Last submission by the mid-season finale, winner announced the following Monday.

By 45CaliberKiss at 12:29 AM ON 04/07/08

Woot! I just finished my entry. If you wanna take a look here you go: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tHh0nBkjXwc

Can't wait to see how this all turns out.

By Professor at 5:42 PM ON 04/07/08

One of my old time classic one hit wonder and the evolution of it's special effects and robotic engineering a marval.Though the show is great the drama drags me down overall it's a great movie.

By mrmunkeepants at 6:20 AM ON 04/11/08

due dates:
according to wikipedia, the 10th (and last known) episode is set to air on May 30th.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Battlestar_Galactica_%28re-imagined_series%29_episodes#Season_4

By StargateSG7 at 4:13 PM ON 04/11/08

This will be fun...Does it matter if
my version will weigh about 1000 lbs+
and be about 10 feet tall, made of machined titanium, be fully autonomous with multi-ton capable hydraulics and be as limber as you and I...or...would that scare real humans too much? Where do I deliver it to....and by when?

By raptor1 at 2:24 AM ON 04/19/08

i will make my own battle stare

By DAD at 2:48 AM ON 04/30/08

Is this another SciFi scam like the "make a BSG video" was so you can promote another one of you company friends when they win? I refuse to participate in another SciFi 'BS' contest. Because that is what they are BS!

By sidnei at 8:47 PM ON 05/01/08

desejo maiores informações acerca do personal helicopter

By D4l3k at 7:37 PM ON 05/03/08

I still think Doctor Who is better than BSG

By Promus at 12:26 PM ON 05/14/08

Well, the descriptions of the Cylons sure don't take the Classic BSG into account!! Cylons weren't made by humans and there aren't any lame "human-type" Cylons...gimme a break!

The Cylons were created by a reptillian race who were wiped out by their robotic servants. There ARE different models, but they're all cool-looking bad-ass robots. At least the original series didn't go the cheap, tired old overused method of "human type androids" to have robots on a show without actually having to spend the money on robotic costumes - and the New BSG can't afford to feature the CG Cylons, which are more expensive than physical costumes would have been.

By Dexter at 8:52 PM ON 05/21/08

If i had the proper equipment I will built a Cylon better than iron man himself...

By puffball at 5:58 PM ON 05/22/08

i read that Dick Cheney is a robot, but why would anyone build a bald robot that can't shoot? obviously, George Bush is not a cylon, as no one would make a robot that is so stupid.

By Finch at 8:34 PM ON 05/23/08

This is truly the best show on Television, I don't just watch it for the great visuals, but more so for the great soundtracks.

By raunak at 7:42 AM ON 05/29/08

thanks for giving such a nice chance for me

By 1212 at 7:33 PM ON 05/31/08

I Don't get it

By GALACTIC MYTH at 12:08 AM ON 06/02/08

When Will the Winner be selected?

By dedunphy at 3:14 AM ON 06/14/08

I'd love to get my hands on the DVD's. I haven't seen the new series, but I love SciFi.

By 2LATE at 3:16 PM ON 06/15/08

Of course I just learned about this 14 hours too late. So, I might as well dump my idea here, though I doubt I'm the only one to think of this. I wanted to stick the "scanning" LED's inside a stainless steel toilet. This model would be called "The Real #2 Cylon"

By DrSevrin at 12:23 AM ON 06/17/08

Cylon Neck Geek

Back when I was a kid, life was going swell.
Till something happened, blew Caprica to hell.
That night my daddy stumbled in, all pale and weak,
Said "A Cylon up the block just gave birth to a geek."

Mom said, "Sell it in the circus, what the heck."
Dad said, "Nope, this one's a hybrid neck.
And if there's one thing lower than a side show freak,
It's an oil eatin', data suckin', Cylon neck geek."

You see if you take a Cylon that won't stay dead,
Looks like a toaster merged with a head,
Add an Erector set body with a brain that squeaks,
You got yourself an oil eatin', Cylon neck geek.

(chorus)
Cylon neck geek, oil eatin' freak,
data suckin', chrome head with a metal physique.
It's a one eye, no gut, loosing streak.
Nothin' but a Cylon neck geek.

Soon the toasters were poppin' up all over town.
You couldn't hardly sneeze without knockin' one down.
After a nice juicy steak, if you need a toothpick,
Just reach for a Cylon, they'll do the trick.

One day we cut one up to make a rake.
Learned our lesson just a little bit late.
Soon as the rake hit the yard, it leaked lots of lead.
Next day, sure enough, all the plants were dead.

chorus

Most any night you know where I can be found.
Yeah, stomping some Cylon's head into the ground.
So keep the faith 'cause in Adama you can trust,
I won't give up 'til the last Cylon bites the dust.

chorus

They say, "these Cylons come a dime a dozen."
I'm lookin' for the guy who's supplin' the dimes.
Its gonna be real hard times for all of these
oil eatin',
data suckin',
axle lickin',
dust kickin',
metal grindin',
chrome bitin',
frak sniffin',
rust pickin',
wire scratchin',
hybrid hatchin',
greasy,
smelly,
flashlight bellied,
gritty, lousy, rusting, stinkin', freaks.
Nothing but a Cylon neck geek.

By SilverB1rd at 10:45 PM ON 06/23/08

When will we find out who won?

By Dr Emel at 10:53 AM ON 06/24/08

Hello? McFly!? Is this thing on??

By blackhawk at 2:21 PM ON 06/24/08

Weren't we supposed to find out the Monday after the Mid-Season Finale?

By PeterPachal at 11:45 AM ON 06/26/08

Hey guys,


We're going to post the winners soon. Sorry, we got backed up due to all the entries.

By PeterPachal at 6:47 PM ON 08/13/08

The results are finally up! Check them out here:

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/08/at_last_dvices.php

Thanks for your patience, everyone!


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