Fun descriptions of Pinewood Derby cars

[funscout]

Our Pinewood derby is next month and we're thinking about going back to something we did a few years ago. We gave out small trophies to all the scouts who didn't place in the top four, and we had a card with a special award for each one. This took some time, but the boys loved it. I'm looking for more ideas of descriptions that we could use. Here are some of the ones we have used:

 

most colorful car

fastest looking car

wildest looking car

best car with a driver (like a Lego guy)

best animal car

best snack car (one year my son did a watermelon car)

 

I'd appreciate any other ideas. We have a list of the ones we used before, but it would be nice to have several new ones. After the scouts race, we'll figure out the awards while the family race is going on.

 

Thanks!

[clydesdale115]

Fair warning - you're probably going to get a few "why do we have to give ALL the boys an award, anyway?" replies. But I did this last year just in our den at the next den meeting, and the boys and parents got a kick out of it. They knew it was just for fun. Some we used:

 

Best Use of Stickers or Decals

Most Patriotic

Looks Most Like an Animal

Most Colorful

Best Paint Job

Spirit of BSA Award (used BSA logos, etc.)

Good Sport Award (car crashed, etc.)

Looks Most Like a Real Car

 

For their "award," I got a little wooden plaque from Michael's (about 49 cents) and hot-glued a Hot Wheels car onto it. I used a Sharpie to write their name on the back. Nothing fancy at all, but they enjoyed it. We didn't do this just because we were worried there would be hurt feelings about not being a winner - I just like giving our boys a little surprise every now and then. It was more of a memento. Like I said, this was not pack-wide. The Pack provided trophies for 1st, 2nd, 3rd at each rank, plus Design winners at each rank.

We did not do the fun awards this year for our den. The boys are getting older (Bears) - they enjoyed the Derby and making/racing the cars and we left it at that - some were winners, some were not, all were good sports!

BTW, does your Pack provide PWD patches to all the boys or PWD ribbons from the Scout Store? This might be a good alternative if you are just looking to give each boy a memento.

clydesdale115

[funscout]

Clydesdale, thanks for the advice. Our Pack didn't do this because we were worried about the non-winners not getting anything. We always give out the Pinewood Derby patches, and we've also made them their own "driver's licenses", so everyone does get something. It was just so much fun for everyone to hear the creative "awards" given out, and the looks on those boys' faces (especially the Tigers) was priceless! Even my (then) 4th grader got quite a kick out of having the "fastest looking car."

 

Last year the PWD committee gave out small trophies to the non-winners, but they did not give a reason for why the boys were getting them, other than participation. That did not work so great. Only the new scouts (Tigers) were thrilled with the trophies. All the "old" scouts were just disappointed to not get a big trophy. So, this year, I recommended that if we wanted to do something for the non-winners, then it had to be meaningful. I really like your idea of the small wooden plaque with the hot wheels car on it. I will suggest that to the committee. It would be good to do something different, because even with the return of the "creative awards", the older scouts would probably be rather "ho-hum" about another small (non-winning) trophy.

[msnowman]

Our Pack has moved away from the "trophy for everybody" for the reason you mentioned - the older boys know they are meaningless. The things that have been far more popular are awards that are earned. For example, we make ballots and have everybody vote on "Most Patriotic", "Most Cub Scouting", "Most Original" and "Fan's Choice". There is also a "Cubmaster's Choice" (which the CM chooses herself) and a "Den Chief's Choice" which the Pack's 2 DC's decide together. Since those catergories are pretty generic we also used them for voting at our B&G's Guys Cake Bake. Of course we also added a catergory there for the Den Chief's Challenge - the 2 DC's challenged each other and everybody got to vote on their cakes for that specific award. A good time was had by all, so it can't be a completely horrible idea.

 

YiS

Michelle

[ScoutNut]

All of our boys receive a PWD display stand made by our 5th grade Webelos as their final Craftsman project. They also all receive a PWD ribbon & a certificate stating that their car has been awarded the "title" of ___________. The certificate is filled out during the race based on what the car looks like and/or does. One of our boys based his car on the flying car from the Harry Potter series. His car was titled the "Highest Flying". Another car kept jumping the track, so he was named the "Daredevil"!

 

I usually make up a different certificate each year. This year's came out real nice. I found a great racing car background to use.

 

The top 3 boys also get the BSA's red, white, & blue pins for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place. We write the date & place on the pin.

[clydesdale115]

Michelle - I think having "ballots" is a fun idea! My husband just hosted our Pack's Space Derby 2 weeks ago and the award for "Best Design" was voted on by the Cubs! Each Scout was given a cup to place beside his rocket, then they were given 3 beads to "vote" with. The only instructions: you can give yourself one vote (one bead), and use the other 2 beads to also vote for another Scout's rocket for design winner. The boys thought it was great that THEY decided the winner. (Parents, sibs, race officials did not vote :-) I collected the cups and counted the winner - simple as that!

 

ScoutNut - our boys are about to be Webelos - I LOVE the idea of having them make PWD display stands for everyone. Can you provide some details? How many did you have to make? Did you use a pattern/template?

clydesdale115

[DenLeader10]

 

Our scouts receive ballots, too. They think it's cool to vote! The catagories we use are:

 

Scouter's Choice

Best Paint

Most Realistic

Funniest

Wildest Design

 

We also have Cubmaster's Choice and we invite a teacher each year, and he gets to pick his favorite (and it's ALWAYS the car that's obviously done by JUST the scout!)

 

We also invite real race car drivers to bring their cars and show them in the parking lot before the race. The scouts LOVE that. Anyway, we have two Racers' Awards, also.

 

One thing we do that has become immensely popular is to race an Open Class. The theory is that it gives the Dads their own car to work on, so they stay away from their Scout's car. We have 20+ entries this year. We give a trophy for Fastest Open, then certificates to the other entries.

 

I hope that gives you some ideas. I know I've gotten some!

 

DenLeader10

[OneHour]

Some of the categories that we have used before:

 

- Fastest Looking

- Blue Streak (cars that have some blue streaks on them)

- The Patriots (Patriotic theme)

- Firebirds (Firebird decals)

- Silver Lining

- Best Movie Theme (Batman, Sponge Bob, etc)

- Spoiler Galores

- Racer X (cars that look like a racing car)

- Slim Jim's

- Wedgies

- 4x4s

- Trucker's Special

- Boy Oh Boy! (Boy's Built)

- Beginner's Luck

- Speed Demons

- Retro

- Most Realistic Car

- Best Use of Leggos

- Best Use of Figurines

- Best Paint Job

- Best Use of Colors

- Cartoon Specials

 

and probably my favorite (especially it denote the store bought kits) ... MichaelLobby

 

[Tami the Mom]

We don't give trophies to everyone, but we do give certificates to every boy. We've had to add some over the years as the pack has grown to make sure every kid got something different. Some of our newest categories-

 

Baloo's Favorite (chosen by CM)

Akela's Favorite (chosen by ACM)

Pit Crew Favorite

Best Fixer-Upper

Judge's Favorite

Best Non-car (things like pencils and spaceships)

[resqman]

"All of our boys receive a PWD display stand made by our 5th grade Webelos as their final Craftsman project."

 

I to am interested in your car display stands. I have the Webelos II den this year and this would be a cool project for the craftsman badge and a way to thank the Pack for 5 years of fun.

 

Could you please post your plans or describe your stand? Thanks!

[clydesdale115]

Aside to resqman: About the stands for PWD cars, I hope our friend ScoutNut can give some details. In the meantime, I did find this pattern:

 

www.scoutingthenet.com/pinewood

 

Looks like a good pattern for making the stands, although it would still be a pretty challenging task to make one for every Scout in our Pack :-)

 

clydesdale115

 

 

[Herms]

We give the little Pinewood Derby medals from the scout shop for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each age level, Tigers - Web II's.

 

We give out trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd fastest cars in the pack and a trophy for 1st, 2nd and 3rd for Best in Show in the pack.

 

We give each boy a medal (we don't call them participation medals) and a certificate for the following catagories:

 

Best Accessories

Best Antique Design

Best Car That's Not a Car

Best Detail

Best Flames

Best Funny Car

Best Public Safety Car

Best Paint Job

Best Scout Theme

Best Shape

Best Use of Color

Best Use of Imagination

Best Workmanship

Bluest Car

Brightest Car

Coolest Car

Coolest Design

Coolest Paint Job

Cubmaster's Favorite

Fastest-Looking Car

Finest Craftsmanship

Flattest Car

Funniest Car

Greenest Car

Judge's Favorite

Judge's Favorite

Judge's Favorite

Most Aero-Dynamic Car

Most Artistic Car

Most Classic-Looking Car

Most Colorful Car

Most Colorful Paint Job

Most Creative Car

Most Creative Use of Materials

Most Decals Car

Most Futuristic Car

Most Humorous Car

Most Original Car

Most Original Design

Most Patriotic Car

Most Realistic-Looking Car

Most Realistic Paint Job

Most Unusual Car

Narrowest Car

Orangest Car

Raciest-Looking Car

Racemaster's Favorite

Reddest car

Scariest-Looking Car

Shiniest Car

Shiniest Paint Job

Sleekest Car

Smoothest Finish

Sportiest Car

Sportiest Looking Car

Strangest Shape

Tallest Car

Thinnest Car

Yellowiest Car

 

We make sure every boy gets something (thus over 60 categories). I know some of you dont care for this approach, but these boys work hard at these cars and the look on there face when they come up to get the medal and cert for the Scariest-Looking car is awesome!

(This message has been edited by Herms)