ToO Flashback - The Birthday Builds

A place to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the best message board on the internet!
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bookworm
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ToO Flashback - The Birthday Builds

Post by bookworm »

For the first twelve years of this site, part of the traditional birthday celebration was the creation of a special yearly birthday present. Built by the smiley crew of Arkman Construction, under coordination by DanP740, the project took place in a construction thread where progress could be viewed bit by bit as members guessed what the final product would end up being, then the grand unveiling was included with the official birthday announcement on April 1st.

As a new way of viewing these old memories I thought it would be fun to animate the images from each build together to create a timelapse of the construction, so I went ahead and did that and also wrote a little description of what each of the presents was.

These compilations are neat for seeing the progression of the images, but I encourage also reading through the original threads where each update was posted as Dan gives insights there into the details of each step of the construction which often include fun easter eggs. There are also a few supplemental images provided in some of them which I haven't included here because they weren't part of the build structure itself. Also the images shown here are not full quality, I downsized the originals to make these slideshows.




1st Birthday (2006) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The Official Town of Odyssey Birthday Cake

While the birthday builds would eventually begin constructing permanent buildings, it all started with a giant cake. Formed from individual cake bricks built up into a structure, it served as a platform for the birthday commemoration and then a celebratory feast afterward.
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2nd Birthday (2007) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The Official Town of Odyssey Second Birthday Cake

Another cake stage, this time serving as the venue for a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. He has always had an association with our site due to a running joke among old ToOers of mentioning how our founder Shadowpaw somewhat resembled him.
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3rd Birthday (2008) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The Smiley Factory

It resembles a cake to keep with the theme, but this is in fact a building. This was the first present to not be just a temporary experience but a permanent construction which benefited the town long term. This factory increased the market production of the local community, and in fact provided a boost to the real life ToO forum economy by adding a new Smiley Factory Worker position to the job system.
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4th Birthday (2009) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

Birthday Cake Concert Stage

This creation wasn't permanent, but its impact was. The celebration for this birthday was a big concert featuring the return of Steven Curtis Chapman as well as a heavy metal band. The cake stage was constructed on some abandoned farmland the crew purchased. After the performance was over and the cake was eaten, the land was restored and a family moved in to tend the newly renovated farm making the area a productive property once more.
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5th Birthday (2010) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The Official Town of Odyssey Fifth Birthday Cake

Another cake stage, but this time impressively sculpted into a figure five rather than being a traditional platform shape. Because this design wouldn't accommodate five of the usual candles, a single high-efficiency propane burner was used for the light.
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6th Birthday (2011) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

Apartment Complex

This year marked the transition from making cakes to constructing buildings with long term uses. Comprised of six buildings to commemorate six years, these apartments helped house our growing community. It also includes a memorial to forum member StrongNChrist, who passed away a few days prior.
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7th Birthday (2012) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The ToO 7 Year Memorial

A monument celebrating seven years online, honoring our founder Shadowpaw and administrator Catspaw.
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8th Birthday (2013) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The ToO 8 Year Memorial

A sculpture designed as a mix of a figure 8 standing for eight years of the ToO and the infinity symbol standing for the ToO lasting forever. The base contains commemorative plaques for some of our notable citizens.
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9th Birthday (2014) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

Homer-Iliad Retirement Home

As our town is getting rather aged in internet years, for this birthday a place for old ToOers was built.
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10th Birthday (2015) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The Odyssey History Museum

A place to educate and reminisce about the storied history of our first ten years online and the new history created in the years still to come.
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11th Birthday (2016) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The Town Council Building

With a design representing crossed digits of a figure 11, this building served as headquarters for the Town Council during Term 31 and then became general office space.
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12th Birthday (2017) Construction Thread | Final Reveal

The Paw HQ

The final birthday build was a new office for Catspaw to conduct her administrative business out of.
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Bonus Builds: Arkman Construction has also been contracted for a few other projects around the town.


For the one year anniversary of the Whit's End Podcast they built the Podcast Cafe offices and studio.
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They also built Unnamed Arena, originally constructed for the inaugural BAKDBDFD celebration and now used as a convention center.
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Petrichor
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Post by Petrichor »

I forgot all about these! What a fun way to look at the builds, especially the construction that happened before my time here.

Happy birthday, ToO! :birthday:
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Post by Catspaw »

This trip down memory lane far exceeded my expectations! \:D/ Dan's smiley surprises were a highlight for many years and it was so fun to see them all. Thanks for making this happen, bookworm. :D

*retreats back into her fancy paw-themed office building*
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Post by DanP740 »

Bookworm approached me earlier this year asking if I would like to put together info on my past builds, and I as I went through everything a few weeks ago, creating many pages of notes, I felt like the ToO turning 20 deserved another present from me. I didn't have time to do any construction pictures, but decided on making something. Here it is:

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StrongNChrist 1991-2011
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Post by bookworm »

That's great Dan! I had a feeling this special birthday might encourage you to make something again :D

And yes, stay tuned for a companion piece to this review of the past builds that will be ready to post in the hopefully somewhat near future where Dan shares some behind the scenes details from the different iterations of this ToO tradition!
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Post by Catspaw »

That's awesome, Dan! Thanks for making another birthday smiley surprise. Those smileys are getting so talented and quiet that they can build clandestinely now. :D
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Post by Marvin D. »

So fun to see this, completely forgot about them!
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