Here are the GEARS OF WAR 2: THE SOUNDTRACK Steve Jablonsky-signed CDs contest winners!

A little over two weeks ago we started a contest on this blog. The spoils? Three copies of the Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack CD... personally signed to the winners by composer Steve Jablonsky (the creative force behind the musical scores for Transformers, Desperate Housewives and a wazoo-load of other movies and television shows and other stuff). But in order to be eligible to win one of 'em, entrants were asked to send in a picture of themselves doing their best impersonation of any character from established Gears of War canon. Not a "costume contest" so much as that this was about conveying character and heart.

So we were giving away three Steve Jablonsky-signed copies of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack... and this was an easy contest to judge 'cuz three is exactly the amount of entries that came in! So the following three individuals will soon be getting their grubby lil' paws on one of the CDs. Thanks to everyone who entered and thanks to Steve Jablonsky! :-)

The first winner is Mike Casteel from Burlington, Kentucky. Mike sent in this photo of himself posing as Chairman Prescott, the leader of the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Looking at this great pic, you can practically hear "Armored Prayer" playing in the background...

The next winner is Adam Solomon from Bay Shore, New York. He sent in this pic of himself as Marcus Fenix. Or as I like to call it: "Marcus getting out of the shower in the morning after a night of killing Grubs"...

And finally, there is Jay Ballance from Cranbrook, British Columbia. And Jay did not play it safe. He made what some might consider to be a very risky move by portraying a Gears of War character that we don't have a single image of at all! What did Jay do? In his own words...

"Carlos (Dom's older brother, from the book. From the chapter where him and Marcus are guarding the emulsion pipeline, in freezing temperatures.....lol)"

Yup, Jay went with Carlos Santiago from the novel Gears of War: Aspho Fields, complete with cold-weather garments (and check out that awesome cardboard Lancer!)...

Congrats to Mike, Adam and Jay! And we appreciate the effort and cleverness that you went to in this contest :-)