[EricH]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

What I was trying to say is that Team Update 3 does not require that teams are the group that fabricated said materials - if the items are made from things exclusively from that list they are legal.

The GDC has not said that teams can go out and buy their X Minibot material pre-formed into final form. They have said that the team can machine said materials. If I were to go out and buy VEX metal (aluminum), I might have a hard time passing inspection as the rules stand. But I can go out and buy aluminum and machine it into VEX metal, and I'd get some funny looks but would probably pass inspection.

There's another way to look at this: Where, on the list of allowed materials, do you find COTS parts? Parts A-E (Tetrix/FTC), I, K-N, P, S, U, X, Y, AA, BB. All the other parts are going to require some modification. Rope, wire, tape, velcro, PVC, and loctite are all going to need to be removed from their containers or cut to length or otherwise worked with. Aluminum and polycarb will need to be cut and shaped and otherwise moved from raw material (the COTS form) to fabricated item.

I don't necessarily like it either, but that's the way the rules are currently written and interpreted. If that's not the way they should be written, then the GDC needs to change that--and I happen not to have access to ask that sort of question on Q&A.