LEGO Masters US Show

[KotZ]

So, just a discussion on the LEGO Masters (US) show, in case anyone is watching. As a full disclaimer, I did work on the show in the challenge department, so I will be slightly biased, but I also want to provide an insight into this show as best I can, and if anyone has any questions, I will answer to the best of my ability. For each episode, I'll state/show what I was able to do/build, and my own thoughts.

First, I was really lucky to be brought on to the show in any capacity. I was working on another show that the production company for LM was doing, and the executives saw the LEGO tattoo on my arm and mentioned the show. I basically handed them my resume right then and there. I was brought into the challenge department (where one of our Challenge Producers is also an AFOL), and for around three weeks before we got on set, I was tasked with organizing the layout of every single element we would have on set. Yup. Over three million bricks total for the show, into the thousands of individual element types. This job is a dream come true for me; I got to design my dream LEGO storage room. So for three weeks, I worked with our Art department and my computer to figure out how exactly every brick would go on set, organizing down to what color and type would go into each drawer. Came up with why things were the way they were, etc. No small feat, I think.

In addition to this, the first episode was our Dream Park Theme Park, and I learned what the challenge was about: A theme park, yes, but one with a monorail. My head exploded. I wasn't old enough for the monorail sets, so I'd get to see one in action here. But then I learned I was tasked with desiging the layout of the monorail and make sure it works. And we didn't have any monorail parts in stock yet. Luckily I found a website (I can't find it ATM but will update when I can) that had all of the monorail pieces, essentially a top-down version of LDD, and designed a rough draft of the layout. In my opinion, it was really cool, but it was way too complex. One of our Associate Producers (essentially my boss) took a stab at it and made his own design. We then married the two concepts together to what you see on screen.

As for discussion of the episode, I'm really happy with what I saw. Jamie and Amy are both incredibly nice (more on talking to them will come), and I'm excited I got to talk with them at different points throught the show. I remember when we were doing this first episode, we were pillaging parts from some sets (namely the Jamie Coaster) just to grab a few extras, and he walked past and joked how sad he was to see this happen. I complimented him saying it was an awesome set. Seeing the builds in person was like nothing else. Like being at a LEGO convention but it's a job that everyone can see.

[ChrisW]

Thanks for the insight and your work on the show! I’m currently watching the episode and it definitely seems more similar to the Aussie version we had, rather than the UK version.

[Kit Figsto]

Thanks for the insight!  I watched it and though it was pretty good.  It seemed like the pair that won the first challenge, and then the two bearded guys, the two young women, and the two guys that built the Egypt model stuck out to me as the best teams there.  It seemed like there were a few groups that didn't really get much attention at all, namely the Egypt guys, the two older guys that built the Halloween model, and the two brothers.  

[oo7]

Thank you for sharing this behind-the-scenes account. I figured I'd check EB for a topic on the show and to see if anyone knows if some of the competitors post mocs online. Since you have insider info, can you also say whether the teams had any assistance (for example with motorization) or if there was anything else notably not made apparent to us viewers?

[KotZ]

1 hour ago, oo7 said:

Thank you for sharing this behind-the-scenes account. I figured I'd check EB for a topic on the show and to see if anyone knows if some of the competitors post mocs online. Since you have insider info, can you also say whether the teams had any assistance (for example with motorization) or if there was anything else notably not made apparent to us viewers?

Nothing weird behind the scenes not apparent to viewers, really. We couldn't help them at all, aside from if a piece in the Brick Pit had run low/out and they were needing more, so we would need to refill them on set from our backstage area. All the teams had some experience with motorization/Powered Up at some point as well. Everything they built was theirs and nobody (from the crew) could touch anything for sake of fairness.

[ChrisW]

Something I did notice was that our episodes were an hour long, which gave the creations and trams more airtime and room to breathe. I think the 30 minute episode time was a bit too short.

[KotZ]

2 hours ago, ChrisW said:

Something I did notice was that our episodes were an hour long, which gave the creations and trams more airtime and room to breathe. I think the 30 minute episode time was a bit too short.

Technically the show is about 42 minutes, I think, but I agree personally.

[meliander]

Just watched it yesterday on Hulu. I really liked the show, the presentation is just amazing. Will Arnett was great, too, as well as Jamie and Amy. I really liked how some of the builds were animated via stop motion - it was such a wonderful idea to do that. There were a couple of emotional moments, too, which I liked. Overall really liked the 1st episode and looking forward to the next one. @KotZ How often and how long do the builders take breaks during the competiotion. 15 hours is such a long period of time - I'm just wondering how they managed that time (since it was not covered during the show), especially for those folks who were falling behind on their builds.

My personal opinion is that the team with Boon should have won - they had such an extraordinary concept of the roller coaster - if there is any information on why the mechanism failed at the end - I would be glad to know.

[joeshmoe554]

I wish the show spent more time on the LEGO creations and less time on the people, but I typically hate reality TV so I understand they are not catering to people like me.

Overall, it's one of the better contest shows I've seen.

[KotZ]

On 2/7/2020 at 7:10 PM, meliander said:

 @KotZ How often and how long do the builders take breaks during the competiotion. 15 hours is such a long period of time - I'm just wondering how they managed that time (since it was not covered during the show), especially for those folks who were falling behind on their builds.

I'm not sure how teams managed it, honestly. It's a crazy build time. I think it really comes down to each individual team's style.

[pombe]

@KotZ Thanks for sharing!  I can't wait to see more of the season.  I figure as more teams get eliminated, they'll have more time to cover the MOCs.

I figure the show provided meals for the contestants and they ate when they could fit it in?  15 hours is not a long time for the first challenge.

I do admit that I was confused by the father/son team when the father clearly pointed out that their roller coaster wasn't going to work and the son just said to ignore it.  And I'm not an expert on power functions, but even I found myself yelling "gear ratios!" at the TV when that one team was having issues with their bumper cars moving too fast.

[Mikeysee]

I thought it was kind of underwhelming.  They didn't spend enough time looking at the creations to really give the viewer a sense of what was good and what wasn't.  Then at the end they pretty much skipped half the teams so by the time they announced the winner you really didn't have a clear idea of why they won instead of someone else.  The show just didn't feel like it had much meat to it.  And though I love Will Arnett I don't think he was a good choice to host.  He adds good flavor but he really doesn't have anything to say when it comes to Lego, he just seems disinterested.  That's where Jamie and Amy should be really valuable but they didn't get much screen time and when they DID talk it was usually brief and didn't have much depth.

I think there's a solid foundation there but it really needs to improve (and most shows like this DO after the first few episodes).  I'm excited to see more but I hope they introduce restrictions and parameters to future challenges.  Something like giving every team the same set of 3000 pieces and a theme and see who comes up with the most innovative design.  Or "create a walking contraption that can climb a 20 degree slope".  Something more than "build whatever you want in this theme with unlimited pieces".

[Artanis I]

Man, what's with all the cartoon characters in the show? And I'm not even talking about Batman Will Arnett. Is it just par for a 'reality show' course? The Australian version had almost entirely down-to-earth genuine people. Makes it harder for me to watch - I'm only here for the Lego, and there's already not much focus on that.

I was also wondering whether this was supposed to be promotion/advertising for Lego or for bad facial cosmetics. All the women had different coloured skin on their face from their neck and collar, and many had like 10kg of makeup piled on top of that.

It's cool that they have actual set designers there, as good as Brickman was. Apart from that, they seem to be following the same basic direction as the Aussie series, just with more drama focus.

 

One thing this version has done to really impress is by having a decent freaking MONORAIL in it, and in the first episode no less...

[KotZ]

I'm still hyped about that monorail. God I wish we could get monorails again.

So episode two aired last night. The AFOL inside of me hated the destruction, but the kid in me loved the idea of making something that could be smashed. that purple nipple monster though gave us all nightmares... and made us lose a bunch of purple bricks. When it came to shooting the destruction, everyone stopped to watch the explosions. Seeing the slo-mo was awesome.

Anyway, that detonator that was used was one of my builds. The challenge for me was to make it compact enough to not look unwieldy, but still have enough room to fit all of the components to make the button work, like batteries, wires, etc. Art department was adamant they would need to glue everything, something I was against just because I hate seeing LEGO glued. Basically I just built the box as a shell, and then reinforced it with 2x bricks throughout, especially to help support the removable lid. It was a fun build for me because I had the added challenge of wanting to make the box look like the 1x4 tiles that have the caution printing. All I did was use slopes to get that diagonal look, something I hadn't done recently because I didn't have the parts in my personal collection for my own MOCs. 1x2 profile grille bricks were thrown in there as well to give some added texture just because.

[Redhead1982]

 

 

 

1

On 2/6/2020 at 9:00 AM, KotZ said:

So, just a discussion on the LEGO Masters (US) show, in case anyone is watching.

Does anyone know where and/or how to watch the LEGO Masters outside the US, particularly in Europe? Despite my effort, I can't find a valid option. 

[KotZ]

@Redhead1982For your question, I know the show also plays on Hulu, but that might region locked to the US, maybe shown in some other countries based on licensing agreements. Sadly, I don't have any other answers for you.

As for the show, episode 3 was last night. It was an episode where I was off site for 10 hours of the day due to where we had our test parts, as there were some variants on challenges we wanted to figure out. I was overseeing testing at the time (I did help test one or two challenges later on). In the mornings I went to set for an hour and a half, got to see the builds from how they were at the end of the night, and helped sort parts from builds being broken down.

I had two builds shown in this episode, the two heads Will holds in his interview showing what sculpting can do. The first, basic head was incredibly easy to do. Mainly 2x4 bricks, 2x6 bricks, and 2x2 bricks with some plates. The second, sculpted head was much more challenging and went through a few iterations to what you see on air. For me, this was one of my more difficult builds as I've never sculpted a head before, or anything really. My builds are usually minifigure-scale or close that, sometimes microscale for BotBS.I really felt out of my element here. Things from eyebrows to lips were analyzed and swapped out. Rounding the face was a challenge. I think in the end, the head came out fine, in a sort of cute, cartoonish way, not as realistic as what some really good builders can do. I did quote Hamlet when I held this build in my hands. He was named Yorick.

[pombe]

@KotZ Great job on the detonator and Yorick!  It must be great to see your MOCs featured on the show!

I have to admit the first three challenges were very cool.  Who would have thought to build a MOC with destruction in mind?  And the half sculpture was a great idea, too.

I'm going to say that I've been most impressed by Tyler and Amy so far.  I thought their alien and telescope MOCs were fantastic!  Their MOCs are the most well composed and thought out...their choice of colors is always perfect and makes their MOCs pop more than the others.

I do feel bad for Jessica, I hope she and Sam can improve their relationship as the show progresses.  I also feel that Mel and Jermaine don't get their fair share of air time.

[ShaydDeGrai]

@KotZ Thank you for all your hard work, the set looks great and your MOCs definitely add to the product as a whole.  Sadly it feels like your behind the scenes experiences are more interesting than the show itself.

I'd never seen any of the international versions of the show before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I've seen thus far has left me a bit disappointed.  I'm not a fan of "reality" tv in general, but from what little I've have seen I think the show runners should have spent more time mimicking the formula of a show like the SyFy channel's Face/Off (a SPFX makeup/creature design contest).  Between the casting and the cutting, I'm not sure if the show wants to celebrate talented AFOLs as artists or put them up for public ridicule as a bunch of weirdos with poor coping skills who get stressed out while playing with toys.  That sounds a bit harsher than I intended but to date it's hard to know where the show's heart is.   I really don't want a show about "interesting personalities/stereotypes" hosted by a guy acting like drunken frat-boy.  I want to see MOCs front and center, not simply as an excuse to get partners bickering or freaking out about time constraints.

On Face/Off, the host is there to get the ball rolling and get out of the way.  The judges and guest experts are there to critique and advise.  And the show itself is about the artists' creative process of vision, design, execution and final product.  Sure, there are the obligatory meltdowns/conflicts, but 30-35 minutes of each 42 minute show is focused on the product and process, not the personalities.   So far Lego Masters seems to have flipped the ratio, barely giving the MOCs any screen time while focusing on the antics of the host and the interpersonal dynamics of contestants.  Maybe I'm just a boring old dude myself, but I'd rather have the show filled with ordinary people producing great MOCs that speak for themselves than a cast of made-for-tv personalities that seem (thanks to the cutting room decisions) to spend more time talking about their art and their feelings than actually creating anything.  The MOCs should make the audience want to understand the artists, the artists shouldn't be a spectacle in their own right.

Should any contestants be reading this (or judges, or production hands, etc.) I mean no offense to any of you, I've caught glimpses of interesting MOCs and I'me sure that over the course of these marathon builds there has been no shortage of footage that shows the design process, works in progress, on-the-fly redesigns and all the other aspects of the creative process what could really showcase the talent everyone has brought to the show.  My disappointment is really with the way the show is cut, mistaking conflict and stress for "drama", reducing complex personalities to cliches, and shortchanging rather than showcasing the creative process itself.

Perhaps once the crowd thins out, there be more time to focus on the MOCs.

 

 

 

[Redhead1982]

I found the series on hdmo.tv with no regional limits, at least here in Europe.

As for the show, I agree with @ShaydDeGrai. It's focused more on the drama than MOCs or the building process. I'm watching it to see the MOCs, not the stress and drama. I mean we all get frustrated when something fails, but I don't run crying around or yelling at my building buddy. To me it's a hobby to relax and certainly that's the message I'd like to see the public gets.

I wonder how the teams were selected. For the UK show they had auditions and they showed them during the show. For the US show, I know certain AFOLs were reached out to, including me, with invitations to apply. Not the best way, in my opinion. My experience was a bit weird, as soon as I wrote I'm not a US resident, all the communication stopped. Auditions should be more appropriate, but also more costly to organize. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to see the show develop.

 

[Kit Figsto]

Last night was the first episode where I really thought that it was tough to pick out the two weakest builds.  Manny/Nestor's Western scene was really, really good, but it definitely lacked when they added in the aliens.  The top two builds were both pretty fantastic in terms of both storytelling and their actual building techniques.  I think as the weeks go on and only the best teams are left, it'll get a lot better as we can see each one more than the first few weeks when there'd be a few minutes here and there dedicated to showing the builds.

[KotZ]

This was an episode I didn't get to see much of on set, sadly. I did build all of those popcorn boxes and popcorn. I originally didn't make them sturdy enough, so before we actually had them on set, I had to take a few apart and rebuild them to be strong enough. I also wanted to make them round but found I didn't have the time to build enough or to make them sturdy enough. When I was building them, Brick Master Amy walked past and said "Nice popcorn!", which has been a highlight of my career.

[ShaydDeGrai]

To give credit where credit is due, I felt episode 4 was a marked improvement over the first three.  It still wasted a bit of screen time on personal drama when it could have been focusing on the builds (and they kinda spoil the ending giving far more screen time to the (soon to be) departing team and the eventual winners than the middle of the pack) but the needle was definitely pointing the right way this time.  I hope they continue to improve and keep the focus on the process and products rather than personalities.

@KotZ as always, great job on the set dressing and thank you for your contributions to this show.

[pombe]

I agree that the episode 4 is better than the previous 3.  All the hosts seem to feel more comfortable in their own skins (Will Arnett in particular seemed so uncomfortable for the first couple of episodes).  And the surprise guests in episode 4 actually made sense, as opposed to episode 2 where they did the "let's bring a random celebrity with a PhD because only nerds play with LEGOs, even though she doesn't really have anything to do with the brand, because celebrity guest!".

The judges' top two picks were pretty spot on.  For some reason the Baby Shark song kept popping in my head, though...

And @KotZ the popcorn was awesome!

[karmajay]

@KotZ Great job! On the show!

My SO and I really enjoy it. I think they are doing a better job showcasing the builds as there are less teams but I expected there to be a lot of variation do to the reality show aspect. I can say my SO actually cried during episode 5 so although they are showing a little bit of drama they are also doing a good job of showing how the people that are normally friends or teams really care about each other and what they do.

 

I wish there was a way to see some mocs that the contestants have build off the air. I'm sure the show is not a great show case for all the people due to time limits and twists. I'd love to see some MOCs they display. :)

[KotZ]

Thanks, guys! one of my builds last episode, but it happens. And I agree, I'd love for something like a website to showcase the MOCs.