Today is Star Wars Day – May The 4th be with you – but tonight’s episode of LEGO Masters is not the Star Wars episode. Somebody at Channel 9 really stuffed up the schedule. If you are angry enough to switch off I understand. If not stick around while I recap tonight’s episode.
Tonight is another elimination episode so another team is heading home.
Damian and Andrew decide not to play their golden brick.
The teams are ushered to stand at their desks. Immediately they all notice that there are large baseplates fixed to the top and edge but surprise there are also baseplates attached to the underside of the table.
Tonight’s challenge is called Above and Below. The build time is 12 hours.
Andrew and Damian are given the chance to use their Jordon brick and it’s finally time. Perfect time for it I think as it means they don’t have to keep getting up off the floor to race to the brick pit.
The teams take a little while to come up with some ideas.
And this episode is pretty long and we’ve been promised a twist somewhere so I am going to jump ahead to the finished builds rather than give a play-by-play this time around.
Here’s the results of 12 hours of above and below building…
Jackson and Alex
These two have created a giant mutated earthworm attack. It’s a great concept that fits the brief really well. The decision to make this a retro aesthetic adds a lot of character to the build. There’s a clear story here and all of the little touches tell it well. I like the way they did things like a basement and subway to add extra underneath. There’s a lot of motion to the build too.
Trent and Josh
Another great build from these two. They are kicking some serious goals in the last few episodes and this one is another killer. The story is really fun and has a classic cartoon quality to it. The farmers arms seem to be a bit long but that’s really the only thing I can fault. The farmer’s face is amazing.
Jen & Jodie
I really liked the idea behind an underground Santa workshop but honestly the execution here is not amazing. The launch countdown thing doesn’t really make sense just tacked on to the side of the build and neither do the giant nutcrackers. They are just kind of there. I think it would have been much better if the workshop underground was all industrial looking to contrast the snow on top. These two are probably going to be bottom two again tonight.
Tim and Danni
This build is great. They did an awesome job of building up above ground but also having a lot happening below. I like the way they did the massive hole down to the underground by using black tiles. It works well. The pterodactyl is also really good. The dinosaurs living in underground caverns is a classic sci-fi trope and they’ve executed it well.
Damian and Andrew
This was a really fun idea with one fatal flaw I think. Everything underneath is right at the front, to the point where its attached to the sides. They have great forced perspective above and if they had done a similar thing down below then this could have been a winner. Maybe have some various sizes of fish. Their character work is outstanding. I don’t think they’ll go home but they are probably going to be bottom two.
Firstly here are the top two – Jackson & Alex and Trent & Josh. Jackson and Alex take it out. I think this is a fair call. I really liked this build.
The bottom two are – Damian & Andrew and Jen & Jodie. Unfortunately Jen & Jodie are the ones going home. Brickman chokes up at the announcement.
BUT WAIT HERE’S THE TWIST…
Jay and Stani are back! It’s a build off to see who gets to win their way back in to the competition.
But wait a damn minute. Brickman was just choking up when he announced that Jen and Jodie were going? HAS HE BEEN FAKE CRYING FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS?!
This will be interesting for anybody unhappy with last nights elimination.
The challenge is called Retro Rebuild. The teams have to rebuild a retro item in 1:1 scale. There’s so interesting stuff in the mix including an old rotary phone and a walkman.
There is 3 hours to build. The winning team is back in the competition.
Jen and Jodie pick the Polaroid camera. Jay and Stani pick the Gameboy.
The other teams are up on an elevated platform watching on. Yes they acknowledge that they stole the idea from Masterchef.
The camera has a lot of angles. It could be tricky to get the slopes all correct.
The gameboy is hard because it has a lot to get in to a fairly thin build.
Jay creates a fairly faithful recreation of the gameboy screen both in terms of colour and depth. Their model is a little thick though.
There’s 30 minutes left and the teams are fiddling to get their models exact.
Here’s the end results…
Jen and Jodie – They have done a really good job with this camera. The one thing that I don’t like is the back. By using the pyramid of slope bricks they’ve given it a stepped look rather than smooth sides. Also the top part with the flash seems to be a little shorter than the original.
Jay and Stani – Another great job here. They’ve got all of the details you’d expect to see on the gameboy. The usage of the hats for buttons is some good parts usage. The only issue I can see here is that this is too thick.
This is going to be a tough call. Honestly not sure which way I would have gone. I think the biggest issue here is that in a head-to-head building the judging should be blind. They should have kept Ryan out the back and then got him to pick the winner without knowing who built what, or keep the other teams out and get them to vote. I am not calling in to question Brickman’s integrity but I think it would be more fair if it was blind.
At the end of the day Jen and Jodie win it. They are back in the comp.
On Sunday we are back with Star Wars.
Have to be honest, despite the fact that after two hours we are back where we started, I loved this ep. The Jordie joke never got stale, the twist you knew was coming because there was still half an hour of running time left, the “gantry” etc all created a fun evening in.
I find myself not caring much who wins I just love the ideas and the builds. For the record I think the judging was on point today, they did make a strong point of saying a key part of the retro build would be ensuring it was the same dimensions.
Yep. I think Jay and Stani are stronger builders, and as I said in the other recap they were unlucky the other day… and they were unlucky again because J&J’s build, while not doing anything as clever as that blue-green glass or the buttons, nailed the brief better.
Jen & Jodie met the brief. Damian & Andrew had a nice build but the aesthetic & technical skill they used had nothing to do with the brief so Brickman made the wrong call (and the family were NOT impressed). The show is great but whenever you suspect the producers are in the deal (bringing a pair of favourites back for a second chance) is a little unfair.
Secondly, having the youngest of the family hang in for a May the 4th twist/surprise/reveal on a ‘school night’ was regretable….
A very strong episode but as has been the case all season, Brickman has picked correctly and the team that was least closest to the brief have been the ones to go. It was an exhausting episode to watch but the builders are clearly on it because they are talented, not because they want to be reality tv stars.
My first thought tonight was that they really stuffed up not doing Star Wars tonight but you have to expect the kind of simple oversight from channel nine who have the black hand of death at the moment.
I also am hating their “previews” showing us contestants who are still in the comp a week later, there’s one team who were the only ones not shown for an upcoming challenge… I really hope my theory as to why is true (but requires Sunday’s show to be non elimination to be correct)…
I think their original schedule plan was to have 3 episodes a week, like the first week (and like season one, if I remember correctly). If this was the case, episode 8 would have aired on the 4th May.
But I’m guessing someone higher-up, who didn’t know about the may 4th star wars episode or didn’t have any affinity to star wars and couldn’t care less or thought people wouldn’t notice, changed the schedule from last week onwards to only show 2 episodes a week for some reason (probably covid-19 related to make it last longer or something).
Yes agree with you, the previews ruined what otherwise would have been a great episode. They had shown J&J in the Star Wars episode in the ads that were run all week so knew that they were going to survive the build-off even before it started.
As Channel Nine always do, once they stumble upon a hit they soon overkill it, here with more ad time than show, and an unnecessary tag on trial to extend the shows runtime. I’m now wishing a contestant pairing had forewarned of things to come by choosing for the fairy tale round “The Goose that laid Golden Eggs” tied in with a greedy Channel Nine theme. The model would be the best, but alas Brickman would eliminate them saying the brief was a fairy tale and not a fable.
As someone else mentioned, these last two shows were spoilt as we knew the results by seeing who were and were not in the Star Wars episode trailers. However not spoiled as much by Brickman being compromised by not eliminating the worst builders namely the last surviving female pairing. Trigger warning: I could imagine Channel Nine(fairfaxed owned)could not have the first three pairs to be eliminated to be all of the female pairings that were in the competition. So Brickman eliminated Stani and Jay on lacking 3D that was in episode fives brief, when we can see with our own eyes that their 3D element was hardly any different to some other models. A case of Brickman saying it enough times we eventually believe what he wants people to believe. Anyway If not keeping to the brief was so important, why didn’t Brickman eliminate Andrew and Damian whose model in episode 6 had no part of it built on the upside down baseplate, did they have a previous Stranger Things nightmare, failing to fasten that Lego set’s tricky ‘upside down’ half ?
So in episode 6 Brickman can show there’s no gender bias by eliminating the girls, by not really eliminating them, knowing he can stitch Stani and Jay up a second time. So Brickman you tear up for the girls leaving, knowing full well the script keeps them in the competition. Unfortunately, The deciding flaw for me to stop watching this show, are Brickmans fake tears for the script. A shame because I have predicted the winning pairings every episode, but only getting the elimination right once, as a contestant had pulled the pin on appearing on the show on that day. Really the show is all about keeping the right characters in it the longest. The best female brickbuilder better than half the males, was the first to be eliminated, presumably because to Channel Nine she was less of an interesting character to stay in the show, together with another female pairings walk-off, channel nine soon found they were running out of representatives for half of the population.
It’s a shame Runa was the first to be eliminated, I was looking forward to seeing more of her builds after they showed her Brickvention winner.