After a super fun low stakes episode we are back and it’s time to send a team home.
There are two builds tonight including the chance for our teams to head outside for the first time ever.
Teams arrive to find a brickbuilt helipad and a DJI drone. They don’t mention that it’s a DJI drone so they probably aren’t an actual sponsor.
Today’s first challenge is called dragon race. Each team gets a drone that they will have to turn in to a dragon that they race around a course. Joss just got very excited.
Brickman lays out the technical issue today – they have a maximum weight of around 250 grams. Teams have 3 hours to build their dragons.
Nick and Gene are doing a bone dragon to keep the weight down. I think this is a good idea in terms of balancing weight and aesthetics.
Joss is the dragon guy so he’s got the expectation to create something awesome for this. They decide to do a Chinese style dragon so they don’t have to do wings. Another good idea.
Kirsti and Dan are doing a green forest dragon. Lots of natural elements. They are also going to add a minifigure to their build. They use an upside down crocodile as their dragon head.
Trent and Paul are not feeling super confident on this one so they are doing something different – a “dragon-fly”.
Lexi and Rachael are doing classic red dragon.
Branko and Max are doing a banana dragon. It’s a great reference to the previous episode. I like it.
Alex and Caleb are doing a water dragon. It’s looking a bit chunky. They test it and can’t get it in the air. The error they are getting is “Gimbal Stuck” which doesn’t sound weight related.
Branko and Max get their banana dragon in the air but it needs tweaking.
All the other teams get stuck in to testing. Feeling intimidated by Joss and Henry, Nick and Gene decide to make their wings bigger. It’s not the size that matters it’s what you do with them.
Alex and Caleb get their chunky water dragon flying.
Nick and Gene are struggling with their new bigger wings. Bigger isn’t always better.
Hamish reveals that they are heading outside. Teams are magically transported to the SCG.
The dragon race works like this – it’s a classic time trial. Teams have to pilot their dragons through a series of gates. The fastest team gets a bonus point while Brickman scores the builds themselves.
Trent and Paul
The Dragon-Fly is ugly but I like the colour choices. Trent is the pilot today. Their time is 1:13.
Kirsti and Dan
The green forest dragon scores highly for aesthetics. Kirsti is the pilot and heads off but misses the second gate then crashes on the second attempt. Their dragon is dead.
Nick and Gene
The bone dragon looks great even though it’s only one colour. It also looks super flimsy, particularly the wings. Gene smashes the flying with a run of 41 seconds.
Branko and Max
The banana dragon is pretty funny. Max is flying today and does the run in 57 seconds.
Lexi and Rachael
Their dragon looks very stereotypical. Lexi pilots the dragon straight in to a pole.
Alex and Caleb
Sure the water dragon is chunky but that does’t mean it isn’t cute. Alex is flying today and after almost taking out the rest of the teams they get a time of 1:22.
Joss and Henry
Their Chinese New Year dragon is very pretty. It’s going to come down to speed on this one. Henry hits the second gate and they have ruined their chance at the bonus point.
Nick and Gene get the bonus point and they head back indoors to find out who gets the advantage.
Brickman’s top two teams are Nick and Gene, and Joss and Henry. Nick and Gene take it out thanks to the bonus point. Nobody can beat Nick and Gene.
The next build is called “Grandscapes”. They have to build a big landscape. Teams have 10 hours.
Nick and Gene have the advantage which is not a disadvantage for another team. No bananas tonight.
Branko and Max are attempting a grand canyon with gold mine.
Joss and Henry are not super confident on this one. They decide on a secluded waterfall.
Alex and Caleb both love doing landscape builds so this could be a good challenge for them. Their build is going to be grandma’s cottage with a big grand mountain in the background.
Trent and Paul are doing an Egyptian themed build.
Lexi and Rachael are doing a winter wonderland. They are going to have mountains and a cabin. Hopefully they inject enough colour in to this.
Nick and Gene are doing a fountain of youth. They are doing two big mountains.
This is a very mountainy day.
Kirsti and Dan are doing something slightly different with a lighthouse on a rocky cliff with a ship in distress in the water below. This was the sort of thing that first came to mind for me so I hope it wins.
Kirsti wants a big black wall as a backdrop but Brickman warns them that they are going to run out of time. This seems like foreshadowing.
Branko and Max are working on their build and Brickman does a classic “change this because I hate it” thing.
Nick and Gene get their advantage. It’s Brick Butler Hamish. This seems like more of a nuisance than an advantage.
Joss and Henry decide to go microscale for their buildings so that their build looks bigger.
Kristi is confident in their idea but with an hour to go they might be in trouble.
Alex and Caleb are also running out of time.
Joss and Henry have some great microscale animals in their build which I think will help with setting the scene.
Time’s up and there are some very grand looking landscapes.
Unfortunately it’s time to find out which team is going home.
Joss and Henry
A really wonderful build. The choice to do microscale was genius. Definitely a potential winner today.
Alex and Caleb
While not a bad build at all I think being so similar to Joss and Henry’s overall concept did them no favours. There are also little issues with this that would have been fixed with an extra hour.
Kirsti and Dan
I actually love this. It’s taken the brief in a direction different to the other teams and I think it’s well executed. The backdrop seemed silly at the start but it totally works. Brickman agrees. There are just some minor issues with the cliff faces.
Trent and Paul
The use of so much of a single colour was bold. It’s not bad at all but I think it’s middle of the pack today.
Lexi and Rachael
Another build that heavily uses a single colour. I think there is enough splashes of colour with the trees. Brickman thinks the scene is a bit too static.
Nick and Gene
I think they have done a great job of telling a story. Unfortunately the way they set things out you don’t really see all of the details. Not going to win tonight.
Branko and Max
Brickman hates there sedimentary layers and doesn’t really have anything nice to say about their build. I thought it was pretty good.
Time for the final results…
The top two teams are Joss & Henry, and Kirsti and Dan. I would give this to Kirsti and Dan but I think Joss and Henry will take it out. And they do.
Unfortunately it’s time for the bottom two teams. Branko & Max, and Caleb & Alex. I am big fans of Branko and Max but I think they are going home tonight.
Yep. Branko and Max are heading home. Everybody seems genuinely upset by this one. Coincidently it’s started raining inside my house right now. He wanted to build LEGO with his son!
I hate these episode where Brickman gets it in his head that he doesn’t like something and sticks with that. There are plenty of examples of sedimentary rock layers that are flat if you google it. I’m not saying I necessarily think the wrong team went home, I just would love to see a second judge to balance out these situations where Brickman seems to pre-determine that he hates an end result.
I would have loved to see Kirsti and Dan win tonight, I loved the composition and they nailed the brief with a big ship and tiny lighthouse to force the perspective. I was very surprised Brickman didn’t pull others up on it- the size of Alex and Caleb’s house made their mountain look like a small hill, and I can only assume Nick and Gene built the world’s largest fountain.
Every series I love seeing how much support the teams have for each other, and I’ve heard it’s not the same in other regions, but tonight took it to another level. If the show continues for another few years I suspect we’ll see a lot more teams like Max and Branko.