New Channel 4 Lego TV show "Lego Masters"

LostInTranslation

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/channel-4-launches-contest-to-find-most-talented-lego-builders

They were looking for entrants a while back, any Bricksetters involved? 
Sounds like some cool characters involved, with Matthew Ashton, Bill Bailey and Richard Osman mentioned. 

Starts Thursday 24th August, 8pm on Channel 4. There's four 60 minute episodes if I'm reading it right. 

BooTheMightyHamster

Neat!  I'll look out for that!  Anything that reinforces the message with Mrs Boo that it's still cool to be interested in Lego when you're *cough* years old is good stuff.

LostInTranslation

http://www.radiotimes.com/amp/news/2017-08-09/new-channel-4-series-to-find-the-most-talented-lego-builders

Is that a couple of Brickshire guys in there on the left? Steve and.... I can't remember his name!! If it's even  the guys I'm thinking of. @Salamalex will know! 
Glad to see there's some ladies involved. 

Salamalex

Yes, that's Steve Guiness and Nate Dias in front, both members of Northern Brickworks.  Nate is also a Brickshire guy.

Huw

Jessica Farrell, third from right, and daughter next to her I believe.

MattDawson

I took part in the (disorganised) auditions, which were held in London. Originally on a Saturday, but postponed to the Sunday due to a building maintenance issue.

Interesting info, but I'll be interested to see why my team failed - if we even appear on TV!

All_That_Rocks

Huw said:

Jessica Farrell, third from right, and daughter next to her I believe.

Excited for this. Love Jessica's builds.

Dfenz

Huw said:

Jessica Farrell, third from right, and daughter next to her I believe.

Son Faolan actually.

snowhitie

Look forward to watch this, it's been put in the diary, thanks for sharing!

sid3windr

^ How are you watching C4 in .be ? ;)

snowhitie

@sid3windr was that an honest question or tongue in cheek? Me thinks you are the IT guy ;)

sid3windr

The former, surprisingly ;)

Venunder

It starts next Thursday at 8pm on Channel 4.

stlux

Non-geoblocked trailer as shared by a seemingly non-forum member below today's article on the main page: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-UGoxiJaTw

@sid3windr I have been able to watch C4 in the past using a VPN.

sid3windr

I've had my own VPN set up to watch C4 via their app, everything worked except the streaming - CDN too smart. But we'll see ;)

chrisalddin

well i got it set up to record. so i dont miss it. let see what it like.

LostInTranslation

Personally, I'm really enjoying this :-) 
Was intending on doing some parts sorting whilst watching but I keep getting too distracted!! 

Venunder

So far, so good.

Some good builds from an engineering view.
Some good builds from a design and imagination view.

CapnRex101

Not bad. I appreciate the wide age range of the contestants but pitting children against adults seems like a strange decision as I think the adults have a considerable advantage in challenges like that shown this evening. However, if they do some quicker challenges without any opportunity for planning in future that may reduce the adult advantage.

I will definitely be watching again next week!

MrGudz

One of its great advantages as noticed by my non Lego family was the humour in it. I found it very enjoyable. And so did they.

chrisalddin

on record. right now it's my mothers time of day to watch tv. she get's from 7pm to when she go's to bed. dad get from 1pm to 7pm and i get all other times. or when mum or dad are not watching the box.
so when i get time i post what i think (if i remember to that is)

BooTheMightyHamster

It wasn't bad at all.  I'm glad they've chosen some relatively 'normal' people, rather than 'This is Steve, he's 43, lives with his Mother and spends every waking minute building with Lego when he's not working as a taxidermist at PetStuffers.'

If I'm honest I could have done without Melvin O'Doom or whatever his name is, who tried to make every sentence he uttered sound dramatic (and if I hear "LEGOMASTER" spoken in a Valentine Dyall voice once more...)

Liked most of the contestants.  Thought the two engineering students were great, although the centrepiece wasn't up to much, the two teachers were great and I thought the Uncle / nephew combo were excellent.  Good builders and looked like they were there for a laugh.  The only one I didn't warm to was the Irish woman - felt sorry for her son.  She was a bit of a pip.

Be interested to see what they get up to next week with the 'movement' challenge.

TheOriginalSimonB

I was a bit disappointed that two thirds of the female contestants went out in round one. I preferred their build over the Cambridge lads - even if the scale was a bit off on the fruit it was at least all finished, unlike the swirling centerpiece. 

MaffyD

Well, I watched it last night with my other half - she said "Finally, something we can enjoy together" as she is not that fussed about Lego, but loves reality 'elimination' TV like Bake-off and Pottery Thingummy.

We both loved it. It has the right balance of personality versus skill display to keep us both entertained, and I thought the choice of banquet and seating was pretty inspired. I liked the presenter (although I agree with @boothemightyhamster that he was a little too dramatic at times), the structural engineer Roma Agrawal knew her stuff, and Matthew Ashton is just lovely - and I was really hoping all the teams did well.

A weight supporting chair is a hard thing to do in Lego and that father and son team (Nicholas and Coba?) did really well with their spindly thing. Wonder if it would've fallen apart if leant back on though, which they showed for practically every other chair.

Can't wait to see what's in next weeks show... and so glad I found something on TV that my missus can enjoy with me!

Paperballpark

MaffyD said:

A weight supporting chair is a hard thing to do in Lego and that father and son team (Nicholas and Coba?) did really well with their spindly thing. Wonder if it would've fallen apart if leant back on though, which they showed for practically every other chair.

I don't think it would have done - they did the supports vertically, rather than horizontally like every other team. It would probably have bent, but not snapped off like the others did.

All_That_Rocks

I thought it was pretty good and as others have said struck a good balance between appealing to Lego fanatics (like us) and regular folk. My wife (who is not a Lego builder) enjoyed it too as did some of my adult kids and their partners.

I expected a little more from Jessica Farrell, she's produced some amazing MOC's in the past. I have spoken with her before and she's very nice, though I thought she was trying a little too hard in front of camera.

I love everything Matthew Ashton is involved with - He is such a good Ambassador for Lego. A really nice and genuine guy.

It seemed a little crazy pitting a couple 9 year olds against more adult teams and am glad they progressed to the next round.

I'm looking forward to next week which looks like its a motorised fairground. Exciting!!

Shib

TheOriginalSimonB said:

I was a bit disappointed that two thirds of the female contestants went out in round one. I preferred their build over the Cambridge lads - even if the scale was a bit off on the fruit it was at least all finished, unlike the swirling centerpiece. 

I suspect there was a bit of a fix going on there. I think they specifically cast them for the more technical challenges (the moving models next week) but didn't count on them doing so poorly on a simpler task by over complicating it.


I wasn't really going to watch it but the other half wanted to and I have to say I didn't enjoy it. I'd have preferred either better coverage of he building and how it was achieved and less fluff (though I realise that non AFOLs probably would have been bored still by that) or else just an introduction to the challenge, some shots of the builders' plans then show nothing of the models until they were complete.

I really couldn't stand the presenter - this is my biggest criticism - it felt like they wanted it to be aimed at both kids and adults and in doing so made it neither successfully.

it seemed really unfair that they made no provision for the kids having to move very large builds, they really should have had some crew to help with that kind of stuff!

Ayliffe

Watched it last night and... uh, yeah, it's GBBO but with lego. Which is fine if you enjoy GBBO-type programmes, but I've always found 'em a bit too uptight and boring so naturally I wasn't too fond of this either. 

So yeah - not for me, but if you like it more power to ya I guess.

Paperballpark

Shib said:
it seemed really unfair that they made no provision for the kids having to move very large builds, they really should have had some crew to help with that kind of stuff!

They should have started building it on the floor ;)

I actually think the kids did really well, and I don't necessarily think that it was wrong to have them competing against the adults.

I think the engineers and Jessica didn't concentrate enough on the basics of the challenge. It's clear that it was a difficult decision though, between them and the two teams which went.

Shib

I think the kids did build their chair on the floor, it was an adult and kid team that needs help lifting it down but the kids had to ask other contestants for help moving their chair

Matt89190

I enjoyed it enough, but was it filmed in a universe where Technic beams don't exist? I actually winced every time I saw a team just stacking bricks up for the back of a chair expecting it to be stable....

chrisalddin

just finished watching it.
i like it.
dont have a lot to add that others did not say, i was never good at reviews.
good show wide range of target viewers. should do well.

Matt89190 said:

I enjoyed it enough, but was it filmed in a universe where Technic beams don't exist? I actually winced every time I saw a team just stacking bricks up for the back of a chair expecting it to be stable....

1 teem did you Technic bricks. the spindly char. used Technic brick on the inside of the leg's you can see them putting in lots of Technic pin's in the show.

mr_benn

I thought it was pretty good, though it was hard to tell whether or not it was suffering from a Bake Off-style 'pick each team from a certain demographic' (although it was hardly excelling from a diversity perspective it must be said!) 

That aside, I thought they had some fun and interesting challenges - agree with the whole technic thing but that's the way it goes.  And the presenter certainly was quite annoying - but perhaps I'm not the target audience?  Given it's only a short series I'm sure I'll be watching the rest. 

chrisalddin

oh and as we chat about Bake-off. that's back this week on c4.

bookmum

Oh thanks @chrisalddin now I've got that blimmin song back in my head!
"we all stand tooooogether "
" bom bom "

chrisalddin

bookmum said:

Oh thanks @chrisalddin now I've got that blimmin song back in my head!
"we all stand tooooogether "
" bom bom "

??? ??? ha ??? ??? what ??? ???
how????? your mind is not normal.....
you need more will power.

msanders

We watch it as a family yesterday. We enjoyed it. A couple of criticisms - the presenter is annoying! I never liked him anyways even in other things. His voice lacks an exciting edge. Also, I thought they could show more of them building. There was a lot of background stuff but may be because its the first week.

Some great designs and I'm amazed at what the kids can produce. So much better than anything I can do...!

playwell

They could have done with a star builder too rather than just getting rid of 2.

bookmum

The advert on Channel Four @chrisalddin. You must know if. Singing cakes. The Frog Chorus! 

bookmum

*know it * not if! 

Fireheart

Sat down with the family yesterday evening to watch it... whole family impressed. Having kids and adults in the the same competition was good, as it kept all ages interested.
Cambridge Uni guys made me laugh.. If you ever wanted to describe two Lego Geeks then they fit the picture 100%...

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

OrmskirkBricks

Just back from holiday...watching literally now as I type! Appreciate the intro and Lego history (even if we know it anyway, but I am sure many viewers would not know!)

Only one thing...should have used transparent storage draws!!

AdeelZubair

Can anyone confirm if the following article was referring to this show? If so I would've hoped for experienced builders. Nevertheless the job those guys did was beyond what I expected for the most part. Maybe I was just expecting something more serious.

https://brickset.com/article/12724/lego-planning-reality-tv-show

MattDawson

I had to turn off after 10 minutes (and capturing most of the times me and my teammate appeared). Far too over-dramatic and the presenter sounded and acted like he was hyper with a sugar rush and told to slow down.

Despite several hours of filming I'm surprised there was so little of the auditions...

mnbvc

The content was rather good fun.  I thought Abraham was a delight - what a cool, calm and reasonable head he has on such young shoulders.

I thought the elimination format was unnecessary, especially as although the two Cambridge students came up with a great concept and almost delivered, they didn't really fit the brief...yet it was evident that they weren't going to be eliminated because their prowess will show in later tasks.

I also thought it was a tad unfair that the builders had to move their models, and that the kids were somewhat left to their own devices when they weren't strong enough to do so.  It's perilous moving Lego - the kids shouldn't have had to ask for assistance off a fellow contestant; a stagehand should've helped, or they should've been directed to build in a set spot to begin with.  (Could you imagine if it had been broken beyond repair?)

I'd have personally liked more to do with the building - it felt as if we saw relatively little of the finished models (but maybe that's my perception).

Switchfoot55

Have any US members been able to find ways of viewing episodes of this show? I'd love to get to watch!

7BS

The only good way is to use a VPN to access the videos on the Channel 4 website. Download here: https://browsec.com/en/
then create an account and watch here: http://www.channel4.com

sid3windr

It is available via a certain very well known website involving one of many people's favourite lego themes...

@MattDawson I didn't realize you were in there! Watched the beginning again - I was only looking with half an eye it seems, they even showed some LEGO House stuff too and I totally missed it on first watch yesterday! But I didn't spot you, still....

At least now I know what "Der bedste er ikke godt" meant on the mosaic ;-)

Jamesy

Managed to watch Ep 2 last night...

In awe of Nicolas & Kobe and Steve & Nate (consistently thoroughly nice chaps who take time to help Guy & Abraham and give them ideas). I'll be shocked if these two teams don't make the final.

On the subject of Guy & Abraham, how on earth did they manage to build their fairground!!!
Almost every clip showed them playing with the Lego in heaven... I was convinced they wouldn't end up with anything as they were having so much fun...
Very happy they are still in, as well as demonstrating how much fun can be had they are fantastic builders.


One group I am disappointed with is Jessica & Faolan. Faolan seems nice, but Jessica comes across very unlikable...
Although, that impression might be affected as I think they are cheating.
It's obvious that they aren't locked in Lego heaven for 12+ hours, and they have some time outside to think of ideas etc., but while the other groups seem to sketch out a few ideas, Jessica seems to spend the extra hours planning and building prototypes, so she can turn up with specific brick lists and a folder of pictures of the build to make. Essentially she just turns up with a home made instruction manual to follow... In effect she is using 2 or more times as much time as any other team.
I may be wrong, but that is how it looks to me from the first two episodes.

MattDawson

@Jamesy "Jessica" is a well know MOC'cer better know by her business name of Janet VanD. 

Speedman29

Watched both episodes now and enjoyed them a lot. Nicolas & Kobe are my favourites so far, the chair was genius and so strong.