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New Channel 4 Lego TV show "Lego Masters"
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Comments
If anything, I think it exposes the flaw of these types of shows - it's like GBBO, where contestants are free to make as many versions of their cakes at home as they wish (or as time and/or money permits). Some don't have the time/resources to bake (m)any, whilst others spend all week doing it. I don't think there's any time limit given outside of the show, so if Jessica wants to spend all week making prototypes and bringing in lists, then I'm fairly sure she's not breaking any rules.
I do think the very different styles do create a bit of a clash when it comes to judging the work, though - the teams are so disparate in style, it's hard to compare them.
The Cambridge engineers did much better this week but were harshly criticised for their colour choice, but then I love Steampunk and it reminded me of Banksy's Dismaland.
Jessica and Faolin are not cheating, if they were I am sure the producers would have resolved that immediately. Several times it has been mentioned that for some tasks the participants have advance notice of the challenge and or time to prepare, how contestants do that is up to them within the rules that apply. Jessica has mentioned several times how she likes to work in a planned and organised fashion and is trying to do that despite the fairly chaotic situation they're presented with in studio, totally outside her comfort zone. In the latest episode we see a shot of a list she has prepared, but just because we did not see anything similar from other teams does not mean they have not done as much or more preparation. I am sure that each participant has their own way of working and preparing.
Episode two was a 3 hour and 12 hour challenge condensed to about 50 minutes and much less when you take out the presenter chat and external footage etc., so it is impossible to get a good view of how each of the teams really works, as mentioned, look what Guy and Abraham managed to build and it was never shown until the very end.
Agreed it must be hard to judge, you would have to ignore the ages and abilities and just concentrate on how well the team achieved the specifics of the challenge(s).
Roll on episode 3
Alternatively someone also seems to have posted them to YouTube.
Episode 1
Episode 2
If you use Filmon app on your laptop you can watcht it in realtime if it's on tomorrow night, but not sure how feasible that is wherever you are.
Watched the 1st episode on my own, the second with my husband. I think it's pretty fun and loved that chair from the 1st episode. The judging must be really though and I do think Melvin is a bit over the top. But it does seem to 'naturalise' the playing with LEgo a bit more and my mother-in-law is loving it :)
I never really warmed to Jessica I'm afraid, though having met many AFOLs like her in real life, I'm sure she's a lovely person but doesn't necessarily come across well on the TV. Maybe nervous or because her style of building is not suited to spontaneous challenges? I think she and her son also missed the point a bit on some of the planned builds, building what they were comfortable with rather than thinking of the brief and the impression the models will make. For instance the fairground models didn't have much if an impact, the nature walk models were a bit random - a different take, of course, but not very realistic or engaging, which I thought was the point?
Going forward, if there's a second series, which I sincerely hope there is, I think they need to consider whether it really is fair to compare a team of two children with two adults or an adult/child combo. Guy and Abraham were brilliantly imaginative but were always going to be at a disadvantage with regard to planning, time management and engineering more complex builds. Maybe there should be a separate kids Masters programme?
Or as somebody suggested on Twitter, don't have it as a knockout competition but as more of a Lego league where points are accumulated over the series? The series also needs to be longer, four episodes isn't enough!!
I like the combination of celebrity fans (though I do wonder whether Bill Bailey and Richard Osman have picked up a Lego brick in the last 20 years, or whether it was simply a call from their agent 'Got a nice little earner here!') and specialist judges. I'd not come across Steve the animal guy before - I thought Nathan Sawaya had the 'big scale models' thing sewn up.
Very pleased that Nate & Steve and James & Jamil are through - for me they're head and shoulders above the competition. Jessica and her son had to go. She was becoming increasingly annoying and I suspect that if Faolan had been allowed a bit more free rein, or had competed with a friend rather than his domineering mother, then he may have a) got further, and b) enjoyed himself a bit more. Most of the time he looked fed up.
Tough call between Guy & Abraham and Nicolas and Kobe. The two youngsters seemed to spend more time mucking about than taking it seriously, but then again they're two 9 year olds presented with a ton of Lego - who can blame them? The other two have come across (and it may be the way the programme was edited) that it was all about what Nicolas wanted to do, and Kobe was just the hired help. I would probably have let them go and kept the boys, simply because they both contribute equally.
Completely agree with @LostInTranslation - this could definitely do with both a longer series (8 teams, just one goes each week), and a separate version for under 18s.
As a 'pilot' series though, I think the production company has done a pretty good job.
It does amuse me, however, when they keep labouring the 'one million bricks' thing, and I think 'I wonder how many Brickset members have 1m+ bricks in their own collection?'
Of course, I never quite have enough...
Got to agree with the comments on Nicolas and Kobe, their orang-utan, while impressive didn't really fit in with its surroundings.
Sean Kenney, the guest judge has a youtube channel showing his builds.
About the show.
Maybe Nature should have been saved for the final week?
Anyway, I already have a lot of Tan spare from all the set parts that I didn't use.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FkZczPTpziyrjBuk2
You'll see most of the models shown in the program, and some more. I think the Belgian expo is the first time his work is displayed in Europe. His website also indicates a 2019 show in Edinburgh.
On the topic of Lego Masters: I love the things the participants come up with, but every time the presenter or judges talk, I switch of... These type of elimination programs are really not my cup of tea.
Jessica is clearly capable of creating fantastic things with Lego, but improvising or following somebody else's brief are not her strong points. That was already obvious in the previous episodes, so fair she got eliminated. I'm sure she's lovely in person, but the format doesn't allow for more than short soundbites. To create some contrast between the participants, they were likely also rather selective in what they put in the show.
Quite interesting that Nicholas and Kobe (well, Nicolas) are each time aiming to build something huge. When they were showing their Lego room at home, there were lots of microbuilds around.
I can relate to James and Jamil the best, but I agree that Nate and Steve are clearly the best all-round builders on the show. They perform well at each challenge, and excel at any size, both in quantity and quality.
As others have mentioned, a separate version for KFOL/TFOL's and AFOL's would be great. I would have liked to see what Guy and Abraham would have come up with next week.
I always really like seeing people work through their ideas and figure out how to build stuff; obviously that aspect has to be very truncated here for TV, but it worked okay within the format.
I was surprised but on reflection pleased at how strong the criticism from the judges tended to be - generally stuff about issues the competitors had neglected while focusing on other aspects of their models, e.g. not making the most of an outdoor environment, or building a good mechanism but not making the final model very visually attractive... it's all useful stuff to keep in mind if you want to improve your building.
I'd be all for another series that was just kids, or teens, or adults - in the end, primary school kids are going to come up with very different stuff than middle-aged people, but they can both be impressive relative to the builder's age and capabilities. I also wonder what would happen if you paired up experienced builders (in the same age group) who don't normally work together for building challenges - wouldn't work in this format, but might be an interesting idea for a one-off (perhaps longer) episode in itself.
The difference between kids and adults shows very much in most of these challenges, even just packing or moving stuff, let alone accounting for time etc. A separate one would be cool!
I was happy to see Sean Kenney, as like @stlux I was able to enjoy his creations in real life closeby.
Somewhat totally off topic, does Nicolas have an English accent? I keep thinking he's a Dutchie speaking English... :-)
Should I go see the Doctor?
Other Time travellers are available.
I'd like to know where they got their blue drawer cabinets from. They look like Raaco/Draper, but with nicer clear plastic drawers.
I thought the kids did marvellously well, and people forget what it's like to be 9 - to be in that room and building competitively with no adult assistance, and no guidance with the practical elements - e.g. packing or moving their models...well, I thought they did brilliantly.
I have to admit, I thought the hardest part of the quickfire rounds wasn't the building, but thinking of things to build! I was sat thinking, "I'm not sure I could come up with many insects off the top of my head!" - and again, I think that's a doubly hard genre for kids to build in.
@Paperballpark - I think your observation about Jessica not following the brief was very astute.
;oD
Think it was a shame that Guy and Abraham went out, but my favourites are Nate and Steve.
Well there you go my bee, would bee (hehe) on his own. Spontaneity is not my strong point, nor it seems is naming insects. :D
I think the difference in understanding comes from how SNOT was initially used as a term, before using headlight bricks in every build became commonplace, and you'd have to turn a standard brick or plate on its side to achieve the smooth top surface look, usually using hinges or clips to turn the brick sideways.
As this technique became utilised more and more, we started to see an explosion (least, it felt like it from my perspective!) of bricks in sets that made this easier to achieve - so instead of having to build sideways, or at an angle, you could just use a brick that had two or more studs - one on top, and others at the side.
That's why it looked like a misnomer, because a headlight brick has got a stud on the top - even though it's one of the most useful bricks for achieving SNOT. So really, I wouldn't refer to the bricks as SNOT bricks. They're bricks that help you to achieve the SNOT technique.
From https://www.brothers-brick.com/lego-glossary/
SNOT
I still think it's a bit unfair that they were allowed to use their extensive collection to generate detailed plans to simply follow 'on show', while the everyone else seem to have small/normal sized collections and build from their imagination within the time limit...
While I don't watch GBBO and similar, I think the analogy to baking cakes is wrong. Baking/Cooking is a 'methodology' practice... it's the equivalent to practicing attaching the bricks together... There's a massive difference between having detailed construction plans and not.
Re. episode 3
Nate & Steve have firmly become my favourite team. Excellent builders, Super nice guys and seem to be going from strength to strength with each challenge.
I was relieved Nicolas & Kobe got through. I think this performance was their weakest, but their performance in the first 2 episodes was head and shoulders in the top two (that chair!!)
Sad to see Guy & Abraham go... I actually think they had a great idea with the life-cycle of a butterfly... but yes, perhaps in the end a struggle to compete logistically with the adults... I'll echo the sentiment, Probably the best 9 yr old Lego builders in the world!
So it is a misnomer then? It seems like an odd definition for the specific bricks and the technique to me, but thank you for the clarification!
They are Irish, right? And from Faolin's accent, I assume they still live in Ireland. And the TV show is produced in UK, probably London. So I'd assume they will be staying in a hotel during filming; like the other contestants. I also assume they won't have their parts stash available. Although they may well have a load of parts stuffed in their suitcases, of course.
But they could easily have a laptop with Stud.io or LDD installed. Something that the other contestants would have access to if they wanted to.
The filming will be broken up into small sections over several days too, especially as there are filming limits when filming children. So a 15 hour build might actually be spread over 3 or 4 days. That leaves a lot of down time in a hotel room to plan, generate digital models and parts lists.
Episode 3 showed that all teams had generated sketches and plans to some extent. Guy and Abraham had a colour drawing of their lifecycle idea that would have taken them some time do, for example.
Yes, I see lots of people use "SNOT" when they really mean "Studless". I probably do too. But both are defined in the glossary. And studs on the side are indeed studs not on top :-)
Not an assumption... an observation.
1) Detailed lists of all the required components to make the build
2) Folder of photos (of real Lego bricks) showing each stage of construction
Yes, she's a good MOCer; Yes, her builds are better than anything I could build; Yes, there is nothing preventing every team from turning up with essentially an Instruction book of the build...
However, I thought the premise of the show is that the teams have limited time to build from their imagination and what's available.
If they all had done the same, then probably I wouldn't have mentioned it. I just felt that it was unfair on the other teams...
I don't think having a detailed list and photos means she's using her extensive collection, as you said. Nor does it mean she's cheating or using an advantage that others didn't have access to.
I only suggest they could have been using Stud.io or LDD, which would give them an infinite parts collection. And the other contestants would have had the ability to do the same thing, if they so wished.
I'd hazard a guess that everyone was briefed at the same time, in the same way and had the same time to prepare, with the same "down time" between filming. But Jessica and Faolin chose to prepare in a more meticulous way than the others.
And the students went to the pub ;-)
I'd also like to see a longer series, but not sure if Matthew Ashton could take the emotional stress! Poor guy.
Lets hope the production company get the right feedback and are commissioned for another run!
But specially taking into account previous builds (which the judges might not have done), think the best team won. Difficult taking about this whitout spoilers :)
Both teams were great, with really different builds. But in the end, Nate and Steve really nailed theirs. Very impressive, especially considering neither had built life-size figures before!