Lego Masters Australia General Discussion

Brickchap

The purpose of this thread is for Australian Lego fans or anyone else watching Lego Masters AU to discuss and comment on the show. I admit this probably should have been started earlier but we can still comment on past episodes.

Primarily people can just spot NPU, talk about the challenges, share favourite contestants, all positive stuff.

Unfortunately one of my reasons for creating this was to challenge some misunderstandings.

I will assume people reading this have seen the latest episode (as I type this) as of 25/04, episode 4. Online many, many people have expressed disappointment and anger over the decision to send Crystal and Andrew home (Sewing Machine Monster build) instead of Lexi and Rachael (Japanese suitcase build, which was unfinished).

I just wanted to counter all the negativity towards Ryan McNaught 'Brickman'. I was lucky enough to meet Brickman when I was in primary school, he was very nice and down-to-earth. In general I find his feedback for contestants to be very helpful, fair, and useful. I would also argue he is pretty good at dealing with different personalities and providing constructive criticism without being rude, offensive or hurtful. (sometimes people really are doing a stupid idea and need to be told that). I've even spoken to non-Lego fans who've seen the show and while they don't really know who Brickman is, they still say all of the above.

Ultimately Brickman is a judge on a television show run by a TV network. He doesn't answer to Ole Kirk Christansen or The God of Lego, but to Channel 9. I believe some decisions throughout the Lego Masters series have been meddled with by Channel 9, people should not blame Brickman for that. After all, if Brickman was in charge he probably would never send any teams home.

Indeed, the very reason certain personalities... (Kale from Season 1 is often cited as one such personality), are even included on the show is to have drama and encourage viewers to have teams they love and teams they hate. Unfortunately Channel 9 likes to keep such personalities on the show for as long as possible (or even ask them back as a special guest...) in order to as I've said create conflict, tension and drama (so more viewers and social media interest).

Recalling previous seasons people have pointed out it does at times feel like Brickman is 'favouring' certain teams, or that there is a specific focus on one or two teams. Brickman does not have favourites, he treats every team equally in my opinion and you can see that from the way one team can be praised immensely in one build and chosen as top 2, to be followed by serious discussions about them going home because they aren't time managing well or have a stupid idea in the next build. Some people are just outright disrespectful to Brickman, but he handles it well.

Sometimes it feels like Channel 9 is trying to really encourage the possibility of having 1 or more female winners of Lego Masters. Personally I'd love to see our first female winner of Lego Masters Australia, but it should be as a result of merit, not executive meddling. It's also rather silly and to be honest, offensive, because all Lego Masters contestants, regardless of their demographic or Lego background, always build amazing creations and those that truly are 'Lego Masters' usually start to appear early on, the teams don't need any 'helpful push' from the show (especially when it comes to choosing who stays and who leaves). I am pleased to say that in my opinion every 'top 3' teams each season so far have been the right people to be there, and certainly all our winners have been the right choice.

In this case from a Lego perspective there was clearly a difference between the Sewing Machine Monster and the suitcase. One build was muddled and didn't have a very clear idea. The other had a very basic idea, that was executed very poorly even if you ignore the fact that most of the suitcase wasn't even filled. As Brickman would say, the lesson here was time management and in this case Lexi and Rachael really didn't do that well. (8 hours just on the base has to be a record).

This was a case of poor decision making. It wasn't like there was an amazing build that Hamish bumped and it got destroyed, this was the team's fault. That doesn't meant they aren't good Lego builders (the monkey was well done), but normally this sort of decision would send a team home, and as far as the idea itself is concerned personally I would question that also. It's Japan, okay what else? Where's the story? There was nothing moving and nothing particularly detailed or interesting happening.

The sewing machine monster was definitely a muddled idea, but you could tell it was a monster causing havoc. There was some nice parts usage, like the tongue/carpet made out of minifig legs and while the barrels didn't communicate thimbles very well, I still thought it was a nice try. Now had the suitcase been complete, then I would be far less inclined to question the decision but so far I haven't seen a single person defending the position and I do think a substantially unfinished build (as a result of not using time wisely AT ALL), should definitely be a ticket home, in any teams case.

On a more positive note Gene and Nick's Underground Jazz Club was right up my alley and frankly, an awesome build. The dancing couple was cool enough from a technical perspective, but as Brickman pointed out, a build (where the people don't even have faces) that communicates emotion and tells a story just by posing ball joints basically is very, very impressive. I also liked all the little details like the candlelit tables, patterns on the wooden floor etc.

Another standout for me personally was the mice theatre by Caleb and Alex. What a detailed build! And one should remember that every mouse had to be built from scratch, rather than just picking a minifig. It reminded me a lot of various theatres I've been to (and I would love to see the new Statler and Waldorf minifigs sitting in one of the balconies. The use of the side panel to then build balconies out of was really well done, and just placing black tiles and studs to represent doors worked well also, plus the exposed tan studs from the baseplate just looked like the wall (so excellent use of time and space there).

I was very disappointed the cameras didn't show more of their build. That's one more thing I will comment on. Whoever is head of cameras at Lego Masters studio needs a talking to because there is sooo much 'camera bias' to certain teams, and while I completely understand focusing on some teams if there's heightened tension, a really stand out build, or something funny, they should definitely show each build off more fairly (and more in depth). Some builds are obviously more detailed than others so may require a bit more screen time and I get they can't show everything but it's very disappointing when some builds are pretty much limited to a quick glimpse at the start, basically no coverage of the build, then a quick glimpse at the end and a rushed evaluation by Brickman.