Lego Masters (USA) - General Discussion

[blackwing]

On 3/28/2020 at 11:06 PM, Eolivet said:

To my untrained eye, it seemed obvious Aaron and Christian would go, as they are clearly great technical builders, but have next to no creativity. No surprise, as they were bottom 2 last week with the story challenge. Sam and Jessica are more creative, if less polished, and this is clearly a "Lego story building challenge show" versus a "Show off your Lego building skills" challenge show.

I like Tyler and Amy's creativity, but she committed the cardinal reality show sin for me of pregnancy-reveal-as-plot-point. Creating an extra human better not mean I'm supposed to be rooting for them (and I know it was last week, but eww, why onscreen? Something about the words: "we just found out." Did you take a pregnancy test while filming? Just ... why?)

So, go Mark and Boone.

I agree that the bros story was really weak.  I hadn’t realized these minifigs were from a series so in looking at the series, I agree, there were way more interesting figures than the Lady Programmer.  The Nerd Bro’s insistence on picking the most square figure like himself really hurt them.  

On 3/29/2020 at 1:26 AM, roamyn said:

T&A probably meant they just found out before the show started filming.  I don’t blame them for the “pregnancy reveal”.  That’s on the editors.

My personal preference is for T&A, only because I hate the so-called singing the show keeps showcasing, that the large bearded guy does.  (I don’t know which is Mark and which is Boone).

But I wouldn’t be too upset with M&B winning.  Both teams are clearly creative, polished, and great technical builders.  

I usually hate the over sharing of information in an effort to sway voters (cf Jeremy Collins crying and telling everyone his wife is pregnant, Adam Klein snotcrying about his dying mom) but I give Tyler and Amy a pass here.  They were working with kids in the last ep and it felt very natural.  Plus I don’t think Jamie and Amy are going to be swayed.  

I do agree that the one lumberjack who is constantly singing is annoying.  I get that he can’t sing songs for which the show would have to pay license rights but the songs he makes up are not very good nor does his voice sound good.

[hilaryvm]

So I just have to chime in and say I love Will Arnett.  I've loved him since Arrested Development, and I get that he's an acquired taste.  I just keep waiting for them to play The Final Countdown.  (Last week?) When he asked the lumberjacks what his song would be, I would have immediately started singing The Final Countdown.  Maybe it was a copyright thing.

It was so weird that the bros couldn't come up with a better story.  You are fighting a scorpion queen, and you have a programmer and a bounty hunter alien.  I mean, right off the top of my head, you have some kind of time-traveling war with the heroes from the future going back in time to kill the scorpion queen.  Instead they came up with...a bake sale?

[ProfCrash]

8 hours ago, hilaryvm said:

So I just have to chime in and say I love Will Arnett.  I've loved him since Arrested Development, and I get that he's an acquired taste.  I just keep waiting for them to play The Final Countdown.  (Last week?) When he asked the lumberjacks what his song would be, I would have immediately started singing The Final Countdown.  Maybe it was a copyright thing.

It was so weird that the bros couldn't come up with a better story.  You are fighting a scorpion queen, and you have a programmer and a bounty hunter alien.  I mean, right off the top of my head, you have some kind of time-traveling war with the heroes from the future going back in time to kill the scorpion queen.  Instead they came up with...a bake sale?

Yeah. The Bros team was made up of a body builder and an engineer. The engineer, who teachers LEGO, is very literal. The body builder, I don't actually know what his job was so that is the only way I can describe him, did not seem to be the most creative or out of the box thinker. I think he was there to simply build what he was told to build. 

So the engineer was great with building and movement and the like but he was not a story teller and his partner was just there to build. You could see that in a lot of their builds. They were insanely rigid, remember the second build where they had a ton of blank space? I can't remember the specifics but the Engineer was set on using the technic blocks to make their globe type thing.  

Then there was the kid challenge where their build was a giant mess because they included every, literal thing, the kids said. My son takes robotics classes and they build very specific LEGO devices with very specific directions. They are totally cool but there is not much room for imagination. Engineer dude teaches those classes.

Will is fine but I don't care about his antics, I want to see more of the build and how they are building. That means I could deal with less Will.

[alexa]

On 3/26/2020 at 3:20 PM, Cowgirl said:

This could be such a fun show, but each week I get so frustrated with all the human "drama" that is shown instead of showing complete pictures of the final builds.  The other thing that drives me crazy is that, when they do show part of a build, the camera is always moving.  My eye doesn't know where to focus.  Just as I'm starting to see something the shot changes.  I wouldn't mind panoramas, but SLOOOOOOWWWWWWWERR.   I had really hoped to see more of the builds and how they do them.  I couldn't care less about the competetive aspect.  

Since this is made by the same people as Making It, it doesn't surprise me.  They seem to rush through the reveals and I never could really focus on any of them long enough to see what they actually did.  And the same thing happens here...they work the whole episode and then rush through the reveals and you can hardly see them.  

[galaxygirl76]

9 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

Yeah. The Bros team was made up of a body builder and an engineer. The engineer, who teachers LEGO, is very literal. The body builder, I don't actually know what his job was so that is the only way I can describe him, did not seem to be the most creative or out of the box thinker. I think he was there to simply build what he was told to build.

I think I read that the body builder is military.

[mlp]

Isn't this Wednesday?  My TV is showing The Masked Singer and no Lego Masters tonight.  Am I confused?

[abc123]

It’s on next week. My family just sat down to watch it and realized the same thing. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S1.E9: Star Wars

Quote

Contestants build droids and replicate iconic scenes inspired by the "Star Wars" franchise.

Original air date: 4/8/20

[mertensia]

Okay, I'm glad they sent all three through as those displays were all so good. Still, shut up Rude Dude.

 

How did they get any work done with R2D2 and C-3PIO wandering around? I'd've been so distracted.

[Taeolas]

I'm not surprised this was a NonElimination Round; having a 3-team finale is pretty standard. And all the sets seemed pretty good. The Endor was the best, but they had the most to work with so that's not surprising. 

I do hope/wish that there is SOME side effect from this round in the finale. What should happen is maybe give teams extra build time based on how well they did. Or give the bottom 2 teams a separate elimination challenge and have the final 2 at the end. 

[Lovecat]

Is it me, or has this show been on for 600 years?  (Or maybe it just seems like it because March had 97 days this year...)  I stopped watching several weeks ago because it just wasn't keeping my attention and I found several of the teams' (admittedly likely producer-encouraged) schticks annoying, but kept recording it so I could ffwd to the end to see the final builds and find out who got booted.  I would've sworn on a stack of Bibles that last night was the finale, but NO, ANOTHER WEEK, WHAT??  

Also, how are Sam (?) and Jessica still there?  The twee flower in his mohawk and her hair bow give me irrational rage.  Bearded guys FTW; they've been my favorites all along.  

[Beamish]

The build a droid challenge was great. All three teams got to use their imaginations, and I’m glad they didn’t try to replicate any existing SW universe droids.

The ‘recreate a famous scene/battle’ was probably my least favorite build of the season. The challenge would have been 100% more interesting if it had been ‘create a Star Wars battle that happened off screen’ and let them cut loose to use their imaginations instead of replicating what has already been done. Can you imagine a three-headed AT-AT battling a gigantic Mecha-Leia on a gas filled planet or an undersea battle with Ewoks vs bounty hunters? 

[alexa]

3 hours ago, Lovecat said:

Is it me, or has this show been on for 600 years?  (Or maybe it just seems like it because March had 97 days this year...)  I stopped watching several weeks ago because it just wasn't keeping my attention and I found several of the teams' (admittedly likely producer-encouraged) schticks annoying, but kept recording it so I could ffwd to the end to see the final builds and find out who got booted.  I would've sworn on a stack of Bibles that last night was the finale, but NO, ANOTHER WEEK, WHAT??  

Also, how are Sam (?) and Jessica still there?  The twee flower in his mohawk and her hair bow give me irrational rage.  Bearded guys FTW; they've been my favorites all along.  

I totally agree, and I also thought last night was supposed to be the finale.  And yes it has really dragged on.  

[Richness]

As much as I love the newlyweds, I can't help but feel there was some sort of behind the scenes shenanigans to keep them for the finale. Granted, while the other team's efforts popped a bit more with the color, I'm not sure it was that much better technically.

 

It was great to see the actual droids on set. And while I still despise the host and his neverending shtick, I loved all the  Star Wars lines.

 

Regardless, I don't care who wins the entire thing so long as it's either the bearded lumberjacks or the newlyweds.

[mlp]

1 hour ago, Richness said:

As much as I love the newlyweds, I can't help but feel there was some sort of behind the scenes shenanigans to keep them for the finale.

I don't care much for the newlyweds, especially her, but I wondered the same thing.  I'd love to know if the producers always planned to have a 3-way finale or if they made that decision when it became obvious that Sam and Jessica were in second place.  I really hope the Bros win.

I'd also like to know how R2D2 is operated.  Watching that robot tool around and interact was rather fascinating.

[alexa]

4 hours ago, Richness said:

As much as I love the newlyweds, I can't help but feel there was some sort of behind the scenes shenanigans to keep them for the finale. Granted, while the other team's efforts popped a bit more with the color, I'm not sure it was that much better technically.

 

It was great to see the actual droids on set. And while I still despise the host and his neverending shtick, I loved all the  Star Wars lines.

 

Regardless, I don't care who wins the entire thing so long as it's either the bearded lumberjacks or the newlyweds.

I was wonderIng about the final three too.  What I didn’t understand is that most of the scenes they could choose from didn’t use much color, so what did the judges expect for the AtAt scene to look like?  I thought they did the build well...it isn’t their fault there was no red sand in that scene.

[Cowgirl]

If you think Will Arnett is annoying on this show, did any of you watch the new Gong Show?  He was a producer, and often a judge.  He was so mean and irrational as a judge! Everyone seemed to hate him here on the forums.  He'd sink acts that were good and let through acts that were completely stupid or really bad.  I still have (semi) irrational rage at him for that.  (I have NO idea why I care about the Gong Show that much! 😂)

Edited April 10, 2020 by Cowgirl

[blackwing]

I'm glad that Tyler and Amy made it through to the finals.  Their AT-AT walkers were amazing, particularly the one that was brought down.  I don't understand Judge Amy's criticism about the lack of colour.  It was one of the iconic scenes in all of Star Wars.  It's a battle set in the snow, featuring lots of white landscape, white snowspeeders, and gray AT-ATs.  I get what she said about an explosion, but still.

I actually would have had Mark and Boone in last place.  I felt like their build relied entirely too much on the minifigures themselves.  What did they really buiild?  A green base and a gray and an AT-ST.  Then they had some pathetic creations that passed for trees.  I was expecting a lush jungle scene.  Why didn't Judge Amy criticise them for the lack of trees?  And anything resembling a canopy?

Sam and Jessica had their best build yet, and I really do feel like it was very dynamic, you could sense the movement and action.

I wish the Cloud City scene had been selected.  That could have been amazing.

I do agree with the comments above that it was fun to see them recreate iconic Star Wars scenes, but at the same time, it wasn't that interesting.  There was no element of storytelling since the story was already told.  I was expecting there to be a twist.  Like, "you know what happened in the movies.  Now adjust your scene so that the opposite side wins this battle.  Be creative and tell us a new story."

Or juxtapose two scenes together.  The computer screen randomly selects one of the unchosen scenes for each team, and they have to take elements from that new scene and combine them with their existing scene to create a new story.  Imagine Jabba's Sail Barge arriving upon the Battle of Hoth.  Or the Millenium Falcon coming to save the day on Endor.  What happens?

This was the semifinals, and it's Star Wars!  They could have had an even longer build process.  Would love to have seen a double episode.

I've really enjoyed this show and hope it comes back for a second season.  My only complaint has been the inability to clearly see the details of each team's build.  Put them on the website or something, with various angles, or close up pictures highlighting the cool fun things we can't see in our 5 second look.

At this point, I am all for Tyler and Amy winning.  They are consistently great and imaginative.  I would even not mind Sam and Jessica winning, because I do feel like they have had a great journey.  From almost going home in the first week to being in the finals.  Mark and Boone are great builders too, but I've really soured on them lately.  One, I really can't stand the chunkier one's singing.  Two, he really seemed to fall apart this episode with his self-doubt.  And three, I really feel like he is driving the team by far, and I like the other one so much better.

[roamyn]

I wouldn’t want Sam & Jessica to win, because their technical skills are lacking, comparatively.

M&B’s build was....just there IMO.  But all the teams suffered at not being able to use more creativity, which all three are very good at.

[mertensia]

My guess is they wanted a challenge where people had to prove they could recreate a scene or tableau.

[ProfCrash]

I agree that this was a boring week. I have no idea why the newlyweds didn't choose Endor. That is the one that I saw that screamed Lego in terms of color and playfulness. The others were good for displaying building skills but there was nothing about them that was LEGO fun.

I am sure that they knew that there was going to be a final three and I suspect that they told the newlyweds they would have been third to light a fire under their butts for the finale and to give the other team a confidence boost. 

I did love the bots that were built and thought that was cool. It was far more fun and interesting then the big build.

[laschifosavita]

I think the risk with choosing Endor is that it is the one with the highest expectations of what it should look like. It's a very popular setting to recreate. People make that out of Legos all the time. I think they may have also had the video game version of Endor in mind just as much as the actual scene from the movie, also. With the other scenes,  there would be a little more room to do your own interpretation.

[Chit Chat]

Congrats to Tyler & Amy on the win!  I would've been fine with any of the 3 winning, but I think that Tyler & Amy were consistently good throughout the show.   

They all had really good use of color in this last build.  I would've liked to have heard more of the judge's deliberation and what clinched the win for Tyler & Amy though.  Just curious what, exactly, put them over the top in the judge's eyes!  

[alexa]

I agree with the winning build.  I think the peacock was beautiful, but the story was kind of hidden as a side note.  The guys build felt like it was missing something.  Amy and Tyler’s encompassed a full build with characters, identifiable story, and good scenery.

[mertensia]

Well, I'd've preferred Mark and Boone, but I can live with Tyler and Amy. The peacock was gorgeous and the banana table legs hysterical but it didn't quite gel as a whole for me, so I can see why Rude Dude was third.

I'm happy they're casting for season 2!

[suebee12]

I was so excited when this show was introduced! My grandson loves his Lego and I thought he would love this because of all the builds using the bricks. Boy was I wrong! We skipped all the beginning of the shows and went right to the judging but even that was too much. Why all the "junk" instead of just showing the final work and how they got there. I would truly have liked to see how the builders came up with their ideas and followed through with the building! 

8 hours ago, ChitChat said:

I would've liked to have heard more of the judge's deliberation and what clinched the win for Tyler & Amy though.  Just curious what, exactly, put them over the top in the judge's eyes!  

I did wonder if some of the final judging was a combination of all of their builds? Even tho' the Beard Brothers made a huge thing, I thought it was not exciting...it was a big box and yes I could never do anything like it but it didn't  look that amazing just big and depended on the mini figures too much. I actually liked theirs least with the rude dude and his partner coming in second. Their peacock was gorgeous and had some great humor added but so much of their work put them in the bottom two throughout the season that I didn't feel they belonged there for the end. I would have liked to have seen what the two young guys would have done if they had made it to the finals. Really glad that Tyler and Amy won. They were so creative throughout the whole series and I  was a bit upset that they came in third last week, mostly because they lacked color....not really their fault since they worked with what they were given and did it well. Another reason I was rooting for them is because they lived in the next town from where I used to live. Actually they were closer to Sarasota than they were to Bradenton since they live out in the boonies way east of town!

Not sure if I will watch next year or not. I will check it out and hope that they "clean" it up some showing more building and less filler.

[Taeolas]

I'm happy with the results we got. All three were great builds, but in the end the fantasy scene IMO was the most impactful.

* The Peacock was nice and a beautiful build; but it was static. No movement, just an art piece. Very well done, but it didn't really have much to draw your eye to it.

 

* The Artisan enclave was a nice idea, but while it was big, it was also tiny. I think having the mini-figs be the focus was a detriment to them. From afar it is just a big building with lots of colours. The movement aspect was nice, but it was an obvious afterthought that came from when they saw the fantasy piece.

 

* The fantasy piece, I loved. The gryphon with the flapping wings was gorgeous and every eye catching. The fact that it worked continuously (with the worm gear) was even better; normally a piece like that would have to pause and reset and then run again.  So you had the big eye catching piece with movement and when you get closer you can see the smaller details with the minifigs.

 

So yeah, I'm good with the ultimate placements of everyone. 

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, Taeolas said:

The Peacock was nice and a beautiful build; but it was static. No movement, just an art piece. Very well done, but it didn't really have much to draw your eye to it.

 

Although the peacock was beautiful, it's seems like with the amount of time they were given, there should've been more to that display.  It was a little lacking compared to the other two.  

[Taeolas]

I think for the peacock, one small (but technically difficult I'm sure) change they could've done would have been to figure out how to make the tail feathers move. The fact that a peacock can raise/lower those tail feathers is as distinctive as the feathers themselves. If even some of their peacock's feathers had moved, it would have been some movement for their piece that could in turn draw the eye to it, and reveal the monkey part of it from a different angle as well. 

Our vision is a bit attuned to picking up movement; that's why when we sense movement from the corner of our eyes we tend to focus on it quickly. The gryphon model worked with that, so the flapping wings draws us to it and makes us want to examine more. 

If the peacock had tail feathers that folded up and spread out again, or even just wiggled a bit (risky to do with such fragile builds granted), it would have been a movement aspect that would probably have propelled it to second place easily, if not first place since that sort of build would get a difficulty boost on top of everything else. 

[Chit Chat]

2 hours ago, Taeolas said:

The gryphon model worked with that, so the flapping wings draws us to it and makes us want to examine more. 

I think their build's story was easy to understand too.  Although I am in awe of what Mark & Boone built, it might've been a bit too busy for the Brick Masters.  I would love to have seen it up close so that I could admire all of the little stories going on in the art world!  I'm sure that all 3 builds were quite beautiful in person.  The cameras don't do them justice!   

My question is how the heck are they going to move Tyler & Amy's to the Lego place and keep it intact!     

Edited April 16, 2020 by ChitChat

[Fukui San]

I definitely think given its placement in the Lego place the piece needs to be eye catching from afar as well as good up close, and Tyler and Amy's was the best when you consider that. Boone and Mark would be better up close but not really interesting from afar. Sam and Jessica's was good from a distance but didn't necessarily reward closer viewing as much. It did seem empty, and it would've been good if they set the Peacock and Monkey in a world rather than just a standalone set of figures.

[Darian]

That was a satisfying finale. I like when everyone does well, rather than someone completely falling apart. I'm a sentimental sucker, more so these days, so I love seeing families hugging and supporting each other. Will Arnett was the only thing I didn't like about the series, and he didn't annoy me that much.   

 

[joanne3482]

3 hours ago, ChitChat said:

My question is how the heck are they going to move Tyler & Amy's to the Lego place and keep it intact!     

Maybe they will use... the kragel. 

I was thinking it would be nice if the peacock closed his eyes or winked or something if they couldn't make the tail move. (Kind of like I think it is the Turkey in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade).  I did love the bananas as table legs.  When she was building it I thought the scale was all off for the monkey, but they made complete sense as table legs. 

[Richness]

Congratulations to the newlyweds! I definitely thought it was the most impressive of the final builds, but I still question whether they should be there at all after the previous episode. The slow, majestic, flapping wing movement was mind blowing.

 

With that said, the bearded boys really disappointed me. If it wasn't for the paintbrush interactivity, I'd consider it a total failure. With all the other stuff they've done, a blockly building is just sad even with all the color rejuvenation going on. All it had going for it was height and a few rotating doors. Boreing!!! A post-apocalyptic setting is rarely cheerful; I even hated the bleakness of the second Lego movie because of it.

 

With that said, I'm glad the bickersons didn't win. The peacock was gorgeous, but they've been in the bottom too often to be considered Lego masters. However, I actually thought they did a better job than the lumberjacks, so I was surprised they ranked third place. I too wish they had incorporated movement to reveal the beautiful plumage like on a real peacock. I could have done without the monkey business, though I realize that's what they used it to tell the story. The banana table legs are cute though. I think my dislike stims from my personal bias against monkeys because I find them and other primates the least appealing of all the mammals. I would have preferred a raccoon bandit as the feather thief, but that might have been too trite story-wise and less buildable/articulate. Of course, I find it interesting that my least favorite teams prompts the greatest amount of commentary from me. *shrugs*

 

Anyway, glad this show is doing an additional season. I just hope there's a better host next season, and they focus more of the builds instead of stupid banter.

[mlp]

I wanted the Bros to win but I had to agree that their final piece was not the winner.  The details we got a quick look at were interesting and clever but the whole build didn't have the visual appeal of the other two.  

I didn't care much for Tyler and Amy but I do think they earned their win.  I could have done without her announcement of her pregnancy (probably at the producers' behest).  In fact, I could have done without the whole family visit bit.  That and the constant focus on Will's nonsense took away time that could have been spent showing the builds in progress.  If and when they do a second season, I hope they greatly reduce Will's time, eliminate the guest visits which contributed little (except for the androids) and get a female judge whose criticisms make more sense.

[lynxfx]

I think they got the order wrong. I would swap 2nd and 3rd place. I think if they just added movement to something on that peacock then they would have took 2nd. They could have done the head, it was small and light enough. Would have fit with their story of getting the feather plucked. I don't think it would have been possible to move the feathers as suggested. Too heavy and fragile. Just look at the issues of the smaller wings on the griffon had.

I like the bearded guys but that was a boring final piece. Too close to previous challenges and designs.

The winners deserved it. I don't think they deserved 3rd place last week so no controversy with them still being in the finals to me. It was a great looking model and something I could see on display at a Lego store. 

Show overall was ok. I think the bridge episode was my favorite. I would like to see more challenges like that. Perhaps make furniture out of Lego. A chair or throne that can support a human for instance. After watching James May's Lego show where he built a house out of Lego, the furniture was a surprising challenge for them. I also hope they take lead from the show Face/Off which focused more on the build process and techniques. These people have a unique skill, please show it along with the result.

[roamyn]

If you go to the LEGO MastersTwitter acct, the vast majority feel M&B got robbed, and that T&A only won because she’s pregnant.

I don’t get what all these people are seeing.  I think it might’ve helped if they showed more of the judging.

I thought the peacock was lovely, but I think in M&B, T&A, or Bro’s hands, it would’ve been more filled out, and had movement.  There’s no doubt that S&J got better, esp these last two weeks.

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, roamyn said:

If you go to the LEGO MastersTwitter acct, the vast majority feel M&B got robbed, and that T&A only won because she’s pregnant.

I think it's just sour grapes!  As I said earlier, I think that Mark & Boone's build was a little too cluttered looking, whereas Tyler & Amy's build was very clean and was easy to understand.  The Brick Masters were all about telling a story with Legos, and I think that Tyler & Amy's build met all of the judge's criteria in that regard.   

Sometimes the builders can make the mistake of thinking that the tallest and biggest structure is best, when often times they need to just focus on a really clean build and not aim to be the biggest structure in the room!  

[mertensia]

I suspect they have a fixitive your they'll spray on most of the gryphon display.

I admit I always wonder if the "we're pregnant!" people get treated better.

[roamyn]

25 minutes ago, mertensia said:

I suspect they have a fixitive your they'll spray on most of the gryphon display.

I admit I always wonder if the "we're pregnant!" people get treated better.

Maybe some “taco” glue.  😉

I wouldn’t be surprised if the producers pushed the pregnancy ‘reveal’ for the sale of the show.  All show have some element of script/agenda.

[ProfCrash]

Twitter folks are crazy. Mark and Boone's build was great for a movie scene challenge but not for the final product. Honestly, I thought that it was the third place design last night. It could not tell the story on its own. It was a bunch of mini figs painting a building and singing. There was no way to know that it was a dystopian world being rebuilt. And honestly, if it was a dystopian world, those folks would not be worried about building an art enclave. But it was a great scene for a LEGO movie or for a LEGO video game.

The monkey and peacock was awesome. My only complaint about the monkey/peacock was that the monkey was hidden. I am less worried about animation and more about the face that you had to walk around the display to see why the peacock had the weird look in its face. The way the bricks were used, the details in the build (the banana table legs, sewing machine and the hat) were great. 

The Griffin build was awesome. The wings movement, the detail on everything. The serpent was well thought out and complete, the tower had all sorts of great details, the chicks, the first surrounding the scene. It was a large scale model that told a story in an easy glance with a ton of movement and detail. It was impressive as a build and a story. They could have left the pregnancy storyline and they would have won hands down. 

My kid liked it so much he watched it today. 

[blackwing]

Tyler and Amy were the clear winners to me.  Everything about their build was amazing.  It was really a complete package.  The griffin and the serpent were great sculptures and  characters.  They had architecture with the tower.  And then the landscape was great, there was so much detail.  I especially liked how it was raised a little so there was a waterfall.  Their model was also the only one that really easily told a story.

I thought Sam and Jessica should have come in second place.  Their peacock was beautiful. The colours on the feathers were eyecatching and combined nicely.  The peacock and the monkey were both very playful and I liked the humour.   Their model was all sculpture with no other elements but I thought it was great.  It reminded me of their amazing fire hydrant where from the front it just looked like a mermaid but there was more to it on the backside.

Mark and Boone were a clear third to me and I can’t understand why the judges raved so much about their build.  Yes, it was tall.  But that’s just because it was a rectangular box.  I don’t understand what was so great about a black box.   As with last week with their Endor scene, their build depended a lot on the humour from the minifigures.  Their story didn’t make sense without knowing what it was supposed to be, which Amy and Jamie knew from having talked to them earlier.  To me it just looked like people spraying paint on a building.  
 

Congrats to Tyler and Amy!  And I hope never to have to hear the chunkier beard bro singing his stupid “We’re Building With Bricks Now” song ever again.

[Eolivet]

While I think Tyler and Amy earned their win this episode, my real bone to pick is they were there at all, since if you believe the judging last episode, they would've been sent home. But they "suddenly" decided to have a final 3 versus a final 2, likely because they knew Sam and Jessica were always competing for second place.

Brickmaster Amy seemed to have a hard-on for Tyler and Amy the entire season, and I thought her whole emphasis on "storytelling" was odd (and arbitrary) criteria. I don't need novel-like plots in my Lego builds, just show me something pretty. Do we look at a building and go "now, what was the story behind that? What is the architect trying to communicate with the placement of those windows?" No, it's just a pretty building. This wasn't Lego Storytellers, it was Lego Masters, so the constant emphasis on "story! story! story!" seemed designed to give less technical teams an edge that I don't think was quite fair, since I feel like it became more and more important as the season went on. "Creativity" isn't the same thing as "story."

Ultimately, the show felt a little bait-and-switch to me, as I thought it was going to be more like the first episode. Where they built an amusement park and instead of, "I can see the character motivation behind the placement of the ferris wheel," it was "golly, that ferris wheel sure is pretty! And look at it spin!"

I wouldn't call shenanigans exactly, but I do feel like the criteria evolved as the show went on, and they became more and more impressed with Tyler and Amy's "storytelling," that they decided to make it a bigger and bigger part of the judging criteria until it became Lego Storytellers, and Tyler and Amy became shoo-ins for the win.

It'll be more of a level playing field next season, but I feel like a lot of technically skilled teams, who thought (as I did) this competition was about making big, pretty things went home early because they great builders, not storytellers.

But the writing was on the wall when they revealed Amy's pregnancy mid-show. Beware of unnecessary personal storylines designed to tug at viewers' heartstrings, and especially beware of them when they're mid-game reveals.

Now I'm going to go watch my kid build with Legos and ooh and ahh over how big and pretty it is, because it's freaking Legos, not a creative writing class.

[alexa]

1 hour ago, Eolivet said:

While I think Tyler and Amy earned their win this episode, my real bone to pick is they were there at all, since if you believe the judging last episode, they would've been sent home. But they "suddenly" decided to have a final 3 versus a final 2, likely because they knew Sam and Jessica were always competing for second place.

Brickmaster Amy seemed to have a hard-on for Tyler and Amy the entire season, and I thought her whole emphasis on "storytelling" was odd (and arbitrary) criteria. I don't need novel-like plots in my Lego builds, just show me something pretty. Do we look at a building and go "now, what was the story behind that? What is the architect trying to communicate with the placement of those windows?" No, it's just a pretty building. This wasn't Lego Storytellers, it was Lego Masters, so the constant emphasis on "story! story! story!" seemed designed to give less technical teams an edge that I don't think was quite fair, since I feel like it became more and more important as the season went on. "Creativity" isn't the same thing as "story."

Ultimately, the show felt a little bait-and-switch to me, as I thought it was going to be more like the first episode. Where they built an amusement park and instead of, "I can see the character motivation behind the placement of the ferris wheel," it was "golly, that ferris wheel sure is pretty! And look at it spin!"

I wouldn't call shenanigans exactly, but I do feel like the criteria evolved as the show went on, and they became more and more impressed with Tyler and Amy's "storytelling," that they decided to make it a bigger and bigger part of the judging criteria until it became Lego Storytellers, and Tyler and Amy became shoo-ins for the win.

It'll be more of a level playing field next season, but I feel like a lot of technically skilled teams, who thought (as I did) this competition was about making big, pretty things went home early because they great builders, not storytellers.

But the writing was on the wall when they revealed Amy's pregnancy mid-show. Beware of unnecessary personal storylines designed to tug at viewers' heartstrings, and especially beware of them when they're mid-game reveals.

Now I'm going to go watch my kid build with Legos and ooh and ahh over how big and pretty it is, because it's freaking Legos, not a creative writing class.

I don't think in reality Tyler and Amy were in third place at all the previous episode.  Their build was just as good as the others, but didn't contain a lot of color because most of the scenes had no color to work with.  The reality is most likely they were trying to make it look like they were in third to cause some drama--but in my opinion, they fully deserved to be in the final and more than Sam and Jessica did-- Tyler and Amy had a better overall competition throughout the series.  I don't think the series would have been served well by having a final two of Sam and Jessica and the other guys.  

[TimothyQ]

And let’s be honest here: this was Tyler’s win. He kept on saying it himself: “I’ve been preparing for this moment my whole life.” Not we’ve; I’ve. This was his deal. I don’t doubt the Amy helped out a lot, but did she ever even say she liked building Lego? I always felt the other teams were partners in the build. She was just kinda there, helping her husband out. YMMV

[Taeolas]

Having 3 in the finale is very common for shows now. So them "suddenly" deciding to have a non-elimination round was not all that sudden at all. While there's always some manipulation going on, NEL rounds and other surprises are always planned well in advance unless something really unexpected (ie a team has to withdraw for some reason) happens. 

[ProfCrash]

6 hours ago, TimothyQ said:

And let’s be honest here: this was Tyler’s win. He kept on saying it himself: “I’ve been preparing for this moment my whole life.” Not we’ve; I’ve. This was his deal. I don’t doubt the Amy helped out a lot, but did she ever even say she liked building Lego? I always felt the other teams were partners in the build. She was just kinda there, helping her husband out. YMMV

Eh, I thought most of the teams had one lead and one add on. Mark and Boone was one of the few teams that seemed like co-builders. But the Dad, Muscle Bro, Little Bro, normal hair lady, and Jessica were all clear helpers. Amy was responsible for a lot of the elements of their builds. Tyler handled the technical parts of build but Amy did the vast majority of the buildings and scenery that supported the technical elements. 

[Eolivet]

On 4/19/2020 at 7:47 AM, Taeolas said:

Having 3 in the finale is very common for shows now. So them "suddenly" deciding to have a non-elimination round was not all that sudden at all.

Then they needed to make that clear in the episode, because they played it like "we just decided you were all so wonderful, you all had to advance!" And they made a big deal out of saying Tyler and Amy were third and would've gone home, except ... psych!

I absolutely believe the producers thought Sam and Jessica would flame out (no pun intended with fiery build) in the final three, but when they didn't, they had to adjust accordingly. I get this happens in the Amazing Race a lot, and I don't side-eye a winner there if they're saved by non-elimination. But this felt hinkier to me. The Tyler and Amy vs Mark and Boone smackdown was what they'd been building towards all season (they each have 4-5 wins!), and when they didn't get their epic final 2 battle, they had to create a final 3.

[alexa]

17 minutes ago, Eolivet said:

Then they needed to make that clear in the episode, because they played it like "we just decided you were all so wonderful, you all had to advance!" And they made a big deal out of saying Tyler and Amy were third and would've gone home, except ... psych!

I absolutely believe the producers thought Sam and Jessica would flame out (no pun intended with fiery build) in the final three, but when they didn't, they had to adjust accordingly. I get this happens in the Amazing Race a lot, and I don't side-eye a winner there if they're saved by non-elimination. But this felt hinkier to me. The Tyler and Amy vs Mark and Boone smackdown was what they'd been building towards all season (they each have 4-5 wins!), and when they didn't get their epic final 2 battle, they had to create a final 3.

I still think it is very possible they intended on the final three the entire time, but just pretended someone would leave for the drama.  They do this in all of the reality shows.... Dancing with the Stars does it all of the time.  They start an elimination and then say, everyone is staying!  Wow!  lol.  But I get what you are saying, as it is true there is also much manipulation in these shows as well.  Either way I am glad it didn't end with just Sam/Jessica, and the two guys.  It needed a third competitor, or at least a stronger one than Sam/Jessica, imo.

[Taeolas]

When you watch competition shows like this often enough, you recognize a lot of the common elements. Even for LM, they tried to 'pretend' they were going against theme along the way (All of Will's "Normally in a competition like this there would be a surprise..." moments), but really they were following the competition playbook to the letter pretty much. Complete with the host 'faking out' surprises like the "sudden" non-elimination round at the end. 

Who actually made it to the end was probably a bit of a surprise; that's the only thing that wasn't preset up (for good reasons). But that they had 3 teams building at the end was a certainty from before casting started. Look at just about every other competition show out there; from Survivor to Amazing Race to Top Chef to Drag Race (care to guess what other shows I watch? ;P) ; they all usually have 3 or even 4 contestants in their finals. Way way back in their early days, they may have had a 2-contestant finale. But they've learned through the years that 3 or 4 in the final episode is just more flexible. (unless the third team is completely blown out, like what happened in TAR years ago; 1 team was literally still in Alaska when the other 2 teams finished the race)