Lego Masters (USA) - General Discussion

[TimothyQ]

Oh man, you could tell Zach and Wayne thought they had the win in the bag and we’re soooo mad when the other guys got it. Made my heart happy since they’re my least favorite team. 

Now that this motion challenge is out of the way, I feel like the DIY team has a much better shot at it. They’re not technically savvy, but they are creative. But I don’t really have any team I’m rooting for, just kind of meh on everyone except Zach/Wayne. 

[alexa]

That was definitely the right choice.  The cardboard castle wasn’t up to the others, IMO.  I think they have missed the mark on a few others as well.  

[meredithalmighty]

Comsidering that Jaime stated that Caleb and Jacob had the best build of the season, it was barely shown in the episode. I did love the idea of a bridge falling. They are actually from the Door County WI area, I wish that I had saved a neighborhood newspaper clipping about them when I was there for vacation. 

I kind of wish the finale would be more open themed like last year. I predict the Geek bros will pull off the win.

[mjc570]

Liked the episode except for the extended homage (and, seriously, why the repeated dropping of the perfectly good "h," does everyone shop at Tar-je?) to the dead friend. I know it was supposed to humanize the guy, but really, it was unnecessary and overdone.

With the respect to the build themselves, I liked them all. I really disagreed with the automatic pass for the one furthest from the wall, I think it could have been a factor in judging them. I liked the DIY moms' totally creative cardboard castle, too bad about the telescope, but those markers looked great.

I think the various teams' strengths are pretty clear by this point (ie, like Zach and Wayne being technically superior but not a lot of creativity), so it will be interesting to see what the final challenge will be.

[mertensia]

I have only heard homage pronounced without the h. Is it that wrong? 

The cardboard castle was cute but not a wow thing.

[mjc570]

1 minute ago, mertensia said:

I have only heard homage pronounced without the h. Is it that wrong? 

Not if you're speaking French, ha ha.  To be fair, I know a lot a people say it that way, and it is (I think) a permissible usage per various dictionaries although not the primary entry. 

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, mertensia said:

I have only heard homage pronounced without the h. Is it that wrong? 

The cardboard castle was cute but not a wow thing.

Not at all. It’s perfectly acceptable, based on the French pronunciation. It’s the pronunciation I use. 
I liked what one of the moms said to Amy, referring to what her little girl said. Very sweet moment.

[FnkyChkn34]

Zack and Wayne have now become my favorite bothers.  Yes, they were arrogant in the beginning, but as the show went on, they softened - and the others just became too annoying.  The battle for the title of "Castle Bros." was just stupid.  I get that it was perpetuated by Will (who really doesn't bother me), but they didn't have to play along.  That showed their arrogance - so the tables have turned.  I'm rooting for Zack and Wayne.  I loved their Heaven's Gate castle and that they took the risk with placing it further out on the pier.  (Did everyone notice that they didn't even use all 10 attachment points?  I think the judges faulted them for that, but I thought it was impressive to show that they built something so strong with even less helping it stick to the wall.)  I also liked the story behind it; that was sweet.

I liked the overall moms too, but they were out of their league now.   Their cardboard boxes were impressive with the drawings and markers, but it didn't fit the theme.  It was a nice build, but it was very fair that they left. 

[ShelleySue]

Did anyone else feel "hungry" for more technical details?  I felt like there was just too much filler and not enough information on how the teams put everything together.  We saw so much of the "Castle Bros" rivalry but all of a sudden the castles were hanging off of the cliff.  Jamie and Amy mentioned that Michelle and Natalie didn't use technics (I think that's what they said) so I would like to have seen how their process was different. They were impressed by the walkway dangling down but we never got to see how that was done, etc.

[blackwing]

11 hours ago, mjc570 said:

Liked the episode except for the extended homage (and, seriously, why the repeated dropping of the perfectly good "h," does everyone shop at Tar-je?) to the dead friend. I know it was supposed to humanize the guy, but really, it was unnecessary and overdone.

With the respect to the build themselves, I liked them all. I really disagreed with the automatic pass for the one furthest from the wall, I think it could have been a factor in judging them. I liked the DIY moms' totally creative cardboard castle, too bad about the telescope, but those markers looked great.

I think the various teams' strengths are pretty clear by this point (ie, like Zach and Wayne being technically superior but not a lot of creativity), so it will be interesting to see what the final challenge will be.

I've only heard it pronounced without the H but I have only heard it pronounced like "AHM-idge".  Not the way he said it, "oh-MAHJ", which sounded incredibly pretentious to me.  But maybe that's how some people say it?

I too disagreed with the automatic pass for the furthest from the wall.  It was just like the earthquake skyscraper... teams could have made an incredibly simple and ugly build and got it far out and advanced.  What if they had just done a very long bridge and put a tiny little castle at the wall?  That would have merited an automatic pass but certainly would  not really be in the spirit of the task.

I do think the Overalls Girls were outclassed.  They've had some good creativity but they were clearly not as good as the rest of the teams.  I did like their concept though.  I do think it stinks for them because if last week had been an elimination then I think the Geek Twins would have left and they would have been in the final three.

I didn't think Zack and Wayne's build was that great.  First, the whole bit about the oh-MAHJ to the dead friend.  A motorcycle on the end of the ramp was supposed to signify that?  I know they are Filipino but I am wondering if they are Filipino of Chinese descent... they did Chinese dragons for their parade float and now a building that looked like it could have come right out of the Forbidden City.

I would not have given them the win because I didn't think they really followed the task.  1) That was not a castle... that was one building.  They could have argued it was a Chinese castle but I think even then it would have been a lot more elaborate with multiple wings/levels etc.  2)  It did not "come out of the cliff" like they were instructed to.  They basically built a ramp and then plopped this building somewhere in the middle of it as an excuse to have this really long bridge.  3) There was no story, apart from the motorcycle and the dead friend.  4) There were no additional fun details like we saw with the other builds.
 

I thought the Viking Brothers had the best build, I loved their castle and I loved the story.  Not sure why Amy criticised them for the lack of wings on the dragon... if the dragon had extended out enough so that we could see wings then it would have been criticised for overpowering the build which was supposed to be a castle.

I did like the Geek Twins build but I thought the "falling bridge" was a bit cheap.  I'm not sure if it was easier to have the bridge falling a bit so the weight would be lower and wouldn't have to extend straight out as much.  But I didn't think the details in their castle were as good as the Viking Brothers.

1 hour ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

Zack and Wayne have now become my favorite bothers.  Yes, they were arrogant in the beginning, but as the show went on, they softened - and the others just became too annoying.  The battle for the title of "Castle Bros." was just stupid.  I get that it was perpetuated by Will (who really doesn't bother me), but they didn't have to play along.  That showed their arrogance - so the tables have turned.  I'm rooting for Zack and Wayne.  I loved their Heaven's Gate castle and that they took the risk with placing it further out on the pier.  (Did everyone notice that they didn't even use all 10 attachment points?  I think the judges faulted them for that, but I thought it was impressive to show that they built something so strong with even less helping it stick to the wall.)  I also liked the story behind it; that was sweet.

 

I didn't see anything arrogant in playing along.  They clearly didn't want to be there.  I don't think the teams ever have a choice, when Will wants to exchange funny banter with them, they have to play along.  I didn't like how he pulled them over, he said something like "I know you are worried for time but come here" and then proceeded to waste five minutes of their time.  The whole "Castle Brothers" title battle was just incredibly dumb... like anyone in the Lego community (apparently these people more or less all know each other from Lego conventions or something) are going to start calling the Geek Twins the "Castle Brothers".

By the way, if that is the name by which they are known, how come this is the first we are hearing of it?  We could have been calling Mark and Steven the "Castle Brothers" instead of the "Viking Brothers" all this time.

[mlp]

Yes to all of that blackwing.  I didn't think Zach and Wayne's building met the definition of castle at all.  I liked the girls display a lot but it didn't meet the requirements either.  Will drives me nuts with his attention-seeking, time-wasting nonsense.  I'll be happy if either of the other teams wins.

[Black Knight]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I thought the Viking Brothers had the best build, I loved their castle and I loved the story.  Not sure why Amy criticised them for the lack of wings on the dragon... if the dragon had extended out enough so that we could see wings then it would have been criticised for overpowering the build which was supposed to be a castle.

I suspect what Amy was really getting at was that the dragon was too big for the castle and so the story didn't actually work, but she didn't want to say that. The dragon's head filled the entire doorway, with the doors askew - even allowing for a slimmer body as in the style of Chinese dragons, there's still no way the body could be small enough to get through the doors, not with the size of that head.

If the brothers had tried to include wings, it would have forced them to think about the body and led to them scaling the size of the dragon more appropriately.

I also don't think that showing more of the dragon would have led to criticism of overpowering the build. Jamie and Amy made it clear that storytelling was important for this one (unless one went for the free pass to the finale of just building out the farthest). It was a little bit of a skimpy story as it was, and a really obvious one - dragon protecting its hoard! - and so it's important to really nail the elements of the story.

[LittleIggy]

“Oh-mahj” or “oh-mahzh” isn’t pretentious. It’s the pronunciation of the French hommage. 

[LittleIggy]

4 minutes ago, mlp said:

Yes to all of that blackwing.  I didn't think Zach and Wayne's building met the definition of castle at all.  I liked the girls display a lot but it didn't meet the requirements either.  Will drives me nuts with his attention-seeking, time-wasting nonsense.  I'll be happy if either of the other teams wins.

Then the rules should have specified “European castle.”

[Guest]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I didn't see anything arrogant in playing along.  They clearly didn't want to be there.  I don't think the teams ever have a choice, when Will wants to exchange funny banter with them, they have to play along.  I didn't like how he pulled them over, he said something like "I know you are worried for time but come here" and then proceeded to waste five minutes of their time.  The whole "Castle Brothers" title battle was just incredibly dumb... like anyone in the Lego community (apparently these people more or less all know each other from Lego conventions or something) are going to start calling the Geek Twins the "Castle Brothers".

I was really hoping that they stopped the clock and had the other two teams stop working during that whole bit. Because that was way more disruptive than the usual "stop and chat" bits. I agree that the teams are "strongly encouraged" to play along and don't really have a choice.

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I would not have given them the win because I didn't think they really followed the task.  1) That was not a castle... that was one building.  They could have argued it was a Chinese castle but I think even then it would have been a lot more elaborate with multiple wings/levels etc.  2)  It did not "come out of the cliff" like they were instructed to.  They basically built a ramp and then plopped this building somewhere in the middle of it as an excuse to have this really long bridge.  3) There was no story, apart from the motorcycle and the dead friend.  4) There were no additional fun details like we saw with the other builds.

I agree with points 3 and 4, but I don't quite agree with the criticism in point 2, because all three teams of brothers built a long ramp to get length. True, Zach and Wayne's building wasn't "coming out of the wall", but the stone and vines under the ramp were. I don't think putting the building in the middle of the ramp is what made their ramp able to be longer than the others - it was more how they built the ramp to begin with. The building just set down on top of it.

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, LittleIggy said:

“Oh-mahj” or “oh-mahzh” isn’t pretentious. It’s the pronunciation of the French hommage. 

Yes, I agree that the English word "homage" comes from the French word "hommage".  But that's the part I find pretentious... pronouncing the word like it is used in the original language to make himself sound more worldly and sophisticated.  It's like someone ordering the pasta dish of a large tube stuffed with ricotta, spinach and ground beef by asking for the "mahn-ih-GOT" (Italian pronunciation) instead of the common American pronunciation of "man-ih-COT-tee".

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Yes, I agree that the English word "homage" comes from the French word "hommage".  But that's the part I find pretentious... pronouncing the word like it is used in the original language to make himself sound more worldly and sophisticated.  It's like someone ordering the pasta dish of a large tube stuffed with ricotta, spinach and ground beef by asking for the "mahn-ih-GOT" (Italian pronunciation) instead of the common American pronunciation of "man-ih-COT-tee".

For whatever reason, terms borrowed from French seem to have been more resistant to being "Americanized" than a lot of other languages (i.e. "du jour", "carte blanche", etc.). Perhaps because of the strong connection and intermixing of France and England throughout the Middle Ages. So I find it hard to ding someone for being pretentious for using a more French pronunciation, even if an American one has also come into use.

But anyway: Lego! I would love to know how Team Overalls would have fared if Zach and Wayne's wasn't the longest, giving them an automatic bye. I do wish their cardboard box castle had been a little more castle-like, but I loved their concept.

[JessDVD]

I mean we all knew it was a foregone conclusion - although yes, probably deserved - that the Overalls Girls were gone.

I say probably only because I feel this episode yet again illustrated what I've already said probably a few times. I think it's entirely possible that Overalls would have been best, or at least better, if they had been told to build a castle, period. Not one that can suspend from the ceiling, or hang off a wall, or stand up to a wind tunnel. At the very least, I'd like to see their cardboard moving box castle in THAT format. This business of hamstringing the contestants' design skills because they have to make their creation be able to do handsprings or whatever, seems to pick off the people who just have less skill in engineering versus skill in designing Lego creations. 

Z&W (I do agree, they have mellowed some, so I'm retiring "Arrogant Bros") continue to be great at structure, and overdo that to the detriment of their design. Their building was really well-done, but it does strain the definition of castle, and I don't know why we need to spend all this time on their AHmadg/ohMAHDG. As well as all that about the Castle Bros. Dude, don't care, show me their Lego creations.

Next week's seems to be a little closer to what I'd like to see. 

[mlp]

3 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Then the rules should have specified “European castle.”

A castle by definition is a building meant for defense.  Zach and Wayne's building might have qualified as a palace but it wasn't in any way a castle.  Disney and others have stylized castles so we think about Cinderella's castle and so on but even those have the stone block type of structure and turrets for archers, etc.    Zach and Wayne's one story temple would never ward off an attack.

[blackwing]

4 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Then the rules should have specified “European castle.”

My complaint about Zack and Wayne's build is not that it wasn't a European castle, it's that it wasn't a castle at all.  It was a building.  For the record, this is what the castle/palace in "Mulan" looked like: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Imperial_City?file=Ciudad_Imperial.png

Zack and Wayne built a single building.

34 minutes ago, mlp said:

A castle by definition is a building meant for defense.  Zach and Wayne's building might have qualified as a palace but it wasn't in any way a castle.  Disney and others have stylized castles so we think about Cinderella's castle and so on but even those have the stone block type of structure and turrets for archers, etc.    Zach and Wayne's one story temple would never ward off an attack.

This.  I don't understand why there wasn't any criticism from the judges about the fact that it wasn't a castle.  If it were any other team I can hear Jamie saying "I would have liked to have seen more.  Your building is beautiful but I would have loved to have seen some towers or walls or fortifications."

Also, I still don't fully understand the oh-MAHJ.  Larger One's friend loved motorcycles and died, so he went to heaven first instead of waiting for Larger One.  He looked like a white guy, but I guess his version of heaven is guarded by a Chinese temple?  So I guess the "story" in the build is that Friend is waiting on the bridge on his motorcycle for Larger One to get to heaven?  Just seems to odd to have brought up this sentimental story at this point in the competition.  Why not pay oh-MAHJ to his friend earlier?  Perhaps the floating brick week.  Could have easily made a cloud and had his friend in heaven on his motorcycle, along with his other biker friends etc.  Seemed like a very calculated move to gain sentiment.

If it had been any other team I can hear Amy saying "I love the building, and the homage to your friend.  But I would have loved to have seen more story.  I wanted to see more minifigures and more activity.  If this is supposed to be heaven then surely there are more people up there than just one person on a motorcycle."

[FnkyChkn34]

6 hours ago, blackwing said:

I didn't see anything arrogant in playing along.  They clearly didn't want to be there.  I don't think the teams ever have a choice, when Will wants to exchange funny banter with them, they have to play along.  I didn't like how he pulled them over, he said something like "I know you are worried for time but come here" and then proceeded to waste five minutes of their time.  The whole "Castle Brothers" title battle was just incredibly dumb... like anyone in the Lego community (apparently these people more or less all know each other from Lego conventions or something) are going to start calling the Geek Twins the "Castle Brothers".

By the way, if that is the name by which they are known, how come this is the first we are hearing of it?  We could have been calling Mark and Steven the "Castle Brothers" instead of the "Viking Brothers" all this time.

I basically meant the whole "we're called the Castle Bros!" to start with.  The geeky, annoying twins did seem uncomfortable when Will wanted them to agree to the challenge, you're right.  But the Viking Bros sure were boastful!  And to then be in the bottom two... LOL.

[mertensia]

2 hours ago, mlp said:

A castle by definition is a building meant for defense.  Zach and Wayne's building might have qualified as a palace but it wasn't in any way a castle.  Disney and others have stylized castles so we think about Cinderella's castle and so on but even those have the stone block type of structure and turrets for archers, etc.    Zach and Wayne's one story temple would never ward off an attack.

We visited Changdeok Palace in South Korea. All one level. Maybe Chinese castles are all one level, too.

[mlp]

1 hour ago, mertensia said:

We visited Changdeok Palace in South Korea. All one level. Maybe Chinese castles are all one level, too.

A palace is a royal residence.  It can be anything.  A castle was a defense first.  That's why Buckingham Palace, built originally as a residence, is not considered a castle but Windsor Castle, built by William the Conqueror as a defense, is a castle even though it's also a royal residence.  

I don't know anything about Korean or Chinese palaces.  Or castles for that matter.

[LittleIggy]

11 hours ago, blackwing said:

Yes, I agree that the English word "homage" comes from the French word "hommage".  But that's the part I find pretentious... pronouncing the word like it is used in the original language to make himself sound more worldly and sophisticated.  It's like someone ordering the pasta dish of a large tube stuffed with ricotta, spinach and ground beef by asking for the "mahn-ih-GOT" (Italian pronunciation) instead of the common American pronunciation of "man-ih-COT-tee".

I don’t think it’s pretentious. That’s how I pronounce it, and it’s an accepted variation. I’m through discussing this. 

[LittleIggy]

3 hours ago, mlp said:

A palace is a royal residence.  It can be anything.  A castle was a defense first.  That's why Buckingham Palace, built originally as a residence, is not considered a castle but Windsor Castle, built by William the Conqueror as a defense, is a castle even though it's also a royal residence.  

I don't know anything about Korean or Chinese palaces.  Or castles for that matter.

Watch some Korean sageuks. You’ll see Korean palaces and castles. For Japanese castles, watch some Kurosawa films like Ran or Throne of Blood.

[alexa]

Well, if the discussion is what qualifies as a castle, then I would venture to say the cardboard one was more like a cardboard house, and not a castle.  

[TimothyQ]

If a Lego building is a castle to Amy and Jamie, that’s good enough for me. 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, alexa said:

Well, if the discussion is what qualifies as a castle, then I would venture to say the cardboard one was more like a cardboard house, and not a castle.  

I think someone mentioned this earlier, but I would say that if Team Overalls weren't required to build off the side of a cliff and worry about length, but were allowed to just build up from a base, maybe they could have made it more castle-like and still kept the cardboard box theme. Like, putting the boxes in more of a wall-like ring and with some little boxes as turrets and whatnot.

But with the challenge as it was, they didn't, so they're out. A shame, but understandable.

[mertensia]

On 9/8/2021 at 5:35 PM, mlp said:

A palace is a royal residence.  It can be anything.  A castle was a defense first.  That's why Buckingham Palace, built originally as a residence, is not considered a castle but Windsor Castle, built by William the Conqueror as a defense, is a castle even though it's also a royal residence.  

I don't know anything about Korean or Chinese palaces.  Or castles for that matter.

But that's a European distinction. Do we know that the Chinese made the same?

[mlp]

1 hour ago, mertensia said:

But that's a European distinction.

It's actually an English language distinction which is the language the instructions were given in.  Presenting something that didn't meet the definition of what was asked for should have disqualified the entry IMO although I'd be willing to bet that the judges didn't understand the definition either.  And yeah, I know I'm being pedantic.  That kind of thing just bugs me.

[IvySpice]

If we're getting into a castle being a defensive stronghold, putting your structure way out on a narrow cantilever extended from a cliff face totally qualifies. No enemy could launch a surprise attack on Zack & Wayne's structure. You put two guys at the cliff end of the bridge and you're good. It's basically the Eyrie.

The winning brothers' castle took my breath away. The use of color, the varied and unexpected asymmetry of the towers, the surprising degree of action and storyline in a stationary piece (catching the bridge in the moment of collapse)...just superb overall. It looked like I would have expected something to look after a whole design team had multiple days to create.

Edited September 12, 2021 by IvySpice

[meredithalmighty]

Really surprised Mark and Steven won. I thought their monster looked blocky although it did look better in the finale shot.

[alexa]

I didn’t like any of the builds.  Pretty disappointed honestly, but okay with the winners.

Edited September 15, 2021 by alexa

[meredithalmighty]

The season 1 finale was much better

[srpturtle80]

Wow, I am no expert but I thought Mark and Steven’s build was phenomenal! It looked extra awesome when it was lit up. They absolutely deserved the win.
I found Zack and Wayne’s build to be a bit boring, and while not as technically proficient, Caleb and Jacob’s was a very cool concept. 

I was happy with the result! 

[mjc570]

I have to laugh about the judging, not that I necessarily disagreed with the result.  I agree that  Caleb and Jacob deserved 3rd place in comparison to the other two, which I think were more technically proficient.  Wayne and Zack's dragons were very disappointing, but I thought they took the judges' suggestions to heart and incorporated stories on each level that were very personal and interesting.  It doesn't seem, though, that this story telling really was a factor.  Mark and Steven's build really had no story aspect, but the wood warden was well done, and the waterfalls were really well done. 

[mertensia]

I loved that wood man and the night look with the water was really cool. 

II thought the dragon and tower was kind of lackluster especially at night. 

The two worlds was also lackluster at night.

I'm not sad with who won.

[LittleIggy]

I didn’t want the Smug Bros to win, but their build was the best tonight. The waterfall night effect was cool.

Edited September 15, 2021 by LittleIggy

[mlp]

I liked Caleb and Jacob's best so I was actually shocked when they got third place.  I have no Lego expertise so I don't know what the deciding factors were.  Their nighttime effect didn't have a lot of pizzazz so maybe that was it.  In any event, I liked the brothers who won and I'm happy with the ending.

I didn't time anything but Will and his antics must have taken up a third of the air time if not more.  I'd much rather watch the building process and learn something about the various Lego pieces.  Maybe next year - but I doubt it will ever happen as long as Will is the host.  

[FnkyChkn34]

So, Mark and Steven won by building... Groot?  I guess it's a good thing that Lego already has the Marvel license agreement...

[blackwing]

I am happy with the result.  I was rooting for the Viking Brothers and I thought their build was far and away the best of the three.  The landscape was great with lots of intricate details, and the wood watcher was well crafted.  The water and the night effects (with motion lights) was especially beautiful.

I liked the Geek Twins concept a lot and I thought it was very creative, even if I don't think it was executed that well.  The day half was represented by a spinning white city, and the night half was represented by a cave with enormous bats?  I was surprised by how much the less geeky twin talked this episode, I don't think we have ever heard him talk so much.

I thought Zack and Wayne's build was flat out terrible.  The building itself was very boring, the dragons were underwhelming, and I suppose they thought they were going to win because of the personal stories on each level?  Without them explaining the characters on each level and how they related to themselves, the build would have made little sense.  It seems pretty evident that Zack and Wayne's strength was engineering and technical expertise, it's why they seemed to gravitate towards buildings.  Also, their nighttime light up was seriously bad... all it did was just light up the inside, nothing "came to life" as Amyand Jamie had wanted.

9 hours ago, mlp said:

I liked Caleb and Jacob's best so I was actually shocked when they got third place.  I have no Lego expertise so I don't know what the deciding factors were.  Their nighttime effect didn't have a lot of pizzazz so maybe that was it.  In any event, I liked the brothers who won and I'm happy with the ending.

I didn't time anything but Will and his antics must have taken up a third of the air time if not more.  I'd much rather watch the building process and learn something about the various Lego pieces.  Maybe next year - but I doubt it will ever happen as long as Will is the host.  

I would have had the results as 1) Mark and Steven, 2) Caleb and Jacob, 3) Zack and Wayne.

Will and his puppet Will and his Boss Will was just a complete waste of time.  The family bit was also a complete waste of time.  I'm sure it was nice for the competitors to see their families (I get that because COVID that the families couldn't be there in person like last year).  But if nothing has ever been said about family in any of the previous episodes, why introduce that now?  Why did it take us all these many episodes to learn that the shorter one of Zack and Wayne (never did figure out which was which) has a girlfriend and two children?  Or that the geekier twin is the one with a fiance?

[FnkyChkn34]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I thought Zack and Wayne's build was flat out terrible.  The building itself was very boring, the dragons were underwhelming, and I suppose they thought they were going to win because of the personal stories on each level?  Without them explaining the characters on each level and how they related to themselves, the build would have made little sense.  It seems pretty evident that Zack and Wayne's strength was engineering and technical expertise, it's why they seemed to gravitate towards buildings.  Also, their nighttime light up was seriously bad... all it did was just light up the inside, nothing "came to life" as Amyand Jamie had wanted.

They said that there were things that could only be seen when the room got dark and the lights inside came on.  Maybe that didn't translate to TV because the cameras couldn't pick up on it?  I don't know, just a thought.

[blackwing]

2 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

They said that there were things that could only be seen when the room got dark and the lights inside came on.  Maybe that didn't translate to TV because the cameras couldn't pick up on it?  I don't know, just a thought.

Yep, I know they mentioned that... but the camera did show us close-ups of some of the rooms in the "night" mode.  To me, the characters and scenes looked pretty much the same as they did during the "day" mode, so if there were indeed differences, they did not explain them at all, and the judges didn't comment on them either.

I think Zack and Wayne got second place because of the goodwill carrying over from the strength of their resume of builds, which overall, was a lot better than the Geek Twins.

[FnkyChkn34]

2 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I think Zack and Wayne got second place because of the goodwill carrying over from the strength of their resume of builds, which overall, was a lot better than the Geek Twins.

I figured that was taken into consideration as well.  The judges didn't say it, but I'm sure they judged on the season as a whole.  

I was fine with the winners.  They didn't seem to have the most stellar personalities, but whatever.  It's a Lego building competition, not a popularity contest.  And don't get me wrong, my comment above wasn't a sleight on their Tree Man.  I love Groot!  That's just the first thing I thought of when I saw their concept drawing, LOL.  

[LittleIggy]

11 hours ago, mlp said:

I liked Caleb and Jacob's best so I was actually shocked when they got third place.  I have no Lego expertise so I don't know what the deciding factors were.  Their nighttime effect didn't have a lot of pizzazz so maybe that was it.  In any event, I liked the brothers who won and I'm happy with the ending.

I didn't time anything but Will and his antics must have taken up a third of the air time if not more.  I'd much rather watch the building process and learn something about the various Lego pieces.  Maybe next year - but I doubt it will ever happen as long as Will is the host.  

Will is the Executive Producer so…

[Black Knight]

I didn't love any of the builds, but I agreed with the final order here. Scale was important and probably a large part of the reason why Mark and Steven won. I think the geek twins had a really interesting idea, but their hourglass wasn't big enough to really execute it. They might have done more with the night half if they'd had more space to work with.

I noticed that Zack and Wayne weren't able to get the motion working for their dragons.

I was disappointed that we weren't given any perspective on why the judges decided as they did, even if I agreed with their decisions. On most competitive reality shows we get to hear some comments. And of course, like in most of the episodes, no insight into the technical building. For instance, how did the geek twins build that hourglass? I'm sure some interesting techniques were used given the top half had to be turned upside down. Why not talk about the transparent blocks, or tell us more about the best ways to place lights? Naaaaahhhhh...let's have more Will!

[kili]

Quote

Wayne and Zack's dragons were very disappointing,

I think they may have been meant to move and they couldn't get it to work with the building. The other two teams had moving elements, so I wonder if having movement was part of the behind-the-scenes criteria. Since all the builds ended up being similar in height - I wonder if there were some dimension criteria as well.

Those poor dragons were not at the same level as their previous dragons, so I think that they had something more planned rather than just static dragons.

Quote

I liked the Geek Twins concept a lot and I thought it was very creative, even if I don't think it was executed that well.  The day half was represented by a spinning white city, and the night half was represented by a cave with enormous bats?

It would have been interesting if the dark scene was a mirror image of light city with a sinister twist. The night city should also have been way brighter at night than the day city (IMO).  I also would have liked to see the hourglass look more hour glassy (the shape was a little warped and maybe a few more strands to define it - and if those strands could light up.)

Quote

I am happy with the result.  I was rooting for the Viking Brothers and I thought their build was far and away the best of the three.  The landscape was great with lots of intricate details, and the wood watcher was well crafted.  The water and the night effects (with motion lights) was especially beautiful.

I think they were the obvious winners. Maybe with more time, the other builds could have reached the same level, but Mark and Steven had everything. It was cohesive, well-built, impressive and complete. The other builds could have used a few more hours to complete. 

Quote

Will and his puppet Will and his Boss Will was just a complete waste of time.  The family bit was also a complete waste of time.

Ugh! Let's look at cooking shows like Master Chef. They don't spend a lot of time on the hosts goofing around and puppets. They let us see a few of the techniques and discuss why something is hard. Why can't Legomasters do that? They mentioned that the water was a new technique for the Viking Brothers to do - why not tell us what that technique was? How did Zach and Wayne build such a strong bridge last week? Putting the castle all the way out there not only looked cool, it put a lot more stress on the join points. Did they have to give up on moving dragons this week and if so, why? How did the Geek Brothers make sure their structure could support the weight of the dark city? When building a big structures like a woodsman - do I make it solid or empty?

I learned one must bang the pan before putting Macarons in the oven - why can't I learn a bit about making cool lego builds? That has to be more interesting to fans of Lego Master than a puppet trying to steal Will's job. They don't have to do a master class, just fill the all-about-eve-puppet's time with some of the build details.

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

I was disappointed that we weren't given any perspective on why the judges decided as they did, even if I agreed with their decisions. On most competitive reality shows we get to hear some comments. And of course, like in most of the episodes, no insight into the technical building. For instance, how did the geek twins build that hourglass? I'm sure some interesting techniques were used given the top half had to be turned upside down. Why not talk about the transparent blocks, or tell us more about the best ways to place lights? Naaaaahhhhh...let's have more Will!

Yes.  I wanted to know what the judges thought were the highlights and criticisms of each build.  It would have been great to get more insight as to how they decided.

1 hour ago, kili said:

Ugh! Let's look at cooking shows like Master Chef. They don't spend a lot of time on the hosts goofing around and puppets. They let us see a few of the techniques and discuss why something is hard. Why can't Legomasters do that? They mentioned that the water was a new technique for the Viking Brothers to do - why not tell us what that technique was? How did Zach and Wayne build such a strong bridge last week? Putting the castle all the way out there not only looked cool, it put a lot more stress on the join points. Did they have to give up on moving dragons this week and if so, why? How did the Geek Brothers make sure their structure could support the weight of the dark city? When building a big structures like a woodsman - do I make it solid or empty?

I learned one must bang the pan before putting Macarons in the oven - why can't I learn a bit about making cool lego builds? That has to be more interesting to fans of Lego Master than a puppet trying to steal Will's job. They don't have to do a master class, just fill the all-about-eve-puppet's time with some of the build details.

Agreed.  Maybe it's me, but I think this season seemed to have a lot less emphasis on sculpting than last season?  The only weeks that seemed like a real sculpting exercise were maybe the hat, the floating brick, and the creature mashup?  For some reason I feel like last season had more sculpting.  I think back to the finalist bickering couple that wasn't a couple ("You just don't understand Lego!").  The task where they got half an object and they created an incredible mermaid bursting out of a fire hydrant, complete with water spray, and their finale with the monkey stealing a peacock's feather.

We didn't have as much sculpting on this season, and it was evident that some of the teams (Geek Twins with their extremely blocky chef's hat) were terrible at it.  But even so, it's sad that after two seasons, I still have absolutely no idea how to sculpt.  I have the same questions... is a sculpted object solid or hollow?  I think it's solid, but it would be nice to have one of those "Lego tips" clip showing how to start a sculpture.  Or, as has been said before, put these tips online.  I would definitely watch them.

[Black Knight]

7 hours ago, blackwing said:

I have the same questions... is a sculpted object solid or hollow?  I think it's solid, but it would be nice to have one of those "Lego tips" clip showing how to start a sculpture.  Or, as has been said before, put these tips online.  I would definitely watch them.

Something else I've thought is that they should show a sped-up clip of certain things being built. Like the Groot-like warden in this ep. Then we would know whether it's solid or hollow, etc.

[FnkyChkn34]

17 hours ago, blackwing said:

I have the same questions... is a sculpted object solid or hollow?  I think it's solid, but it would be nice to have one of those "Lego tips" clip showing how to start a sculpture.  Or, as has been said before, put these tips online.  I would definitely watch them.

The majority of them are going to be hollow.  If they were solid, they'd be too heavy to lift.  If you're curious to see how smaller scale sculpting is done, check out the Lego directions for Yoda (https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions/75255) or maybe R2D2.  Yoda is built on a rectangular frame of Technic pieces so that he is entirely hollow.  The sculpting is on the outside to give his cloak some layers.