In this week’s “Inside LEGO Masters” article, Maria talks about building from memory, a special celebrity guest, working together in small spaces, and an encouraging host pep talk. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for LEGO Masters Episode 6!

This is your official spoiler warning for LEGO Masters US Season 2 Episode 6.

Just Like Drawing a Bike

Have you ever tried to draw a familiar object from memory? Here’s a fun challenge—pull out a piece of paper and draw a bicycle. I’ll wait…

How did that go? Getting the frame, gears, and seat properly situated over the wheels was harder than you expected, wasn’t it? Now imagine I’ve asked you to complete this same challenge using LEGO bricks. Better yet, let’s only use LEGO Technic elements. Do you think you could do it? It seems like a pretty straightforward task until you put pen to paper.

For the first part of Episode 6, we were asked to recreate the LEGO Lamborghini Siån (pronounced shh-aahn) set. The twist? We were given only a few minutes to look at the built supercar before it was taken away. And then we had to rebuild the set entirely from memory.

This was probably the first time I truly felt defeated during filming. I find it very challenging to build Technic sets even with directions in hand—putting it together without step-by-step directions felt like an impossible task. Technic pieces connect in a very different way from standard bricks so you cannot approach them the same way. Even though this was a non-elimination challenge, I figured we were done for. Fortunately, I had a partner who found this particular challenge fun and exciting.

When this challenge ended we had a complete vehicle. Was it a Lamborghini Siån? Not exactly. It had many of the correct pieces, but they weren’t in the correct places. The shape was more like a dune buggy than a supercar. We didn’t win the advantage on this challenge, but we were happy to move on to the next one for this episode. It goes to show that a team that has diverse talents within LEGO really has an advantage.

Not Your Typical Celebrity Guest

Much to our surprise, that small LEGO Siån wasn’t the only Siån we would see that day. After we got into position for judging, Will revealed a life-size replica of the Lamborghini Sian built entirely out of LEGO Technic pieces.

As fans of shows like Top Gear and Grand Tour, we were geeking out about a marriage between supercars and LEGO. And knowing that we were some of the first people to see this show-stopping car was an experience we’ll never forget. You could say this was our favorite celebrity guest yet.

Demolition Derby

After we completed the memory challenge, we gathered together to learn what our elimination challenge would be. We were so excited to find out that we would be building a car for a LEGO demolition derby! They provided a remote control chassis for us to build our derby car and assigned us a color to use so each team was different. We had blue.

One of the biggest challenges of this build, aside from the short six-hour clock, was the small space we had to build in. Each team was given a remote control chassis to build on and it was less than two feet long. With the short time allotment and tight building quarters, things got tense! This was the first time Philip and I got even close to fighting. We always had the same end goal in mind, but we didn’t always agree on how we would implement our ideas in a cohesive way, especially in such a small space. This is when it becomes very important to clearly communicate your thoughts and then trust your partner to complete their task.

We decided to focus on strength, with a clean and cartoony look, reminiscent of the 8-bit racing games of the past. As a tribute to our Minecraft and Mario Kart-loving kids, we decided to add some TNT boxes on the back that would fall out and leave some obstacles for our opponents (not knowing that there would already be loose tires scattered around the arena).

One of my favorite moments during building was when the Brickmasters came to our table for a check-in. I was whacking the side of our truck with our little build hammer and nothing budged! I boldly offered to the judges to give it a go, but they (wisely) chose not to. We were very pleased with the strength we had produced—but it did come at a cost. Our truck was HEAVY which definitely compromised its speed and agility.

As intense as the building portion of this challenge was, I think the entire cast was feeling apprehensive about the derby itself. We knew it would be a fun spectacle, but the prospect of causing someone else to go home was humbling. In the end, we group-huddled and agreed we would all do our best, have fun, and not take the results personally.

Little did we know that one of the most hilarious moments in LEGO Masters worldwide history would occur during the derby! Caleb and Jacob’s car made an impressive beeline straight for the pit of destruction and off the table. It may have been the shortest derby run, but it was definitely the most memorable. To their credit, they embraced this mishap with great humor and grace.

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For the Love of the Cast

The cast has openly discussed how difficult eliminations are to experience. Each week grows increasingly difficult as our relationships deepen. After we said a long, tearful goodbye to Jen and Susan, we chatted with Will, Jamie, and Amy who all gave us a beautiful and bolstering pep talk. Will commented on the family we’d built, the support we have for each other, and the difficulty of letting go each week. Jamie and Amy told us how difficult it was to make a decision for the bottom two, both in terms of the level of skill in each build and the relationships developed with each team. They had been taking photos of the builds and sending them back to their teams at LEGO Corporate.

We were exhausted and stressed after this episode with two challenges but so thankful for the much-needed encouragement. People often ask what the host and judges are really like, and I can tell you that they are truly terrific humans. They genuinely take interest in the cast, learn our stories, banter and joke with us, and they feel the loss of each team—each week.

In the end, the whole episode ended up being more about memory than demolition: the memories we made with our fellow teammates, memories of spectacular LEGO builds (and even ones jumping off the table!), and the memories of interacting with the judges in such a poignant moment that will stay with us forever.

Could you purposefully destroy something that another builder created? Let us know in the comments below.

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