LEGO Masters Australia Episode 1 Recap – Off to a great start!

April 29, 2019 | 9

So yesterday was a pretty huge day for LEGO fans in Australia, as we had the premiere of LEGO Masters Australia, a new reality TV-series based on everyone’s favourite brick!

Episodes air on Channel 9 at 7.00PM every Sunday, and at 7:30PM on Mondays and Tuesdays for 3 weeks.

If you don’t have a traditional TV antenna (like me), you can stream it via 9Now or via the 9Now app. I streamed the entire episode live tonight and was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it was.

If you missed the episode, don’t fret as you can catch up on all episodes online.

Because I have masochistic tendencies and I want to start building up some writing momentum, I’ve decided to recap each episode here, in case you’re not the TV watching type but still want to keep track of the show.

The episode starts with host Hamish Blake and Ryan McNaught hyping audiences up about the show, followed by the introduction to the 8 teams participating (read more about them here), and their reactions as they walk into the studio.

As it’s a reality TV show (think Masterchef and not The Bachelor) where the teams compete based on their creativity and LEGO building skills, Hamish introduces a typical game show mechanic by opening up a mysterious box which glows as it contains the boatloads of money he’s being paid for the show thanks to its contents – a golden immunity brick of sorts which will save the winning team from elimination.

Btw, I’m a bit of a sneakerhead, and I really enjoyed seeing Hamish’s Adidas x Alexander Wang Bball Soccer Lows (AQ1232).

The first challenge involves teams having to complete a LEGO City by filling in these empty blocks of land. They were given 15 hours to complete the challenge, which does suggest that filming for this one episode went on for more than a day.

The contestants are then introduced to The Brick Pit, which is pretty much Pick a Brick On Steroids, Speed and Cocaine. It’s seriously impressive and the show claims that there are more than 2.5 million elements there.

The design of the Brick Pit seems to be borrowed heavily from workshops occupied by Certified LEGO Professionals or LEGO Master builders.

With how much LEGO costs these days, they probably blew nearly all their budget on the elements in the Brick Pit. That and Hamish’s $15,000 Rolex Submariner with the black dial.

The contestants then start building, and we soon get introductions to the teams, their dynamics and learn a bit about their backstories.

It’s all mostly wholesome, and we start to settle into familiar reality TV territory, with Matt and his grandmother Lyn wading through feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy.

I really liked how Ryan McNaught handled this, as he then offers Lyn a bit of a pep talk and even volunteers to help her look for specific LEGO elements in the pit.

Oh and early on, we get an extended segment about Kale talking about his achievements in the LEGO world (having 15,000 followers on Instagram, being regularly featured on The Brothers Brick) and the first slightly awkward/cringe-inducing moments of the show – where he calls himself a DILF – he does so in pretty tongue-in-cheek fashion and is clearly joking, but the combination of this comment, a red and black blazer, as well as his portrayal of him asserting himself over his partner Bilsy predictably causes Twitter to go into meltdown, just like the producers planned.

More on this later. Also full disclosure, Kale is an acquaintance and I’ve featured his Brickvention builds fairly regularly.

After a gruelling 15 hours, the teams are finally done, and the creations are amazingly mind-blowing.

If you know anything about complex, massive designs like the ones you’re about to see, it’s actually insane that the teams managed to conceptualise, design AND build them in only 15 hours.

Henry and Cade reveal their urban treehouse build, called Wolf of Neverland, which is a clever take on Peter Pan and the lost boys, who give up their bows and toys to build a massive corporate treehouse and sellout.

I’m a big fan of the design and the playful take on Peter Pan, which rockets Henry and Cade to become one of my favourites in the competition so far.

Up next we have David and Gerhard with their magnificent church, called the LEGO sale and the Holy Fail, which tells the story of a groom leaving his wedding to get to a LEGO sale.

They impress Ryan Mcnaught with the technical skill, and a design that allows the roof to open to peer into the detailed interiors, but fall short on the story-telling element, which I thought was pretty unfair.

Judging from this build, they’re definitely a team to watch in the competition.

Miller and Jordan, both 19 and the youngest in the competition are up next with their build, a Trip Through Time which underwhelms the judges due to the scale, but they’re both determined to do better.

They both seemed pretty nervous, but judging from their build, I can easily see them shining in future challenges – they’ve got some serious technical skill between them.

Also, I love how Jordan runs everywhere throughout the episode. I too, sprint around the office whenever I can, so I relate to that on a spiritual level.

Next we have Kaitlyn and Marielle with their Defying Gravity Square. Their build didn’t get a lot of airtime, but I really loved the paint tipping from the bucket concept, which was really cool to see executed.

Gayan and Dinushi’s Life After Work, which was a recreation centre within the city didn’t impress Ryan as he felt that there was no story to it.

Jimmy and Maddy were next, which featured a super-sized version of Jimmy taking down the buildings, which I thought was pretty fun.

Kale and Bilsy’s build, entitled Hope which was a tall art-decor skyscraper was up next, and seriously impressed Ryan thanks to the height it achieved.

Some more tension is introduced as the producers make it seem like Kale was responsible for 99% of the structure, and Bilsy’s only contribution was a small crashed spaceship in front of the building.

Lastly, we have the team that seemed to struggle the most, Matt and Lyn with Cumulus Square, which featured a skyscraper with a storm cloud appearing in the middle.

The build was actually quite clever, incorporating sound effects to mimic rain, as well as lightning flashes, but didn’t really wow Ryan and Hamish.

It’s TWIST time! To extend the runtime of the episode and sell more adspace, Hamish reveals that there is one more challenge the teams have to do – transform their creations by making it seem like they’re all under attack.

The church gets firebombed by a warplane.

Aliens attack a Trip Through Time, and Ryan commends the team for taking his feedback of lack of height to mind, by introducing the UFO.

A bunch of construction workers attack the treehouse to bulldoze it down. Ryan was slightly disappointed that this was relatively safe, and suggested that he would’ve been impressed if there was one giant robot with a giant chainsaw to hack the tree down instead.

Darkness envelopes Gravity Defying Square.

And a giant alien knocks its way through Bilsy and Kale’s hope. At this point, Ryan reprimands Kale for not being a team-player in (I must stress) the least offensive and most wholesome way possible, which is something you don’t usually see in reality TV.

Really liked how they handled that on-screen.

Lastly, we have Matt and Lyn, who have taken a big bold move by introducing a bright orange dragon that contrasts amazingly against the blue building.

Ryan is blown away by the technical design of the dragon and for the ingenious use of parts to build the dragon.

It’s judging and results time and 2 teams are singled out for best answering the brief – Henry and Cade’s Treehouse, as well as Matt and Lyn’s Dragon Attack, which is the most improved and was the best interpretation of the city block being under attack.

Matt and Lyn end up winning based off the strength of their dragon, redeeming themselves and leaving viewers all warm and fuzzy inside that the self-doubting underdogs emerge victorious and claim the golden brick.

I don’t watch much reality TV series, but I think the first episode really knocked it out of the park. The production value was crazy good, and the teams are all really likeable.

I’ve read a few comments about Hamish being a bit too much, but I think he played the part of enthusiastic host and mainstream comic relief pretty well and it didn’t grate on me at all. God knows if they had Dave Hughes hosting *shudders*.

I also really enjoyed how wholesome it all was, with the show and teams being super supportive and encouraging of one another, as well as Ryan being half-mentor, and half-judge. It’s a far cry to typical reality TV where people are constantly at each other’s throats all for the sake of Twitter drama.

Which brings me to Kale. The producers have clearly earmarked him to play the “villain role” and have chosen to magnify his eccentric nature, as well as painted him as the bad guy that’s unable to cooperate with Bilsy, his teammate.

Sure, the DILF comment was in poor taste, but I’d chalk that up to his poor delivery of the joke, and I really didn’t think he meant that people were queueing up to root him because of his LEGO talents.

Twitter, unsurprisingly blew up and there were some really disgusting and sickening comments thrown his way.

Fearing the worst, I decided to go check on his Instagram profile and what I saw sickened me. I’m not going to censor any of these names, but seriously, what the f*** is wrong with you, Australia.

I have no idea how this kind of behaviour is actively encouraged, thanks to reality TV. To think that people could watch something on TV then jump on to Instagram to insult and degrade someone like this is just the most dehumanising crap I’ve seen recently.

God, this just sickens me, and no, this isn’t because I know Kale, but this sort of behaviour is absolutely unacceptable.

This was a lowlight for me, as I really enjoyed the wholesomeness of the show, but producers are going to produce and they’ve done what they set out to achieve – provoke a reaction from viewers, because God knows why Australians can’t enjoy a TV show without drama or putting people down.

To follow and support the teams, here are their Instagram handles. Might be good to head to Kale’s profile and drop him some kind words to counteract all the venom. Thanks to Bilsy for compiling these!

Bilsy and Kale @iambilsy @frostbricks

Maddy and Jimmy @maddytyers @jimmyjameseaton

David and G @dj.rodman @the.real.lego.g

Henry and Cade @the_lego_dark_knight @arcade_bricks

Marielle and Kaitlyn @marielle.gm @ktlynl_

Gayan and Dinushi @Pixelatedimagination @dinushim

Matt and Lyn @matt_cramb @lynslego

Miller and Jordan @miller.keys @jordan.j.hocking

Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed this recap! I’ll commit to recapping each episode, but I highly recommend watching them yourself, especially if you love LEGO – it’s not for everyone (read: cynical hardcore AFOLs), but I think this show has the potential to do something really special with the LEGO brand in Australia.

Did you watch yesterday’s episode? Let me know your thoughts on it in the comments!

Oh and I also live tweet during episodes, so if you want to, follow me on Twitter at @jayong28 for terrible attempts at trying to get Likes and Retweets.

Thanks for reading!