Get to know some of the LEGO Masters Fox (USA) Season 4 contestants

October 14, 2023 | 0

Season Four of LEGO Masters USA has kicked off in the US, and we’ll be covering the episodes from this season on the blog!

It’s a bit of an interesting season for LEGO Masters USA as the winning team will have their build turned into a real LEGO set, which is a first for LEGO’s long-running reality TV show, so I think it’ll be interesting to cover this season and follow the story of the eventual victors.

To help with covering this season, and with episode recaps and exit interviews, I’ve enlisted the help of Miller Keys, who you might remember as a contestant from LEGO Masters Australia Season 1!

I figured it would be great to have an actual LEGO Masters contestant who would be familiar with the ins and outs of competing on LEGO Masters, the challenges, highs and lows, to cover this season, so look out for a series of posts covering the episodes from LEGO Masters USA.

For those outside the US, if you want to watch LEGO Masters on FOX, you can stream it on FOX, and use a VPN to access the episodes. I personally use NordVPN, which works reasonably well.

So without further ago, here’s a quick introduction to some of the teams vying to be crowned LEGO Masters!

Special thanks to LEGO and FOX for facilitating these interviews.

The fourth season of LEGO Masters USA aired on 28 September 2023, and I got to catch up and get to know some of the contestants ahead of the premiere.

This year, 12 teams will be competing in our favourite brick-building TV show not only for the prized title of LEGO Masters, but also for the privilege of having their build turned into a real-life LEGO set!

However, as someone who has lived this experience, I have seen what goes on behind the scenes. So of course, I asked some of the contestants a bit more about their experience as a whole, not just what we see on screen.

Follow Allyson and Mel on their Instagram

My first question was to Allyson and Mel regarding how all the contestants got along and what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling. In LEGO Masters Australia 2019, I remember we all became a tight-knit family as soon as we met, and one thing we always did to alleviate the stress of the competition was go to a local shopping centre at the end of the day and have tournaments on the public table tennis table.

So I asked, what was a tradition that the LEGO Masters US contestants had with each other and what did they do to unwind off-set?

In terms of the on-set dynamic, Mel answered, “Everyone has just been so helpful with each other. Even though it is a competition, everyone just wants to see everyone do their best. If I had like any questions or needed advice or anything, everyone was available to lend an ear. Literally everyone wanted to see everyone do their best every single week, so that was really special for me because it wasn’t just a competition.”

And for tradition, Allyson answered, “Someone started a chant. And then Mel kept it up, and we just have this little LEGO Masters chant that we do.” I tried to get the chant out of them, but unfortunately, we’ll just have to wait for the season to begin for that one!

Follow Karen and Amie on Instagram

Karen from Karen and Amie answered, “I did some yoga. Jordan had a hammock outside. He got a hammock just for the show, and it was too short. The only people who were really comfortable in it were me and Amie and Melanie, and so I spent a lot of time outside asleep in the sun in that hammock during the day when we weren’t busy.”

My next question was about the brick pit and the contestants’ favourite bricks to use.

According to Emilee and Kelly, their go-to LEGO element was the 2×4 Brick as their goal was always to build big.

Follow Emilee and Kelly on Instagram

Kelly also said, “I love the clips and bars, you can bend things at angles, so I think I used a lot of those when I was trying to add detail. It seems like I always needed clips and bars.”

However, the more interesting answer was to the follow-up question, what brick did they wish was in the brick pit?

Emilee: “I think the brick that I struggled to find was the left piece of an angle, so the right piece was there, but then the left piece wouldn’t be there of like a 1x3x2 angled plate.”

This was the same as LEGO Masters Australia season 1 – we only ever had the right-side wedge plates! It’s funny to hear that after all these years nothing has changed. Listen up, LEGO Masters!

I also asked Mike and Brad, but they were a bit more cryptic: “I can only say absolutely 100% yes, and you’re going to have to watch and see.”

I also asked a few of the contestants about their tips and tricks for coming up with great build ideas on the fly.

Follow Tim and Tim on Instagram

Tim and Tim said their secret was that they had “come up with a list of possible themes or subjects. I’m not saying we used all of them or anything but that was definitely helpful to have in mind at least a couple times on challenges.”

Mike and Brad had some really interesting answers.

Follow Mike and Brad on Instagram

Brad: “As you know, it’s challenging because your time starts right away and you’re very aware of that clock, and then there’s a lot of other things going on that are very distracting. One of the lessons that we learned was that you. Need to get those bricks down fast. You can sit there and plan and plan, but the clock is going to be how many bricks you have down.

I’ve noticed some of the differences between Australia and the US and I didn’t realize why until I was on the floor that a lot of times the Australian teams would run to the brick pit right away as soon as that brief is done, whereas we all went to our table and started brainstorming and we learned very early on that you can brainstorm all these great ideas, but you need to know what you’re working with as far as your tools are in the brick pit.”

Mike: “I don’t know if anyone said it when we were on the show, but I’ve heard it in lots of other areas: Perfection is the enemy of good. You know, there’s gotta be good enough based on the constraints.

Karen: “I think we had tons and tons of fun immediately clicking with ideas and also struggled a little later, and I think coming up with that idea is super important. You have to come up with something both of you like. And I think the brainstorming process you just have to throw it out, throw it out, throw it out till you both say yes.”

As someone with experience on the show, my theory is that the difference between a good build on the show and an unsuccessful build on the show stems entirely from the very first idea which you only have a very short time to actually come up with. So if you’re thinking about entering the competition yourself, make sure you take note of these tips!

But of course, the best way to learn more about the show is to give it a watch. If you’re in North America, you can check out LEGO Masters on FOX on TV or stream it online, with new episodes airing on Thursdays.

Look out for more episode recaps in the coming days as we attempt to catch up on to the live episodes!

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