LEGO Masters Netherlands / Belgium
Episode 4 Recap
This week LEGO Masters is an Easter-themed episode with two challenges for the six remaining teams to get through. This isn’t an elimination episode, but the winner will receive an advantage in the next episode. So let’s get cracking with the first challenge!
Mini Challenge: Easter Egg build
A giant professionally built easter egg is wheeled out along with a dour-looking Rubens in an easter bunny suit, spreading morose easter joy to the teams.
Each team has to build a 16×16 stud egg that’s nice and decorated to win this mini-challenge. The key element that the Brickmaster is looking for is can the egg be the same ratio and size as the display build. These will be tested by an official egg measuring claw.
With all the eggs judged the winners are Marcel and Bibi.
Despite a plain brown egg that was decorated with additional ears and faces they had the best egg shape giving them an advantage for the next challenge.
Main challenge: Shake build
Making its first international appearance from the Aussie show, the shake build is much the same as before. A plinth is attached to a motor that has several degrees of shake going from 1 to 10.
The demo build is something to watch as it uses the shake setting to turn a tall white house into a ruined castle, a very clever use of physics to reveal a story.
The build must remain on there for as long as possible and in the event of a tie, each build will be judged on aesthetics.
But there’s a bit of a twist! The egg the teams lovingly built in the mini-challenge must be incorporated into this tower and importantly be visible and on display. That is you can’t hide it deep inside as a support beam. Points are earned on aesthetics. How well the egg is displayed and how far it survives the shake.
Marcel and Bibi have an additional advantage where they can test their build’s ability to withstand the shaking. But only once!
Thomas and Roy
Another team that keeps with the occasion’s theme. Workers are heading off on a break for Easter with assorted little stories, like a couple proposing and chickens that lay eggs for the rabbits. The tower’s layering with subtle stripes of colour and bold lines gives them 9 for looks with the egg being at the base of the tower and being prominently visible also gets them a 9. The shake test gets them barely within position five as the legs of the tower break off sending the piece to the ground.
Jan and Julien
This team goes with a fantasy story about a wizard controlling the power of the egg in his castle. Resulting in a colourful grey tower with the egg chained at the top. Brickmaster notes they have some nice detailing with the arches but feel the story is a bit lacking. They get 7 for egg visibility and aesthetics. The tower gets up to position 4 before toppling off landing largely intact on the ground.
Dries and Killian
This team decides to celebrate various occasions found throughout the seasons. Such a Christmas, Halloween and of course easter. With each level of the tower playing host to a different event.
Noted is the Halloween floor where a spider is made up of spiders is given praise. It scores an 8 for looks and the egg placement gets a 9 for being prominent and on top in its own little display floor.
The shake test is a little dramatic with the inset display rooms shaking loose before the tower pitches off the plate at level 5.
Oscar and Ine
Keeping with the Easter theme they have opted for a brightly decorated tower with egg motives across the levels. Somewhere in construction. There was a small fault so the tower has a slight lean and a structural crack in a level.
Flaws aside the tower is full of little details that sell that is a giant egg painting tower that scores them an 8 for looks. The egg gets a 7 for being partially stuck between floors. With the shake plate switched on the tower gives an impressive spray of loose pieces on level 3. Before rocking off the base at position 5, with the egg remaining intact.
Ernesto and Marco – Egg Blocks
This is a bit of a pun on how “Egg” is spelled in Dutch. Combined with the egg in the middle it spells out something like “growth”. For creativity and aesthetics, they score a 9 from the Brickmaster. But the egg is criticised for being hard to see behind the transparent panels and is scored a 7. The study build gets up to the start of stage 6 before the entire mass rocks off the baseplate and all over the studio.
Marcel and Bibi – Chocolate Smelting Factory
This build is notable for being one of the lighter builds with the main centre of gravity situated down the base. Focusing on construction over appearances they mainly used circular gear pieces to build up a smokestack that’s lightweight. They claim they were able to sustain a test drive of seven.
Visually striking, they get a 7 for aesthetics, but only gain a 6 for the egg’s visibility as it’s placed deep behind the structure. The shaker is turned on and they get up to level 4 before the tower detaches from the base.
With the wreckage of all the shattered builds strewn across the studio Brickmaster and the hosts tally up the points.
With most teams reaching five on the shake meter the decision is now down to aesthetics and egg visibility. Marco & Ernesto and Dreis & Killian both reached position 5 while scoring high points for tower appearances. But Dries and Killian inch ahead by scoring 9 for egg visibility and win the challenge.
The bottom team is sadly Marcel and Bibi who win a dustpan to clean up the bricks.
Coming up next week: The Art Challenge!
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