LEGO Masters Australia

Season 4 Episode 6 – A Bridge Too Far Challenge

Another day, another challenge awaits our teams. Nick and Gene are ahead with four straight wins and are gearing to keep the streak going. Joss and Henry are gunning for a top spot. Supporting the teams is a giant “Keep it up” sign in the background. The “totally not a clue” sign starts shaking before it starts shaking and falling apart.

This is a reworking of the popular bridge challenge combined with the shake challenge. As with the past challenges, if there’s a tie in the shake factor aesthetics come into play and the prettiest bridge wins.

The titanium brick also comes with an advantage, but that won’t be revealed until much later…and there is seven hours to complete their bridges.

The Builds

Branko & Max – The Engineers’ Bridge

Branko is a mechanical engineer and has been a fan of the technical challenges. Now he’s ready to put his plans into action. He aims to create two bridges that are solid with loose bricks inside.

But the necklace of nuisance returns with another challenge. Find the one blank minifig heads out of a box of blanks or more bananas. Max noshes down on two more before Hamish stops out of worry he’ll get sick.

Brickman’s concern is the side to side movement and the weak side strut attachment. Branko is confident the bridge is flexible to withstand shakes.

The shake dial gets moving and level 1 looks a bit intense for Branko. Level 2 has chunks of the span starting to fall off. The bridge rips apart at level 3. Branko reckons he’s after a new job and isn’t too happy at the engineering failure.

Caleb & Alex – Medieval Bridge

Taking on a medieval theme they are aiming to create something with a strong suspension. Alex has no engineering experience and Caleb is a law student so they are struggling to work out the technicalities. Shake test time, Caleb is concerned that there will be some structural weaknesses on the span. Their fears are confirmed with the bridge span splitting apart at level 5.

Joss & Henry – Fire and Ice

Having two wizards building their own magic bridges and fire and ice collide midway. They are using a lattice of technic and regular bricks in the hopes of keeping the supports sturdy. They are going with looks vs solid grey that most other bridges are going for.

Brickman praises the aesthetics. He notes that they finished early with their structure making him wonder if it will keep together. It starts moving through the levels and hits level 5 with some cracking in the span and pieces falling off at level 7 with the blue support lifting off the base before toppling off just as it hits level 10.

Kirsti & Daniel – Suspension Bridge

The team has decided to build a suspension bridge using LEGO rope. Brickman is a bit cautious about their ability to use LEGO string as suspension cables. They do a test run by holding up the bridge with some strings and to Kirsti’s delight it holds. Attach it to the suspensions only for Brickman to come in and enquire if the bridge is 50 bricks high. As it hangs, it isn’t, forcing a design tweak.

It’s time to put the bridge to the test. It starts off promising before the main supports shake apart at level 6. Brickman praises their long shot on the show and how it nearly pays off.

Lexi & Rachel – The Bridge of Past Builds

A past watcher of the shows Lexi takes across two lessons from the earlier shows. Jackson and Alex had a heavy brick build while Jordan and Miller used triangles to reinforce their build. They are aiming to have two chess rooks holding a suspension bridge, but don’t know how to have the span attach.

Shake time, Brickman’s concern is the connection points at both ends. Team is happy if they get to level two. The dial starts moving with parts beginning to bounce off at level 5 before it falls apart at level 6.

Nick & Gene – Heavy Boy

Brickman comes by and touches base with the team. Bridge building isn’t in their wheelhouse. They decide to go on having a very heavy bridge with the hope that the weight keeps the bridge intact as it shakes.

With time at the 5-hour mark, the clock is stopped and Hamish goes off to get the team their advantage. A giant crate is moved into the room and Hamish crawls inside to reveal the advantage. The Necklace of Nuisance. A mystical amulet, which is given to a random team and they have to complete an annoying task.

Feeling the heat towards the engineer in the room they point it at Branko and Max. Their first challenge is to either eat a bunch of bananas or remove a bunch of cheese slopes out of bricks as the clock runs. Max goes to town on the bananas cramming them down as fast as possible to get back in the running.

They do a shake test and find out the bridge cracks in half, so they reinforce it with technic elements. But they realise the span isn’t connecting correctly making for a very unstable connection at the top.

Dial starts moving and to their surprise gets up to level 3. The dial moves upwards to level 6 with the span somehow keeping intact with the span surfing on the supports. It keeps going up to level 10, but the supports start cracking in half. It manages to reach level 12 and stays intact.

The two are confused to how it stays intact. Hamish lifts up one end to show the span hasn’t even stayed attached. They take the lead.