In this brand-new season of LEGO Masters: Grand Masters of the Galaxy, the World’s most talented
LEGO finalists including LEGO Masters Australia Season 1 winners Henry & Cade, S1 runners up David & G, and Grandmasters contestants Gabby, Owen, Trent and Alex, go up against six finalist LEGO Masters teams from across the globe (Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand and China), battling it out for galactic supremacy, to win the grand prize of one hundred thousand Australian dollars and the title: Grand Masters of the Galaxy.
The 10 teams enter a room shaped in a circular formation with tubes connecting each bench. They are greeted by host Hamish Blake and judge Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught, who inform them their first build is to tackle one of the series’ hardest challenges, the Great Ball Contraption, in which teams must create a functioning section of the contraption, all interconnected in the circular network. The catch? If their ball fails to pass through their build, that team will score zero points. As always, the three main judging criteria apply: storytelling, aesthetics and technical ability, as well as Brickman’s additional criterion of dwell time.
The challenge kicks off with an intense 12-hour timer, as each team works tirelessly to design a section that will not only work mechanically but also flow seamlessly into the other teams’ builds. With only one chance to make it work at the end of the build, the pressure is on to make sure each mechanism functions perfectly.
Kiwis, Emily & Sarah are incredibly overwhelmed with the talent in the room and become underwhelmed with their build idea “Black Hole in Space”, leading them to pivot onto something more colourful and fun, a “Rainbow”.
Previous winners, Henry & Cade are here to defend their title with a Bin Chicken Fun but their plight proves to be a bumpy road, when they must also pivot their idea to Bin Chicken Run 2.0.
Gabby & Owen are risking it for the biscuit, with a very technically complicated idea of lily pads carrying the ball across to a gnome whose fishing rod picks it up and delivers it to a koi fish. Will Owen’s mad scientist nature push Gabby beyond her limit?
Character builders who have not built together before today, Trent & Alex, are not confident mechanical builders, and so they lean into their strengths and build a squirrel wonderland full of creatures and storytelling antics. Season 1 runners up, David & G (who are here for redemption) construct a mine site, inspired by their home-state and jobs. Team China builds a Kung Fu village in which the ball must ascend in order to be worthy. Team Canada (Winners of LEGO Masters USA) pay homage to their home country by taking the ball on a journey through their homeland, Team Sweden build rich Aliens playing mini golf. Brother and sister team; Team USA create an all-American theme park wherein a rollercoaster carries the ball around the build, but in the late stages of testing encounter issues with the ball getting stuck in the clown’s mouth. Team Finland (Winners of LEGO Masters Finland) build a reindeer enjoying a sauna, but the ladle scooping mechanisms cause them grief leaving them in a very unpredictable situation heading into the ball run.
Halfway through the challenge, Hamish stops the clock and reveals in the first three episodes, the teams are playing for highest cumulative points on the Leaderboard to win the Magic Brick – this season’s immunity brick, which will keep them safe from elimination.
When the time’s up, the builds are put to the ultimate test! And in a dramatic turn of events, Team Finland and Team USA fail to get their ball through their section of the build, leaving them both with starting scores of zero and a major setback in their quest for the Magic Brick.
Gabby & Owen dominate the leaderboard with their jaw-dropping, technically flawless creation: a beautifully sculpted scene of a Gnome fishing in a Koi Pond. Their design ticks all of Brickman’s criteria, setting the bar incredibly high for the rest of the competition, and earning them a solid chance at the Magic Brick.
