"Get your brick on!"
Lego Masters is a competition Reality Show hosted by Will Arnett with LEGO executives Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard serving as judges as teams of two create complex builds. It is based on the British series of the same name in which teams compete to build the best Lego project.
The series follows teams consisting of two Lego-building competitors, tasked with building creations out of Lego pieces based on a given theme within a given time period. After the allotted time to build, the teams demonstrate their creations to host Will Arnett and judges, Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard. The judges name the winning build and as well as the bottom two teams, explaining why teams were selected in this fashion. They then announce the losing team, who, with the exception of a few episodes, are eliminated from the competition. In addition to this judging, Amy and Jamie provide suggestions to the teams mid-way through the build. Some episodes also have special guest stars, who appear in the middle of the episode to talk with the teams about their builds.
Within the first few episodes, the team with the best design judged by the experts are rewarded with the Golden Brick. This can be used on any other challenge, after the build period but before the judging, to automatically advance to the next challenge if they do not feel confident about their work. Once the team turns in the Golden Brick for immunity, it is then made available as the reward for a future challenge. Some winning teams will also get small prizes, like a trip to Lego Land. The season ends with a finale, which the top teams compete for $100,000, a Lego Masters trophy, and the title of Lego Master.
The first season aired February 5, 2020 on Fox after The Masked Singer, and the second season premiered on June 1, 2021. The series is also available for streaming on Hulu. A third season was initially set to premiere May 31, 2022 before being delayed to September of that year; and it was soon followed by a Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular miniseries in December. A fourth season premiered on September 28th, 2023.
The show has multiple international adaptations in Australia, Germany, France, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, The Netherlands, and Belgium. Colombian, Chilean and Norwegian versions of the show are currently in production.
LEGO Masters provides examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance:
- During Season 1's Super-Bridges episode, Tyler and Amy say that they had never built a bridge before and didn't even know the physics involved in building one, so they decide to focus on making the bridge look pretty and hopefully getting 2nd to last place. Their bridge is one of two that hit the one thousand pounds mark, putting them in 2nd place. Even they're surprised by how well they do when they outperform Aaron and Christian, as Aaron is an engineer who's built bridges with LEGO before.
- In Season 2's Demolition Derby, the teams are tasked with building a car from memory in order to win an advantage in the main challenge. Caleb and Jacob had no clue about building a car or any of the features, so they decided to build what they thought would look best to the judges. Their car was the closest to being correct, as they got a few minor details correct that no one else picked up on, allowing them to win the advantage.
- Achilles' Heel:
- During Season 2's Demolition Derby, Zack and Wayne built a purple car called "Purple Punisher". The car's design was modeled after a tank, with the build being low to the ground and the wheels being covered by the build (causing it to resemble a moving brick). The judges noted that, while their build was almost certainly the strongest of the teams', their covered wheels could be a huge flaw, as something could get caught in them and cause the car to get stuck. This proved to be correct in the end: while they were able to get into second place in the demolition derby itself, since their build was strong enough to withstand blows, their car became stuck when they moved over a small brick. Without any way to dislodge the brick, Dave and Richard were able to snag an easy victory.
- This trope was brought up about Zack and Wayne's builds by the other teams in Season 2. While the builds that Zack and Wayne make are technically impressive, they lack personality and have very little in terms of storytelling. This is shown with their placements in the episodes, as while they do get into the top two frequently, they've only won the first episode, and none after it.
- In Season 3 had Emily and Liam. One of the major issues that they ran into during each of their builds was time management. While their builds were impressive, they took a long time to build. They would typically start building last and finish just as within the final seconds. During the Dog Show, they were unable to finish building the legs of the dog and would have been eliminated if not for using the golden brick. The second time they weren't so lucky and were unable to finish their Captain Marvel build. They were eliminated.
- Actor Allusion:
- Will's role as host is tied to the fact that he voiced LEGO Batman, and he'll occasionally reference the role. During the Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular, he makes it a point to say that, as Batman, he does not appreciate the song "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells".
- Will again references a past role when one team's build features a magician's show. Will tells them the term is actually "Illusionist".
- Actually Pretty Funny: In Season 1, Christian gives a Fascinating Eyebrow when Will quips that he must have weights in his dressing room for working out.
- Affably Evil: Christopher and Robert from Season 4 proudly calls themselves the "villains" of the season, but they're also quite jovial and, apart from messing with Emily in the racing challenge, aren't overly malicious.
- All for Nothing: Mark and Steven decided to use the Golden Brick because they did not think their build was the best in the Season 2, episode 10. Not only did they win first place, but they found out that nobody was going home that week, so the Golden Brick wouldn't have done anything even if they were in the bottom two. While they did not address it directly, they appeared to be pretty upset that they wasted the Golden Brick.
- Always Second Best: Zack and Wayne in Season 2, with the exception of the first episode, were almost always placed in 2nd place. This also carried over to the finale, where they were yet again in second place.
- Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: Lampshaded and defied in Season 1's storybook episode. Will clarifies that the children that they bring in for inspiration can't physically help with the storybook displays because it would break child labor laws.
- Art Shift: In several episodes (such as the first episode of Season 2), the show animates one or two of the builds with moving and talking LEGO figures, produced by Stoopid Buddy Studios.
- Babies Ever After:
- Amy told Will during the Season 1 that she had recently found out that she was pregnant and hoped to use the prize money on a down payment of a house and for the new baby. After getting in first place in the competition and winning the prize money, Tyler and Amy said that they will use the money for a head start in helping build their new family.
- The Chameleobster in Season 2, Episode 9 is briefly shown with a pair of baby chameleobsters at the end of its descriptive animation, suggesting this.
- Back for the Finale:
- The final episode of Season 1 has all of the teams back that were eliminated to cheer on the last teams.
- The final episode of the Season 2 brought back a majority of the cameos and a lot of the other gimmicks Will had used throughout the Season 2.
- Big Shadow, Little Creature: Used in the Season 2 premiere. Will shows off a silhouette of the gigantic new trophy the contestants could win that season — and then the screen collapses, revealing that the displayed trophy is actually tiny.
- Broke the Rating Scale: In the Season 1 he bridge building competition had about 450 pounds of weights prepared for the structures. Most of the bridges ended up clocking in at well over 450 pounds, so they were forced to use the bags for the camera crew as additional weights. Additionally, two bridges ended up clocking in at one thousand pounds and for safety reasons couldn't have any more weights added to them.
- Builds the Same: Every season, there's always one team with the same concept for their build as another team. An example would be in Season 4's second challenge, where three teams were building tree stumps.
- Call-Back: Aaron and Christian's messy house build in the seventh episode of Season 1 actually contains references to builds from preceding episodes.
- The Cameo: During some of the episodes, Will pauses the competition and a special guest will show up to talk with the builders, sometimes playing up exaggerated versions of themselves.
- In the Season 1, these guests were Mayim Bialik, Phil Lord & Chris Miller, Nicole Byer, Terry Crews, and the most well-known Star Wars droids: C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8.
- Season 2 treats the majority of guest stars as part of introduction skit using video conferencing due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, due to this the number of guests are drastically reduced. A crossover happens where Will dials 9-1-1 (the series, not the actual emergency number) and talks with Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is playing her character Maddie Kendall during the episode. Another episode has Ken Jeong in a conference call while Will is talking with his boss,note not knowing why he is in the call. For episode 8, Steve Whitmire performed Willy, a puppet version of Will out to steal his job.
- Season 3 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (in person) and Dr. Thomas Marshburn (via video call) for a spaceship build, Chris Pratt and Blue the raptor to cross-promote Jurassic World Dominion, and NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon for a race car build.
- Season 4 only had Stacey Roy, who was helping judge Is It Brick?.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Christopher and Robert in Season 4 gleefully call themselves villains after Will jokingly calls them out for spying on the competition.
- Chewing the Scenery: In Season 4, when the time comes for Christopher and Robert's builds to be explained, Christopher tells their story with dramatic aplomb and gravitas.
- Commercial Break Cliffhanger: While not as abused as other shows, it still has some commercial breaks during critical parts of when the builds are being judged. This is lampshaded and Played for Laughs in the first episode, when Will is chatting with some of the teams that he's not used to Reality TV conversations and he's worried that they can be cut off for a commercial at any moment — which happens immediately after he says that.
- Cuteness Proximity:
- A Season 3 episode involves building LEGO replicas of real-life dogs. Emilynote Squees for about a minute straight at getting to work with puppies, and Will stops the clock in the middle so that all teams can take a five-minute cuddle break with the dogs modeling for them.
- Season 4 featured a similar challenge building cat houses, with everyone fawning over the kittens. There was even a scripted bit where the cameramen were distracted playing with the kitties. Will openly notes the trend emerging, and suggests pigs as the cute animal for Season 5.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two seasons of the show have some differences that feel out of place in the later seasons.
- Almost Once per Episode in Season 1, a special guest would appear to stop the clock and talk with each Team. This was dropped to a few cameos in Season 2 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the number of guests has becoming smaller each season to the point in Season 4 had no guests except for one of the winners from Season 3 helping judge.
- In Season 1, the majority of time in each episode, the teams would learn of a new rule during the middle of their build and would be forced to change their build based on the twist. This disappeared after Season 2.
- Season 1 and 2, the teams were made up of friends or family. By Season 3, this started to include co-workers and online Influencers.
- Season 1's final episode had teams create a design with no themes and they would pick their own themes. By Season 2, the final build still had a theme like the rest of the episodes.
- Eating the Eye Candy:
- Season 1, Will quips that Christian must work out a lot to get his abs. Christian finds it Actually Pretty Funny.
- Season 2 shows Will doing rapid-fire poses in front of a photographer while dressed in a nicely fitting white shirt. The women appreciate it far more than most of the guys, with Randall reacting in a comedy-gold confession-cam of him imitating Will before Syreeta cuts him off.
- Epic Fail:
- The first challenge of the Season 1 is to make a theme park build with a moving ride. Manny and Nestor's rollercoaster fails halfway, Mark and Boone's ride gets stuck due to them jostling it, and Sam and Jessica's bumper cars break apart while being judged.
- During Season 1, Episode 6, the Super-Bridges episode, Jermaine and Mel made a huge mistake and were unable to have their bridge line up with the pre-made road. This caused them to be disqualified and automatically place in the bottom two for not following the rules.
- In Season 2, Episode 2, Zach and Tim's explosive was supposed to have the building fall down with a POW! logo displayed behind it. When the explosive was set off, the building did not fall down, putting them into the bottom two. On a more minor scale, Steven and Mark also had an issue where their explosion knocked down the hero, causing their build to appear as if the villain won.
- In Season 2, Episode 6, Caleb and Jacob were able to win the first challenge and joined the demolition derby 30 seconds after the other contestants. This gave them a huge advantage, as most of the cars had already taken damage by that point. However, as soon as they started, they spent a grand total of 8 seconds in the derby before immediately driving off of the arena in an attempt to avoid the other cars. This embarrassing mistake caused them to be the first team eliminated in the derby, and they placed in the bottom two.
- Evil Counterpart: Parodied with Evil Will, which is just Will but Evil.
- Evil Laugh: During the Season 1's "Heroes vs Villains" build, the teams who had the villains played with this trope throughout the build.
- Explosive Results: Each season so far has employed this trope in its second episode:
- The Season 1's second episode played with this trope, in which LEGO builds were blown up, smashed or dropped from a height and exploded, with the judges not only commenting on how well the build is but how well it breaks apart, as well as how the story of the build integrates with the moment of the smash.
- Happened again during Season 2's second episode. This time the builds would have a controlled explosive to tell a story for what happened, which could be water, colored powder, slime, or glitter.
- Season 3's second episode plays this straighter, in large part due to its tie-in with Jurassic World Dominion: fireballs and explosions are among the special effects that could be selected for each team's dinosaur-themed builds.
- Season 4 had a volcano build in the third episode, with Will igniting brief fires at the models' summits before "lava" goo oozes out.
- Fashion Show: Done in Season 2, Episode 4. The teams had to build a hat out of LEGO-based on the color clothing they received, then one member from each team had to walk out on a runway wearing their build and clothing, and when they reached to the end of the runway they had to have the build balance on their head for 5 seconds. Zack and Wayne were the only group to walk out to the runway without using their hands, something the judges pointed out when they received second place. The trope is also played up in the beginning of the episode, as Will is shown doing a fashion shoot and the judges are in full fashion make-up and outfits.
- Gambit Roulette:
- Mark and Steven in Season 2, Episode 9 gambled their Golden Brick with 5 teams left by not using it. They predicted that their build would not be in the top two. They also predicted that they were not going to be in the bottom two. If they were in the bottom two, they would be forced to give up the Golden Brick and could leave the show. It paid off, they were right in the middle of the groups as they predicted. The only team that was safe that week.
- Neena and Sam in Season 4, Episode 3 also gambled their Golden Brick. They were predicting that they wouldn't be in the top 2 but would still be in the middle. Unlike Mark and Steven, it didn't work. They ended in the bottom two and had to give up the Golden Brick. They were both upset that not only did they lose the Golden Brick but also close to going home.
- Gone Horribly Right: Ethan and Dom in Season 3, Episode 7 won the challenge and chose one of two boxes (one had 90000 Lego bricks, the other had the Golden Brick) while also choosing a team to get the other box. They choose Brendan and Greg since they were the most likely to go home that episode, which could have removed the Golden Brick from play if they received it. Everything played out as Ethan and Dom anticipated, with Brendan and Greg getting the Golden Brick and then going to the bottom two... only for Will to reveal that no one was going home that week, meaning the Golden Brick was still in play as Brendan and Greg didn't go home. This mistake comes back to haunt Ethan and Dom in the next episode, where they end up in the bottom and are swiftly eliminated.
- Group Hug: Most eliminations involve one of these.
- Hand Puppet: In Season 2, a puppet of Will is introduced during Episode 8 where the teams make their own puppets. He is aware he is only a puppet and plays with it. It is also implied that he is much more successful than human Will. Also, the majority of the puppets the team make in this episode with LEGO are hand puppets (a few were more marionette puppets).
- Happily Married:
- Richard and Flynn from Season 1 have been married for several years, and they reassure each other that no matter what happens, they fail or succeed together.
- Also from Season 1, Tyler and Amy are one of the best teams. They also are married and enjoy each other's company.
- Season 2 has Maria and Philip, who have been married for 16 years with teo kids.
- Hero Stole My Bike: At the beginning of Season 1's "Cut in Half" episode, Will rides in on a bicycle and assures the builders that he didn't steal a little boy's bike. He stole a little girl's bike (to which one of the builders quips, "Much better").
- Hidden Depths: Zach and Wayne reveal in the fashion episode of Season 2 that not only are they archers, but Wayne happens to be a certified coach. They use this as their inspiration for their hat.
- Honest John's Dealership: In Season 1, Travis and Corey attempt to play with this trope when they present their "Cut in Half" build. It didn't work on the judges.
- It's the Journey That Counts: When Aaron and Christian are eliminated in Season 1, they say that being on the set was worth more than all the money in the world, being able to work with LEGO. This moves Will to tears.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Episode 9 of Season 2 has the teams all split up with their partner to work alone for the first half, where one member builds a land animal and one builds a sea animal. The catch is that they can not communicate or see what their teammate is building. The second half is the team having to create a new animal with the two animals.
- Literal Cliffhanger: Episode 11 of Season 2 was not only a cliffhanger to the final episode but also had to build a castle on the side of a cliff made out of LEGO.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Will tries to portray himself as the Jerkass character type that he's played before. However, he admits that he is just playing one and has broken character to give the competitors a pep talk whenever they need it. One episode in the Season 1 even had him helping Jessie and Kara move their build. In the Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular, he's outright distraught when many of the contestants think that he's naughty.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Episode 9 of Season 2 had the groups split up and create an animal (one team member had land while the other had sea) with no help from their teammates. At the halfway point, they had to create a new creature that incorporated the two animals.
- Non-Gameplay Elimination: Near the end of Season 4's Cirque of Soleil challenge, Poppy from Poppy and Ben wasn't feeling well and wasn't around for the final critique. At the beginning of the next episode, it was revealed that they withdrew due to Poppy's health issues.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Season 1's Tyler and Amy have this reaction when they learn that they would have been eliminated in the Star Wars challenge had Will not insisted that the top three teams compete in the finale.
- Aaron and Christian had this reaction during Season 1's "Mega City Block" challenge when their skyscraper build falls over while they're moving it towards the judges' table. Aaron was so despondent about it happening after time up that he ran off backstage, leading to Christian consoling him. Luckily for them, the teams were called there because there was still more to the build, which meant that they had time to rebuild it. This caused them to be able to fix the build and come in 2nd place.
- Season 2, Episode 4 had several of these happen:
- Mark and Steven don't react well when they learn that they have to design and wear a LEGO hat. As they put it, LEGO bricks are heavy!
- Paras and Moto created a safari hat with a snake climbing a tree. When they were called to perform the walkway, their tree disconnected from the base when trying to pick it up. While they did a quick rebuild, it wasn't enough, as the build dropped to the floor as soon as they took their hands off it. This mistake caused them to be eliminated.
- Similarly, Dave and Richard's Carnevale hat was very big and unbalanced, with them expressing doubts over whether or not it would be able to stand up on its own. When Richard took his hands off of the hat, it started to fall and nearly broke on the judges sitting down (to the point that Will tried to catch it with his hands while the other judges tried to move out of the way). It was due to quick thinking on Richard's part that prevented the build from falling directly on the judges... and then it immediately fell onto the runway behind him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Compared to the rest of the teams in Season 1, Tyler and Amy are very calm and happy about their work. The Star Wars episode is the only one where they are genuinely worried, especially when their droid loses its head multiple times.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted in Seasons 3 and 4, with the firefighter team of Stephen and Stephen in the former and Tim and Tim in the latter. Season 3 also has two Emilys on different teams.
- Puppet Shows: Season 2, Episode 8 had the teams build puppets to star in a puppet show.
- Reality Show Genre Blindness: Inverted and parodied; Will knows all of the tropes associated with reality competition shows and introduces them with aplomb.
- Recap Episode: Season 4, Episode 10 was a recap of not only Season 4 but all of the other seasons of the American series thus far.
- Right-Hand Cat: In the kitten episode of Season 4, Will decides to introduce the Golden Brick overly-dramatically while petting one of the kittens. One of the builders even asks "Why is Will being evil?"
- Rivals Team Up:
- In Season 1's "Heroes vs Villains" build, the four teams left, who up to this point were rivals, had to team up and became 2 vs 2 and the two bigger teams had to create a huge build together.
- The Season 2's "Puppet Masters" has the six teams left up to this point and team up to become 2 vs 2 vs 2 in order to put on a puppet show. Some of the teams even referenced this as they were now working with their rivals.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Boone from Season 1 revealed during the Holiday Bricktacular that although he finished in second place in his season, he won the "aftermath", becoming a designer at LEGO. Same goes for Dave from Season 3, who also became a designer at LEGO despite ending up in third.
- Self-Deprecation: Will frequently engages with this. For instance, in the very first episode, he declares himself an expert on LEGOs before "being told" that the plural is actually "LEGO". Or later in the same season, when he pretends to call his agent and acts like he has to remind the agent who he is. In Season 2, he became jealous of a more successful puppet version of himself; and in Season 3's Wild West episode, he made some bad puns that were punctuated by tumbleweeds drifting across the set.
- Sequel Snark: In a Season 3 episode featuring the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Will can't resist poking fun at the MCU's release schedule and announces that "This episode will be three-and-a-half hours long and have two sequels just to tell the story!"
- Serial Escalation: Parodied multiple times in the first episode of Season 2. The intro claims that the season will be "Bigger! Better! Brickier!", with the last word followed by a contestant asking if that's a real word. When Will boasts about the new features of the season, he includes "more editing" and "more graphic effects", and claims that the cash prize has been increased... by one dollar, before production corrects him that no, it hasn't. He then shows off an impressive new trophy... which ends up being a case of Big Shadow, Little Creature.
- The show itself plays it straight in the context of each season. What will the teams be asked to build out of Lego bricks next? What kind of outrageous challenge can said build be expected to accomplish and still manage to hold up somehow?
- Shout-Out: In the Star Wars episode of the Australian series, the first Stormtrooper through the doorway bumps their head on the rollerdoor, a reference to an infamous
blooper from A New Hope. - Technician vs. Performer: In Season 1, Mark and Boone are the technicians to Amy and Tyler's performers in the droid challenge. The judges pick Tyler and Amy for their droid having a vibrant personality and a clear story. Mark and Boone learn from this and in the next challenge focus on the performer side, which earns them the main win.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Syreeta and Randall have this reaction on learning they chose a centaur for the Explosives challenge because they know nothing about Greek mythology. They decide to make the best of it and focus on the myth of Hercules, as well as Greek architecture for the build.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Moto and Paras become really excited about learning they have to do an Earthquake challenge. As they put it, their engineering jobs make them perfect for this challenge. Their building ends up being one of three that reaches Level 11.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: A non-romantic example in Amy and Jamie - while Jamie is far from short at 5'9" (175cm), Amy stands 6'2" (188cm).
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Sam and Jessica started off as one of the weaker teams in Season 1, coming in at the bottom two in the first two episodes. After the second episode, they refocused their efforts and came in second place in the "Cut in Half" build. After that, they have become one of the toughest teams to beat, typically either coming in second or winning builds, and eventually being one of the teams in the finale. The judges confirmed that they would have been in the top two if the Star Wars episode had eliminated a team, and in the finale proper, they were in third place overall. Sam and Jessica commented how much the two of them grew from those first two episodes.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Several episodes have aired previews of the later episodes before the results had been announced, showing viewers who were eliminated. This showed up big when previews for Season 1's ninth episode (Star Wars) were shown during the eighth episode (Storybook), spoiling that Aaron and Christian were eliminated.
- Treehouse of Fun: A Season 3 build has the builders make LEGO treehouses, using actual (miniature) trees.
- Unflinching Walk: The second episode of Season 2 was all about making LEGO bricks explode with a LEGO Minifigure made to look as if they were walking away from the explosion. This was also parodied by Will where he starts the episode walking away from an exploding trailer.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Downplayed in the first two seasons, as both teams that were eliminated first lasted two episodes, so we did get time to know them better.
- Played unfortunately straight in Season 3, where Drew and Miranda were sent home in the first episode.
