LEGO® Masters USA – Season 2, Episode 12: Day And Night
Day And Night is the big finale of LEGO® Masters USA Season 2. We made it to the end friends. This season has been quite the journey, an often delayed journey at that. The first episode aired June 1st, 2021 and after 3 months of randomly skipped weeks, we finally got the big finish. While I don’t mind having a summer full of LEGO® building goodness, it was confusingly drawn out. Regardless of the schedule, it was a fun season with lots of great builds and colourful personalities. And without giving too much away already, the brothers are the big winners 😝
Just like last season’s finale, the top 3 teams are playing for the title of LEGO® Master, the brick-built trophy and a cash prize of $100,000 USD. Mark & Steven, Zack & Wayne and Caleb & Jacob have a whopping 24 hours to complete their final showstopper. Unlike last season, this year’s final build has a requisite theme, in this case ‘day and night’. The finished design must have one look with the lights on and something unexpected with the lights off. It is never explained how they will do this, which I find very odd. Only as we check in on the builders do we learn they will be using lighting. I love the concept, we don’t see too much in the way of lighting effects on this show. But it is fairly strange that it’s not better addressed. Anyhoooo, let’s get to the final builds.
🥉3RD PLACE – Caleb & Jacob – The Lands of Time
Congratulations to Caleb & Jacob on an amazing showing this season. The twins come in 3rd with their impressive hourglass creation. They showed great improvement with every week and finally find some confidence after their win last week. This new self-esteem lets them create with a lot of joy and also showcase some newly acquired technical prowess. Using the ribbon lighting to create the shape of the hourglass is really clever. And that they have half their build hanging upside-down is really wild. Movement is included in both sections and the accent lights really add some charm. I was really rooting for the twins to take the top spot, but happy to see they had a fantastic last showing.
🥈2ND PLACE – Zack & Wayne – Pagoda of Our Lives
Zack & Wayne continue their technic wizardry with a towering build made up of several levels. Each one represents a different passion or aspect of their lives and is done with some great vignette builds. Zack’s girlfriend and kids get a nice spotlight, as do their sushi restaurant and Wayne’s archery training ground among others. Keeping on brand, two contrasting dragon builds circle the tower making a nice call back to their winning build from episode 1. This pair of brothers has been consistent since the beginning and stick to their roots and strengths with ease. Top contenders from the start, a big congrats to Zack & Wayne on a stellar run.
🥇1ST PLACE – Mark & Steven – Warden of the Woods
The big winners of LEGO® Masters USA, Season 2 are Mark & Steven! Their Day & Night build is a real standout piece of sculpting with a lovely, detailed base to go with it. The forrest warden is basically an Ent from Lord of the Rings, but I’m here for it. Each team got featured in a nice photo montage. In their case it’s pretty cute to see baby-faced Mark & Steven romping around trees and streams. It helps connect their final build to them a little more directly and why they chose this design. The lighting is also top-notch with their ‘night-mode’ as the clear stand-out of the finalists. The eyes, staff and water all have a lovely glow. The water is especially dynamic thanks to a great strobing effect and well layered trans clear parts.
It’s a magical build and a well-earned win. Their creation will eventually go on display at LEGO®Land Florida for everyone to admire. Congrats fellas and keep up the amazing work!
That’s A Wrap
These were some wonderful builds. But I can’t help but think these weren’t really on the same scale as last year’s top 3. Don’t get me wrong, incredible work and details are more than evident; but I think giving them a criteria to meet with the Day and Night components just added some restrictions. Last season was a free-for-all and it payed off beautifully. All the teams went for broke on scale and they really felt like 24 hour builds. But it goes without saying that scale alone doesn’t make a better build. Conceptually all 3 final builds were very strong. Nitpicks aside, We got 3 more amazing creations in a season filled with with amazing creations.
The final critques were also pretty bland, if that’s the right word? We didn’t get much feedback from the Brickmasters. Nor did we spend a lot of time on the judging. But we did get a good amount of time with each team during their build phase, which was great. I guess I’m surprised that more analysis wasn’t done on these 3 finale builds. I would like to have heard more about the concepts or what the judges might have had comment on – not just the positives. In any event, great work all season by the Brickmasters.
Final Thoughts
The Battle of the Brothers has come to a close. I have mostly positive feedback for the finale. But with that said, it was definitely a mixed-bag. Given filming restrictions due to Covid-19, we didn’t get to see any of the teams come back. It would have been great to see everyone again, cheering on the finalists. Not even the finalist’s families weren’t able to attend. But they did deliver some support and love via recorded messages. Some tears were seen and it was super sweet. It must have been tough to be on this season given how extra isolating the conditions needed to be. Hat’s off to everyone for being such champs. Here’s some last little tidbits:
- I know I say this every week: Amy looked STUNNING in that silver dress. Werk!
- Will Puppett is back and twists his own neck. I mean….cool??
- After seeing Boss Will, I was hoping to see Evil Will again. Sadly no dice
- “Great job Wayne. Now let’s blow it up.” “—WHAT?!” “Just kidding! We did that already” Hahaha
- If there was ever a time when someone was in mortal danger, it was Mark tripping over that cable. I am confident Steven almost chose violence
- “You tolerated a lot of brick-based LEGO® puns. But, brick happens” Top tier pun
- I don’t see why Caleb & Jacob had to leave the room when they came in 3rd
- I wish someone had given Will a Batman cowl to wear with his tuxedo
OVERALL SCORE: 7 / 10
And that is all he wrote! Thanks for following along with me for this season of LEGO® Masters USA. I hope you all enjoyed my hot takes, random asides and pun appreciation. I had a lot of fun recapping and reviewing the show. It certainly kept me busy these last 3 months haha. What did you all think of the finale? Were you satisfied with the results? Did your top pick win? Comment below and as always, keep on brickin’.
-Frank
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