Bicycles, ice baths and 4 million bricks: Behind the scenes of Lego Masters

Every day while filming Lego Masters, Hamish Blake and Ryan “Brickman” McNaught, host and judge of the Logie-award-wining show, ride bicycles together to get to work.

“Yeah, probably don’t tell production that I ride my bike because I’m a 50/50 chance of not making it,” Blake says, laughing. “City drivers don’t love seeing a cyclist. I mean, the anger is palpable.”

McNaught grimaces with a smile. “Dicing with death daily,” he says. “Lucky we’re not angry on this show.”

Hamish Blake and Ryan “Brickman” McNaught.Credit: NIGEL WRIGHT

Indeed, Lego Masters Australia, returning for its seventh season with Grandmasters of the Galaxy, a global battle of 10 teams from Australia and overseas, is a bastion of family-friendly encouragement and kinship.

“We’re definitely the light side,” Blake says, laughing. “We’re Jedis, always trying to really harness that Jedi feeling.”

This season, 20 players from seven countries – a mix of homegrown and international winners and finalists from Australia, Canada, China, Finland, Sweden, the US and New Zealand – will tackle extraordinary challenges. This includes seeing if Lego can fly, building a car with a dash of “movie magic”, creating lifelike objects for a Chinese restaurant, and creating a monster from ancient civilisations.

There’s also the introduction of the “magic brick” – a coveted large, glowing block that teams battle for to gain immunity from elimination in the next challenge. And TV personality Sophie Monk will return as special guest in four episodes.

Past contestants Gabby and Owen return to Lego Masters Australia.Credit: NIGEL WRIGHT

Returning Australian builders include fan favourite and season-five winner Owen, teamed up with Gabby, who came fourth in season three; season-one runners-up David and Gerhard (known as “G”); Henry and Cade, champions of season one; and Trent and Alex, who have come close to victory more than once.

The overseas teams include Dai and Jiayuan, from Lego Masters China; Oskari and Aura from Finland; New Zealand runners-up Emily and Sarah; and sibling duo Paul and Nealita from the US.

There are also best friends and Lego Masters Sweden alumni Vidar and Albin; and Nick and Stacey, the first Canadians to win Lego Masters USA, who did so in their Lego bow-tie and hair bow respectively.

“These are all the best of the best,” says Blake, who won the 2022 Gold Logie for most popular personality on television. “Not only has everyone built on the show before, the only people that haven’t won are people that are back here because they just missed out. They’re the elite.”

On the day I visit the studio, which is housed in a hangar-style building at Disney Studios in Sydney’s Moore Park, teams of production staff are sorting used bricks on an upper level while, below, a large bank of multiple screens shows 25 camera angles of the contestants, all metres away, constructing against the clock at their workbenches.

Contestants on Lego Masters Australia: Grandmasters of the Galaxy.Credit: NIGEL WRIGHT

The set, a red and gold Chinese restaurant, complete with tables and chairs, fills the end of the room.

The teams are hunched over, building intently, and the sound of murmuring and clicking bricks fills the air. Every so often, someone will sprint to choose from 4 million bricks in the Brick Pit.

Blake and McNaught hover between the tables, quietly observing between chats, jokes and advice with teams off- and on-camera. For all the fun of Lego Masters, the pair know how their presence can affect contestants.

Dai and Jiayuan are some of the many international contestants this season.Credit: NIGEL WRIGHT

“You have to be cognisant of how much pressure they’re always under,” Blake says. “They want to put their best foot forward, the clock is always ticking and there’s a real skill to what everyone’s doing on the show, I never want to be flippant about that.

“But I still believe it helps people be at their best if you can keep a slight amount of cheerfulness in adversity. It keeps a pep in their step.”

As one of the world’s leading Lego brick artists, and the only Lego certified professional in the southern hemisphere, McNaught understands his influence.

“My job, obviously, is to be a judge, but also I want them to be the best possible Lego builders they can be,” he says. “In some instances there’s still 90 minutes on the clock, they’ve done 95 per cent, they’ve got capacity to finesse, make it that little bit better.

“In other instances, it’s ‘hang on a minute, we’ve just gotta get you over the line’. So you have to juggle both of these.”

After seven seasons, Blake says one of the challenges of Lego Masters is coming up with new build quests.

“I think we will have done close to 100 challenges by now,” he says. “Everything’s new. You have to keep getting more and more creative to keep it novel, and that becomes the challenge. But that’s all right. That’s what happens with any creative process that’s seven years in.”

In the past week, McNaught has already banked four ideas for future seasons.

“Once you’ve got your Lego brain on, it’s all, ‘What about this wild thing?’” he says.

‘I believe it helps people be at their best if you can keep a slight amount of cheerfulness in adversity’: Hamish Blake.Credit: NIGEL WRIGHT

There’s no doubt McNaught has a Lego brain. But what about Lego fingers? Does building trigger injuries?

“Absolutely yes,” he says. “[Just] working with your fingers for eight hours here is really hard. For instance, Gabby isn’t used to operating with the big bricks she’s using today, so her hands are throbbing. But it doesn’t take long to get match-fit.”

McNaught himself has some “pretty gnarly arthritis” in his hands after manoeuvring Lego for years.

“At the end of a long day my knuckles swell,” he says. “No different to a bricklayer or a chippy.”

Brickman’s tips for Lego enthusiasts with aching digits? Learn to use both hands, rest them alternately and have a long break afterwards.

What about mini ice baths?

“That’s what I do,” McNaught says.

Blake is excited. “Yeah – ‘Bricks down, guys!’” he says, jokingly. “‘Come to the centre now. I want your hands in the ice baths!’”

Lego Masters: Grandmasters of the Galaxy premieres Sunday, June 1, at 7pm on Channel Nine and 9Now. Nine is the publisher of this masthead.

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