BayLUG members Chris C. and family attended, and provided us with this report.
This summer the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Bay Area hosted their second annual Mini Master Builder Competition challenging for LEGO fans ages 5-12. This competition challenged younger builders to compete first in a home build submission followed by an in person LIVE competition pitting the top 10 contestants head to head with a given theme for a free building challenge to show their LEGO skill.
At Home Competition
To kickoff the competition the contestants where challenged to make a build at home with the SPACE theme. Nicholas, a member of BayLUG, worked hard for a week to customize a spaceship food truck that has landed on an alien planet complete with an alien SPACE station, tables and chairs and other alien planet decorations (seen below). After submitting his build, his entry was reviewed by the LEGOLAND team and was lucky enough to have been invited to compete in the LIVE event at the Discovery Center to compete for the Title of Mini Master Builder and the opportunity to compete at a national level against other Discovery Center representatives.
In Person Competition
Upon arriving at the event, Nicholas was lined up along with the other 9 contestants for Photo opportunities and to learn about how the event would take place. The competition was then broken into 3 phases, an initial build, followed by a break with prizing and photo opportunities, followed by a second build and then concluding with the announcement of the winner.
The first part was a timed build where the contestants were able to grab bulk brick from a collection of tubs to build a “Living Creature”. The build buckets were very limited to brick colors and choices so the contestants had to really think about what they could build given the limitations. When the competitors were building, parents and viewers were able to talk and discuss with the contestants. This was clearly an advantage for some and a disadvantage for others. Some parents coached their children fully with ideas, brick choices and more while others just gave a few small suggestions. This defiantly is something that should be revisited for the future for a more even playing field.
Nicholas choose to create a Frog compete with a fly on its tongue. One of the distinct features he chose to include was a unique tilt on the legs to give the frog a fun action pose to give the build more feeling in addition to some creative brick side building techniques to make the tongue work well with the pieces given. Following this build the contestants were given a break and photos were taken in addition to a special prize pack including a really cool LEGO branded tumbler and a polybag which was clearly a big hit for the participants.
The final part of the contest was an extension of the build where they were given additional time to build a habitat for their Living Creature. Nicholas created a pond and then added some flowers and took some time to make the Frog a bit more secure as well. There was a special twist partway through were the participants were challenged to use a brick separator in their build, which was easy for Nicholas as he used it, along with more, to create a larger flower. Following this build the winner was chosen (not Nicholas but maybe next year) and had a tub of bricks dumped on them to initiate them into the program.
Checkout some highlights from the event at: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFfPYb21/
Final Thoughts
In general, the event was a big success and a lot of fun for the contestants. The pre-event was well timed with enough time for the participants to build but also tied to a current LEGO theme (Space) which was a great twist to encourage the use of the new CMF’s at the time. The LIVE event was also well coordinated with enough breaks for the kids while also allowing for enough build time. With that being said, we did have a few suggestions to help make the event even better for the future.
Future Suggestions:
- I would recommend giving the contestants more time to look at the brick choices before starting so they can plan and strategize.
- There were a number of kids who were liberal with their understanding of the start and stop cues so a bit of enforcement is always appreciated.
- Decide ahead of time to either fully allowing coaching or not at all and inform the competitors in advance to make it more fare to the builders.
But with that being said, overall It was a great event and I hope they continue to run this event in the future for more young LEGO fans to compete for their chance at the title. The prizes were great and having costume characters and news stations there to cover the event really helped make the contestants feel special and really elevated the event.
A big thank you to the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Team for such a great event!
