Eighteen contestants faced a three-hour race against time to try to prove they have what it takes to cement their place as a Lego Master Builder in the heart of Westside.
They drew battle on Sunday evening (10 Sept) inside Birmingham’s LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre, all hands diving into vast buckets of bricks in a bid to realise their imaginations. You can watch our video of the event here:
Each contender was hoping to win their dream job – a 12-month contract for one of two full-time assistant master builder posts paying some £21,000 per year, with a part-time role also up for grabs.
And there would be no working from home: each winner would be required to be in the tourist hotspot during their working hours to create new designs and engage with young children visiting.
A series of challenges culminated with a 30-minute round to create and build a design using available pieces. The contestants then took their finished work into the workshop room ready to give a 30-second explanation of what creature they had built and why – and how they could have made it better if they’d had more time.
Entries ranged from a shark to a rhinoceros and from a goldfish to two bees. Once everyone had detailed their thought processes, they all left the room ready for the judges to deliberate in secret.
One of the judges was still only 13 himself – a mini master builder called Harry, from Mansfield, who travels to Birmingham once a month and revealed he gets a 25 per cent discount on new Lego for his efforts.
Asked what he and his fellow judges were looking for, Harry said: “I want to find a person who is hard working, very kind and friendly, speedy at building and good at teamwork.”
In the end, the challengers were whittled down to seven for the three positions available. The magnificent seven will all be formally interviewed in the days ahead – after celebrating by throwing handfuls of Lego into the air at the end of our video above.
● The Centre’s next event will be a ‘Brick or Treat’ Halloween programme running from 30 September until 5 November.
