Max and Zoe have Porsha Williams to help them through the brick-building challenges that LEGO Masters Jr. presents each week. The creative siblings talk about their experience competing on the new version of the Fox show.
Youngsters are finally competing to see who the best builders are on LEGO Masters Jr. There’s $50,000 and a massive LEGO trophy up for grabs, so the five teams are doing their best to impress Brickmasters Amy Corbett and Boone Langston. It airs on Fox every Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT, then arrives on Hulu the following day.
Teamed up with Porsha Williams, Max and Zoe built a massive Arendelle Castle from Frozen in the first episode’s Disney challenge. In episode 2, they will need to build an impressive stunt car and a mini version of Porsha to launch over a cityscape scene.
Blocks sat down with the pair to find out about their LEGO Masters Jr. experience…
Blocks: When did you start building creatively with LEGO bricks and switch from following the instructions to doing it yourselves?
Max: Probably when I was eight or nine, I don’t know. I built a MOC, of the NINJAGO City LEGO set, I built a mini version of it.
Zoe: I usually like building houses and scenes, stuff like that, because I’m really into the Friends sets, I build a lot of houses and bedrooms and things. I‘m really into interior design so I really like doing houses and all of the details.
Max: I’m into Technic, the functions and Power Functions.
Zoe: Yeah, he built the functions in the Arendelle Castle.
Max: In my car builds I like doing the gearbox, it’s fun.
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Blocks: Do each of you have an all-time favourite build that you’ve done outside of the show?
Max: Probably for me, the one that we actually got into the show with, because I think they had us build something really cool.
Zoe: We built things before the show, in the process [to getting on it]. We built this really cool Christmas scene, which was really cool.
Blocks: What was it like when you actually stepped onto that set for the first time and you were in this place that you’ve seen on TV?
Max: Well, I mean, it felt crazy.
Zoe: Yeah, all the cameras everywhere. Being in the same place where all of the other LEGO Masters episodes were filmed just felt really cool.
Blocks: What was it like meeting Amy and Boone?
Zoe: Amy is really sweet.
Max: And really tall.
Zoe: I didn’t even know Boone was going to be there, so that was a surprise. We thought it would be Amy and Jamie.
Max: Amy was the tallest one on set.
Blocks: It feels like you have to be a certain height to be a Brickmaster now, right? Because Boone’s not a short guy either.
Max: [laughs] Yeah, Jamie, they kicked him out because of his height maybe.
Blocks: What was Porsha Williams like as a teammate? What was it like to build with her?
Zoe: She was great. It was funny, though, because we didn’t know we were going to get celebrities, so it was a big surprise and we were like, ‘oh my goodness. How are we going to give her instructions, to teach her to do these things?’ Because she didn’t really have much experience.
Max: She was really nice though and she helped a lot. With building trees and stuff, when we had a lot of something that we didn’t really have time to do.
Zoe: Yeah, she could duplicate things very easily. So that was nice.
Blocks: How was building against the clock with that time limit? Because that always looks like the hardest thing to do.
Zoe: That was intense, but I will say, like, when it came towards probably 30 minutes remaining, we were pretty much done and that’s why Max ended up going over and helping those kids, because we were almost completely done and we had a lot of extra time – but it’s still pretty intense and stressful.
Max: Yeah, when there’s one hour left and you don’t have a roof on yet.
Blocks: Could you talk a bit about the Disney challenge and how you found it?
Max: Well, it was a little bit in our comfort zone, because we the MOC we did to show them, to get on the show was a winter one, so it was like we were doing another version of what we already built. But it was definitely hard to make the castle.
Zoe: Yeah, the first thing we started with was definitely the castle. We just kept building up the walls.
Max: It looks like it would be quick, but it actually takes time just to build one area around the wall.
Zoe: Especially because you have to interlock so it doesn’t just fall apart,
Max: And then you have to run across the room to grab pieces.
Blocks: What was it like having access to that many bricks?
Max: It was nice. I wish I could have that many Power Functions.
Zoe: It was very nice, because usually at home, I’m running around looking for pieces all the time.
Blocks: How did you enjoy the second challenge? Because that seems like one way you really had to use your imagination.
Max: It was really fun.
Zoe: It was really fun, it was like flying through the air.
Max: It’s definitely the type of stuff I like to build.
Zoe: We had to build Porsha, and that was also really fun, but it was difficult trying to make a brick built character, which I don’t have much experience in.
Max: After the show, since I missed everyone so much, I built a little mini version of a trophy.
Blocks: What was your favourite thing about being on the show?
Zoe: Definitely for me, was just becoming friends with all the other people because it’s a competition, you might think we would be a little whatever, but we were actually really good friends and we hung out a lot outside of the studio.
Max: We went to restaurants a lot together.
Blocks: Do you have any tips for other people who want to be on LEGO Masters one day?
Max: First, get a Bricks and Minifigs account. That’s where I got the email from. Also don’t really pay attention to the odds of getting in. Just do it expecting to get in, hoping to , because if you just think you’re not going to get in, you most likely are not going to get in.
Zoe: Probably just trying your hardest through the process of casting, because there are so many steps, you just have to keep putting your all into every single step.
LEGO Masters Jr. airs every Monday on Fox, then is available from Tuesday on Hulu.
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