LEGO MASTERS Post-Mortem: Tim and Tim on Their Season 4 Journey

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, October 19 episode of LEGO MASTERS.]

The LEGO MASTERS contestants were tasked with incorporating a sound into their build on the Thursday, October 19 episode of the competition series—and it worked better for some than others.

For friends Tim Howell and Tim Hutchings, they were confident in incorporating their sound (“Twinkle”), but struggled at actually executing their original plan…and opted to pivot to a different build midway through their time. Ultimately, it ended up being their undoing as they were eliminated.

Here, they speak with Give Me My Remote about their LEGO MASTERS journey and hopes for the future…

What was your first thought when you heard the sound challenge this week?
Tim Howell: I think my first thought was something that I can’t say on the air, because it was totally something totally new. We had no idea what to do. I think we pretty quickly…settled on some sort of a reveal kind of action.
Tim Hutchings: I think we thought, too, we got the best [noise] because we had no clue what…those others were tough. Although we went home because of our sound, I think we ended up with the best one for us. 
Howell: We didn’t go home because of the sound. We went home because of execution and stuff.

You ended up pivoting your build midway through the time. At what point did you realize that was necessary?
Howell: One of my internal philosophies going into this, or strategies, was don’t try movement that I don’t already know how to do. And I didn’t follow that. We talked about a reveal and something like a big lid opening. And I thought, at the very beginning…okay, I’m gonna give myself 15, 20 minutes on this. And I was able to get the battery box, the motor, the programming, whatever, to make the movement like that on a little bar that’s this long. I thought, okay, cool. I’m good, I figured it out. Except I was going to try to move a panel that was this big and had enough weight and every time I did it, it would start falling apart. And I would try to reinforce it [and it wouldn’t work]…three or four hours later, I was mentally done with that. It was not working.
Hutchings: We had to compete against people that were using a lot…I mean, almost [all] the other teams were using all kinds of crazy movement. You really had to up your game. So that was a big part of it, too.

What was your prep process before you came on the show?
Howell: We both watched all the other seasons and even some of the international ones a lot. And thought about them. We actually had a list of possible build ideas, which helped on the earlier episodes. It did not help on this one; none of our ideas really fit with a sound. And, yeah, I mean, you can do some practice with some movement and some other things, but if you run into something that you just haven’t tried before, you got to either make it up on the spot or rethink it.

How did the incentive Golden Brick play into your approach? Did it throw you off at all?
Hutchings: For me, not really, because we were going to try [to] put a Golden Brick in our build. Probably should have done it in the end. [Laughs.]
Howell: Yeah, that kind of threw off our whole story, too. We were gonna have that revealed inside the thing and then [host] Will [Arnett] comes out, and says, “Here it is.” I don’t think the Brickmasters were all that thrilled about that story idea, either. So all of that happened about the same time that I was getting really frustrated with the movement, so all of those together [happened so] we shifted.

After your time on the show, do you still appreciate LEGO builds the same way?
Hutchings: Oh, absolutely…I never did many creatures before the show, and that’s all I did, really, was build creatures. So I came home with a new love and appreciation. And a lot of new skills to do some of that. So I’ll take that forward. And as far as love of LEGO, oh my gosh, it’s so much in me. [Laughs.] It’s never going to change.
Howell: What we do here in Houston, with Houston Brick Club, we do a lot of display events and things. I think it was two weeks after we got home, Tim and I were out doing a display event together. We brought a couple of buildings and trains and set them up.

Looking to your exit, when you were placed in the bottom 2, what was going through your mind? 
Hutchings: Well, it was a shock that we ended up in the bottom 2, because there were things that I thought maybe…up until that point, I thought we were gonna be okay; we pulled this off. And then even while we’re standing there, I wasn’t sure. But I will say this: I am happy that Ryan and Aubree went on, because the quality of the stuff they were doing, I want to see more of that. I love them two dearly…what they do is just fantastic. So I wanted to see more of them.
Howell: I think they had a little bit of a down episode, also, and they got lucky that ours was a little more down than theirs was.

Everyone was really emotional upon your exit. What can you say about the community that you built while you were there?
Hutchings: It was crazy how fast it happened. I mean, within a day, we all kind of formed this group together. I say this about [the LEGO MASTERS team]—and I’ve said this on a few live streams—I don’t know who in production has the final say on the teams they bring together, but they’re either the biggest genius or the most intuitive person or people in the world the way they brought 12 teams out of supposedly thousands of teams that just bond as well. And last season, they did a really great job, too. So hats off to them, because they knocked it out of the park this season as far as the love and camaraderie of everybody there.

From what you’ve seen so far, who do you think is the one team to watch going forward?
Howell: Pretty much any of them. They’re all great. I mean, they all blew me away with different builds over the episodes that we saw. So, I mean, I could see any of them being up there at the end.
Hutchings: I’m excited we get a set from whatever it is [the winners build], too. Have a chance to buy something or get something.
Howell: I’ll get that. I’ll track them down. And have them sign it.
Hutchings: Have to get two copies! Hopefully it’s not a super expensive set. [Laughs.]

Looking at your overall time on the show, what was your favorite experience, challenge, or thing that you got to create?
Hutchings: I had a lot of fun with my fish people. [Laughs.]
Howell: He nailed those. I mean, we were, what, 10 minutes into that challenge? And you got those fish people built.
Hutchings: There’s not much to them, but I just was having a great time. Like I said, I was living my best life the whole time. And once we got our plan together, it was just easy to go and just have fun.
Howell: I enjoyed them all. I keep thinking about the last one, because in some ways that one feels to me more like a LEGO MASTERS build than the other ones did. Kind of funny to think of it that way, when it’s the one that got us off the show. But if we had had our [final] idea sooner—I mean, if we pivoted even an hour sooner, we would have stayed on the show, I’m pretty sure. If we thought of that idea from the beginning, we would have nailed it.

Is there anything you want to do in the LEGO world you haven’t had the chance to do yet?
Hutchings: I want to get more involved in the community, and not just our local [community]. With my YouTube channel and stuff like that, I’ve gotten to experience a lot more of the country and a lot of other builders and stuff. But I’d really like to expand on that. And I’d love for us to get invited to Billund [where the LEGO headquarters are], and do some actual events and stuff for LEGO…I see a lot of the other teams getting asked to do different things…we stand out in the crowd.
Howell: [Howell shows off the overalls.] We’ve got our names on here. I’ve been lucky enough to get paid to do a few models and kits and things. So I would love to do more of that. So that’d be great if that comes around.

What did this show help you learn about yourselves, both as individuals and as a unit?
Howell: He is always cheerful, no matter [what]. We’re flying along and maybe stuff isn’t going quite right…there’s a quick shot, I can’t remember, either episode 2 or 3, of Tim running to the brick pit. You can kind of see him from the back and you can hear him giggling as he’s running off…that’s just kind of how he is.
Hutchings: I have no idea what that was.
Howell: I don’t know. [Laughs.]
Hutchings: I would say that we handle pressure pretty well…We were fast…here’s the thing. [Brickmaster] Jamie [Berard] said it…I think he said it every episode: “You guys amaze me. You were doing this and doing that, and then you come up with a final build like this.” I work under pressure. I’m one of them procrastinators, so I guess that prepared me a lot, because I had no idea what I was going to do or anything. But when it came time, it just kind of clicked up here, thank God. Because that was my biggest fear going in—that I was really going to fail Tim and not be able to come up with anything or to do anything. So I was very happy that I got some brain activity when I needed it. [Laughs.]

Is there anything else you’d like to share about the experience?
Howell: I’m just grateful for the opportunity and big thanks to my good buddy Tim for coming along and helping out. I don’t know if I would have gotten on this show without the overalls thing. [Both laugh.]
Hutchings: Agree.

LEGO MASTERS, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox

RELATED:

• LEGO MASTERS Exclusive Clip: The Golden Brick is Back
• LEGO MASTERS: Jamie Berard Previews the ‘Wonderfully Chaotic’ Kitten Challenge
• LEGO MASTERS’ Jamie Berard Previews Season 4’s ‘Jaw-Dropping’ Moments
• Fox Renews LEGO MASTERS
• Fox Renews LEGO MASTERS

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page or our Instagram.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.