LEGO MASTERS Post-Mortem: Melanie Breaks Down the Fashion Challenge—and The Team’s Risky Decision

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, November 9 episode of LEGO MASTERS.]

The LEGO MASTERS contestants put on a fashion show on the Thursday, November 9 episode, as they were tasked with building bags…that one contestant from each group would have to model. (AKA, the bag had to be able to stay together while being held and open up/be functional.)

For friends Allyson and Melanie, their build was going well…until they realized—thanks in part to feedback from the Brickmasters—their bag was too square and big. So the duo opted to start over with only a few hours to go.

Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t enough and they were eliminated from the show. Here, Melanie talks with Give Me My Remote about the elimination, singing on the show, and more.

What was going through your mind when you found out about this challenge?
Honestly, when we first got this challenge, I was like, “This is our challenge! We’re the girl team, I have lots of bags, I’m into fashion, I model for a bunch of different companies.” I’m like, “We have this challenge in the bag, literally.” But there were things that obviously we could have done better and it didn’t go too well for us. We were kind of a little cocky in the beginning, but…just the way we went about it, the building process, just didn’t work out as well as we planned it to.

You guys made the difficult decision to overhaul your entire concept. What were the debates you had about having to pull that trigger?
Yeah, so when the Brickmasters came, they did say that you do have to pose with it, you had [to be] able to open and close it properly…maneuver it, carry it, and stuff. So we were like, “Oh, this is looking really, really, really big, and am I gonna be able to carry this?” It looked pretty ginormous. So we were like, everyone’s making smaller bags. So we probably need to cut it down [by] at least half. Time was really not on our side. So yeah, that was pretty sad.

At that point, did you think you were in danger or did you still feel like you had hope?
We still had hope. We did see [with] a lot of people that time wasn’t exactly on their side, as well. So we were like, well, maybe we can do this because throughout the competition, we’ve been some of the fastest builders. We finished our camera pretty quickly. We finished our volcano; we lay bricks down really, really fast. And so we were like, “You know what, we can finish this, we can have a finished product. We can make it look good. We can sell it. We can make it sound better than it looks, at least.” But we did have high hopes of at least finishing it and making it look good and functional.

So when they said that you guys were in the bottom two what was going through your mind at that point?
We’re like, “We’re gone.” [Laughs.] “We made a box.” I think that Amy said, “Don’t make it look like a cooler, it’s looking pretty square.” And even though we cut it down to size, we’re like yeah, it’s still square. It’s still like a cooler, which is exactly what she said not to do. [Laughs.] And I was like since it was big, maybe we should have made a big luggage or something. But the idea didn’t come until later. So you know when pressures on like that, you’re not really thinking clearly. It happens to the best of us. It’s okay. Someone’s got to go…[it’s] just kind of sad. And to be the fashion episode of episodes! But it’s okay.

Since you’ve left the show, have you tried to make a bag? Or are you like, I am not trying to make another bag for the rest of my life?
No, no, no, no. When it did happen, I literally bought a sewing machine…I don’t want to make it strictly out of brick. I want to make an actual bag, like a fabric one, maybe with LEGO around it. So I have tried. I just haven’t had time. I started making more jewelry. I had a few of those. But when it comes to making actual bags, I haven’t really succeeded at that yet, but I will. I will eventually find the time to do it. And I really want to redeem myself, honestly.

You guys made the comment you thought you’d be the second team to go—why?! You did a great job on the show.
Oh my God, thank you. Just sizing up the competition. You know, I’m kind of newer than a lot of the other people there. So when it comes to experience, I’m not as experienced as anyone else. 

However, Allyson’s amazing. Allyson lives and breathes LEGO; it is all she does, her whole entire house is just LEGO. [Laughs.] So she’s taught me a lot and luckily I guess I’m kind of a fast learner. So honestly, we felt like, okay, look at these people. They’re teams of very experienced builders. And we were like, “You know what, maybe we’ll be the second to go and at least we had that opportunity.” And we just kept going and going and going and we were just shocked every episode because we were like, “Oh my God, this person was so good. And that person was so good and ours is kind of small.” We were pretty surprised by how far we got and we’re pretty proud of ourselves.

Since you are newer to the LEGO world, what did being on the show teach you about what you enjoy building and what you don’t really enjoy building?
[Laughs.] Well going into the show, neither of us were the best at technique. We didn’t really have much experience with that or making things move motorized. So actually, I kind of enjoy making things move now. It’s very interesting how you piece things together with gears and stuff like that…how to maneuver things around. It’s pretty interesting. It’s something I’ve never done before and something I plan on trying out more, so that’s good. When it comes to the technic[al] stuff, that was always so hard for us because all we’ve really done is like brick. I don’t really like technic[al] stuff that much. But I mean, it’s something I’m willing to try out more and redeem myself on, as well. When it comes to the bag, if we did know more in tech, we probably could have figured out a different way [of] how to build it. 

Looking back at your time on the show, what was your favorite thing to build?
Our favorite thing to build… I really liked our boat a lot. Because not only was it beautiful, very colorful, and whimsical, but it really did tell our story [of] how we met as musicians and that we still do music together. So I would say that that was our favorite build. 

The volcano was pretty awesome. We had a pretty crazy story with that…Oh my god, [and] the monster was so funny. I love that one…there’s a story behind that one, as well. It was about Paul and Nealita…while we were waiting in the waiting room, the green room, Paul was falling asleep on the couch. And Nealita took a stick of candy. She took the wrapper [and] started tickling his nose and like he was [she mimics a frustrated noise] and getting annoyed. So when we got that challenge, we heard snarl. We were like, this reminds us of something! [Laughs.] This reminds us of maybe a monster but, like, whipping his head. And then we were like, “Oh my god Paul and Nealita!” We actually came up with a song…it didn’t make the show, but that’s okay, I recorded it on my own. We both did record a bunch of songs having to do with our builds every single episode. So that was one of our favorite songs. And we had LEGO minifigs running around like chickens with their heads cut off. We had a bunch of food made out of minifig parts—like the corn was made out of their minifig heads and pizza had yellow arms and legs. And we had other skeletons coming out of the big monster’s mouth—it was a monster meal. [Brickmaster] Jamie [Berard] said this is the most horrifying, adorable build he’s ever seen. So I’m really glad to give him that experience—he saw the most horrifying, yet adorable, build in the history of LEGO MASTERS!

Hey, that’s something worth bragging about! Speaking of the contestants, this is a show—and a season—where the group seems really close. What has that bond meant to you? 
Well, the LEGO community is a very peaceful, loving community. Everyone always helps each other out. I am new to the community, but I’m always looking for new friends. It’s great to always meet new friends. I’m so happy to have met them all. 

Honestly, even behind the scenes, if there was a question that I had, there was always someone there to answer them. Honestly, it’s because of Luis that we got the heads spinning on the monster because I was like “Luis, what can I use? What can I do with this? I don’t really know how to make things move very well.” And he’s like, “Oh, this is what you got to do.” And it worked and we were ecstatic. And Sam and Neena, oh my gosh, they were always there to help out as well. And of course we’re gonna help them out in return…with the rug. They’ve helped us out so much…let’s just do it, let’s go help them; they have the Golden Brick, they’re gonna use it…they’re our friends and everyone wants to see each other do their best every episode. It is not just a full-on competition. I mean, it is, but everyone wants to see each other do their best and leave on something that they could be proud of. 

This episode, I know we didn’t do our best and it’s not something to be proud of. Any other episode we’d be like, “Okay, we did our best and if we got booted out, it would have been okay.” It would have been nice to win it all. This one, we were kind of upset because we knew we could have done better.

How has going through this experience together changed your relationship with Allyson?
Well, we’re still friends; she’s doing good. Things are stressful on the show with cameras in your face. You’ve got eight hours to build this big thing, what are we gonna do, and it’s not working out…people get stressed out, and I get it. But she’s doing good, we’re still singing music together. We’re still building together. We still hang out. Everything’s fine. So nothing really much has changed. I’m really sad she couldn’t be here today. 

Honestly, with the rest of the contestants, as well, there hasn’t been a day that we haven’t really talked to each other. We have this little chat and we’re always keeping in touch [with] what we’re all doing…I’ve made more friends. I got to know one of my other friends and what makes her tick and how to work around things.

Outside of the builds and the other contestants, what was your favorite part of the show? Was it something like the cats or meeting last year’s winner? Something else?
I did like working with the cats a lot…Stacey was awesome. It was nice to see a guest judge. Honestly, [it was] working with Will Arnett and the Brickmasters. I couldn’t believe I got to do that. I couldn’t believe I got to sing on national TV—that’s something I’ve never done before! 

I’m a musician, but I’ve never actually written my own song. And that was the first time I’ve, one, written a song for ukulele, because I haven’t been playing ukulele long…[and] it was my first time singing in front of celebrities and knowing it is going to be on national television. 

A lot of my friends didn’t even though I did LEGO. It was my first time showcasing them. They were like, “Melanie, you have so many hidden talents!” So yeah, it’s really awesome. And just meeting so many amazing people, and the producers—everyone was just so kind and fun to be around. Yeah, I miss everyone.

Without spoiling anything, which teams should we be keeping an eye on as possible winners? 
I would say probably Christopher and Robert and Sam and Neena, they’re my top choices. Definitely fan favorites, as well. I’m looking at all the reviews and stuff and [going], “I see what’s going on here.” So I think those are my top two contenders. 

Honestly, Paul and Nealita went from our underdog team to also top contenders. Love Kelly and Emilee—you know they’ve got all the details down. So it’s anyone’s game. But my top two I think would be Christian and Robert and Sam and Neena.

Is there anything else you want to share about this experience?
Makeup crew, hair crew—amazing. Love them. Thank you for making us look great every single day…everyone was just really amazing throughout the entire thing. And I’m really, really glad to have this experience and to have learned as much as I did being kind of newer to the game and, wow, we got so much further than we thought. It’s something that we should really be proud of.

LEGO MASTERS, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox

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