LEGO MASTERS Post-Mortem: Luis and Alex on the LEGO 2K Drive Challenge and Their Season 4 Journey

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, November 16 episode of LEGO MASTERS.]

The LEGO MASTERS contestants had their work cut out for them on the Thursday, November 16 episode: They had to use two vehicles (a boat and a race car) to create a new, remote-controlled vehicle that could withstand an off-road race track competition. Oh, and they couldn’t use the Brick Pit to help with their artist design or help with functionality.

The top car got an incredible prize—their car was made into a playable vehicle in LEGO 2K Drive—and safety. 

For friends/teachers Luis and Alex, things didn’t go so well with their croquetas-inspired vehicle. The height proved to be an issue when it came time to navigate the course—and the Brickmasters were concerned the final build was too similar to a sub.

Here, the men talk with Give Me My Remote about their experience on the show…

What was going through your mind when you found out the Brick Pit was unavailable for this challenge?
Luis: When we found that out, we were getting a look at I think it was the cars that we had first that were out there. So right away, I mean, I can’t speak for Alex, I know right away I was already kind of looking at each one. We were kind of far away so…it’s kind of guessing game, but [we could see] at least colors—
Alex: Color was probably what we were looking for the most and it probably led to our downfall. [Laughs.] But yeah, it was definitely a little nerve-inducing to know that we weren’t going to have the Brick Pit at our disposal and we were limited at what parts we had.

When you were looking at it from afar, how much could you tell the bricks that were actually in the vehicles? Or beyond color, was it pretty much your best guesstimate? 
Luis: From where we were, you could get a rough idea, but it was really guesswork. Also, the cars you didn’t know what was inside of them, what parts were used [to] put [it] together. It could have been all technic inside or all brick inside—who knows? Ours ended up being a lot of brick. We just had a lot of two-by bricks, which was a big part of the challenge that we had in terms of our stability and our strength. But it was guesswork, really.

What was the process of actually landing on your vehicle design?
Alex: I think it took us a while to get to an idea. And once we got an idea, we kind of fell in love with it. And I think that might have led us to not think of certain things that we probably should have been thinking because we were so excited about the concept and the idea itself.
Luis: This challenge, it had the kind of unintentional benefit where we had to sort all our parts just to see what we had to work with, break them down, and all that. So I think coming into the competition, my biggest fear was just coming up with ideas. And it wasn’t an issue for us. 

Alex and I are always like—I think five minutes was the most we ever took to come up with an idea. We always had a good idea that we were happy with and that we executed. This one, for some reason, took us a while to get an idea. We knew we wanted to do something that played back to our Cuban heritage and what it’s like to be in Miami. And we just couldn’t come up with an idea. And our colors, we had a lot of that light brown or whatever they call it; medium nougat or dark nougat color. And we thought of croquetas, which is something that we enjoy a lot. Alex’s kids love them…the idea that it looked like the sub sandwich never even entered—
Alex: I don’t think we ever even thought about it.
Luis: Never even occurred to me, at all.
Alex: At one point, [we thought about] burger, or we said something, and we were like no, that’s too much like a sandwich. You can’t do a sandwich. Just not even thinking about the fact that what we ended up coming up with [looked a bit similar].
Luis: So again, if we were able to look at the parts in a different way, maybe early on, but you just got what you got. And everybody had that same limitation and I’m totally happy with our build…I loved our build.

I think the shark was the best one, by far. Christopher and Robert nailed that. But I think ours was, as far as being in a video game and a car that belongs in a video game, I thought ours was very successful. Unfortunately, didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, but we were pretty happy with it.

Once you actually built the thing and got on the race track, what was going through your mind during the race?  
Alex: When we saw the racetrack the first time, I think we kind of realized that we might be in more trouble than we thought. Because we knew it was off-roading, but we didn’t realize it was [that] level of off-roading. And we knew that our car was big and stability was going to be a question. But once we saw what we were actually dealing with, and then started racing on the track, it was like nothing but sheer chaos and panic.
Luis: The track—we got to test the car early on during the build, so it wasn’t fully built. It wasn’t as heavy as it ended up being. And we knew it kind of handled like a boat, a little bit. But seeing all the cars on the track, everybody was tipping over. Everybody was. So the track was just really tough. Even, I think, to the best, the most low center of gravity, best-built trucks had a hard time. So we were up against it right away when we saw that track…it didn’t make it through the track very well, that’s for sure.

Just watching, it was very stressful seeing everyone trying to get through the track because some people were very competitive—
Luis: Christopher!

—and crashing into others. What was the mood like as you guys were watching some of these drivers take it, um, very aggressively?
Alex: I thought it was fun, I wasn’t expecting anything else. If you know Christopher, you know he’s gonna go for it and maybe not abide by all the rules. And he went for it and didn’t necessarily abide by the rules. But it was great. It was fun. I don’t think there was any ill will or maliciousness towards it. I think it was just everyone having fun and getting to drive an RC car that you just built and trying to get in first place.

How long were you actually driving on that track? 
Alex: Too long. I can tell you it was too long. And we still think we did an extra lap but yeah.
Luis: We rolled over fairly early—
Alex: Out of the gate. When I turned.
Luis: And took some damage right there. So I was fairly resigned early on in the race that we weren’t going to place high on the finish line. But it was fun. I still had a lot of fun. All the things that show, the highs, the lows. I love them all. We had so much fun so I enjoyed it. It was just a blast.

When you finished last in the race and you knew that things hadn’t necessarily gone the best as far as the car’s aesthetic looks, did you feel like you might still be able to eke out another week of the competition or did you think this might be it?
Alex: I mean, I think we were a little surprised. I think we thought that, design-wise, we had something that was creative. And again, at no point in our original feedback from the judges did we hear anything about the similarity to the sub. So, honestly, I think it makes complete sense, but I think it kind of caught us off guard at elimination that that was one of the biggest criticisms, because we didn’t see it until it was pointed out. Once you see it, you see it. But we really didn’t pick up on that. And we were, again, so happy with what we had come up with and we felt like we executed our concept right—and one that’s very close to home for us, that I guess we kind of had our blinders on. And then I personally felt a little surprised.
Luis: I think winning the race was a bonus. There was no detriment for not winning the race, basically, other than you were not safe, right? So the race didn’t go well for us, but we thought okay, well we’re in the same boat as the other four that didn’t win the race. So I think the only knock that got us was that it was similar to the sub and I think that was a surprise. We didn’t expect to hear that. And so yeah, it was a surprise for us.

Brickmaster Amy seemed really emotional when she said that you were the ones who were going home. What was the mood like for everyone?
Luis: It was tough again, I think we were a little surprised; I guess we’ll see how that shows up when we watch the show. But it was gonna be tough, regardless. I think we were already in a bad space because Emilee and Kelly were probably two of our closest friends on the show…if we were going home, it was gonna be miserable. And if they were going home, it was gonna be miserable. So it was gonna be a bad bad scene all around. And, you know, even when Brad and Mike went home on episode 1, that was hard—and we had spent just a short period of time [with them]. At this point, we’ve been so close to everybody that anybody going home was tough. It was I think extra tough that it was us. But, man, I would have felt so bad sending Emilee and Kelly home as well. So there was no good outcome there. But it was our time to go and that’s okay. We had a great time.

What has the reaction to your aired episodes been so far from friends, family, and the students? 
Alex: It’s been great. I feel like every day in the hallways, I have some kid stop and talk to me [about] one of the episodes or one of the builds—and parents, too. So it’s been really nice. And it’s been cool to see the reach that the show has. So again, kids and parents alike are both drawn to it and both enjoy it. So it’s been nice.
Luis: Yes, same for me. I get the same reaction at school; the kids love it. The kids love it, they always ask me to put on the show: “Don’t teach today, can you put on LEGO MASTERS?” Which I have yet to do. But they love it. And just everybody outside of school, too—like just family and friends…my daughter plays soccer, and a bunch of the girls on her team watch the show and they’re super excited. So every time I show up to practice, they’re all asking me questions. And it’s just been a lot of fun. Obviously, doing the show is one thing and that was an amazing experience. But now, months later, we get to watch it and experience it with our family and friends in the community and it’s a whole different experience. It’s awesome in a whole different way.

You mentioned this, a bit, as you were saying goodbye on the show, but how did this show impact your real-life bond?
Luis: Big time. Alex and I were acquaintances, really. I mean, we knew each other from school, we have some common friends and we were friendly, of course, but not as close as we were when spending all that time together. But he’s a brother of mine now and I love the guy. I loved having Alex as a partner. Again, we never had built together except maybe a little bit right before we left and—
Alex: We’d never done anything together. We’d say hi in the hallways. It was crazy how quickly we connected and how well we work together and, yeah, now I feel like I can call Luis one of my closest friends, and that’s because of the experience.
Luis: Yeah, for sure. We always got along. I think the only time there was some tension—I didn’t even know about it—was maybe during episode 2, building that cat house…we had built such a small build in episode 1, that episode 2, I was like, we’re going huge! And I was just super focused; I think maybe Alex was getting a little frustrated with me and I didn’t even know. But he was awesome. Like, he told me after the show, “Hey, I was having a little bit of a hard time with this or that,” and [I was] like, “Thank you for telling me,” and we never had an issue again.
Alex: It was probably the best thing that happened to us, honestly—working out those kinks in episode 2 and communicating with each other. And after that, I don’t think we had a single hiccup.
Luis: We had a blast the whole time; we got along great. The way we divided our work was always fine; we never had an issue. He had great ideas and I loved hearing them and I would have an idea and he was always supportive—we just got along great. And yeah, we’re great friends now, that’s for sure.

Looking back at your time on the show. What was your favorite thing that you got to build?
Alex: The monkeys have to be…I ranked [it] the monkeys, volcano, cat, actually, because that cat episode was rough for me, as great as the build was.

The monkeys—going into [the show], I had told Luis, “I’ll walk away happy if we get a build animated.” It’s one of my favorite things about the show and they do it so well. And I just think it’s amazing to have one of your builds immortalized in an animation. So when we saw those monkeys come to life in the animation, it was spectacular. It was amazing. And again, just that that build hits close to home. Luis and I work at the school that we both graduated from, so we’re very close connections to the school. And those monkeys are actually wearing the uniforms that obviously our students wear in school. So we try to pay homage to school, but that was definitely, for me, by far my favorite build.
Luis: Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with everything Alex just said. And we’ve been the teachers in that scenario. We’ve been the monkeys in that scenario. So yeah, it was a very personal build. And I never built characters before, so I was extra proud of those monkeys on the fly like that. I love that build; I almost want to do it again. If I had a few extra hours, that tree would have been twice as big and I loved that. Maybe one day we’ll do it again.

What did you guys learn about yourselves as builders that you didn’t know that you could do, or that you even liked doing, before coming on the show?
Luis: Well, that’s an easy answer. For me, because I’ve thought about that a lot, and I was able to do things that I never thought I could do…building characters, that was something [where] I’ve never done that. But like I said, Alex and I, we didn’t waste time. One of the things I think we did really well was we’ve never wasted time thinking how we’re going to do anything. We would just come up with an idea and we’re like, okay, how do we get it done? We don’t know. We’ll just go. And when it was time to start building, okay, just start putting bricks together and build as you go. And we didn’t waste time. With something in episode 7, the bag episode, maybe that cost us, right? But it’s like we have an idea. We’ll just run with it…I learned that I could come up with ideas, build things that I never thought I could build. When I build for myself, I have a style that I like to do and I tend to focus on a certain type of building. And I learned that if I have to, or even if I want to, I can build anything. And that was really, really rewarding.
Alex: I have to answer two parts of your question differently. So what did I learn that I could do is not what I had fun doing, which was in the cat episode: I didn’t realize how quickly I could put bricks down. And that I never realized that that was possible and that we could actually build that enormous structure so quickly. But it wasn’t fun.
Luis: I think you would have had more fun with it if it hadn’t been episode 2.
Alex: Possibly.
Luis: We were still learning how to play the game and how to manage the clock and all that.
Alex: It was stressful, right? We went for something really big and then at one point, we were like, what if we can’t finish this? So that panic is real. And I think that was honestly the first, potentially the last—except for the handbag episode—where we weren’t sure that it was going to come together until the end. But what I was most proud of was actually I’ve never really considered myself a creative person. I remember telling Luis going in, like, dude, you’re gonna have to come up with all the ideas because I am not creative and I’m not gonna be able to help in that arena. But I surprised myself and I would come up with something here and there. And Luis with his amazing ability would be able to turn that into brick, which I alone would never be able to do.
Luis: You have several ideas that you built on your own and you’re like, I’m gonna do this. And there were even times where he’d show like, “Hey, I built this. What do you think?” And I’m like, yeah, let’s use it. Put it in. So I don’t know, you gotta give yourself more credit.
Alex: I never really built mocks coming into it. So I was very intimidated in that sense. But yeah, it was fun.

Was there anything else you can share about your LEGO MASTERS experience?
Luis: I would just say it’s anyone that’s ever considered it, or has applied or maybe not gotten on—don’t give up, keep trying, because it is an amazing experience. You’re producing a TV show, which I think is something important to remember. So it’s not all LEGO building all the time. But even still, I loved everything. I love the time on set, the time off set, the time waiting. I love seeing what production is doing. The time you spent with the people there—not just the cast, but also the crew—it was all fantastic. All amazing. I applied for seasons 2, 3, and then 4, obviously. And if you’re interested, if you’ve been applying, keep trying if you haven’t gotten on. If you think you can do it, give it a shot because it’s a lot of fun and you can do more than you think you can.
Alex: I’ll just say not enough credit goes to the production team. From the top to the bottom, the environment they’ve been able to create with the crew that they have—there was not a single person working on that set that was not kind and personable and great at what they do. So I think a lot of recognition has to go to that environment that [was] created, the people that are there that really make it a comfortable environment to be in and one that’s sad to walk away from.
Luis: I thought it would be impossible to put together that many people and not find even one among them that was anything but [kind]—everybody was nice, pleasant, friendly, kind. It was amazing. That was an amazing crew.

LEGO MASTERS, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox

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