US season 1
Season 1: the format finds its feet
- Premiered
- February 5, 2020
- Finale
- April 15, 2020
- Host
- Will Arnett
- Judges
- Amy Corbett, Jamie Berard
- Teams
- 10
- Episodes
- 10
The first FOX season is the one to watch if you want to see the format before it got slick. Ten two-person teams, a set of challenges that swing from theme-park sections to breakaway space sculptures, and judging that is still working out its own language. For a builder that rawness is a gift, because you can watch people solve structural problems in real time with no house style telling them how a LEGO Masters build is supposed to look.
It aired in early 2020 with Will Arnett hosting and the two Brickmasters, Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard, on the panel. Below we pull out the challenges that actually teach you something you can use.
The bridge test is a masterclass in bracing
The standout build lesson of season 1 is the bridge challenge, where teams built a span that then had weight loaded onto it until it failed. Two teams took the full 1,000 pound cap without collapse. That is not luck. A LEGO bridge that holds serious load is doing everything a good set interior does quietly: it spreads force across many studs instead of a few, it uses arches and trusses to turn a downward push into sideways compression, and it locks layers together so a single brick cannot pop and start a cascade.
You can steal this directly. The next time a large set feels floppy in the middle, the fix is almost always the same trick these teams used under pressure: tie the plates across the seams in alternating directions so no joint lines up with the one above it.
Breakaway builds teach you where a model is weak
The space challenge asked teams to build a sculpture designed to shatter dramatically on cue, whether by gravity drop, a swung bat, or a rigged blast. It sounds like pure spectacle, and it is, but there is a real lesson underneath. To make something break cleanly you have to understand exactly where it is weak, which is the same knowledge you need to make something strong. Teams who planned their fracture lines built better than teams who just hoped the whole thing would go.
The finale ran an original open brief, and the challenge stack along the way, from a cut-in-half object build to a load of themed dioramas, rewarded the same instinct: decide what the model has to survive, then build to that spec and not a stud more.
Techniques you can steal
- Alternate your plate seams so no joint stacks directly on the one below it. This is the single biggest fix for a wobbly large build.
- Arches and trusses convert a downward load into sideways compression, which LEGO handles far better than tension.
- Before you build something fragile, plan its fracture lines. Knowing where a model breaks is the same as knowing where it holds.
SpoilerSeason 1 winner and finale result (click to reveal, spoiler)
Tyler and Amy, a married couple from Bradenton, Florida, took the first LEGO Masters title with their finale sculpture Treasure of the Griffin, a story-driven piece built around a motorized griffin. Boone and Mark finished as runners-up with the Tower of Creativity, and Samuel and Jessica rounded out the final three.
Common questions
- When did LEGO Masters season 1 air?
- The first FOX season premiered on February 5, 2020, and ran its finale on April 15, 2020, across ten episodes.
Sets that scratch the same itch
The load-bearing tricks the bridge teams leaned on are the same ones that make a big Technic model feel solid, which is exactly what our Technic reviews are built to test.