US season 2
Season 2: mechanism takes over
- Premiered
- June 1, 2021
- Finale
- September 14, 2021
- Host
- Will Arnett
- Judges
- Amy Corbett, Jamie Berard
- Teams
- 12
- Episodes
- 12
If season 1 was about structure, season 2 is about motion. A larger field of twelve teams got challenges that kept asking the same underlying question: can your model do something, not just sit there. Make And Shake, Demolition Derby, and a run of mechanism-heavy briefs pushed teams toward the part of building that scares a lot of hobbyists, the moment a static model has to become a machine.
It aired across summer and autumn 2021 with the same host and judging panel. For anyone who has only ever followed instructions, this is the season that shows you moving builds are far more approachable than they look.
A gear is just a lever you can repeat
The mechanism challenges reward one insight above all: motion in LEGO almost always comes down to a small number of stock tricks reused with confidence. A Technic axle through a couple of bricks with holes, a gear pair to change speed or direction, a cam to turn spin into a nod or a wave. The teams who did well were not inventing exotic mechanisms, they were combining three or four reliable ones cleanly and hiding the guts inside the model.
That is genuinely copyable at home. Most sets that include any function are built from the same vocabulary, and once you have seen it improvised under a clock you stop treating a working gearbox as something only the designers get to do.
Demolition Derby is a stress test with a soundtrack
The derby challenge, where builds crash and take damage, is season 1's breakaway idea grown up. The best teams thought about impact the way a car engineer thinks about a crumple zone: sacrifice the right panels so the core survives, keep the heavy mass low, and make sure the parts that fly off are cheap and quick to rebuild. It is a loud challenge that quietly teaches load paths and where to spend your strong connections.
Techniques you can steal
- Working functions are mostly a handful of stock parts reused with confidence: an axle, a gear pair, a cam. Learn the small vocabulary and motion stops being intimidating.
- Keep the moving mechanism low and central, then clad it. A clean exterior over a busy interior is how the sets do it too.
- For anything that takes impact, decide which panels are allowed to fail and keep your strongest connections on the core.
SpoilerSeason 2 winner and finale result (click to reveal, spoiler)
Brothers Mark and Steven Erickson from Atlanta, Georgia won season 2, in a finale billed as a battle of the brothers among the top teams. Zack and Wayne, also brothers, finished as runners-up.
Common questions
- When did LEGO Masters season 2 air?
- Season 2 premiered June 1, 2021, and finished its finale on September 14, 2021, across twelve episodes.
Sets that scratch the same itch
If the mechanism challenges leave you wanting a working model of your own, Technic is the theme built around exactly that, and our Technic reviews score how satisfying each function really is.