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Welcome to Lego Masters NZ (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Toby Morris)
Welcome to Lego Masters NZ (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Toby Morris)

Pop CultureMay 10, 2022

Lego Masters NZ celebrates the Lego nerd in all of us

Welcome to Lego Masters NZ (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Toby Morris)
Welcome to Lego Masters NZ (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Toby Morris)

Lego Masters NZ kicked off last night in a cloud of dry ice and controversy, with a rubber ducky, ‘snot bricks’ and a rollercoaster from hell. Tara Ward recaps. 

Never before been have twelve people been more excited to be somewhere than the six teams of Lego fanatics who wafted into a half-empty warehouse in a cloud of dry ice on TVNZ 2 last night. It was the first episode of Lego Masters NZ, the New Zealand version of the colourful reality series that sees Lego enthusiasts compete to build the most mind-blowing designs, and boy were these teams were pumped.

Before them stood a brick pit of 2.5 million bricks and a world of possibility. It was time to unleash hell. It was time to build some cool shit out of Lego.

Host Dai Henwood gave the teams their first build challenge: a tourist destination with “wow factor”. Their build needed to have movement and it needed to tell a story, but most important of all, it had to impress the brickmaster, Canadian Robin Sather. It’s brickmaster’s job to judge which team wins the Power Brick, a mysterious gold block that saves them from future elimination. The team that wins the entire competition scores a trophy made of Lego and a brand new car.

Not this car.

Robin and Dai were two nice men in two nice shirts telling 12 nice people to make nice things, and for the next 16 hours, the teams created tourist destinations that may well be the key to reviving our post-Covid economy. They whipped up elevators and monorails and clifftop wedding venues, and constructed giant toothy crocodiles and jet-skis triceratops. The teams rattled off technical terms like “snot bricks” and “burps”, and quietly panicked over uncooperative roller coasters. Everyone was having a nice time.

Emily and Sarah, playing it cool.

Praise be to the Lego gods, then, for Emily and Sarah. While the other teams kept it low-key and serious, the Christchurch friends could barely contain their joy at being on Lego Masters NZ. They danced around the Brick Pit, they squealed their way through interviews. They had the joyous, hectic energy of two mothers who were finally free of the responsibility of playing Lego with their kids. Now they could finally build whatever the heck they wanted, and they didn’t even have to tidy up afterwards.

It was Sarah and Emily’s time to shine, and they were ready to shake shit up.

Lucky duck.

Behold, the nation’s most controversial duck. After sixteen long hours of stress and snots, the brickmaster announced that Emily and Sarah’s rubber duck water park was the winner of episode one. He admired the duck’s personality and adored the plastic fireworks, and despite the duck not being motorised, the brickmaster bloody loved it. Emily and Sarah claimed the Power Brick, while second placed Glenn and Jake probably wondered how creating a magical zoo with an animal monorail and a glass elevator was playing it “too safe”.

Glenn, Jake and their animal monorail.

I don’t know much about Lego other than it hurts when you stand on it in bare feet, so who really knows what was behind the brickmaster’s expert reasoning. It’s just as well Lego Masters NZ is more about the journey than the destination, because this is a show that reminds us that little things can make a big difference.

For Andrew and Georgie, the father and daughter team from Māpua, Lego brings them closer together, while for Jono and Dan, Lego helps them manage their mental health, allowing them to “empty their minds” in a positive way. Jono credits Lego as having saved his life.

The first episode of Lego Masters NZ might have had us scratching our heads over the result, but it never stops celebrating the value of people coming together to create wonderful things. It’s the show that champions the Lego nerd in all of us, and best of all, reminds us to never underestimate the power of two fun mums and a mighty duck.

Lego Masters NZ screens on Monday and Tuesdays at 7.30pm on TVNZ 2.


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Dancing with the Stars judge Lance Savali kills it. (Photo: Three)
Dancing with the Stars judge Lance Savali kills it. (Photo: Three)

Pop CultureMay 9, 2022

Dancing with the Stars, week three: Return of the dance-off

Dancing with the Stars judge Lance Savali kills it. (Photo: Three)
Dancing with the Stars judge Lance Savali kills it. (Photo: Three)

Week three of Dancing with the Stars NZ brought back the dance-off – but did it help?

Genuine question: Is the show pretending that Elektra Shock and James Luck are not… the same person? Or is it a sort of Barry Humphries/Dame Edna thing where we all know but we’re not allowed to say it. Something to think about! (No shade – Elektra killed it in her pre-filmed dance performance, as did Lance Savali!)

This week’s theme is Mother’s Day, so we get a lovely look at all of the mothers in the competition! (Shoutout to standout Jill Mathewson, relishing the screen time and coining the phrase “getting smoochy”.) Also, as Sharyn Casey says, the show is really about charity – after Eli Matthewson’s elimination, his chosen charity Outline received over $16,000 in donations. Get voting, get donating.

This week also pioneered the jive-off format and… the less said about that the better. Do you know who excels at group dances? Dancers! Do you know who doesn’t? Celebrities who learn to dance for a dancing competition. It does not make for good TV! It makes for a good number in the musical Grease (1976).

I don’t want to see group dances! I want to see the couples dance! When does the double dance come back? Probably next week because this season is as short as an inhale.


For more DWTS NZ, follow The Real Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.


Kerre Woodham and Jarred Neame dance the samba. (Photo: Eddison Te Reo)

ELIMINATED: Kerre Woodham (and Jarred Neame) – samba

Is Toto’s ‘Africa’ the worst song that is also very, very easy to like? Quite possibly. This was a fun dance – Kerre seemed to really enjoy doing the samba, and her dancing it for her mother (as she put it, making up for being a “flighty young thing” in her “dotage”) was sweet. Should a samba be sweet? No idea! Moving on.

Honestly, Kerre Woodham should’ve been on this show a decade ago. She is a perennial star, and a perennial celebrity. I was, personally, so happy to see her on the show, and to even be writing about her, having last seen her onscreen in the 90s, is quite surreal. She seems happy to have done it, and that’s what matters to me. Donate to Starship, y’all.

Score: 21.

Alex Vaz and Brittany Coleman dance a jive. (Photo: Eddison Te Reo)

SAFE: Alex Vaz (and Brittany Coleman) – jive

Wasn’t expecting to have feelings about Alex having feelings about dancing for his mum, but here we are! Dancing with the Stars, the feelings generator. This was a fine, medium energy jive! The judges liked it more than I do, once again proof that I know very little about dance and they know a lot, but I would agree that it is definitely his best performance yet! Have to say, I’m worried his save here is setting him up to be the David Seymour of this season.

Score: 24.

Eric Murray and Loryn Reynolds dance the rumba. (Photo: Eddison Te Reo)

5. Eric Murray (and Loryn Reynolds) – rumba

Is Loryn Reynolds the best dancer on the show? Maybe! As established, I have no idea. But this was so super lovely – one fairly big mistake aside – and kudos to Eric for keeping up with Loryn and even doing the less-popular Dancing with the Stars move “lightly drag the lady across the floor”. Good on Eric for keeping on keeping on!

Score: 27.

Dave Letele and Kristie Williams dance the viennese waltz. (Photo: Eddison Te Reo)

4. Dave Letele (and Kristie Williams) – Viennese waltz

Lovely! Sweet! It has all the kooky charm of watching a couple do their favourite dance at the RSA, with maybe a lift or two more. Does that make it a great dance? No! Does it make it great, deeply watchable TV? Absolutely. Dave’s the exact kind of competitor you want to see on this show: not the best dancer, but maybe, just quietly, the best star.

Score: 22.

Brodie Kane and Enrique Johns dance a paso doble. (Photo: Eddison Te Reo)

3. Brodie Kane (and Enrique Johns) – paso doble

Look, some excellent cape work will get you a long way with me. Was this the best paso doble I’ve ever seen? No idea, my short term dance memory is shot. But it’s definitely the most fun and full of character paso doble I’ve seen. Loved every moment of it, loved the stomping, loved it all. Best work Brodie has done so far.

Score: 31.

Rhys Mathewson and Phoebe Robb dancing a Cinderella-themed waltz. (Photo: Eddison Te Reo)

2. Rhys Mathewson (and Phoebe Robb) – waltz

I love a theme, and Cinderella’s a classic one. Cinderella to ‘Three Times a Lady’? Amazing! This was up to the standard that Rhys has set so far, and my only concern is that once you set a high standard, you have to keep meeting it! If you keep meeting it, however, no problems, no issues, nothing to worry about.

Score: 30.

Jazz Thornton and Brad Coleman dance the foxtrot. (Photo: Eddison Te Reo)

1. Jazz Thornton (and Brad Coleman) – foxtrot

Jazz Thornton is an interesting presence on the show – she clearly has a huge social following, potentially more than everybody else combined, which is going to significantly boost her audience vote. But she’s also quite obviously one of if not the best dancer in the competition, so she’s an early, easy frontrunner. I’m interested to see if she falters in either the public vote or the judging record, because it will make a pretty dull season if she doesn’t. (Dull for me, I mean – I’m sure Jazz and her charity are extremely happy with being comfortably out in front).

Anyway, this was great! Very emotional. Very pretty. Having really good, moody lighting helps. The two 10s were well-deserved.

Score: 35.

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