Today we get to chat with Emilio Mazur, one of the behind-the-scenes production team members for LEGO Masters US. Emilio (also known as Kotz or Kotzbricks on Instagram and in the MOCing world) has been a life-long LEGO fan and builder. Among his LEGO-related accomplishments, we’ve got to include his getting to be in a Brickbeard costume in his days working at a LEGOLAND Discovery Center. But this interview happened because he also managed to land a job working behind the scenes of the largest LEGO Masters show in the world—and he was kind enough to share some of his work and experience with us! So without further ado, let’s jump right in!

This is the lego builder we are looking for - beep!

Isaiah: Just what did it feel like to get this job and how excited were you when you got on the team?

Emilio: Honestly, it was a dream come true for me. I worked at a LEGOLAND Discovery Center in college and LEGO has always been a part of my life, so to get to work on LEGO Masters was incredible, especially because I was in production which is my career. I was extremely lucky (and I will say that some skill and doing good work on other projects helped get me on the show!) and was in the right place at the right time to get to the job. And getting a promotion to the second season doesn't hurt, haha.

Isaiah: In Season 1 (and 2?) part of your job was to organize the Brick Pit with all its millions of pieces—how did you even start to approach this colossal task?

Emilio: Yup, it was part of my job for both seasons—we actually got additional elements for S2 that weren't in S1, so I had to figure out how to slot those in as well! Basically, my method for S1 was to look at all the individual elements we had and then to work with our art team who was designing the stage to figure out layouts, how many containers we needed, etc. I knew exactly how many drawers, shelves, containers, etc. that we had. I think it took me three weeks for the entire process, to go through every element and categorize them in specific ways (my system is a mix of LDD’s organization and BrickLink’s) and then to figure out where each section would live on set.

S1 was pretty ugly in some areas; S2 became much cleaner and better organized and was made to fit specific categories. There were some pieces I had never even seen before in S1—mainly the Technic stuff as I personally build with System—but for S2, I had time to rearrange, make the old system better, and then add in the new parts long before we even got on set.

Isaiah: On the topic of the Brick Pit, if I remember correctly it went from 3 to 5 million pieces between Season 1 and Season 2. What was added? Different pieces/colors, new pieces made by LEGO in the last year, or mostly just, you know, more?

Emilio: Yup, we went up to 5 million. In general, it was just more of what we already had, some extras of pieces we found we needed more of, and then a few new elements of just honestly new things along with some recolors.

Isaiah: What do you wish there was more of in the Brick Pit? Or is it pretty much perfect? I'm sure it's any LEGO builder's dream however you look at it! And out of curiosity, does the Brick Pit consist of only parts currently in production, or do you have access to older discontinued parts as well?

Emilio: TECHNIC! And ball joints. And 1x1 tiles in translucent colors. And everything else. I kid. But no—honestly we very rarely ran out of pieces. The problem was when teams would use a bunch of a specific element in a build, and then the next challenge we would be running low because we couldn't break anything down until all of the beauty shots for the builds were taken. We had to run a system of identifying what would be important for upcoming challenges to adjust on the fly and prioritize various elements to sort and get back into the Brick Pit if we found teams were using a lot of specific elements.

Some parts are probably discontinued (as of 2021) but were part of standard show elements that I think every LEGO Masters show globally has access to. Some of the more specialty pieces (really only the monorail) had to be sourced from BrickLink, which I’m sure we’ll chat about in this interview.

Isaiah: And I’ve heard that some pieces for the show actually came out of your personal collection as well! Can you tell us a bit about that?

Emilio: Yes, I did have to supply a few parts from my own collection. S1 didn't give us BURPs or LURPs, and one of the “LEGO Learn” segments was going to utilize them. I remember the story producer who was running that segment came up to me (she knew at that point I was basically one of our on-set builders) asking if we had any BURPS on set. Well, no we didn’t, but I did have three back at my apartment and I told her I could loan them to the show. So I did, and it became a bit of a joke that the story producer liked BURPs.

Isaiah: You got to build for the show yourself too! Can you tell us a bit about that? What did it feel like to be building there and what were the unique challenges you faced?

Emilio: Yeah, I got to build for the show for both seasons! Honestly, it was a wild ride. All the bigger stuff was built by a pretty famous artist (Nathan Sawaya, who I got to meet, and he's really cool), so I was tasked with a lot of the quicker, last-minute builds that the producers would come up with on the fly. I built quite a few things for both seasons that didn't even air, and multiple iterations of a few things that we didn't all get on camera (I had two or three different versions of popcorn boxes you saw for example).

While the teams definitely had the more challenging builds and were way more skilled than I was, a lot of my builds did have a deadline of just a few hours. People would say, "we need this prop out of LEGO in two hours for this bit can you do that?" and my response would be, "I’ll figure it out." Some made it in time, some didn't. But there were a few builds where I even got a few days to build. Also I only used glue once. Most of the time the art team would always ask if a build needed glue. I only asked once haha.

Isaiah: What were your favorites of the builds you did (in both seasons)? Can you tell us about some of the fun details you were able to get in there? (Like the Oleon flag! That's still so awesome, hahaha!)

Emilio: All of them have a special place in my heart for various reasons. But I'd say some of my favorite builds were Yorick the sculpted head (S1), The Derby Start and Finish lines (S1), and the Demo Derby Camera hides (S2). Honorable mention to the detonator box which was in both S1 and S2.

As for details, I consider myself really interested in storytelling and minifigures and little Easter eggs. The S1 Derby Race was a fun build (the signs went through two or three iterations, and it also was truly my first collab build as I got to work on it with two other builders on the team). We had maybe a weekend to design and build, but then when it was time to shoot the producers said they wanted them taller... so, we made them taller! There were a lot of Technic connections for the sign, but both things were really unstable. Luckily nothing fell until after the shoot was over (but it did shortly later!). But back to details, it was my idea to include the little "press box" with the announcer and flag-waving guy. It's the little details that really bring a build to life.

Another detail was in the Demo Derby for S2 with the camera hides. The art team already had the layout of the track, so I needed to come up with how to hide the cameras in a LEGO way. Yeah, the builds were simple, but the scene was enhanced by the minifigures on top in various poses and outfits cheering and all. I did do a small detail of the Oleon flag from Eurobricks' Brethren of the Brick Seas with someone was waving it. I honestly (selfishly) made sure to position that figure and tower so it would be seen on camera. I remember one of the contestants even pointed it out to Brickmaster Amy saying it looked like the flag of Scotland (how dare you, we are Oleon! :P).

A map of The hidden island of Mata Nui, from LEGO Bionicle.

And… in the Cliffhanger challenge I hid an island of Mata Nui in the water in the rocks.

One of my all-time favorites though is the monorail. Oh man, that one was difficult. The first episode has to be a wow, right? So I'm tasked with making a monorail. I wasn't even alive when the monorail was in production! I downloaded Stud.io on my laptop and tried to design a 10+ foot long monorail on there but my laptop was overheating, and the whole thing wasn't working right, and so on.

Luckily I found a website that allowed me to plot out the monorail to the exact stud on a flash browser or something. And it worked! Ok, my original design was a little too elaborate, but a coworker and I combined our ideas into what it ended up being on screen. I remember I was told by a LEGO expert this design wouldn't work and would be off by a few studs. But nope—it was right on point.

Isaiah: And you got to be on the team that came up with the challenges too, right?

Emilio: Yes. I can say that during S1 and S2, I helped test and come up with challenges, but I can't add much more than that.

Isaiah: Can you share a bit about your interaction with Amy and Jamie, Will, and the rest of the behind-the-scenes team? What were some of your favorite moments and memories you took away from that?

Emilio: Meeting Amy and Jamie was like meeting God. Or at least meeting the president or Pope or Queen or something. Amy commented on my builds for the show (and even my own personal builds and gave suggestions), and both Jamie and Amy remembered me on S2. I recall a time I was trying to get Jamie to give some hints on a new modular, and all he said was, "Oh yeah, I can't wait to see it too... It's by XXXX (I don't remember the name), I bet it will be good." And I was nerding out so hard it took me a second to realize Jamie knows what it is and was being so tightlipped about it. I did a double take and he laughed because he got me.

As for Will, I didn’t have a whole lot of interaction, but I remember handing him Yorick and showing where to hold the head so everything doesn't fall apart. Nice guy.

Isaiah: And last (for now - we've got to keep this article within reasonable bounds though I feel like we could talk about it with forever!), what's the question you most get asked about the show? And what's the answer to it?

Emilio: I think the big question my friends and such ask me is would I want to be on the show. My answer is no. Not because it's a terrible experience, but because I don't want to be on camera and behind the scenes is my thing. But I think it's a great way for people who love LEGO to get out there, show their skills, and so on. But… I'd gladly take the whole Brick Pit.

Isaiah: Thanks so much for your time and willingness to talk about your experiences with LEGO Masters US with us! All the best to you and the LEGO Masters team!

Emilio: Of course! Thank you!

Would you want to be on the show or behind the scenes of LEGO Masters? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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