Today we feature a guest article from Emily Mohajeri Norris who shares what it is like to be a mom on LEGO Masters Season 3. Warning that this article contains spoilers for the first three episodes.

When Brickmaster Jamie Berard said he was “a little bit disappointed” in the first creation we built on Episode 1 of the current season of LEGO Masters US, I felt my son’s heart drop. And mine dropped with his.

There stood my son Liam, who had just pushed his creative limits and challenged himself to go beyond his comfort zone on a level I’d never seen before, who had leaped from our living room to that of millions of North Americans on a reality TV show, now facing the esteemed Brickmasters to hear their verdict. And they were disappointed.

The massive LEGO build – Garden of the Galaxy – a spaceship of concentric yellow rings that circled around our personal garden of specimens from across the universe, hovered from the stand beside us, sagging with our spirits. The labor of thirteen hours that we had poured into it—the sore fingertips, the jittery “Holy moly! We’re doing what again?” feeling – all of it was beyond intense.

During our presentation moments before hearing Jamie’s words, I had shared my sincere pride in my son: “I am excited about this as a mother,” I heard the words pour out of my mouth as my heart was laid bare, “because it is bold and brave and creative and that to me represents my son.”

And nothing about that had changed. But a mother’s proud heart doesn’t lessen the sting Liam felt learning that his attempt to impress the designer of many LEGO modular building sets had left him disappointed. Disappointed because our ambitious build had not delivered the nearly impossible goal we’d set. I might have been shaking in my knees but Liam held his head high, listened and learned, ready for the next challenge.

But of course, that’s only a part of our judging story. If you freeze-frame the moment right after judging, with Liam and I mid-step, walking back to the other twenty-two contestants, you can see the most supportive, loving faces on our fellow LEGO Masters teams. As hard as our hearts fell the moment that Brickmaster Jamie said he was disappointed, the hearts of those around us lifted us up.

And that’s the beauty of LEGO. It has been a portal not only into one’s epic imagination, but also a means for us to find a community of supportive people who truly just want to build each other up and share in their love of creativity and community. And in that moment, our fellow contestants – many of whom were parents and even grandparents – echoed what my heart felt: that it was just a show and what we had done was remarkable and admirable regardless of what anyone else said.

An Epic Movie Moment

We entered the next challenge with that in our hearts, seasoned by the first challenge’s lessons – aiming to do something awesome, but also within reach. Ready to build something amazing with LEGO. Ready to stretch ourselves and our creative and consultative skills. After all, when judging our Garden of the Galaxy build, Jamie had noted how ambitious it was and encouragingly said that he wanted to see “ambitious people in this competition”.

We listened carefully to the challenge – build a dramatic moment showing dinosaurs in our world, creating destruction that would include one of four different special effects: fireballs, gundowder trails, sparks, or explosions.

The baseplate we had to fill was huge. The time allowed? Twelve hours.

Liam felt quietly confident – riding the high of an ambitious and unique first build but wiser from the stumble that came with it. I felt more confident too, knowing that Liam was interested to listen to me with a more open mind.

We worked well as a team on this one. While Liam’s more experienced hands brick-built much of the mosasaurus, I built my first ocean water and fleshed out other parts of the build that were important for the story-telling. Stepping back periodically allowed us not just to reassess color choices but also to better listen to each other and take into account some of the feedback we received along the way.

When it was time for judging and we were but two of twenty-two nervous souls on the stands, we were proud of our build, whatever the results would end up being. We had stayed true to our vision and pushed ourselves to do something unique and creative – and we had created an epic movie moment: the mosasaurus leaping out of the water, mouth gaping as it targeted its prey – a mid-flight pteranodon. The king of the Jurassic sea’s lower jaw hit an unexpected obstacle as it emerged from the water, cracking a houseboat in half and setting off two fireballs.

Judging was a blur. I recall that there was positive feedback and constructive criticism for all teams, though only a small portion of it made the final edit. Overall, the Brickmasters were taken by our build and there were no repeat words of disappointment. We were thrilled but knowing there were so many fantastic builds in the room, we didn’t expect anything beyond that.

Thus we were surprised when Will Arnett called us up as one of the top two teams. A single build had checked all the boxes they were looking for, Brickmaster Amy told us. And that build was ours.

The joy at that moment was huge. We had wanted to show that we could do something at that scale and level of ambition and actually finish it and build something that spoke for us – justifying why we were there and why we wanted to stay. We also had succeeded as a team: We had evolved from a novice mom-son team struggling to find the balance between teenage ambition and mom-realism to a team that listened to one another—and one where we both felt empowered to bring our special sauce to the table.

Riding on a High

Entering the LEGO Masters set for the third challenge, we were riding on a shared high—but there was another bull ride on the horizon. We took our success from the second challenge as a lesson in what we could do well. We tried to think cleverly, listening to each other’s thoughts and letting that lead us to better and better ideas.

We had decided to build a jackalope for this challenge, an adorable iconic character inspired by mythical lore that is much embraced in our new hometown of Tucson. Liam would design on the fly, shaping the jackalope and I was mirroring his build on the other side to help it all come together as quickly as possible. I felt like a student to a master builder. But of course, I also had my own contributions to bring to the table – like the round puffy tail that earned the admiration of one of the production assistants who repeatedly told us she couldn’t “get over how cute it was.”. We pushed one another throughout the challenge, working hard on the interior structure to make it stronger and stronger, adding appendages and details, and – as a cherry on top of the design – weighted eyes that would spin as the jackalope moved. (A detail that unfortunately ended up on the TV editing room floor.)

In character with our cute build, we bunny hopped up to our mark, introduced Jackalope Jill to the world, shared our story of Wild West inspiration sprinkled with Persian flavor, and soaked up the Brickmasters’ comments. They liked the cuteness factor of our jackalope! It seems we had succeeded in their eyes in creating a memorable character, as had all the teams each in their own way.

Then came the moment of truth: the bull ride. Will turned the dial and the bull set off gently. Gradually cranking it from there, Jackalope Jill whirled, bucked to and fro, holding on solidly without shedding even a 1x1 brick off of her plump tail – all the way up to Level Nine! Then, Will pushed the dial one more notch to Level 10. She made it! She was the only build that day that survived to level 10! And even when she flew off the bull, Jackalope Jill held herself together, launching through the air in one big blob of cuteness. And, in the final comments, Brickmaster Jamie noted that Jackalope Jill’s eyes spun around at the higher levels, meaning our “play feature” worked!

Moments later, we were awarded the Golden Brick for having the strongest build that day – a single immunity from elimination, if needed. Will noted that it was the first time a woman had earned the Golden Brick on the US show – and I was thankful and proud that I had helped win the Golden Brick on behalf of all women on the show and all women who love to build with LEGO.

Transcending TV

The weekend between the airing of Episodes 2 and 3, we had the privilege of attending BrickCon in Seattle. I completely expected people to be excited for Liam, but what blew me away was the many moms of both sons and daughters who came up to say how excited they were for me to be on the show with my son and that they were cheering us on. Enjoying building with their kids but never having seen that represented on TV, they liked seeing their invisible reality made visible. Maybe they’ll be their own mom-son or mom-daughter team once their kids are older!

My being on the show has not just strengthened my relationship with Liam, but it has been a gathering point for our whole family. It also has connected us more deeply to friends and family around the world and even prompted my eleven-year-old nephew to start texting me with reactions and questions about the show: “Do they give you those lines to say like, ‘I don’t know what’s scarier – the dinosaur or the clock?’” I had to break it to him that those lines were my best mom jokes. Maybe real-life moms need to be on TV more?

A Once-in-a-Lifetime LEGO Camp

A month prior, at Brickfair Virginia, we had joined some other AFOLs for dinner when the patio TV flashed brightly with ads for LEGO Masters. Not knowing we were on it, one of the AFOLs commented, “Why would anyone want to be on LEGO Masters?”

I have given that question more thought since then. Sure, people might want to be on LEGO Masters because you get to build with and geek out over tons of LEGO. But it really is a fantastic way to grow as a person while making unbelievable memories and new friends for life (and in my case, doing it with one of my precious sons). That’s a win better than any prize the show could ever offer.

When else could we have made 25 new friends of all ages (in our case 24), backgrounds, interests, and regions of North America? How cool was this LEGO camp that we’d fallen into? It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to have fun with a group of supportive LEGO-loving builders and a ton of LEGO bricks, learn from the Brickmasters’ feedback, and joke around with Will Arnett.

Most importantly, it was a “time out of time” for us as a mother and son. A time spent growing our love and appreciation for each other’s unique gifts and talents and bringing them together to achieve something greater than the sum of the parts—to be bold, brave and creative. And to show that moms can be awesome at building LEGO on TV too.

Are you a LEGO mom? How do you encourage those people around you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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