A shooting in minefield. At the beginning of June, the pairs still competing for the second season of Lego Masters took out their goggles to watch the day’s final. As in the first edition, the candidates spent several hours stacking thousands of bricks to see them destroyed in two seconds using explosives. Behind the controls, Eric Antoine takes pleasure in playing with the nerves of the participants.
Three million parts, 17,000 references
Very particular, M6 broadcasts the first two episodes of this new season during two successive evenings. The first will be offered from 9:05 p.m. on Tuesday 28 and the second program on Wednesday 29, always as a bonus. On tour at Pré-Saint-Gervais last year, the show’s production teams set down their suitcases a few kilometers away, in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, for the second edition. The choice might seem surprising: the top is exactly the same. The subtlety is felt where the eye of the cameras does not land. Behind the scenes, the area is greater in order to store more bricks, an additional 500,000 compared to last year.
In total, candidates therefore have 3 million items at their disposal and 17,000 different references. “We wanted there to be even more choice,” says Julien Randrianarisoa, producer at EndemolShine France. This allows us to have new parts that technically allow us to go further, new accessories for mini-figures ”, not to mention new colors.
Welcome to “Lego-Lanta”
What does not change compared to the broadcast of last year is the number of pairs competing. Among them, we immediately notice Eric and Alex, the two Swiss metalheads dressed in kilt in the first episode, or even Marine and Benjamin, the retro with a vintage look. The sixteen players will try to win the title of best brick builders in the country to exhibit their winning work at Necker hospital in 2022 and receive the sum of 20,000 euros.
As for the trials, there will obviously be new features such as the challenge of the “upside down world” during which the pairs will compose their creation below their table or “the infernal tower” which will have to rise at least 1 meter. 20 in height and will be subjected to more and more intense vibrations during the revelation. Like that of the explosion, “a third of the events resemble those of last year”, summarizes Eric Antoine.
Above all, the production has reserved a few surprises for the duos, starting with the “golden brick” (or the brick in gold for non-English speakers), to be won at the inaugural event of the season. “It’s like an immunity collar that allows the team to save themselves if they are in danger,” explains Matthieu Bayle, Endemol France’s program director. The lucky ones who will have it in their possession will have until the semi-final to put it to good use.
More balance for the jurors, more empathy for Eric Antoine
Paulina Aubey, visual artist, and Georg Schmitt, one of the fourteen professionals certified by the brand around the world, are once again making up the jury this year. If one was dedicated to artistic questions and the other to technical cogs during the first edition, that will evolve a little this year. “There will be a little more balance, we do not encroach on each other, advance Georg Schmitt. We are complementary. Sometimes she has an eye on technicality and I on colors. And we don’t have the same opinion. “
Eric Antoine, for his part, relies on more empathy. When he watched the show last December, the host thought he was handling the suspense well and pouring a good dose of fun into the program. “This year, I wanted to take more time to listen to them, to know who they are,” he testifies. Thus, the magician will question them more regularly. With 102 hours of work in total for the construction of the frescoes, this should leave time to get to know each other.