First off, I want to congratulate both Joe and Justus for completing a round of Iron Builder! I can imagine the relief that comes with wrapping up those intense few weeks, and I must say, it was as exciting as ever to watch both of your minds wrestle with the seed part. The puns were, of course, top notch as well, the cherry on top to an already delightful round.

Seed Part Usage – I’m basing my scoring criteria off the concept of using the seed part as an integral piece of the build. For each build of the round, I’m asking the question “would this build work without the seed part, and how much does the seed part add to this build?” In other words, I’m looking at whether the seed part has been thoughtfully incorporated, rather than being used as a piece that was just added on to a build as something extra – for example, a decorative element that could be easily replaced by some other intricate combination of pearl gold pieces.

Throughout the round, it seemed to me that Joe leaned towards using the seed part for its decorative abilities (see the “French Man of War” or the “Violet Star,” for example), while Justus consistently incorporated it as an essential part of his builds. For example, I was really impressed by Justus’ use of the part’s slight flexing abilities in his RV build (utilizing a unique feature of the handcuff piece), as well as how he interlocked the element to create realistic jellyfish tendrils. Therefore, I’d give seed part usage to Justus.

Build Quality – Both builders excelled in the techniques used in each of their entries. While I’m a fan of the smaller, intricate builds that Justus produced, I’m also equally impressed by the scale at which Joe was able to build in many of his entries, especially with the fast pace of Iron Builder!

Therefore, this category ultimately comes down to presentation. In the end, I found myself more impressed by Justus’ crisp photos, cleaner edits, more professional and dynamic lighting, particularly in his builds “The Bakery” and “Terminus,” which look like scenes straight out of a movie! Justus’ overall sense of composure when compared directly to Joe’s builds also left a stronger impression on me, where in Joe’s I often wasn’t impressed by the edits or lighting. That being said, Iron Builder is an extremely fast paced and demanding competition, and I think both builders did an amazing job for such a short timeframe!

Performance – this was a difficult category to judge, as I feel like both Joe and Justus excelled in this area! Joe’s builds featured so many little easter eggs and challenges for the viewer, such as trying to find the Rolli mouse in each of his builds, which elevated the entertainment value of his builds. Justus, on the other hand, did extremely well in the varied builds area of this category; from detailed immersive scenes to constraction builds to microscale wonders, Justus’ versatility was displayed perfectly in this round. For the overall enjoyment of each of the contestant’s performances, Justus’ builds consistently left a lasting impact on me. Therefore, although this was probably the closest category in my mind, I’ll have to give performance to Justus.

You guys are both incredible builders, and you put on a great round! Until next time!

And that is another Iron Builder round in the books! They just creep up on you by surprise, and they sure crept up on Joe and Justus with a worthy challenge.
The seed part - the golden handcuffs - was a strange piece in which it is a bendy piece of Minifigure utensil, but proves useful because of its attachment points. In the usual light-bluish grey, it would be a greebling part for us space builder, but in pearl gold? I would be stumped. However, Joe and Justus saw plenty of uses for them.

Parts Usage:
The gold handcff saw a variety of uses from both builders. All of them take advantage of its decorative nature, and many builds managed to incorporate them structurally. Some of the highlights for me are Justus's jellyfish, which uses the handcuffs very innovatively as lappets, and the gold colour somehow fits for a strange exotic sea creature. Joe's Violet Star starfighter is also a favourite for me, finally someone used this as greebling! But what really impressed me was Justus using the flexibility of the handcuff as working suspension for his Vantastic RV!

Build Quality:
As is tradition with Iron Builder, both builders proved their metal. Joe, the veteran champion did Iron Builder like Iron Builders do Iron Builder: By building different but the usual genres, while integrating some immersive builds. Looking back at past rounds, these sort of builds seem the norm – a safe bet, it seems. But a formidable challenger, young Justus threw everything he had at Joe the Iron Builder veteran, hoping something would land. His plethora of builds, albeit on the smaller scale, utilised the seed part in innovative ways, subtly demonstrating that less is more.

Performance:
Both builders competed against each other and worked together very well this round. A good amount of back and forth, little challenges for the next build, and even some thematic co-operation. Not to mention some ungodly puns from both. Justus translated his smaller, vignette building style well for Iron Builder, while Joe utilised his larger scale building very well, making it easy to hide the meme legend Shirtless Woody cleverly in each entry.

For me, pinning down a winner comes down to who showcased innovation better, both with the seed part as well as overall builds. It's easy to use a spindly, greebly, gold minifigure handcuff as decoration, and both builders used them structurally and functionally. However, Justus' jellyfish and Vantastic RV really impressed me. Too many builders just don't build like that, and I would especially love to see more Iron Builds incorporating such functions. I´ll leave final rating in the hands of my fellow judges, but my contributions to the score favor the underdog - Justus!

Another round of Iron Builder with a feast of gorgeous looking models – and another tough call to make!

Let’s start with . The minifig handcuffs may have a rather strange and seemingly out-of-system shape, but avid builders should be no stranger to its usage as odd, peculiar details in MOCs, and I think a lot of the usage demonstrated in these entries fall under that nature. They certainly still add to the amazing models and bring life to them, but I think it’s somewhat less of a challenge when it is used as a non-integral detail, as it could also have been another funky element instead of the seed part. Therefore, when I was judging for the part usage, I tried to look for who managed to use the handcuffs in other ways that feels necessary to the concept, and for that I handed the win to Justus. Examples that I think deserve some extra points would be the crown in “The Crown”, the phone and table legs in “The Office”, the wheel structure for the pram in “The Bakery”, and of course, the working suspension in “Vantastic RV”. And an honourable mention to Joe’s “Tree Frog”, I think that entry has some really fresh take on the seed part usage as well.

For Build Quality, I have given it to Joe in the end. Both builders have made some incredible models with excellent choice of colours, but I just find myself more often in awe with the details in Joe’s entries when I went through all of them again shifting my attention away from the seed part. A particular highlight would be the clever usage of masks elements in “Sea Serpent”, and also all the little details in his first entry “Welcome to the Jungle”.

Last but not least, for the overall Performance, I have decided to give it to Justus. It was a tough call because both of your entries have rather consistently high quality, but in the end I gave Justus the win because I find his entries more diverse in terms of subject and scale, the GBC and working suspension are what ultimately made the call for me. Once again, kudos to both builders and I can’t wait to see more awesome builds from you guys in the future!