Gerrit Gottschalk

gGh0st

Sandro Quattrini

 

Season 7 – Round 1 of Iron Builder – starting May 18th!

Welcome to Season 7 – Round 1 of Iron Builder!

Who will take home the crown?

Our defending Iron Builder Champion Gerrit Gottschalk or our challenger Sandro Quattrini?

And the seed part is…

This round’s seed part is the Koopa Shell in green. 

Now our two contestants have 15 days to come up with amazing and inspiring creations featuring this seed part. Wish them luck! They’ll better get cracking!

Who are you rooting for? Who will take it home? Whose builds reign supreme?

Only one way to find out! ALLEZ BRICK!

The Green Dragon

I don’t want the competition to drag on, so let’s get some entries going! Expectations are sky high for this round, I hope my first creature won’t turn you green with envy! I know it’s in theme, but we can’t build as slow as turtles, so let’s get going!

First Strike

You cannot handle what you have summoned here. Our daimyō has decided that you shell be granted an honorable death. You have two weeks, until I’ll happily serve as your kaishakunin!

Floral Kimono

Be careful! I am also dressed to kill! Winning this round will be a cherry occasion. Will you stay the Iron Builder or sleeve the mighty throne? Whatever the case may be, this truly is an occasion to blossom as LEGO builders.

The LA Diamonds Cheerleaders

A dress is all you need to join in! I donut care what you might be thinking, crowd’s cheering me up during this warm-up phase. You’ll be beaten with a slam dunk soon enough…

Stingray

I’m more of a baseball guy, my favorite team is the Tampa Bay Rays! Your puns are falling flat, so don’t hesitate to go in for the gill or you’ll soon find yourself swimming with the fishes! Did you seawater did there?

Fabergé Egg

Don’t care about your stinkray, it’s time for the deus eggs machina. As the rightful ruler over ForlornEmpire, I figured I had to hire the world’s most talented artist to create my Coronation Egg!

Dinner

That egg looks deliciously built! You’re a bit of a pine to beat, but owl be the winter of this round, even if by just a hare!

Granny’s Couch

I-cy, you’re pretending to be a pine-er here. I’ll rest in my cozy comfort zone tho. All my builds have been bangers sofa, therefore I’ll grow old on this throne. Look, you’re not the only one who got some good old constraction pieces on diskplay.

Matoro in the Making

Probably won over the judges on seat part usage already, so I can sit back and experiment a bit now: His name might not be Koopaka, but this Toa of Ice is pretty cool nonetheless. Eye hid most of the seed part this time, so just like you, Matoro’s still a little green.

The Boot

Haha! You’ve fallen into my strap! This whole round was just an elaborate ruse for you to sell your sole to the Bionicle lords! You think you’re the only one kicking off his shoes? Don’t get too lace-y, though, or you’ll taste de-feet! Now step up your game before you get the boot!

Sneaker

Is that boot your portkey to witness the greatest player in the tournament? Shoe-t, this game won’t end in a tie. Clearly, my footsteps are too big for you. Try kids’ size, bambino!

Flowers

Did you post some sneaky builds? I must have mis-stem, I was busy stopping and smelling the roses. You better put the petal to the metal if you want to catch up to me, or you’ll be leafing empty handed!

Green Piranha Plants

Catching up? Great idea. No plants for losing tho. You’ll need to level up to fight your way to the final boss

RC Tank

Did you desert already? Roses pairs well with l’armour, so I thought I’d give you a special treadment. My skills remain gunbarrelleled, I’m in full control and ready for the final battle!

Manta SamuRay / Final Strike

Patience builds character. You think you can strike me down? I’ve skirted around your jabs with absolute ease and will slay your builds to Ruru-in! Nevertheless, this fight manta man has been a real treat. Who will go to tell their tail is now just a Mata of time.

Very Last Strike (The Samurai)

You stole my katana? Sword of. Doesn’t matter, I have a whole arsenal to finish you off. My Samurai is larger, by your head to be precise!

Round 1 is officially over!

It is now in the hands of our judges to decide who has won this round!

Good luck to both our builders!

Caleb Schilling

Cheesey Studios

What a fantastic round with a truly unique and ridiculous element. Both builders gave us an Iron Builder show to remember!

Parts Usage
This category proved especially difficult to decide, with both builders truly making the seed part the standout of each and every build. Highlights for me include Sandro’s The Green Dragon, which very effectively makes use of the element’s scale-like features, and then of course there’s Gerrit’s Sneaker, a masterclass in brick sculpting that integrates the seed part seamlessly into the build. The build that ultimately won me to Sandro’s side was Stingray, with the extremely clever use of the underside of the element.

Build Quality
Even beyond seed part usage, there’s insane NPU to be found from both builders. Whether it’s Gerrit’s… is that a Throwbot case!? or Sandro’s many hidden Bionicle masks, the builders never disappointed when it came to quality. Sandro just edges out in this category, having consistently delivered extremely polished builds with great presentation.

Performance
I was consistently amazed by the variety I saw from both builders. It can’t be too often that we don’t see any minifigure-scaled builds over the course of an Iron Builder Round, and it was great to see so many new styles represented. From his first build though, Gerrit was here to entertain. Whether it was the subtle inclusion of a green dragon on his First Strike or the less subtle way of kicking back with his own take on a shoe build, Gerrit not only built, but he performed.

Congratulations to you both on a round well done!

Ivan Martynov

Space Glove

What a great round! The Super Mario theme features a lot of unique printed and dual-molded elements that are specifically designed for the imaginary video game world and are somewhat difficult to integrate into MOCs. You both did a great job, and each new build surprised me - needless to say, judging the round in the end was not an easy task.
(By the way, the abundance of Japanese-themed models was a funny coincidence - I love when unintentional things like that happen in contests!)

Parts Usage
Both builders were able to use the tricky part in a variety of ways. For me, two very specific builds stand out: Sandro's stingray and Gerrit's sneaker. Sandro was able to use the conveniently shaped underside of the seed part as a fish head, and Gerrit stacked the shells so that their white edges appeared as shoelaces.
Although it was a tough call, I think Sandro wins in this category: his models rely heavily on the various organic shapes and patterns created by the seed part.

Build Quality
Both builders showed impressive skill and ended up creating aesthetically pleasing, well presented models. Builds that attempted to emulate real product photography or shelf styling are probably the highlight of this round in terms of presentation.
I almost had a tie in this category: not only did the contestants find the perfect balance between intricate detailing and clever use of elements, but they also used the color scheme of the seed part to their advantage. Ultimately, I decided to give the win to Sandro, as his consistent effort, topped off with a powerful final fusion build, left a lasting impression on me.

Performance
While both competitors delivered consistently high quality entries, I feel that Gerrit, who once again demonstrated his ability to work in diverse building styles, deserves the win in this category. As someone who enjoys concise and laconic models, I really appreciated Gerrit's eagerness to explore fun concepts in a classic Iron Builder fashion.

Congrats to you both!

Tom Loftus

inthert

I knew it would be tough to decide a winner, but not this tough - organizers, you’ve outdone yourselves, a truly devious seed part. Good thing the contestants were up for the challenge! Both produced exceptional builds and took the bulky, two-toned nature of the seed part in their stride.

The ‘spam the seed part approach’ often results in good builds but Gerrit’s couch and especially Sandro’s floral kimono are legendary. Subtly in Seed Part Usage was not lacking either, as seen in Sandro’s Stingray and Gerrit’s Matoro. It was Gerrit’s greater tendency to embed the seed part (see the ingenuous trainer’s lace) that tipped the scales for this category however.

Build Quality was top notch too, with only a couple of misses: Sandro’s wonderful flower’s deserve a vase more befitting their beauty, while Gerrit’s fab cheerleaders are missing some letters on their banner. The hits greatly outweigh any misses though. Sandro’s kimono and dragon are super tight builds, as are Gerrit’s tank and NPU galore Fabergé egg. Overall however, Sandro had the edge here, each build beautifully presented with equal care given to details and overall composition.

Performance was (you guessed it) tough to call. Sandro demonstrated elegance throughout. Building to a crescendo with his final model, it blended elements of previous entries like the stingray’s mandibles and the pink blossom kimono motif. It was Gerrit’s sheer variety of builds won out however. Bombastic throughout, each build screamed ‘look at me, how crazy am I!?’ - which definitely qualifies as a performance worthy of the Iron Builder title in my book.

Parts Usage:

Build Quality:

Performance:

Sandro

Sandro

Gerrit

Sandro

Parts Usage:

Build Quality:

Performance:

Sandro

Sandro

Gerrit

Sandro

Parts Usage:

Build Quality:

Performance:

Gerrit

Sandro

Gerrit

Gerrit

The round goes to Sandro