In the part use category, Jordan managed better to use the parts on the hierarchal core of his builds - hitting the sweetspots like in true seed part MOCing. "Blades of Glory" is my favourite build in this theme, using a unique sort-of-forced perspective with focus on the seed part and the minifig on the background. Other great examples were "They see me rollin’, They hatin’", "Spoiler Alert!" and "Flip or Flop". Duncan's best moments in the part use category were "Lunchtime with the beaky boys" and the chameleon (this is the second brilliant chameleon I've judged in Iron Builder, by the way). However, his builds, although brilliant MOCs, sometimes had the seed part in more secondary role. This was a natural consequence of making larger builds than Jordan.

In the Build Quality category, the difference of scales helped Duncan's models to be more surprising, in a way - it was impossible the guess what would come next. Of course, there was large variance in Jordan's work too, but he has - I think more strongly than Duncan - developed a strong style of his own, and all his models were unmistakenly "Dan Ko MOCs". Nothing wrong with this, but on the other hand, Duncan's freedom from style probably helped him to think outside the box, or outside his own brain. I was smitten by the large speeder bike in "What a piece of junk!", the dynamic composition of "Akira bike slide" and the mandatory crab in "Message in a bottle". "Tomte's Gnomestead" was the large flagship build of this ground. While I don't generally give bonus points for the size of the model in itself, I sure know how much they take amidst the haze of IB - and nonetheless Duncan managed to make even the small details in great quality; I love them mushrooms. On the other side, Jordan's best builds were the aforementioned "Blades of Glory" and "Flip Flop" (loving the shoes Jordan!), as well as "Baited in sunlight" with its DREAMZzz splat.

Performance is the hardest category to judge and, I'm honest with it, often ends up being the tie breaker. This round the puns were embarrasing as usual - I like the worm welcome though. I feel like Jordan's perfomance was a steady-handed show of professional, quirky builds delivered with his well-recognisable style. I can sense bit of a mind-boggling almost-panicy madness in Duncan's crazy variance of style, scale and approach. Whereas this resulted in some misses - "Curtains for the monarchy" for example needs a proper symmetrical shot and more polished details - there was certain lovely unexpectancy in his show.

Thank you builders for sharing your wit and creativity with us! This was an awesome round and (I know every judge says this, but...) not an easy one to judge. I can't believe the quality and quantity of the builds you two were able to crank out in just a few weeks. It was an amazing performance by both of you!

Parts Usage
The rotor blade is a cool piece; it makes a great flap/panel so I was expecting it to be used as such. For parts usage I focused on builds where the rotor could not have been substituted with a simple red tile, thus I was curious how you two were going to incorporate the pin and axle holes into your builds. The usage highlights for me were Duncan's Beaky Boys and the towers in Jordan's "Bridging the Gap" micro castle. This was a close call but the category goes to Duncan!

Build Quality
The builds this round were top notch! You both integrated the rotor so naturally that it was easy to forget that you were "forced" to use it. This was the hardest category to judge, both of you were able to showcase a story larger than what was captured in frame and made me feel like I was part of the scene. If one of you had accomplished that more than the other that would have made my decision easy; but I went back and forth so much that this category really feels like a tie. That being said, the tie-breaker simply comes down to which set of mocs I would want most to add to my collection. This category goes to Duncan!

Performance
Another close call, but build variety, puns, and wit were strong with Jordan this round. His builds covered many different scales and perspectives and I was constantly surprised by each new build. This category goes to Jordan!

Congrats to both builders!

I will start by saying this was one of my recent favourite rounds of Iron Builder, have been excited seeing both builders work popping on my socials last couple of weeks – but that also means it was another tough round to judge!

Seed Part Usage:
The red Technic Rotor Blade is a pretty cool piece in itself, but personally I think it’s one of the “easier” seed parts as the shaping of it lends well for many cool details naturally already – blades, feathers, mechanical shell pieces, spoilers, horns etc, so I made my judgement in this category based on the entries that did NOT use the part along the line of these features on the model, regardless of how cool they are. It’s the Iron Builder after all, and I think even taking those out of the consideration, both builders still have some really impressive entries respectively! For Jordan, my personal highlights would be “The King of the World?” for cleverly utilizing the shape of the whole element to create the simple but lovely line on the side of the Titanic, the stylish hair in “Penny for your thoughts” and the fingers in “Oh Snap!”. For Duncan, it would be the scissors in “Arts and Crafts” (It’s still some sort of blades, but I think it’s an exception because of how perfectly it captures the resemblance and how well they are incorporated, it felt like THE genuine perfect piece even if this wasn’t a seed part), the clever way of combining two blades to form the lovely shape in “Chainsaw go brrrr”, the simple yet brilliant way of creating the entire face on the part in “Lunchtime with he beaky boys”, the blood in “No Time to Sort”, the tongue in “Mlem!” the chameleon – and last but not least I was blown away by the roof effect in “Tomte’s Gnomestead” So I will hand this category to Duncan, not only because there were more entries by numbers that impressed me regarding the seed part, but overall I also think he had a more diverse usage of the seed part throughout the round

Build Quality:
I am giving this to Duncan again. Both builders have be on top of their games and given us incredible models, so I find myself really going into the details and trying to compare every entry over and over. Interestingly, the builders did make quite a few models on the same or similar subject in the game of going back and forth on each other, which made the comparison slightly easier than usual. And ironically, the dealbreaker for me was the two TRON entries, I think Duncan had a much cleaner execution on both the lettering and the idea of using the blade element as the trails of lights. In addition, I also think Duncan’s models throughout the round feel a lot more completed and polish, things like the chameleon, the Tomte’s Gnomestead, they look like a proper MOC that people spend a month polishing, I wouldn’t have guessed it was an Iron Builder entry if I wasn’t aware of it, whereas a lot of Jordan’s entries like “Baited in sunlight”, “The King of the World?”, “Quick Sketch”, “Bridging the Gap”, “Old News” etc, are very 2D-based, which while it doesn’t make them any less awesome and it’s a common approach we have seen in the Iron Builder get the round going, I just think Duncan deserved the win for that extra mile he went for.

Overall Performance:
I have decided to give it to Jordan. I think both builders did an incredible job regarding the diversity of their models in terms of subject and scale, but that working pinball machine is what ultimately made the call for me – makes me want to play it in person! And on top of that, I think Jordan’s pun and repartee hit me harder this round! Once again, kudos to both builders and I can’t wait to see more awesome builds from you guys in the future, which I’m sure I will!