John Snyder

-LittleJohn

Joss Woodyard

Jayfa

Season 6 – Round 5 of Iron Builder
– starting February 20th!

Welcome to Season 6 – Round 5 of Iron Builder!

Who will take home the crown?

Our defending Iron Builder Champion John Snyder or our challenger Joss Woodyard?

And the seed part is…

This round’s seed part is the Technic Cable Connector in green. 

Now our two contestants have 16 days to come up with amazing and inspiring creations featuring this seed part. Wish them luck! This round will come down to the wire!

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

Only one way to find out! ALLEZ BRICK!

An Element of Discovery

Look no feather, we’ve discovered the winner of this round already. Though we may as well headdress the elephant in the room – it’s time for some element exploration!

Waia Konekta

A warrior approaches, for what is a headdress without one worthy to bear it? Waia Konekta thinks you out of your element… Technic is his domain…

Mechanical Advantage

Technic you say? Well I’ve geared up and now am ready to spring into the lead! You’re crazy if you think I’ll lever quit.

Cable Clip Chameleon

You have yet to see my true colours… Here’s a flashy critter to scale the leaderboard. But make no mistake, this chameleon won’t blend into the background, he’s here to stand out.

Terror’s Spawn

What a cute creature! Eye hope he’s wary of the danger spawning in the dark, else this may be his last encounter. Sometimes blending in is your only chance of surviving to hatch another plan.

Hey There Farmer!

Oh Deere, Joss seems to have baled out. This must have been the straw to break the chameleon’s back. I know seed part challenges can be tough, but I’m farming this part for all it’s worth. You could even say I’m having a hayday with it!

Nettledrake

I may have been dragon the chain for a bit, but I’ll have you retractor your previous statements. You can’t clip my wings, because I’m ready to soar back into the lead!

The Lily Realm

Water you thinking? You’re only in the lead in your fantasy. I’m flowering under the pressure, and now it’s going to be tough for you to bridge the gap in points between us. House it feel to always be up against the rocks?

The Starlight Connection

Well this has been a blast. But I just don’t think you’re in the right headspace to compete with me. Everyone knows I’m the real star of this competition.

A Familiar Platform

Stars are nice and all but everyone knows the score is what really matters. And unfortunately you just don’t seem to be at my level, as I’m scrolling by with ease. Don’t mind my jumping into the lead, there are plenty more ideas in the pipeline!

Technically A Bonsai

Water you talking about? The way I see it you’re waterfalling behind. My lead only continues to grow until I leaf you behind in the dust. Even though I’m branching out from characters and creatures, my build still rocks.

Fe-26 Cargo Rover

Don’t worry I can handle sand, rocks, or any sort of rough terrain. Whether on rim worlds or planetary hubs, this truck is in it for the long haul. Soon it’ll all be rover for you though.

Chief Ironscale

We’re almost at the finish line! Hope you’re not burnt out. You better whip yourself into shape if you want to best me. I’m the viking of this castle.

I’m Sortin’ My Trash Here

Don’t mean to be a grouch, but your viking’s armor is garbage. Says who? Sesame. Better clean up your act or put a lid on it. Though you certainly deserve an Oscar for those trashy puns!

Harvestman – Plague Mech: Amalgam

It would seem the flies around your trashy build have caught the attention of a sinister spider. I’d leg it before you to fall prey to this mechanical monstrosity, the harvestman is here to reap.

Round 5 is officially over!

It is now in the hands of the judges to decide if it did indeed come down to the wire!

Eero Okkonen

First - it was rather nostalgic to see so much basic green in IB. Usually that colours appears only in foliage in MOCs. The seed parts was small and there was lot of it; the compeditors were able to create excellent patterns on it on models like Joss's chameleon (my favourite build of the round, by the way!) and bonsai and John's tractor and Garbage Monster.

However, I would have loved to see more experiment with the clip; Joss's Ollie dragon was the best example of this, another ones being John's lily realm and headress. But in more than one build on both builders, the seed part was clearly on side role, and the otherwise good-quality MOCs could have existed without them. This could have been improved.

On presentation, I enjoyed variety on John's photos, especially the tractor one. Joss used black background throughout all the models, and while it made for example the plague mech, chameleon and bonsai, the nettle drake image felt tad too dark. But overall, it was a great round, with neither of the builders sticking too much on one particular theme or idea.

Jonas Kramm

Thanks for the entertaining Iron Builder round! As I had been challenged by a green seed part once too, I couldn’t wait to see what you two would come up with.

Both of you had some extraordinarily strong builds, but for the matter of building quality Joss you convinced me most with your models. You definitely know how to mix System, Technic and Bionicle to form amazing characters and creatures that really come to live. In particular the Chameleon and the cute dragon in “Chief Ironscale” stood out to me.

John on the other hand knew how to change things up and showed a variety of different presentation styles. “An Element of Discovery” has a great depth of field and with “Hey There Farmer!” you showed how LEGO build and a fake background can blend in perfectly together.

So the decider turned out to be the seed part usage and that was a close call! I think you both had remarkable uses, but also models where the seed part went a bit into the background and wasn’t as prominent in the models. Important for me was to get the feeling that the idea was sparked by the green clip connector, grew around it and the shape of the seed part plays a key role. In the end it’s John who gets my vote as you had a tad more different uses and worked your ideas into seven unique builds. Joss, I wished you would have experimented more in different directions of presentation and themes as you did with “The Starlight Connection”.

As I said before great round of both of you and a very close match! I look forward to more of your builds!

NewElementary

What a round this has been! At every turn, the participants bought their A game producing a whirlwind of quality emerald encrusted builds. Given the colour of the seed part, builds focusing on plant life was to be expected but both builders proved their ingenuity knows no bounds.

Joss’ adorable travel-sized Dragon was my favourite use of a single seed element, interpreting the cable grip as a mouth was as ingenious as it was cute. However, while Joss’ bonsai tree was a suitably relaxing sight, it was John’s hilarious Oscar the grouch build that won my unofficial ‘seed part on mass’ award.

Build quality is incredibly hard to judge and even harder to articulate so I just have to go with my gut here and say Joss’ entries poses more of that certain something I was looking for.

I could find no fault whatsoever in either builder’s presentation, John’s use of genuine trash for trash was inspired and Joss’ use of neutral backgrounds served him well in showing off the builds without distraction.

In the end it (regrettably) came down to the puns department and I just couldn’t ignore the so-bad-its-good ‘Sesame’ from John.

Build Quality:

Presentation:

Seed Part Usage:

Joss

John

John

John

Build Quality:

Presentation:

Seed Part Usage:

Joss

John

John

John

Build Quality:

Presentation:

Seed Part Usage:

Joss

John

John

John

The round goes to John