Iron Builder round-up: Dicken Liu vs Daniel Metcalfe (FS Leinad)

Let’s talk about that big competition that comes to its conclusion today. A tournament that, after weeks of competition, has been narrowed down to the two very best in the business. No, it’s not the World Cup – this is far more important! One of the premier LEGO building contests, the Iron Builder, has just concluded Round 9 of its 7th season. The challengers? Two creators who will be very familiar to the pages of the Brothers Brick. In the blue corner, we have Dicken Liu – our 2023 Builder of the Year – making his Iron Builder debut. Facing him in the red corner is Daniel Metcalfe, whom you may recognise from our archives as F.S. Leinad. These are two seriously talented builders, so let’s pick out some of their best LEGO ideas from their bout!

Can you work out what the seed part is from Daniel’s first entry above? No, it’s not the basketball net – great NPU though it is. For this round, both builders need to work the dark blue minifigure toolbox into their creations. And where does one find toolboxes? In a workshop, naturally. Just don’t leave them unattended, lest Dicken takes them and turns them into a massive warframe.

Cecilie Fritzvold may be the go-to builder for LEGO hippos right now, but Daniel shows he’s a dab hand with this still hungry, hungry for some competition.

Dicken responds by taking aim at some toolboxes. It’s a hit for us.

But what’s happened to his warframe in the meantime? Daniel’s set his salvage bots after it!

Not to be outdone, Dicken sends one of his own minions after Daniel’s minibots. Now things are getting feisty!

Let’s remind our competitors that this a friendly competition. Banter is encouraged, but let’s not resort to fighting! Daniel makes a plea for peace with the help of an NPU-laden hippie. What do you say, Dicken?

… It looks like he says ‘trim that beard, Mr. hippie’. OK, we’re not going to start a fight then! That was a close shave.

Woah woah woah, what’s this? The seed part is a navy blue toolbox, and I’m pretty sure you have to include at least one in your builds! Otherwise it doesn’t count! Surely Daniel hasn’t committed a rookie error?!

Not so! Here’s Daniel’s explanation:

[…] The toolboxes are, in fact, dark blue, and the terrain is dark green. There was no part-specific color editing. I overexposed the photograph, then adjusted the black point, color temp, and saturation to make it a bit more natural-looking. Beyond that, the only editing was dust removal. […]

I’ll leave it up to the judging panel to make a call on that, but to me that seems very creative! It would be a shame if they throw his Moai build out, as then we wouldn’t have seen any in the comp- oh.

Aside from the back-and-forth building banter, one of the funniest aspects of Iron Builder is when both contestants come up with the same idea completely independently of each other. Not to be outdone, though, Dicken then created another big stone head, this time one under the sea!

Daniel continued his camera cleverness with his seventh build – the background here is his computer screen.

Dicken responds with some beautiful photography of his own. This is another build that makes use of other toolbox colours; the navy blue ones can be seen in the side decorations.

I was particularly taken by Daniel’s raven build. Partly for its quality, partly as it references my favourite poem: The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.

If you want to get a reaction out of an Iron Builder creation, why not build a reactor? Dicken makes more good use of circular patterns with his arc reactor.

OK, tools (and toolboxes) down, it’s time for the final builds! Daniel goes big at the end, hoping to cast a spell on the judges.

As for Dicken, his last build is a heartwarming one. After two weeks, it’s inevitable that a close bond will form between builders! It’s a reminder that even in competition, we’re all in LEGO fandom boat together.

And that’s a wrap! Be sure to check out all the builds over on the Iron Builder site – and keep an eye out for the judge’s feedback, too. It’s too close for us to call a winner! Who would be your pick? Let us know in the comments!

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