“We’re not the IOC, we can show a bit of favouritism!”

According to Hamish Blake this year’s season of Lego Masters: Australia vs the World has done its best to set up a level playing field for its eight teams.

Inspired by Nine’s upcoming Olympics, four international teams face off against new local duos.

“We’ve got 4 new Aussie teams, which is a home brand advantage, and then four teams from the different international versions of Lego Masters,” he tells TV Tonight.

“They have been on Lego Masters in their country and now they’re coming to Australia. We thought that kind of evened it up. The Australians have seen how the show works, and then the internationals come in with a bit of experience. We sort of figured that was a fair way to do it.”

“We’ve stacked the deck”

Visiting teams will represent France, Denmark, Germany and the USA compete against Aussies who include a Lego store manager, a Lego art designer and an official Lego master builder.

“I think we’ve got a fair bit of nepotism on the show by having 4 Aussie teams. Like, we’ve stacked the deck so Australia’s a good chance to win. But having said that, the other teams are very good too. But hey, we’re not the IOC, we can show a bit of favouritism!”

Now in its sixth season, the series sees the return of judge Ryan “Brickman” McNaught plus guests including Sophie Monk, radio presenter Michael “Wippa” Wipfli and Jordy Hocking from Lego Masters Season 1.

“Let’s not be led too harshly by Channel Nine promos”

Challenges this season include a spectacular window display challenge, fan favourite Is It Fake? with a Parisian twist and celebrating 85 years of Batman. But Blake assures that even though Nine’s promo is in stadium, outdoor challenges are a little more down to earth.

“Let’s not be led too harshly by Channel Nine promos, we know that they’re quite often not an accurate reflection of the show! Yes, I can confirm that we’re not at Olympic Park. We’re back in the studio for the most part,” he explains.

“I do love the challenge of trying to create the world in the studio. But for this season we do get down about for things that quite clearly can’t be done. There is one episode where the teams get given the chassis of a go-kart and then they have to skin it to race around a track. So racing go-karts made out of Lego is tough to do in the studio.

“They’re kind of playing for national pride as well”

“I actually think some of the challenges we’ve got this year are the best we’ve ever done. It’s still fun in that sense that we’re trying to think of wild new challenges that we can give these teams. Now they’re kind of playing for national pride as well.”

So given this is Australia vs the World, do the Aussies build Lego with any distinctly different method to international teams?

“The Australian version is kind of regarded in the Lego world as like the hardest version of the show”

“I wouldn’t say there’s an Aussie techniques to building Lego. I mean, everybody brings their own imagination and creativity to it. That’s kind of unique to who they are as people. But the one thing that became apparent from our international guests is the Australian version is kind of regarded in the Lego world as like the hardest version of the show…. you get stretched the most. So in that regard they were excited to come to the Australian version to be tested.

“The German team are hilarious, and they will be the first to tell you they are very methodical. You’ll see it play out across the series but at one stage Brickman says, ‘There’s a reason everyone drives German cars.’ They’re just very methodical at getting getting stuff done really efficiently.”

And no the Danish team is not in any way related to the Lego founding family, The Christiansens.

“If they are related, they kept it a pretty good secret. They didn’t fly over here on a private jet,” Blake inists.

“If they were any closer to the Lego family things would be going very well!”

Lego Masters Sunday – Tuesday on Nine.