Third-year architecture student Ben Edlavitch has a side hustle at a new Lego-themed store in Charlottesville called “Bricks and Minifigs.” (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)
Volcanoes. Remote controlled vehicles. Palaces for kittens.
These are just some of the building challenges contestants are being given this television season on “Lego Masters,” an outlandish creative competition with $100,000 on the line and the chance to have the winning creation immortalized in a new, official Lego set.
In a first, the show on Fox features a grandfather-grandson team – and the grandson happens to be a third-year University of Virginia architecture student whose grandpa is a former high school shop teacher.
“It was kind of like getting a golden ticket,” said student Ben Edlavitch, referring to the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” while describing being selected to appear on the show with his “Poppy,” David Levine.
“Oh yeah, with Grandpa Joe,” he said recalling the character in the Roald Dahl classic. “Thankfully, my grandpa has got better use of his legs. It is kind of similar. The same kind of whimsy.”
For Edlavitch, the suspense began well before the series was filmed last spring on a set outside of Atlanta. He knew the time commitment would mean having to withdraw from the 2023 spring semester. For a few weeks, he, Levine, and his parents, Jenny and Steve, were not sure what would come first: the deadline to withdraw and recover tuition money, or the green light from producers signaling Edlavitch and Levine had been chosen as one of 12 pairs of contestants on “Lego Masters.”
It came down to hours.
David “Poppy” Levine and his grandson, Edlavitch, are the first grandfather-grandson duo on “Lego Masters.” In Thursday’s episode, they are charged with building a pet palace for Tiger, an adoptable orange tabby kitten. (Photo courtesy of Fox Entertainment)
“There was a lot of going back and forth on that. Lots of phone calls, lots of pacing back and forth in the dorm room,” Edlavitch said.
He and his Poppy got word the show had selected them “literally the day before the withdrawal [deadline].”
Phew.
“You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of.”
— Willy Wonka.
This edict, uttered by actor Gene Wilder in the 1971 classic film adaptation, rang true to Edlavitch as he and his grandfather, David, rolled up their sleeves and got to work on their first challenge: creating a toy boat out of Legos.
They had 10 hours of build time, from assignment to completion, on the first episode of “Lego Masters,” which aired last week. Five million Lego pieces were at their disposal.
One pair of contestants, who were eventually eliminated in the first episode, took hours for scheming before they laid a single brick.
“Lego Masters” has a costume department and felt this look suited Levine and Edlavitch. (Photo courtesy of Fox Entertainment)
No so for Edlavitch and Levine. “We worked very well together in the first episode. We were on the same page within the first 10 minutes,” Edlavitch said.
“We both contributed ideas and decided on the best way to fuse them together. That’s how we got our nuclear-powered riverboat idea. Poppy was good at rolling with the ideas that I pitched. Usually he’s the instructor and mentor, but I took the lead on the show,” he said.
Their respective building chops, as a budding architect and a former shop teacher, served them well on the first show.
Kittens and the ‘Golden Brick’
Grandfather and grandson advanced to episode two, which airs at 9 p.m. Thursday. That’s when the remaining 11 teams take on an adorable charge: build a pet palace for a kitten.
In preview footage teasing the all-new “Catropolis” episode, host Will Arnett of “Arrested Development” fame and the voice of Lego Batman in the "Lego Movie"film series, tells competitors: “We have some friends that really need a home of their very own. You should meet them. Come on out!”
A door opens and a cuddly clutch of adoptable kitties enters the studio to thrilled “ooohs” and “aaahs” from the competitors.
Yes, of course, Edlavitch has done a from-scratch build of the Rotunda. (Photo submitted by Ben Edlavitch)
“Each team is going to build them the most unbelievable pet palace on the planet,” Arnett explains.
How will Edlavitch and Levine do with their self-described Ford assembly-line inspired system for getting builds together? Will their kitten, an orange tabby named Tiger, like his new digs?
And might Edlavitch and Levine, at some point, win the coveted “Golden Brick” that gives a team safety from elimination during a challenge in the competition? Edlavitch is not allowed to say, so we’ll have to tune in to find out and see how far the pair advances in the season.
Reflecting on Wonka’s advice to never doubt something no one is sure of,Edlavitch thought about his time on “Lego Masters.”
Edlavitch shows off a Lego build at Charlottesville’s new store, Bricks and Minifigs, located at The Shops at Stonefield. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)
“I think the quote sums up the entire experience. I had to expel my doubts about leaving school to do the show, even though I didn’t know exactly what would come out of the experience, something no one was sure of,” he said. “It ended up being a very positive experience that is probably going to open a lot of doors.”
One of those doors is the entryway to Virginia’s Executive Mansion in Richmond. After seeing an article about Edlavitch and Levine in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a representative for Gov. Glenn Youngkin reached out to ask if Edlavitch would build a model of the Executive Mansion to display during the holiday season.
