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[kumanoki]

So freakin' cool.

For those of you not in Japan, a run-down from my wife's journal:

TV Champions is a show where they find six people who are really good at something--building furniture, making chocolate sculptures, redecorating an interior, whatever--and give them increasingly harder challenges. They get voted off until there's only three people left. The last challenge is always really interesting. In one, they were pitting sushi chefs from several national chains against one another. In the last challenge, they and their handpicked teams had to make as many nigiri sushi as they could. Any that were malformed were discounted. AND the other team could run over and EAT their sushi to bring down their count!

This particular TV Champion was fascinating since it involved Brian's favorite thing in the world--Legos! From the start, Alison and I were rooting for the one lady in the sausage party. It slowly became clear that she was far more inventive and faster than the rest. Even before the show, we were awed by things she'd made in the past, like a Doraemon that opened up to reveal his robot interior. For the first challenge, which was creating an animal, she made a surprisingly lifelike, free standing koala with posable arms. The second challenge was to make something nice to put in the home. She made a little white tree with colored fruit hanging from each branch. Inside the tree was a rainbow fruit. Inside each fruit, a little kit she'd created to make sea creatures of lego! The next challenge was to make something with a "trick" to it. She made this "katamari" (ball of stuff) of lego that nobody could figure out for awhile. Then it became clear--as you turned the ball, a picture would appear on each side, one for each season. Then you could open it up, and inside was a beautiful night scene made with glow-in-the-dark legos! The last challenge was to design a mini theme park with moving parts. She built a child-sized VW Bug. When you opened the roof, inside there was a little town, each building shaped like food--pudding, cheeseburger, fried shrimp, everything kids like! Then you lifted off this layer, and inside the car there was a train station with a train shaped like a hamburger! She'd even included a little Lego Playland inside the train station. You should have seen the kids in the audience swarm around her design.

 

[john tv]

I didn't see it but that sounds cool. But damn, how much time do they get to make these things?

 

[kumanoki]

I didn't see it but that sounds cool. But damn, how much time do they get to make these things?

The first round was held in a zoo. The challengers were asked to build an animal from the zoo. From the tape it looked like it only took these master builders an hour or two to whip up a really good looking camel, koala, peacock (it was badass), a toucan, and a parrot.

The next challence was held in a house. It was impossible to discern the time limit on that one. Judging from the complexity of some of the 'for the home' designs, I'd say it took these people anywhere from a couple of hours to half a day to build a curio, a glass Japanese-style model house, an aquarium (complete with Lego aquatic life), and a traditional Japanese living room model/ desk caddy. One guy got eliminated.

The third challenge was to make something that would trick the eyes. One guy built a standing picture. When you look at it one way, it's Natsume Soseki, and when you look at it the other way, it's the other person on the new sen yen bill. One guy built a playing card inspired castle. The woman built that seasonal katamari. One guy made a standing model of a painting by Monet, when turned on it's side, was the exact same thing. It must've taken at least a day or two. Another contestant was eliminated.

The final challenge was held in some amusement park and had an audience, but the contestants were in front of a window, so it was clear that they worked from morning to night on the final creations. The theme was 'Theme Park' and they pulled out all the stops. One guy built a treehouse/flower amusement park, one guy built this kickass space station, and the woman did the food car thing.