‘LEGO Masters’ winner keeps building on success
Millions of children enjoy building with Lego bricks, but Ian Summers never quite outgrew his love for the endlessly customizable pieces.
Summers and his younger sister, Sage, won the fifth season of FOX’s reality competition show “LEGO Masters” in July. The show features competing duos who take on brick-building challenges in hopes of impressing the “brick master” judges enough to win the LEGO Master trophy and title along with a $100,000 prize.
With two older brothers who loved Lego, Summers, who has studied digital design through Liberty University Online Programs, said he was “pretty much born into Lego,” and he spent much of his childhood using his own imagination to build unique sets.
“Normally, a lot of people just like to build the sets (according to the instructions), but from an early age, probably 5 or 6, I was taking the sets apart and building my own creations,” he said. “I love Star Wars sets, and I loved taking those sets apart and building my own spaceships. I’ve been blessed with a mom and siblings who really instilled in me the enthusiasm to be creative, and I never really stopped building.”
He doesn’t just build other-worldly structures, as some of his creations depict scenes much closer to home. When his family would drive around their small hometown of Wimberley, Texas, Sage would challenge Ian to recreate different stores and houses they saw. Brick by brick, the siblings eventually constructed a replica town they now call “Wim-brick-ley” Summers jokingly calls his sister “my first brick master.”
When the first season of “LEGO Masters” came across the family television in 2020, the siblings immediately knew they wanted to compete together. As children, the duo had a YouTube channel where they built Lego sets, and their years of collaboration together would serve them well in the competition.
“When the show came out and I saw the first season, I knew I was too young at the time, but I knew when I got older that I wanted to be on the show with my sister,” Summers said. “That became a dream of ours until we got on, and so it was so cool just to be on the show, let alone win it.”
Watching the show, Summers discovered a Lego-centric community he did not know existed. He began attending Lego conventions, where he met many of his future competitors, and created an Instagram account to post his builds, which now has over 33,000 followers.
“I thought I was the weird one who never stopped building,” Summers said. “The fact that I saw other adults doing it was really cool, and it opened my mind to see there’s a whole community out there.”
His desire to grow as an artist led him to enroll with Liberty where he could further his education and develop his passion while enjoying the convenience of studying from his own home.
“I’d always heard such great things about Liberty as one of the best Christian schools to attend, and it means a lot that I can attend a university that holds the same beliefs as me,” he said. “With my major, I really enjoy creating things and using the artistic side of my brain, and both (my interest in) Lego and studio/digital art go together within that. I also work full time, so what’s been really great about the online format is that it’s a lot more flexible than in person, and I can continue it when I have the time.”
The people of Wimberley heard about the siblings being cast on the show and organized watch parties for the season premiere, including one in the local library.
“It was really cool to see that they had our backs, and a lot of them had no idea how big this Lego community is,” Summers said. “Now that the show is done, all of them come up to us and say how they’ve bought new Lego sets for their kids and that they’re building stuff for themselves. I just built a Lego golf club for a lady in our town who owns a golf course.”
While the show is bright and involves lots of fun twists as the contestants construct an array of entertaining builds, Summers said the experience was more physically and mentally draining than one may expect.
“When you watch it, you think it’s happening on a weekly basis, but in reality, you’re building every day continuously for as long as you’re there,” he said. “When you try to be creative day after day, you can have a million ideas one day and then none the next day. You can’t force creativity, but on the show, you have to try.”
Throughout the show, the siblings wowed judges with builds that ranged from a planet within the Star Wars galaxy to a wedding cake that itself told a love story and a spell-inspired creation during a “Wicked” episode.
Summers said their faith and desire to glorify God on the set aided them in the frantic environment.
“Whenever we would feel stressed, we would always pray together and quote Scripture, and that would really help us get through,” he added. “The producers would talk to us and say, ‘Wow, you guys pray a lot. Why do you do that?’ and it became a way for us to witness to the producers and have our actions show our faith. We wanted to show them firsthand how Christians should act and be good witnesses. In that way, it pushed us more in the competition.”
After they filmed the show in November 2023, the siblings had to keep their win a secret until the finale aired 630 days later.
“When I say that to people, they’re almost more impressed that we kept it a secret for that long than by us actually winning,” Summers quipped.
Ian Summers points at some of his pieces on display at the Lego House in Billund, Denmark.
After the show, Summers’ creativity was still turning heads. When he showed his work at a convention, it caught the eye of Lego representatives, who asked him to be one of 15 builders from around the world to have their pieces on display for a year at Lego House in Billund, Denmark. Also known as “Home of the Brick,” the house is located within walking distance of The Lego Group headquarters and offers guests the ultimate Lego experience, complete with the ability to build from 25 million Lego bricks and see the awe-inspiring work of experienced builders.
In October, Summers visited the exhibit to see his pieces on display and attend a designer recruitment event. He plans to pursue a future with Lego while he continues his college studies.
“Being involved with Lego is definitely something I want to do,” he said. “I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.”
