Talking Iron Builder with LEGO space legend Tim Goddard [Feature]

donderdag, 22 mei 2025

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The most recent Iron Builder competition just came to an end, providing the LEGO community with some truly excellent creations fueled by the creativity of two amazing AFOL talents: Tim Goddard and Bousker. For those who are not familiar with Iron Builder, it is a competition that puts two builders directly against each other in a two-week contest of creating models that incorporate a specific LEGO piece. In this instance, the Airplane Door in White. Fresh off an amazing run of 7 stellar creations, we sat down with Tim about his thoughts on competing for the Iron Builder crown.

TBB: This whole kind of competition may be intimidating to many. Where do you start once you were given the seed piece?

Tim: I found it intimidating, the idea of building under time pressure and being judged by my peers is a bit nerve-racking! Of course I had no idea what the part would be until I opened the box but I was relatively happy with what I got. I like incorporating detail less than a plate thick in builds using parts like brackets and brick hinge tops so I started with that; how can I use thin edges of the part to best effect? The curve of the piece is also quite pleasing, so I tried to work with that. It was a bit frustrating that the curve doesn’t seem to match up with the curve on any other LEGO parts.

TBB: When deciding what to build, how much do you like to stay with a regular build style versus do build something you may not normally? I mean… I did see some space builds there.

Tim: I tried to mix it up, I created 8 entries and I suppose 4 could be considered subject matter I build regularly (Space!) and 4 are completely different to what I normally do. I used to write for New Elementary so I suppose my homage to everyone’s favorite part-centric site is kind of my thing? But I used the contest to push myself a bit, the chattering teeth and moped builds are something I would never normally consider.

TBB: When using the seed piece, do you try to make it prominent? Or do you like to make it more subtle? Several of builds I saw the “primary” use only to see the additional uses a moment later.

Tim: I didn’t want to make the seed piece too prominent in any of my builds, or at least not too blatantly prominent. I think any build should be a good MOC first where you only see the seed part second. Some of my uses are definitely more subtle than others, like the penguin body, and in most of my builds I used it in multiple ways.

TBB: What was your favorite build from your opponent?

Tim: The Cars build was very clever and a great build, I didn’t even see the seed part used as the windscreens at first! Although you could argue that it didn’t need to be the seed part at all…
All of Bousker’s builds had a lot of creative flair, he really kept me on my toes and kept pushing me to build well. We had a few chats over the two weeks when the contest was running and he was chasing to see when I was next going to post so our builds would alternate; more pressure!

TBB: Was there a seed piece from another round you would have loved to try?

Tim: The Duplo grass is the one that really stands out in my memory as being a really great contest. The part is so hard to use it led to some very innovative creations. I’m not sure I would love to try building with it, but it would certainly be a challenge.

A big thank you to Tim Goddard for taking the time to answer a few questions about the Iron Builders challenge. Tim was also kind enough to provide a few behind-the-scene photos, including one build that did not make it.