Here's how Milwaukee natives, siblings fared in 'LEGO Masters' finale

Paul Wellington and Nealita Nelson's "LEGO Masters" dreams came up just short of a championship Thursday night during the season finale of the show.

The siblings and Milwaukee natives finished in third place, while Team Christopher and Robert won the coveted title, along with $100,000, a LEGO trophy and seeing their final build transformed into a set, which will be displayed at a LEGO flagship store.

"I'm really proud of how far I've come and we've some as a team," Wellington said after the results were announced. "And I could not have asked for a better partner than my sister."

"Just say it one more time," Nelson said, smiling.

"No," her brother jokingly responded.

Wellington and Nelson made up one of three teams that competed in the Season 4 finale. The competition started with "the 12 best LEGO-building teams on the planet," actor and producer Will Arnett, the show's host and executive producer, said in Episode 1's intro.

Heading into the finale, the brother and sister, both Rufus King High School grads, had constructed nine total builds.

Their favorite? The lifelike telescope that won them Episode 6's challenge.

Their least favorite? The volcano. They misunderstood the directions at first and had to restart the build at hour 2 of 12.

In the finale, the three remaining teams had 24 hours to construct their biggest build yet, with no limitations or requirements — only that they show "awesome story-telling, epic creativity and, of course, great technical prowess," said judge Amy Corbett.

Wellington and Nelson constructed what they called Christmas Eve on a Cliff. A house built over a hill with a working sledding trail, it had winsome, detailed scenes from the family's Christmas Eve history.

About halfway through the build, the teams were surprised with brief visits from their families. For Wellington and Nelson, that was their mother, along with Wellington's wife and two young kids.

The siblings hadn't seen their loved ones for more than six weeks at that point. Wellington called it "overwhelmingly amazing to see them" in a Journal Sentinel interview earlier this week.

"I was just super-excited to see the family come in," Nelson said during that interview. "I just felt like it was another little kick, like 'We got this.'"

In a dicey moment with about 15 minutes left, a section of the house's slanted roof broke as Wellington picked it up. But the two were able to piece it back together and secure it on the house in time.

"This is a very impressive build," judge Jamie Berard said. "It just shows the trajectory of you growing, challenge by challenge, and really trying to show us something new."

Said Corbett: "I can really feel that you built from the heart. What a fabulously cozy winter scene you've created. You should be really, really proud of the journey you've been on, from the start of this competition to standing in the finale now."

The winning build, from friends Christopher and Robert, was an 8-foot-by-8-foot airplane called the World Wonderliner, with beds moving through clouds and scenes from landmark moments in their lives. The runner-up team, mother Neena and son Sam, built a Family Tree of Seasons, a giant tree with dioramas on branches.

About the Milwaukee team, their connection to LEGOs

Wellington, 32, has been building with LEGOs since he was 3 or 4 years old.

The first set he ever got was a city. He's been constructing buildings with plastic pieces ever since.

Wellington went on to earn his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

He's a social media specialist for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. He previously worked for the Milwaukee Public Library, and even constructed the Central Library out of Legos at one point.

One of Wellington's best-known LEGO builds was his microscale city called "Brickville," which lasted from 2010 to 2014. It spanned 68 baseplates, which are 10-inches-by-10-inches each. The massive build — which grabbed the attention of the LEGO community — was displayed at the Brickworld Chicago LEGO convention three times, he said.

Wellington has also been featured in the book "The LEGO Architect" by Tom Alphin for his model of the National Congress of Brazil by architect Oscar Niemeyer. That work, along with Wellington's microscale rendition of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple were highlighted by the same author in Brick Architect.

Wellington is an author himself. He wrote "Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community," which showcases the role African American architects have played in the past and encourages young people to pick up that mantle for the future.

He also co-founded MKE Black, an organization and app that highlights local Black businesses.

With Wellington always being into LEGOs, Nelson, 24, has been around them her whole life.

Wanting to be like her older brother, Nelson got into brick building, too. She ended up falling in love with how she could show her creativity through builds, and how there were "no rules."

Nelson went on to the Milwaukee Career College to be a dental assistant. After spending some time as a drivers ed teacher, she now works at a Milwaukee hospital as a tech.

After coming across Wellington's LEGO creations on Flickr and Instagram, 'LEGO Masters' encouraged him several times to apply for the show, Wellington said. In 2022, he went for it.

A look back at their time on the show

Wellington — who has been building in microscale for about 20 years — wanted to use his time on the show to prove to himself that he could build other things besides small cities. Mission accomplished.

"I'm not just a one-trick pony," he said in a JS interview this week. "I have talent to compete with some of the best builders in the world."

From a novice to a pro. That's what Nelson said her time on the show made her.

"I definitely learned a lot," she said. "It opened my eyes to a whole new world of LEGO."

She said she feels like she could even compete against her brother now.

The siblings remain in contact with all of their fellow contestants, they said. There's even a group chat that goes off all day, every day.