The Iron Builder competition pits a veteran building champion against a challenger in a LEGO twist on the Iron Chef cooking show. But how does one become a challenger? One path is the Iron Forge competition, where everyone is invited to build and share models using the “seed part,” with the pool becoming a bracketed competition until one is chosen. The free-for-all phase just wrapped up, featuring the seed part of “any mudguard with only one wheel arch.” Here are a few that caught our eye.

“Fun at the Fair” by Dominique Boeynaems – 21 mudguards

“Mud-Guarded” by Bousker – 33 mudguards (each of those traps on the wall uses 4!)

“The Getaway” by F.S. Leinad – 26 mudguards

“The Hippopotamus” by Filbrick – 10 mudguards

“Portal Testing” by Grant Decker 14 mudguards

“Fruit Plate” by Cora – 12 mudguards (and two foam spheres from early Mindstorms sets!)

“Fountain” by Margit – 37 mudguards

“Bumper Cars” by Syrdarian – 20 mudguards

“Pop-sicles” by ABrickDreamer – 3 mudguards

“Painted Face” by Beta Brick – 13 Mudguards

“Winging it” by Harry Duncan – 32 mudguards

“American Bathroom” by History Builder – 7 mudguards

After seeing so many amazing arch builds, I couldn’t help but throw my hat into the Iron Forge ring.

“Teatime with the Arch Demon” by Jake Forbes – 8 mudguards

Visit the Iron Forge site to see which builders advanced to round 2! Best of luck in the next round where the seed part is “minifig heads.”