Have you noticed a strange influx of Middle Earth builds the last few summers? That’s no coincidence. This summer marked the fourth year of the revived Middle Earth LEGO Olympics (or MELO for short). And this year, we decided to go even bigger than ever!

What is MELO, you ask? For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics, the annual contest got its start on MOCpages, a now-defunct social media site devoted to the LEGO hobby and MOCing community. It was held annually there for several years, coming to an end in 2017.

After that, the contest remained dormant until 2022 when LOTRLUG held a revised version of the contest. The contest follows a tournament setup where builders face off against each other in a series of rounds, each with a unique Middle Earth-based theme, until one contestant emerges victorious.

Preparing for MELO 2025

This year, the contest kicked off on June 16 with a free round open to everyone, and then the top 16 entrants proceeded to the tournament phase of the contest, consisting of four rounds. The entrants were placed on a seeded bracket and pitted in 1:1 build-offs with their opponent, with the winner continuing into the next round. Additionally, each round has a unique theme, such as “The Shire” or “1v1 battle” that the competitors have to build for. In addition to the first and second-place winners, there are also a number of bonus awards up for grabs, which I’ll discuss more later.

Of course, there’s a lot of planning that goes into a contest like this, especially one with so many different rounds and prompts involved. One of the biggest challenges, though, is figuring out the prizes! I always like to build custom trophies for the top two winners, and this year I recreated Treebeard and Smaug, two iconic characters from the world of Middle Earth. You actually may remember them from my recent exploration of 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook that I wrote for BrickNerd. (BrickNerd was also kind enough to help fund a couple of other amazing prizes, including the aforementioned Balrog Book Nook set and a number of other sets!)

Finally, with all of the pieces in place, the contest was ready to kick off!

Ready, Set, Build!

As always, the tournament kicked off with a free round, in which contestants are allowed to build anything they’d like within the world of Arda. From the edges of the Shire to the depths of the Misty Mountains and the mystique of Mirkwood to the imposing streets of Minas Tirith, the competitors did not disappoint, and picking the 16 competitors who would continue on was no easy task!

Across Time and Space

Now here’s where things get interesting. While in past years, all entrants were given the same prompt, this year each pair of competitors was given their own unique sub-prompt! For the first round, the contestants were tasked with mashing Middle Earth together with another time period or setting, from the ancient past to a cyberpunk future!

Of all of the prompts, this was the one I was most excited to see how the entrants interpreted, and boy did they deliver! Talk about creativity! Below are the eight entries that continued on to the next round, but there were so many other incredible MOCs too that I simply don’t have the space to share here.

From Rolling Hills to Caverns Deep

For the next round, we challenged the contestants to scale back and build a vignette centered around one of the free people groups of Middle Earth (excluding ents, because, as I learned in my review of 10367 Balrog Book Nook, it’s really hard to build a small vignette around a large ent).

One of the effects of focusing on a smaller space is that there’s plenty of time to focus on the details, and in that respect, these were some of my favorite builds from the contest! Once again, below are the four builds that won out and continued on to the next round.

The Good, the Bad and the Opposite

For Round 3, we once again encourage the competitors to get creative and reimagine what an iconic location might look like if it were controlled by the opposite allegiance.

From a reimagining of Barad-Dur as a lighthouse to a twisted version of Lothlorien taken over by the barrow wights, this round provided plenty of fascinating “what if?” scenarios.

The Roots of Victory

Finally, only two contestants remained: both Jimmy (J2_bricks) and Vance (earthbricks) had clearly proven their talent by this point, but there can only be one Lord of the MELO! For the final round, they were each tasked with building one of the Two Trees of Valinor.

(I won’t explain their whole history here, but for those who are unfamiliar with them, a great explanation can be found here. Suffice it to say that they’re a foundational piece of the history of Arda, presenting the contestants with quite a large order.)

Once again, both contestants were in top form, finishing out the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics with a bang.

Ultimately, Jimmy won out with his recreation of Melkor and Ungoliant destroying Telperion. The immersive presentation and mastery of organic forms made the model a worthy winner!

However, we also had a few bonus awards to give out, starting with an award for the highest scoring entry. This honor went to Wolver with his stunning microscale recreation of Barad-Dur that he made for the free round. From the plethora of creative parts usages on the rocks to the detailed texture across the tower, it’s not hard to see why it won the award.

We also had an award for best use of color. While Middle Earth may be primarily known for its muted earthy tones, there’s still a lot of room for creative color usage, and t86 demonstrated this perfectly with this vignette depicting the Beeches of Neldoreth. From the striking combination of dark red and gold to the clever juxtaposition of sand blue, this build is a perfect example of just what a good color scheme can accomplish.

And finally, we also gave an award for the best immersive scene. Immersive scenes present their own unique challenges, and if they’re not executed perfectly, you risk a scene that feels half-baked or just isn’t convincing. However, when executed well, the results can be stunning, and that’s certainly the case with Simon Schweyer’s recreation of the Paths of the Dead. The framing and lighting both bring this scene to the next level, making it a worthy recipient of the award!

The Spoils of War

Over the last four years of running the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics, I’ve learned a lot about running a contest, and I’ve also been incredibly blessed through the experience. Getting to see Tolkien’s world brought to life in LEGO form is always a real treat, but a huge inspiration for me is also just hearing about the joy that it’s able to bring to other builders who are just as passionate about Middle Earth as me.

This year, I had several people share their thoughts and experiences with the contest, and I thought those might be worth including here:

Martin/Baron Von Brick: “While I only did three builds, MELO definitely sharpened me as a builder. There is little time for rework or second-guessing yourself. You either build or you’re out. As a slow builder, this really put my skills to the test.”

Vance/earthbricks: “This was my first year hearing about and competing in this tournament, but I know it won’t be my last! Everyone is so supportive, and it really feels like a bunch of friends just having fun building different parts of Middle Earth.”

Anonymous: “My experience of this year’s MELO follows the same pattern as all years I’ve participated. Namely, an experience of a professionally organised competition within my favourite universe: Tolkien’s! Great people, sweet builds that come from well-formed prompts. I really do think it’s a fantastic experience where I also grow within the hobby.”

Overall, I think this year was a huge success, and I’d definitely love to see as many people as possible get involved in future years.

The Journey Continues

Before I close this out, I’d also like to shout out all of the amazing people who make a contest like this possible. From judges to sponsors, there are so many people who have come alongside me and helped make this a reality, not to mention all of the incredible people who entered and watched the contest.

So what’s in store for next year? Only time will tell! In the meantime, I encourage any fellow Middle Earth LEGO enthusiasts to check out our Discord server where we’re building a community of like-minded people. I’m incredibly excited to see how the LEGO Middle Earth community grows and develops over the future, both through the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics and beyond!

What was your favorite build from this Middle Earth LEGO Olympics? Let us know in the comments below.

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