Episode Recap: Industrial Revolution

Graham is now out of the running, meaning that five contestants remain. As they head to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, Rashaad is keenly aware that he is the only artist without a win to his name. When McKenzie tells them they'll be building robots that can fill a currently human job, Rashaad picks "Firefighter", a job he considered for himself, and feels this might be his week. He fabricates a tough outer shell and a cool eagle crest for the collarbone, plus an innovative vision system and weathered paint job for the fireproof shell.

George got "Hairdresser", and when Mr. Westmore does his walk-through, he advises George to take the blow-dryers-in-the-chest from two to one. George is no dummy - he does what Mr. Westmore says - and it shapes up really well. George is the only one not fabricating, so that makes him a little nervous, but he's confident in his sculpting skills and moves forward. Tyler is fabricating the sweet heck out of his "Surgeon" robot, with lots of white vacuformed limbs attached to a black bodysuit. Oops! He glued the pieces onto a bodysuit made for a six-foot-tall model - fortunately, he has time to re-glue them onto one that will fit his five-foot-five model.

Niko is getting lots of good advice from Rashaad about fabrication, but he left out a very important detail - hinges on the joints so the model can move - and has to spend a bunch of time rejiggering his fabrication in order to have an operational "Construction Worker" makeup. Daran is maybe the only guy in the lab NOT psyched about the project - he's never built a robot before and he doesn't really want to start now. He chose "Photographer," and so he builds a vacuform head with tons of lenses on it, but leaves the body boxy and bare, save for a large, reflective surface meant to give light.

At last looks, Niko and Rashaad add weathering to their blue-collar robots while Tyler and George add polish to theirs (George literally adds polish - he paints the guy gold). The judges are impressed with both of these latter robots, as well as Rashaad's - he did such a good job telling a story with his paint, making the model look like a huge firefighter, and fabricating as if he were visited by elves in the middle of the night, that he earns his first win! Passion always pays off.

The judges are split on Niko's makeup (Neville and Glenn boo it, Ve applauds it), which means that the only bottom look is Daran's. The entire panel felt he phoned it in with a crude piece of L200 in a square for the torso, an odd codpiece, and no real feel for the advantage of robot over human. He's sent home, but he's terribly proud of his work on the show and set on continuing in this path....