It’s time to wrap up our MeWe community challenge: Family! The final tally among our three judges (Tomek, Matthew and myself) reveled a surprise tie! Jason and Alex share the honor of first place in a fun and diverse contest. Besides the awesome first prize of a LEGO Gingerbread House or equivalent, their images will grace our community banner until February.

The competition was spirited with lots of great entries from our community members and moderators alike. But our winners rose above the rest with images that showed the meaning of family while using diverse toys and a healthy dose of humor.

The winners!

“The cycle ends here. We must be better than this” – Kratos, God of War, by Alex Lanford

We all loved this image by Alex. Not only is this a stunning image, but Alex’s caption really sold the judges. Alex really captured the essence of family with her toys

“The story of Kratos and Atreus is one of my favorites about family. Father and son, who aren’t very close, set upon a journey to put a mother and wife to rest. The trials they face along the way teach them both very valuable lessons about each other.”

– Alex Langford

Our other co-winner’s image takes a decidedly less serious approach to the idea of family. Jason uses the characters introduced in Disney’s recently debuted TV show, The Mandalorian to convey a “mother’s” protective nature over her young. Who knew that raising a young, Yoda-like being would be such serious business?

Raising Yoda (but not yoda, just yoda-like being), by Jason Nvrmore

We can only imagine what it must be like to have The Mandalorian as a babysitter. To be fair, we also enjoyed Jason’s image of Godzilla and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man going in for a hug. Nothing says family like some light destruction around the holidays!

The runners-up

“Storytime,” by Daria-Maret

Every time I see this image I cant help but snicker. The annoyed look on Kylo’s face says it all! Obviously that stormtrooper is a bit of a handful. Also, nice use of the props to block those awkward and stiff stormtrooper legs!

“I am your father / And all this is yours,” by Ben Crawley

We all love a good mashup-up in the MeWe Community. This image by Ben manages to send up Star Wars and The Lion King! Who knew such a thing was even possible? Oh, that’s right, in our crazy world of toys, anything is possible! Even this charming image of John Wick in retirement by Janan.

“The Growing Family,” by Janan Lee

This is how I imagine John Wick’s retirement would look (if it eventually does happen, again) – Janan Lee

Janan’s images are always appreciated in the community. This simple set up of the Mafex John Wick figure with a nice collection of dogs, from both LEGO and other brands, brings an innocence and peace to a character more known for his vigilante nature. John Wick, may your retirement be filled with many fluffy and happy dogs!

More fun entries!

Showcasing only our winners and a few standout images doesn’t really show how much we enjoy our challenges. So I want to share a few more entries from our community members and moderators. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

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Up next

Now that we’ve wrapped up our MeWe Community Challenge: Family, it’s time to look ahead to next month. To celebrate #jantmanuary, we want to encourage you to photograph your toys showing real-world scale. Your photos can be as simple as toys interacting in a super-sized world. Or you can get tricky and use forced perspective and bring your toys and the human world to the same level. Get creative and have fun!

To participate on any platform, simply use the #tp_realworld2020 hashtag. If you want to be considered for February’s contest wrap up on the blog, be sure and post your images in our MeWe community!

~ Shelly