Homemade Heroes: Legos and Barbies
I was starting to worry I overreached a bit with the Homemade Heroes Contest. Oh, there have been some absolutely fantastic entries, but just a trickle compared to the other contests. Part of this I realize is that this contest was a little more skill-specific. Far less inclusive than “ward something” or “take a picture of yourself with a book”. Even the Fan Art contest had a lower bar for entry. I tried to keep it as inclusive as possible, but I knew Homemade Heroes was going to demand more of its participants, in sheer hours and material, if nothing else.
But damn, I thought the idea was cool. I still do. So I made the prize the rarest and most valuable books I had to give, a complete signed worldwide first edition set of The Painted Man, The Great Bazaar, The Desert Spear, and Brayan’s Gold. I figured that would help make the extra effort worthwhile.
But then I think I got a little greedy, asking the winner to send me their creation in exchange for the prize. It felt… mercenary, and didn’t sit well with me. Why should I ask people to give up something they had spent so many hours working on? You people already gave me a prize. You read my books and visit my website. The pictures of people’s entries give me SO much joy, I don’t need anything else. So for the record, Whoever wins the contest gets to keep their creation. This Thursday is American Thanksgiving (and the last day to submit your contest entries), and I already have plenty to be thankful for.
But regardless, competition in the Homemade Hero Contest has officially become fierce, with not one but TWO spectacular entries that came in today. The first from French Jess, and the next, just a few hours later, from Yelie:
Peat,
I love your contests and love seeing what everyone comes up with! I have said every time that I was going to enter but never actually did. When I saw this contest I knew this was the one I had to enter! I had about 20 ideas that I really wanted to do but alas, I did have to make a teeny bit of time for studying. I figured that most people would do Arlen all warded up so that one was out. I decided to get my husband in on the fun and made him help me narrow it down. His only stipulation was that he got to use Legos at some point in the process (I really think he just wanted to ward the itty bitty spear!). I really wanted to do Leesha with her warded cloak and Rojer with his fiddle so since we couldn’t decide on one, you get both!
For the Lego part I knew we had to put the sandbox to use! One of the most memorable parts in the book is when Jardir takes the spear from Arlen and leaves him in the pit to die (I mean really, what a chach!) so thats what I decided to recreate. Jardir standing above the pit with the warded spear and Arlen having to face a sand demon with Jardir’s crappy unwarded spear he threw down to make himself feel better about leaving his friend to die.
Next came Leesha and Rojer. First I had to convince my 6 year old daughter that her Barbies would look amazing in the clothes I was going to make and that Ken didn’t really need all 5 fingers…It took lots of coaxing (and I am certainly not above bribery) but in the end she decided that as long as I would make some clothes for her other barbies, she didnt really need them back 😉 I had the best time drawing the wards on Leesha’s cloak and making her apron with lots of pockets full of blinding powder. I should mention that my sewing machine decided to crap out right before this contest so I had to find ways to make clothes with no sewing at all! Thank goodness for fabrics that don’t fray when cut!
My husband was the genius who made the rock demons and woodies. He also carved out Rojer’s fiddle for me.
The scene I was going with is Leesha and Rojer walking along the path back to the cabin with lots of demons around them but the cloak keeping them away from Leesha and Rojer’s fiddle keeping the rest at bay.
Anyways I hope you like them!
-Yelie