Were these real giant LEGO pieces on the 2020 Late Holiday catalog cover?

Question

In a recent cover of the US LEGO Catalog we see kids playing with oversized LEGO pieces:

The toolbox (98368) and wrench (4006) are very recognizable.
The tiara is distinctly part 33322.
The banana is basically part 33085, but the colored tips are suspicious.

The debate my wife and I have been having about all of this is: did they really print out big parts like this or did they fake it with Photoshop? I'm hoping that they went and did this Matt Denton-style and printed everything extra large, handed it to the kids and let them do whatever child models do. My wife doesn't feel like the shadows work right, and she thinks they faked it in the computer. I don't expect that we have access to anyone involved with making this catalog for an utterly authoritative answer, but maybe you're good at spotting the Photoshop signs.

In this Rebuild the world Making Of on youtube the hunter's bow looks like an actual prop... — Uli, Nov 29 '20 at 11:22
For Lego's 50th anniversary celebrations in Australia, they made some life-sized trees. Some photos are here: https://cakeheadlovesevil.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/lego-forest-50th-birthday-celebrations/ — RSchulz, Nov 29 '20 at 22:22
With a large format 3d printer and some modelmaking skills this would be easy. Any prop maker or model shop could do them the old-fashioned way too (even I've made a similar sword out of wood, though theirs has a better finish). The children holding the spanner, toolbox, and banana look like they really are, but I'm not so confident about the hands holding the sword - it seems like an awkward grip and a trick of the lighting — Chris H, Mar 03 '21 at 15:21

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 27 '21 at 16:40

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I think that they photoshopped shadows in after setting up lighting to remove shadows so that the picture has shadows making it so it doesn’t look weird while not having shadows making the picture dark.

answered Feb 27 '21 at 16:40

Legofan35664

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modelsGood point. The lighting is quite flat going by the shadows on the kids/props, plus the background has been replaced by the cover colour. Fake shadows are to be expected, and of course it's clearly composed from at least 3 shots just of the kids, plus more of the Lego models (the elephant-panda-parrot stack is a bit too big, while the dragon, modified from overlord dragon I reckon, is huge compared to the kids interacting with them) – Chris H Mar 03 '21 at 15:27

Were these real giant LEGO pieces on the 2020 Late Holiday catalog cover?

1 Answers1