'Star Wars' stormtrooper toys set up Christmas tree in fun viral photos

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Tuesday, December 1, 2015
A father and son positioned their "Star Wars" stormtrooper toys to make it look as if they were setting up a Christmas tree in this funny photo series.
creativeContent-Photo/Kyle Shearrer and Phil Shearrer

A father and son gave the world an early intergalactic holiday gift with their cute Star Wars toy photo series.

Phil Shearrer, 52, and his son Kyle, 18, photographed their stormtrooper toys in various positions to look as if they were teaming up to build a Christmas tree. The photos show the troopers humorously reading instructions, dealing with unexpected setbacks and celebrating after they finally completing the tree.

The father and son from Columbia, Mo. took an improvised approach when with the stormtrooper Christmas project, saying yes to each other's ideas and collaborating to maximize it.

"I wanted one of the troopers (Who I think the net has named 'Shock') to be looking at the wall outlet -- anticipating the need to make sure that there was a power source for the lights," Phil told ABC. "Kyle jumped on that and said let's give him a fork -- and then from there Kyle developed that whole sequence and took it to a new level."

Phil says that it took the troopers about two hours to build the tree, with things speeding up after a toy Darth Vader arrived. After they were completed, Kyle posted the photos to his Facebook page on Nov. 29. The images were shared over 120,000 times, with Facebook users praising the father and sun for the fun photo series.

"How in the world did you think of such a creative idea, I LOVE IT," wrote one Facebook user.

"Cute can't wait to see what else they get into," wrote another.

Phil says that he has been stunned by the online support and that reading all of the comments has been like "sharing a giant holiday card with a million other fans."

"We posted it just to share with our friends and then within a few hours we were seeing hundreds and then thousands of shares," Phil told ABC. "You could tell that people were having as much fun posting and sharing with each other as we had putting it together."

Phil though says that the best part of the experience was sharing the Star Wars experience with his family.

"For Kyle, my wife Cindy and my daughters, Cassidy and Kelsie this has been the best part," Phil said. "Just being a part of the whole Star Wars celebration."

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Lucasfilm and this station.