501st Pictures

It’s been a while since I’ve done this:

Singing in the Rain:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aralani/3044770048/

Southern California Autism Walk

Cloud City Garrison

Myer 2008 Christmas Parade

Crewman

SWE Madrid

Florida Garrison

Rivergate Mall

Arkansas 501st Members

Omega Con

Cloud City Garrison

Alzheimers Walk

501st Caught On Camera

Here’s a selection of pictures from Flickr of the 501st Legion:

Unknown Group Shot:

Weird Al Concert (Seattle)

Packed

Clone Bear

Metrocon (Florida)

FanExpo

Mini Trooper at GenCon

More GenCon

Clone Wars Releases

Clone at San Diego ComicCon

UKG TD in Scotland

Random Storm Trooper

Blackout Concert

501

Aliens invade Tampa Convention Center for Scout Con 2008

Aliens invade Tampa Convention Center for Scout Con 2008

By Robbyn Mitchell, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, May 25, 2008
TAMPA — Jacob Polk and Clay Cumbee came all the way to the Tampa Convention Center from Dade City to see characters from one their favorite movies, Star Wars.

Flanked by storm troopers, Christian Allyn, known to his fellow Klingons as tIn’HIch’nuj, and Richard Woods, also known as Qahoine thlolrop, wait for the verdict in the Scout Con 2008 costume competition. The Klingons, from Clearwater and Tampa, respectively, took first place.

“There was an Ewok and a storm trooper,” Clay mused.

Dressed in their Boy Scout uniforms, Jacob, 12, and Clay, 13, took photos with Vader’s 501st Legion, which tours sci-fi conventions in full battle gear with replica weapons of those in the movies.

Hundreds of people came out to Scout Con 2008 Saturday to talk about space and see the stars of their favorite sci-fi TV shows.

The proceeds of the miniconvention will help maintain Scout troops in low-income areas that got a huge funding cut from the state this year.

Classic actors like Erin Gray of Buck Rogers and Grace Lee Whitney of Star Trek mingled with Scouts and their excited leaders and parents to help try to bridge the gap between space curiosity and exploration.

“I’d been to a lot of events like this before,” said Ted Johnson, director for the Scouts’ gulf region. “And I thought it would be great to do something like this in our area.”

Johnson said 90 percent of all NASA’s astronauts had been in Boy Scouts, so tying the organization to sci-fi didn’t seem like a stretch.

Other actors better known for their work outside of Science fiction, such as Police Academy’s Michael Winslow, also participated in the event.

“I was in the Scouts back when I was in Colorado,” he said. “So any time I get a call from them, I’m interested.”

Winslow, who is famous for his beat-boxing and noise imitations, was sure the Scouts would get a kick out of requesting sounds from him at his performance in the afternoon.

“I always get requests,” Winslow said. “That’s why I know the value of hot tea with lemon.”

Sunnie J’oy Planthold, dressed in Star Trek gear with matching red and white hair, greeted children as they entered the convention.

“I’m a retired teacher, so I love to come to these things to help out my kiddies,” she said.

Planthold and her husband, Ralph, run the USS Gasparilla, which gathers Trekkies to do community service in the area.

“It’s great to translate something I’m a fan of into something good for the entire community,” she said.

Johnson couldn’t agree more.

“Events like this bring together Scouts from all over, and it benefits our lower-income Scouts,” he said. “I can’t think of a better reason to do it.”

Robbyn Mitchell can be reached at (813) 269-5313 or rmitchell@sptimes.com.

Source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article523614.ece

Star Wars Weekends

Here’s some photos from the activities down in Florida:

Last Week’s Flickr Picks

I was sick last Friday and left work early, but here’s the pictures from last week on Flickr:

Clone Trooper from the Aurora Boraelis Outpost:

Two Black and White pictures from the Polish Outpost:

UK Garrison Troopers in Bristol:

California Spring Fair:

Vader @ Cartoonomics:
Troopers at Centro Jerez:

Connecticut Garrison:

Trooper Crowd Surfing at Dragon*Con:

Several pictures of Garrison Titan from the Emerald City Comic Con:

Ken Tarleton (the Elvis Trooper):

Troopers at Four Color Comics:

Unknown Free Comic Book Day:

Freemont Free Comic Book Day:

I just found this one hilarious:

Trooper from the Florida Garrison ready for Summer:

The Alabama Garrison at the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra:

A couple random troopers:

Lancaster Make a Wish:

London Troopers:

UK Trooper with TK 119:

TAG Trooper:
Mini Golf Troop:

MGM Trooper:

More Free Comic Book Day Shoutouts

A couple of newspapers have mentioned the 501st in a couple articles about Free Comic Book Day:

Comic books are free for the taking

By EMILY SHRADER
TEENS IN THE NEWSROOM

last updated: April 30, 2008 03:08:10 PM
Calling all comic book fans! Saturday is the seventh annual Free Comic Book Day at participating comic book stores across the nation, where comic books will be handed out to anyone who visits.
Local artists Clay Atkins, Patrick Barr and Vince Underwood also will be on hand. And while they’ll be coming by car, not by Republic attack cruiser, “Star Wars” imperial troops from the Central California Garrison of the 501st Legion also are set to make an appearance.
Full Article

And,

A heroic effort: comics for free
By Steve Echeverria Jr.
Published Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 1:02 p.m.
This year, The Dark Side is featuring members of the “Star Wars” costuming fan club The 501st Legion; local artists will be sketching characters; and there will be a “World of Warcraft” competition. Comic books will also be given away at the Selby (1331 First St.) and Fruitville (100 Coburn Road) public libraries. The North Sarasota Library at 2801 Newtown Blvd. also will host a free event from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Full Article

Bad guys doing good deeds

This in from the Florida Times-Union Jacksonville.com:

Bad guys doing good deeds
By WILLIAM MARDEN, Special to the Times-Union

Aaron Kahler is a tough-looking, bullet-headed man, a former Marine who works as a Jacksonville bail bondsman.

But in his spare time, he dresses up like a stormtrooper.
Which explains why you could find him near Friendship Fountain recently, sealed into that futuristic-looking white armor and wielding the energy weapons Darth Vader’s infamous brigades made famous in the Star Wars movies.
He was shooting menacing looks alongside fellow members of Squad 7, the Jacksonville contingent of stormtroopers who make up Darth Vader’s 501st Legion, otherwise known as Vader’s Fist.
As he and six other members of Squad 7 took a break from the summerlike heat (and those hard plastic costumes do get hot), they drew a constant procession of young and old who couldn’t get over the shock of seeing some of the most famous bad guys in cinema.
Despite their reputation, these bad guys had just finished walking 3 miles in the heat to raise money to fight juvenile diabetes. That’s not unusual, Kahler said, because most of the 4,000 or so active members of the 501st Legion spend much of their time raising money or working for good causes.
Why would grown-ups around the world spend thousands of dollars, and untold hours, playing Star Wars make-believe?
To Kahler, it’s as simple as the lure of the movies themselves and the chance to play the villain.

“I got into it two years ago,” Kahler said. “I was a Star Wars fan from the time I went to see the first movie when I was 4 years old. I’ve been a fan ever since. I wanted to wear a costume like the Star Wars troopers even before I learned what they do for charity.”
Kahler leads Squad 7, with 31 members on the First Coast and another three who live in the Tallahassee area. There are chapters in Tampa/St. Petersburg and a few other Florida cities.
He said the squad has helped the Ronald McDonald House and Wolfson Children’s Hospital, including raising $1,000 to participate in the Red Wagon Parade.
Members take great pains to make their costumes as accurate as possible. Some make their own from molds, Kahler said, but most buy a kit that has black plastic under armor and the infamous shell of white outer armor. The kit costs about $1,000.
That’s only the first step.
“We spend a lot of time screening still [pictures] from the movies to make the costumes as accurate as possible,” Kahler said.
Troopers add bandoliers and pouches, and either modify Hasbro’s toy stormtrooper blasters, or buy something such as a Hyper-firm long rifle, found online for $475.
And how do their loved ones feel about this?
“When I first got involved with it, my wife thought I was the biggest dork on the planet,” said Kahler, who is married with two daughters. “It took two meetings for her to get into it and now she has armor herself. She hadn’t seen a Star Wars film until we got married.”
J.P. Fouchey has been a member for a couple of years and has two children, ages 8 and 21/2. He said his kids “love it” when he’s in costume.
Attending events means the troopers must prepare to spend up to three hours just having fans take pictures of them, Kahler said.

Besides charity work, the squad also attends events such as MegaCon, the comic book convention in Orlando, as well as mall appearances.
Another Squad 7 member, Fabian Perez, said, “I’ve had more pictures taken of me in the last two years than the first 36 years of my life.”
He said the payoff is putting smiles on people’s faces.
But members of the 501st Legion don’t deny that the chance to play the bad guys is a big part of the lure.
Arthur Pugh, 39, who has been in the squad for several years and a member of the 501st since 2003, said he joined because, “everybody likes playing the nameless, faceless bad guy. And those uniforms were just so cool.”

Source

Florida Garrison in the News

This just came across the ‘net – the Florida Garrison made the news for a recent Charity walk that they just did:

DIABETES FOUNDATION
BENEFITS FROM WALK

At a charity walk March 15 at Siesta Public Beach, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation raised $300,000 from the efforts and contributions of 3,000 people who took a three-mile round-trip excursion on the white sands.

Event chairman Sara Rankin happily mingled with the walkers, who had the chance to enjoy food under the pavilion thanks to CEO Carl Cannova of SYSCO Food Services of West Coast Florida, who donated a truckload of goodies.

Coca-Cola donated bottled water and beverages; Todd Graff was on hand representing the company.

Corporate chair was Todd Morton of Morton’s Gourmet Market. His daughter, Ivy, was excited to have her face painted by the talented Melba Peel, who created colorful designs on many of the children’s faces.

Public relations coordinator Cynthia Kemp was an event touchstone as well a member of one of the larger teams, Danny Dragoon.

The day was fun for all and accomplished much for the diabetes foundation.

Keeping lunchtime lively were local band The Key Rats and “Star Wars” characters, who came out from the 501st Legion to interact with the folks and support the walk.