501st on Film

Here’s a couple videos of the 501st in action:

March of the 501st

RMFF/RL/501st 9 News Appearance for Autism Walk 2007

Dragoncon 2008 90210 spoof

Stormtrooper randomness 2 (carameldansen)

Stormtrooper en TIE Fighter Pilot Dancing

ASH – Stormtrooper request 1977 gigs, Roundhouse

Stormtroopers at the Astoria

501st @ Ash Concert

This was pretty cool: the 501st UK Garrison trooped a concert with the band Ash, at a special concert for their album 1977.

The troopers were on stage before the concert and for sections during the show. I’ve never heard of the band, but apparently, they performed on the Republic Commando soundtrack, which is how we ended up on their radar.

Here’s some video of them in action:

Weekly Flickr Pictures

Here’s some of the pictures from the past week:

Stormtrooper and Snowtrooper at Potter Barn Kids

Radio Wayne and the 501st

These are not the droids…

Overheard Parade shot

Sputnik Fest (Midwest Garrison)

DragonCon Parade

Stampeed Parade

Kid’s Fair

TK in Hollywood

Katie Cook & TB

Forbidden Planet’s 30th Birthday

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

501st in the News

Several articles just popped up on google news about the 501st. The first one is written by our very own Regina Layug (TB/ID 1870)!

My life as a clone

By Regina Layug
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Last updated 18:24:00 08/15/2008

MANILA, Philippines—You’ve probably seen pictures of the stormtroopers and Darth Vader, or even seen them for yourself at malls, on TV, at big events. You’ve seen them in their armor, posing and marching with their blasters and their helmets. You probably even have pictures with them.

But have you ever thought of what it’s like to wear all that armor? I’ll tell you what it’s like, because I wore clone trooper armor three days in a row at “Star Wars” Celebration Japan.

First of all, I’m a member of the 501st Legion, an international organization of Star Wars fans who wear the costumes of “Star Wars” villains. It is Lucasfilm’s preferred Imperial costuming group, and is represented locally by the Philippine Outpost. And I’m the only girl.

It isn’t easy. My other costumes are the Imperial officer, which is all cloth, and the scout trooper, which has no leg armor. So the transition from those costumes to the full body armor of the clones wasn’t easy.

Midget

The clones in the movies were around 5’10”, and of medium build. The fiberglass armor we wore was built for guys who were 5’5”. I’m just over five feet tall, and compared to the other two Pinoys who wore the armor at Celebration Japan, I’m skinny!

The armor enclosed almost the whole body in fiberglass. There were only small openings at the joints and the neck so one could move, and even then mobility was very limited. The arms were too big for me, and kept moving around.

Fortunately, the bicep pieces are attached to the shoulder bells, so they stay in place.

Not so for the elbow and the forearm pieces: they kept rotating on my little arms! The legs were too big for me, and it was difficult to walk. I had to waddle most of the time!

The knee plate kept getting stuck between the thigh and the shin pieces, and it would pinch. And worse, we had to put lifts inside the shoes to make me look taller, and they hurt!

And then there was the helmet. It’s like a cage around your head! The opening was so small that the face plate had to be removed so I could put it on. It was so stuffy that my sweat condensed. Visibility was limited too. I couldn’t even look down at your feet, so I was always afraid of stepping on little children, or hitting someone with my blaster!

But don’t start thinking that clone armor was all pain and no fun. Sure, it hurt. The armor pinched when I walked all over the convention hall during the costume parade on the first day. I found out later that people were saying in Japanese, “That one’s quite short!” “Chibi clone,” I think, is how I will be described in their photos.

Parade

But during the parade I could see little kids waving and smiling. It’s heartwarming when you see little kids look up at you in awe, their parents excitedly telling them to pose for pictures. It’s a great thrill when you realize that the “Star Wars” celebrities and artists want to have their pictures taken with you.

And because the Philippine Outpost of the 501st wore the only white clone armor costumes at Celebration Japan, two of our members were able to participate in the opening ceremonies of the convention, standing alongside “Clone Wars” Jedi padawan Ahsoka, Steve Sansweet of Lucasfilm, Clone Wars director Dave Filoni, visual effects guru John Knoll, and master sculptor Lorne Peterson. One of our clones even got stuck doing photo-ops for two hours with the crowds!

So when I remember how much the armor hurt, pinched and ached, I remember how many people smiled because of me and my armor, and that makes it all better.

Source

And another article from the Southeast corner of the world:

Star Wars 501st legion woos crowd at Mall

Members of the public were surprised to see Darth Vader and his storm troopers walking down the halls of The Mall, Gadong, when Star Wars enthusiasts dressed up in costumes to take on the roles of the evil 501st legion yesterday.

The objective of the costume parade was to promote the release of the feature animation movie, Star Wars: Clone Wars, which premiered in Brunei a few days ago, and to interact with various Mall and cinema-goers providing a more realistic approach and experience.

As the 501st legion made their way to the ground floor, onlookers took pictures of the Star Wars costume enthusiasts.

One of the troop members Russell Knox, who is also the Executive Officer of the 501st Legion Malaysia-Brunei Outpost, said that the whole idea of the film was to recap Skywalker’s problematic story.

The costume enthusiasts have been promoting the release of the movie in most countries especially Brunei and Malaysia.

The 501st Legion comprises of Darth Vader’s utterly evil forces from the dark side: his Storm troopers, who have been revived once again in the animated version of the Star Wars series.

The Malaysia-Brunei Outpost also urged the public to join the legion by taking part and being a member of the 501st Legion in which approximately 4,000 people from North America, Asia and Europe are registered members.

Those interested in joining may do so by obtaining a costume that meets certain criterion.

The actual series of the Star Wars anthology has reached its end but filmmakers are currently planning to remake the series based on animation.

Source

Last one out of the UK, with the Telegraph:

Flogging a dead Force…
Danny Graydon
True story: a few days after the first press screening of Star Wars – Revenge of The Sith in May 2005, I was walking past the Burger King in Leicester Square and noticed a poster in the window for a Star Wars promotional tie-in. On it, Darth Vader stood menacingly in an action pose, red-bladed lightsaber ignited and above his shiny-helmeted head, emblazoned in a huge red stylised font was the screaming exclamation “BE A JEDI HERO!”….

Wanna be a Jedi hero?

I gazed at this for a few seconds, recalling the film I had recently seen. So, I pondered with barely-concealed incredulity, that would be a Jedi “hero” who suddenly turned to outright Hitler-level evil on the flimsiest pre-text imaginable and THEN, for his debut act of E-vill, ruthlessly slaughters a bunch of kids. It was then that I realised that, for this life-long fan, at least, Star Wars was irretrievably screwed.

Of course, The Prequels had come saddled, somewhat inevitably, with the realisation that Star Wars not being made for my generation any more, but this was stark proof that the franchise had become trapped between its dual positions as a creative endeavour and as a vastly-profitable brand beholden to legions of merchandising partners, with one paying little attention to the other.

Fast forward three years to last weekend and a group of my thirty-something friends (okay, and one forty-something – sorry Dave) – jaded Star Wars fans to a man – are attending the press screening of THE CLONE WARS, a movie that comprises the first three episodes of a computer-animated series – anticipated to last 100 episodes – and which is designed to bridge the gap between Attack of The Clones and Revenge of The Sith (aka Episodes II and III).

In truth, we few, we deluded few, we band of hapless fanboys were not expecting much from Mr. Lucas – especially after the apocalyptically hollow debacle that was Indy IV – but that’s another story…

We were attending more out of a resigned “Well, we’ve come this far…” mindset than genuine excitement. It was like rubber-necking at a car-crash: you know it’s bad, you’re just grimly curious to see how bad.

Following a procession of members of The 501st Legion, an organization of ardent Star Wars fans anchored on the creation of (impressively) screen-accurate costumes - although some of whom clearly take it a tad too seriously and others who are perhaps too portly for Jedi – and an introduction by Anthony “C3PO” Daniels, who amusingly came within a hair’s breadth of a diva-ish hissy fit when a middle-aged audience member threatened to de-rail his attempt to get the kids in the cinema to shout “Use The Force” in unison, we were presented with the final proof – as if we needed it – that The Party Is Well And Truly Over.

Granted, the film was determinedly skewed towards young children – albeit via the vastly unsubtle and irritating conceit of a young Jedi apprentice who’s essentially a tank-top and hot-pants-sporting Valley-Girl tween – but there was a pervading sense of resounding apathy about the whole affair. Even the kids sitting behind us noticed.

Full Article

501st Caught on Film

AP Armor Test

Star Wars Clone Wars 501st appearance

Gencon Australia: Dance Dance Rebellion

Toys R Us Midnight Madness 2008 Part 1- The 501st

Movie Park Jahrestreffen 501sT

501st. Gathering MoviePark 2008

501st Caught on Camera

Here’s the latest videos from the past week:

501st Weird Al Cincinnati 2008 – 4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lSgIWTfExf8

501st Weird Al Cincinnati 2008 – 3

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cS_QlcboSYA

501st Weird Al Cincinnati 2008- 2

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CmRGQM-aOrY

501st Weird Al Cincinnati 2008 – 1

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ctyvg9lV1yA

501st Legion Midsouth Garrison with Weird Al Yankovic. Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville, TN

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6_ksxjvsOMw

Weird Al 501st GLG 7-17-08

http://youtube.com/watch?v=As1fsPVpVf0

501st MI GLG/Weird Al Meadowbrook 2008

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vdZgDcZ0AYI

man in uniform

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_WF0O1A-WI8

Sci-Fi Convention in Gothenburg 2006

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SxubRaBXKrg

Star Wars Weekend: Comedic Stormtroopers

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MEQW3Ub4A-k

stormtroopers at one man star wars

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yJIDdMAPXdo

Star wars stormtroopers at Causeway Bay

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9I1HbZIJmAQ

puebla concierto star wars 3

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GPlPevpekJk

501 french belgium garrison and rebel legion

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OPqWQP_jND8

501st Caught on Camera

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done this – things have been incredibly busy lately!

I need to showcase the Montpelier parade first with us and the fantastic walker:

Me!

Other 4th of July parades:

Camp Pendelton Family Day:



Dune Sea Garrison Event:

Biker Scout:

Terror Australis Garrison at GenCon Oz:

Clone at Japan Expo:

More 4th of July:

Star Wars Weekend wrapup:

Random Scout:
This one’s titled The Jedi Killed Oscar:

Random TK:
UK TK:

More next week. Weird Al pictures!

501st Caught on Camera

Here’s a series of pictures of the 501st from the past week:

Trooper in Austin Texas:

I just found this hilarious:

A clone trooper, Garrison unknown:

Trooper at Dragon*Con:

Troopers from Brazil:

UK Garrison and London Cops:

UK Trooper in Maidenhead:

[Removed by request]

Troopers in Omaha:

Some fun at Wizard World Philly:

Scout Trooper:

Some more Star Wars Weekend pictures:

TK at the UK Games Expo:

TKs at a wedding:

TKs:

TK at Warsaw, Poland:

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: