CowTrooper Victorious!

Amazing! Sensing the huge amount of support for the top two entries in the Chick-fil-A Cow Appreciation Day contest, the food chain decided to award TWO grand prizes. Both the Jobe Family of Boone, NC, and Noel (TK-8541) Green will receive a year's worth of meals. Noel, of course, has pledged to donate his winnings to his local New Mexico food bank to assist those less fortunate. As an added bonus, Noel reports that his local Chick-fil-A restaurant will be hosting a special day where a percentage of their sales will go to the same food bank charity! Thank you to all of you who supported this fun and worthy cause---it's astounding that people can make a difference like this when they combine their efforts. Here's the winning announcement from Chick-fil-A's official facebook page: http://bit.ly/s9txN

Vote for TK-COW...and Do It Now!

The competition is pulling out all the stops in the Chick-fil-A Cow Appreciation Day competition and the 501st Legion's very own Noel Green (TK-8541) needs your daily vote from now through Monday, August 31st! Although fans were able to push Noel into the No.1 spot late last week with a surge of votes, the outcome is now uncertain. The CowTrooper respectfully requests that you do your part for the Empire (and remember that Noel has pledged his grand prize of a year's worth of food to feed those in danger of starvation through his local food bank charity)! Click here then click 'vote' and 'highest rated.' This is our most desperate hour...vote daily and spread the word!

To Theaters, It Will Come

Imperial Cadet Training Manual

In 2005, with Star Wars Celebration 3 quickly approaching, I saw the need for something to hand out to young fans at troopin' events. During this time, the 501st typically had stickers, temporary tattoos, buttons and such, but those were consumables and supplies often ran low, or the event organizer simply didn't have enough lead time to have them produced. Inspired by an early Legion coloring book produced by Dallas "Dustin Crops Boy" Poague (an ex-501st member who now runs Monkey In A Dryer screen-printing business in Minnesota), I decided that a black and white printable pdf file filled with Imperial-style games, puzzles and activities would be an economical turnkey solution for 501st events around the world...well, at least the English-speaking world! Presented as a 12-page "Top Secret" Imperial Cadet Training Manual, the activity book proved to be quite popular over the years, making itself useful as a giveaway at events both large and small. In September 2008, however, I was thrilled to hear that my design was selected to be used by 78 Pottery Barn Kids stores as part of their classic Star Wars decor product launch in North America. (On a side note, PBK donated $15,600 US to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital on behalf of our participation.) In the photo below, you can see some of the activity books in the hands of an employee as BH-3384 takes a break at a Florida event.

I recently added a few pages to the book and, after finding out it was being sold by scalpers on ebay, made it a free download via 501st.com. I have to also give thanks to TK-742 of the German Garrison for a lot of the initial artwork used in the book.

TRIVIA: The back page of the Imperial Cadet Training Manual is a mostly-blank page labeled "Imperial Endorsements" which is used for fans to collect autographs from their favorite characters. While proving quite popular at the Pottery Barn Kids events, this page was really just filler when I originally ran out of ideas for additional content!

Fast Facts Display

I've been creating 501st PR material for some time now, on both the local and Legion level. I really enjoy creating flyers, advertisements, banners, posters, trading cards, the Legion PR kit, kid's activity book, the first official Legion typeface and more. I heard that the 501st booth at Dragon*Con was in need of some things, so I put together a 3-sided "Fast Facts" display using the trivia list I've compiled over the years for use on 501st.com's page headers. The 3-sided design is based upon a 7-inch-tall acrylic display that looks like sample A in this image. Each side features a different photo of a Legion member in costume with 4 factoids. I think something like this would work well in larger sizes as a series of ceiling-danglers (we've got plenty of facts to choose from). If this is a hit at D*C, I'll propose the idea on the Legion level.