We Love R2-KT

501st Legion Founder Albin Johnson started something incredible 10 years ago when he decided to show up at a local movie theater in full Stormtrooper armor just for fun. Although he would never admit it, Albin has an amazing sense of vision and his passion drives him to succeed. I would like to state now, for the record, that I think he's doing it again. The formula is similar to that which fuels the ever-growing 501st Legion, but replace the fans in costume with an army of good-willed robots.

The result is the story of R2-KT, the "Pink Imperial Droid with a Heart of Gold."

When Albin's daughter, Katie, was diagnosed with brain cancer, the network of friends that Albin had built over the years rallied around the brave little girl. The fan community showed a tremendous outpour of support including the construction of a scale remote control droid to watch over Katie while she slept (her sister Allie's idea). The droid was dubbed "R2-KT" (as in "Artoo-Katie"), and despite the loss of Katie, the pink robot now serves to educate, entertain, and bring awareness to pediatric cancer. She's even inspired Hasbro and Lucasfilm to donate $100,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

My prediction: R2-KT's robot friends (namely the R2 Builders Group) will join the cause. Awareness will spread amongst children's hospitals and charitable organizations across the world. More fans (perhaps parents of sick children) will be inspired to build replica droids for the same purpose. A new Legion will be born. In fact, with a trading card, embroidered patch, and Hasbro action figure already on the market, the future looks bright pink for R2-KT.

For more information about R2-KT, please visit r2kt.com.

Rose Parade Audition Flashback

It's been one year since troopers around the globe were asked by Lucasfilm to submit videos of themselves marching in military-style formation. During the grueling summer practice sessions, troopers were asked to state their name, 501st Legion ID number, and unit affiliation. At the time, nobody knew just why Lucasfilm wanted the footage...was it an audition for the Star Wars live-action TV series? Was this an underhanded way of gathering names for a large-scale cease-and-desist order to all owners of bootleg Stormtrooper armor? Speculations ran rampant, but it was finally announced at San Diego Comic-Con that George Lucas himself wanted to recognize and reward the 501st Legion for their volunteer service as goodwill ambassadors of the Star Wars franchise by inviting 200 troopers to the Star Wars Spectacular in the 2007 Rose Parade. Many of the training videos can be seen on this YouTube playlist. The training I participated in on July 8, 2006, in Greensboro, North Carolina, happened to be one of the only times I've been captured on video skateboarding in my armor.

Now Featuring Polls and Frappr!

It seems Google's Blogger.com can't stop adding new features to make things easier for me. The latest addition is the ability to run polls on this blog so I've added one about how visitors find tk899.com. Please vote in the poll at the top of the right column to help me test this new feature. And while you're at it, scroll all the way to the bottom and map yourself!

Tega Cay 4th of July Parade

The community of Tega Cay, South Carolina, loves the 501st Legion! In 2006, the Carolina Garrison marched in this city's 4th of July parade and even had 501st Founder Albin Johnson as the Grand Marshal. The troops were such a hit, the Mayor invited us back this year and extended every courtesy imaginable including changing space at his own home office, a special 501st cake, a pre-parade dinner, breakfast, tickets to the afternoon fish fry, a personal trolley and parade vehicles...even a banner advertising our appearance posted at a major intersection! The best part is that the city is making a $500 donation to Make-A-Wish in the name of the 501st Legion. I'm not sure how many laws were broken during the 3.5-mile route, but standing in moving pickup truck beds and shooting spectators with a super soaker water gun was just too much fun. The neighbors (some with signs that read "Squirt Me!") shot back with their own water guns and even garden hoses! It's a good thing I didn't install my ROMFX voice amp system yet---the water might have ruined something. Maybe an E-Web water cannon is in order for 2008 (maybe I'll have a Snowtrooper costume completed by then). More photos can be seen here, here, and here.

Super Soaker Water Blaster

The upcoming Fourth of July parade in Tega Cay, SC, presents a unique opportunity to "blast" spectators with water as I ride in the back of a flatbed truck with other costumed participants. The organizers have given the approval to do this, and as a summertime event, the cool streams of water should be welcomed (and relatively harmless). I picked up a Water Warriors "TigerShark" super soaker water gun at Big K this past weekend for a sale price of just under $12. To make the colorful water gun look a bit more like a Star Wars weapon, I removed the stickers and used Krylon Fusion black spray paint which bonds with plastic and doesn't require primer before painting. I had fun testing range, power, and the longevity of the water supply with the kids in the backyard and this particular model seemed to be a good compromise between price and performance. The TigerShark even comes with a shoulder strap to support the weight of 67 ounces of water, although refilling will require an assistant (as well as a lot of water) along the parade route. The LED you see lit up in the photo is supposed to be a "ready light" that indicates how much air pressure you have in the super soaker, but it's more for show than anything else.

Tours of Duty

I've just added a list of all my Stormtrooper-related events (right column), and so far I've come up with roughly 46 occassions dating back to March 2002 when I first acquired my armor kit (although there's probably some that I've forgotten). On my original site, I used to document my troopin' gigs including photos of each event, but I eventually gave up. Hopefully, this blog will make it much easier to keep a record of each event as it passes. Moving forward, you can see my "Tours of Duty" by selecting the "Tours of Duty" tag under "Select a Topic" in the right column.

Hovi Mix Mic Tips

One of the simplest upgrades you can make to your helmet is to get some screen-accurate Hovi Mix microphone tips replicas to replace the faucet aerators that come with the FX helmet kit. Resin castings of these original parts are fairly common now and only cost about $10 US per pair. Contact Russell if you are looking for a set. You can even wire mini-speakers inside your mic tips to use in conjunction with your voice amp. More on that later...

TRIVIA: The Hovi Mix mic tips were also used as the top of the comlink prop used by C-3PO and Luke during the Trash Compactor scene in Episode IV: A New Hope. The newer prop shown in the Star Wars Visual Dictionary is not the original.

Got Static?

I just purchased a second-hand ROM/FX Static Burst/Voice Amplifier unit and started playing around with it. A "static box" is a custom circuit board that adds the cool walkie-talkie clicks and radio noise that is heard after a Stormtrooper speaks in Star Wars. The static (in combination with a voice amplifier) really adds a nice element of realism to the costume. I acquired the "Pro" version, which comes with a speaker, microphone, battery boxes, three wired buttons for alternate sound effects, and some other add-ons. This particular set-up cost me $250 US which isn't too bad considering the current exchange rate (USD to GBP). On top of that, availability of the ROM/FX unit through their site is somewhat unpredictable. My old FX helmet had the classic "Radio Shack" voice amp set up (no longer in production). You can still get an inexpensive mini amplifier but you'll need to buy the microphone separately. I had an old "GT Static Box" from around 2002 (now out of production) but it never seemed to work quite right so I ended up using the low-tech "blow into the mic" technique to punctuate my sentences with a static burst. This approach actually worked really well over the past five years, but the poor man's "static burst" sound isn't movie-accurate. Since I got a new RT-MOD helmet, I figured it was time for an upgrade. Pulling out the old wiring from my FX bucket was going to be difficult anyway and would depreciate any resale value should I decide to part with my trusty old oversized bucket. Playing with the settings was simple and the sound effects are great (mine came customized with three sound clips in addition to the static burst effects). There is quite a bit of wiring, mostly due to the two battery packs which each hold 4 AA batteries, so I'll have to play around with the best way to pack this all into my helmet. Some people install these things behind their chest armor or on a belt-pack, but I like the all-inclusive helmet package.

TRIVIA: The static burst audio effect is only heard on Stormtroopers in Episode IV: A New Hope. Curiously, the static is absent from trooper chatter in all of the other Star Wars films.

Ab Plate Button Mod

It's amazing how small modifications can really change the overall look of your armor. The bulk of my armor is still the tried-and-true FX suit that I bought in 2002. However, with a new helmet and this ab plate modification, other troopers always ask me what type of armor I have (thinking that it's not FX, but not sure exactly what). Anyway, the ab plate buttons that come with the FX suit are actual black buttons that are glued into holes in the abdomen. The screen-used suits had the "buttons" molded into the plastic and were simply painted blue and gray. This is one of those cases where you might say "Hey, I don't care what the actual costumes look like! Real buttons are much cooler than painted-on buttons," and I'd agree with you. Up close, the FX buttons look more "real" and functional versus something just painted. It's a matter of fictional realism versus accurate reproduction. Have a look at this actual screen-used Return of the Jedi-style Stormtrooper armor that has been on exhibit. The abdomen button plate is unpainted and upside-down. How ugly is that?! My preference was to change the black buttons to ones with color, as seen in Stormtroopers from Episode IV: A New Hope, and to make them slightly smaller. Dagobah Swamp has a good tutorial for this, and I essentially did the same thing except I used thumbtacks rather than metal screw posts.

TRIVIA: Among other subtle differences, Sandtroopers do not have buttons on their abdomen plates. The Tatooine desert scenes in Episode IV: A New Hope were reportedly some of the first that were filmed around 1976, and thus the costumes weren't quite "final."

Single-Piece Flat Lens Strip Mod

When I upgraded from the FX helmet to the more accurate RT-MOD in December 2006, I decided to try a single piece lens for simplicity of installation as well as convenient future replacement. Photos of the original screen-used helmets show a flimsy green sheet of plastic was used for lenses. Of course, movie props are typically built to serve their seconds of screen time, not to last for years of troopin' abuse. So I've used the dark green welder's faceshield replacement (the standard for troopers these days) which is much sturdier. Having previously used these in the two-piece lens set-up, I knew the tint was dark enough to hide my eyes---even in the flash of a camera---and yet light enough so as not to impair my vision. The lens strip is held in place by two plastic spring clips that are bonded to the inside of the helmet with DevCon Plastic Welder. Because I am able to quickly remove the entire lens strip, applying anti-fog spray, wiping condensation from the lens, or even repainting the inside of the helmet is now a breeze. Speaking of breezes, there is no need for an air-tight seal around the eye holes. In fact, the gaps (no visible from the outside) help improve much-needed airflow inside the helmet. Read more about the installation of the single-piece flat lens here.

TRIVIA: One easy way to tell "hero" helmets from "stunt" helmets in Episode IV: A New Hope is bubble (hero) versus flat (stunt) lenses.