I never thought about being a stormtrooper when I was kid. Even later on it never occurred to me to walk around in armor. It wasn’t until I saw the fan film Troops that I had any interest in it. I was blown away by the quality of a fan-produced, not-for-profit film. The special effects, the story, and of course the costumes were all excellent, especially for something produced in 1997.

I read all I could about the movie and soon discovered that the stormtroopers actually made their own armor!! People could do this?!? That’s awesome!! I want armor now!!

Well, a few years went by and the thought of owning my own set of armor fell by the wayside. It wasn’t until I attended Archon 28 science fiction convention in 2004 that the thought cropped up again. I saw a stormtrooper there with armor made completely out of duct tape. I was mortified! While I thought it was creative and cost effective, I longed to see a true, shiny, plastic one wandering the halls. And I thought once again how neat it would be to have me own set.

I was on eBay the next night looking for armor. I found a pretty inclusive set that had things like undersuit, boots, blaster, holster, neck seal, pauldron, flat lenses for the helmet, and voice amplifier. I started emailing the seller to ask all kinds of questions, and by the following day I had sent in my order.

Building it was a race to finish before Halloween. As I’ve looked at join dates of other 501st members, I see that I wasn’t alone in getting my armor at the beginning of October. The back ordered things showed up just in the nick of time… for me to discover that the party I was going to was canceled.

I was crushed! I’d spent all of this time working, and my debut wasn’t going to happen as planned. It wound up raining that Halloween so I didn’t even get to go out and show off to the neighborhood kids.

It did set me looking around for things to do in armor though. I discovered the 501st Legion and sent in my application. They signed me up right away! Now I was one of many. But soon there after, I started getting tons of spam at the address I’d sent them. I deleted that account intending to send them my new address, but forget to get back to them. Hence I missed out on many activities in the following year and my first real troop and public debut of the armor was at Archon 29.

I was a hit! I was the only stormtrooper there, and was instantly given a hall costume award. I met an R2 droid (and builder) and had tons of pictures taken with him. Two girls grabbed my butt and one kissed my helmet. And I had a running count of people asking me, “Aren’t you a little short to be a stormtrooper?” I highly recommend going to a con solo in armor if you can do it. Just be ready to have your picture taken 1,000 times. Oh, and make sure you’ve got someone to assist you with getting dressed, repairs, and carrying your hotel key. Armor doesn’t come with pockets.