Official Star Wars Press Announcement With Cover Art (1 Viewer)

[Anthony_H]

How is this "social network sharing to reveal special features" concept going to work out? I take it nothing major has been left out of the announcement as many fans may miss it later? Interesting to find out weeks from now that Empire of Dreams and other content is going to be included.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by Bob_S.

I guess I'm in the minority. I like the 501st group. I always thought it would be cool walking around in a stormtrooper outfit. Every summer they show up at our 4-H fair in sweltering heat. They do it for some kind of children's charity. A Harley Davidson motorcycle group has a booth there and they ask for donations. I give those guys alot of credit and the kids love them!

When I was working as an extra for Central Casting, I actually played a Stormtrooper for a few days. It was a short film for Disneyland Paris called "Cinemagique" starring Martin Short. In it, Martin magically runs through a lot of old movies, kinda like Billy Crystal used to do for the Oscars. One of the movies was Star Wars ANH and they totally re-created the scene where Luke & Leia are being chased through the Death Star by the Stormtroopers. Getting to my point, let me tell you something--you are quite right about that Stormtrooper armor being uncomfortable! You can't even sit down. The helmets are metal and weigh about 20 lb. And hot? You bet they're hot! My outfit was an original '77 model actually sent over from Lucasfilms. I have no clue in hell how the 501 wear those things for hours at a time. The producers of Cinemagique wouldn't let us wear the helmets for more than 5 minutes at a time for fear we'd asphyxiate. So hats off, (or helmets off) to the 501st group; god bless them, (and oh, are they insane!)

 

[Johnny Angell]

Originally Posted by Ethan Riley

let me tell you something--you are quite right about that Stormtrooper armor being uncomfortable! You can't even sit down. The helmets are metal and weigh about 20 lb. And hot? You bet they're hot! My outfit was an original '77 model actually sent over from Lucasfilms. I have no clue in hell how the 501 wear those things for hours at a time. The producers of Cinemagique wouldn't let us wear the helmets for more than 5 minutes at a time for fear we'd asphyxiate. So hats off, (or helmets off) to the 501st group; god bless them, (and oh, are they insane!)

It is possible that the 501st groups suits aren't as authentic as the real thing, which you were wearing. OMG, you got to wear an original stormtrooper suit from the the first SW movie. Tell me you aren't so jaded that, pain in the patoot it was, it was still a thrill.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angell



It is possible that the 501st groups suits aren't as authentic as the real thing, which you were wearing. OMG, you got to wear an original stormtrooper suit from the the first SW movie. Tell me you aren't so jaded that, pain in the patoot it was, it was still a thrill.

It's possible they're wearing either plastic or rubber helmets. The actual film helmet was very heavy and was balanced on the inside with foam, but I can still remember the weight of that thing grinding into my skull. You couldn't twist your neck in any way and all the weight landed on the top of your skull and the back of your shoulders. The pain was not in my patoot, but I did wind up with quite the headache after that shoot.


No, I wasn't jaded by it. It was almost like a weird wish-fulfillment thing. Because what 11 year old kid in 1977 didn't want to be in Star Wars? I certainly did. I guess I got the closest to it by re-creating an actual scene from ANH. That is, unless I'd been an extra in the Special Edition--that would have been wild!!