I'm back! (I was too new to be missed in the first place)

[Skywalker]

Hey everyone, so I thought I'd share a quick summary of whats been going on with me, a while back I got my black AM kit for a shadowtrooper, and I have all the components finally, just need to...assemble...the...darn...thing. I know I had made a thread about my progress I've just been so darn busy I haven't had time to post up on it, so my apologies for that in case anyone had wondered why I didn't respond! Back to the task at hand, I've been working on a project for the past few weeks concerning something that will eventually affect the 501'st community, which scares me, but also excites me. As of now I'm working with Museum Replicas ltd, they hired me as the lead designer to make the first ever lucasfilm official licenesed Stormtrooper armor. Now along with this, we've had some inquiries from 501'st guys as well, which, being part of the community, I totally understood so i've worked with a few of them, to make sure that when the armor is finally mass produced, its 501'st approved so they can still gain members without losing the armor makers, because I know as much as anyone how much effort goes into making this stuff. That being said, I took a trip out to Lucasfilm, and I got to take a peek into the archives and get some 'ahem' pictures, of some original pieces. Anyhoo, I'd definetely like to hear your guys' feedback on this and how you feel about a licensed product like that. Look forward to hearing from you all soon.

 

-Skywalker

[Evilboy[501st]]

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Welcome back Chris. Sounds like a great opportunity for you and the Legion. Are you mainly focused on the white armor TK or other Stormtroopers like the Biker Scout, Sandtrooper, and the Snowy?

[Skywalker]

Its going to be original TK white troopers, then I plan on (yes) producing shadow troopers, then we're going to work towards SWTOR Jedi and Sith armor....sandies, scout troopers and so forth (i'm hoping to do a Boba Fett) ;D I just wanted to get everyone's take on it first before I posted something like this on whitearmor, since its a bit smaller and we can communicate more. Plus if it was out that I had detailed up close pictures of original ANH and ESB trooper armor...I'd never hear the end of it haha.

[Darth Agnon[501st]]

Welcome back! This sounds fantastic. It will be nice to to have someone on the inside. <insert evil laugh here>

[Splattum[TX]]

If this effort helps get Rubies out of the picture I'm all for it. Good on ya!

[Darth Agnon[501st]]

Actually with LFL backing it, there might be a way that they could cover the cost of the Red ABS??? hmmmmm???? Just a thought.

[Skywalker]

Red ABS troopers may not be a bad idea, thanks Blackhole! And yes guys, this is going to knock the lame Rubies ones off of the market as far as I'm concerned and gain a bunch more members for the 501'st as well as expanding the TX community too. Just don't tell George I'm an inside man!

[Chef[501st]]

This does sound like a great opportunity and I'm stoked for you bud.

 

I have to admit I am also a bit of a cynic and wonder 'why'. LucasFilm have avoided this area for pretty much time immemorial so why suddenly are they up for making proper costumes? Have they finally realised they are missing a trick?

And what effect will this have on all those fan based builders? Are LFL going to start getting heavy because this is going to be direct competition.

 

It also makes me wonder why LFL just doesn't contact the top fan-based armour makers (such as TM or RS) and just come to some arrangement with them. All the hard work has been done, and to be perfectly honest, those chaps deserve it for what they have done.

 

The best thing LFL could do is to just allow the community access to the bits of information they need.

 

The great machine that is the 501st will do the rest!

 

 

Like I said, this is just me with my cynical head on. No corporation does things for the fun of it, they do things for the money of it, and with such things as the IP argument with Andrew Ainsworth, I can only say "I have a bad feeling about this".

[RaiderNick[TX]]

I agree with Rob. LFL entering into armor making is a sign that they are going to try to make a a direct profit off the 501st when we give them free publicity. It's basically like a kick in the face as far as I'm concerned and is a direct threat to all the fan made armor because of licensing issues that are going to arise.

 

No corporation does things for the fun of it, they do things for the money of it, and with such things as the IP argument with Andrew Ainsworth, I can only say "I have a bad feeling about this".

 

 

As Rob said they should just leave it as it is, nothing good can come from this. RS already has an original suit, there is no need for officially licensed armor other than milking the legion for more money and controlling us more directly in an attempt to monopolize the entire fan market.

 

It doesn't matter what they "say" they are going to do, in the end all they care about is money and it's going to show if this continues.

[Darth Agnon[501st]]

Umm, you guys are already only doing this because LFL allows it. If they want to step in and say what goes on with the rights to their intelectual property then there is nothing we can say about it. I don't see this as a bad thing. If they make screen accurate kits then they will be expensive. Much more expensive than the current armor makers. There will still be plenty of need from our monikered makers.

 

Example: A bunch of us wear Efx buckets, but that hasn't stopped AM from shipping them with every full kit purchased. It also hasn't stopped any other armor maker from making buckets. If anything, we have more sources than we ever did before.

[Chef[501st]]

Umm, you guys are already only doing this because LFL allows it

 

Oh, I am fully aware of this situation, and that's a debate for another day.

 

I was just voicing a concern that once they have made a 'licensed suit' and charging above the odds for it, then I wonder if they will start to be more aggressive on their IP rights breaches (choosing now, to do something where they have not before) with those unlicensed 'cheaper' suits, kicking those people in the bollocks who have effectively made the 501st what it is today, in order to secure more revenue for themselves.

 

I'm not saying that this isn't a valid business tactic, or that they are not well within their rights to do so, I'm just saying that if this action does come to pass, it stinks, like my socks after a weekend in wet boots.

 

I'm all for them producing accurate stuff (because the rubies stuff is not worth wiping your bottom with), it's just where it leads.......

 

 

Anyway, that's enough of my nay-saying.

I'm off to pack, I'm off on holiday for a week. I may pop in occasionally if I can get an internet connection.

 

have fun chaps.

[Darth Agnon[501st]]

They won't go after them because they can't go after AM, TE, CAP-W, ATA, SA, MC. Who are they? Do you know? Do they know for sure? Can they prove it?

 

Exactly.

 

That's why they go by what they go by and that's why they're safe now as they will be then.

[Skywalker]

Just to set the situation at ease, (and I'm really not supposed to be posting this kind of stuff, but you guys deserve to know) none of the armor makers are in danger of losing any market or value, remember we're dealing with Lucas, first off! This project has been on hold by Museum Replicas for 4 years, and of course in the end its about the money, but from a designer standpoint, I want it to be about the quality and the fans satisfaction, now the reason its been on hold so long is because the company lagged behind, they couldn't find anyone to help prouduce this stuff accurately. Secondly, like I said we're dealing with Lucas, and we all know he profits a big revenue simply from licensing...our license alone? $450,000 dollars up front just to MAKE this stuff. Thirdly for the armor makers, yes, they are fantastic, they're incredibly accurate (for the most part), I have an AM kit myself and its better than some of the originals, i've seen, since taking over this project, I've been really strict with MR within the lines of how I want this project done, they originally wanted to make a prototype here and send it to India to be mass produced, I said no way...I've seen too many good projects come back from there looking half done. So, I'm going to be sitting here in a shop for a few weeks with a huge vaccum form machine just like the original pumping out hand made armor pieces here, so fans will know the quality is decent and not just a factory job, plus for those who are worried about armor makers suffering or think its a bad idea that Lucas is just coming out with this, they're asking us to sell the complete, ready to wear suits for around (you didn't hear this from me) $2000. I only paid close to 700 for my kit alone, so armor makers and their kits are much more affordable and will end up closer to 1000 if you can put it together yourself, but for fans who don't want to spend weeks customizing and putting things together themselves, they can go the MR route where its ready to slide on out of the box and you can run out and troop, and I'm talking complete armor here, from holster, boots, neck seal, undersuits, gloves and you can even order with or without an e-11. So! To conclude, in the end there isn't much to worry about, this project is generally just for Georgie to make some more money and the 501'st will benefit and Rubies will suffer. I just got a phone call this morning actually and I'm flying out Sunday morning to go to Lucasfilm and head into the archives and I'm going to go look at the originals, yes that means up close pics, where each piece was, how it was put together, and for peace of mind, I'm going to try and bring some fan made armor to sit side by side, so we can look at the originals compared to what guys are wearing today.

-Skywalker

[Darth Agnon[501st]]

[Evilboy[501st]]

If this effort helps get Rubies out of the picture I'm all for it. Good on ya!

 

 

AMEN to that!

[Griffin-X[501st]]

It sounds very cool. I personally liked getting into this gig and discovering how to assemble the armor. For me, an out of the box solution makes it way too easy and sort of takes the fun out of it. Hopefully these will be offered in kit form too. My 2 cents...

[Skywalker]

It sounds very cool. I personally liked getting into this gig and discovering how to assemble the armor. For me, an out of the box solution makes it way too easy and sort of takes the fun out of it. Hopefully these will be offered in kit form too. My 2 cents...

For the most part, I totally hear you, I love putting stuff like that together for sure, unfortunately, I highly doubt Lucasfilm will let us sell kits, they'll be out of the box ready to wear pieces like I said, for those who prefer just to costume straight away rather than spending a couple weeks assembling, but I agree with Griffin it would definetely be more fun to assemble... Regardless, i'm off to The Archives in the morning...I'll keep you all updated on the status of originals...armor progress etc...as much as I can!

-Skywalker

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Thanks Chris.

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

All really good info and congrats on the job. You are a lucky one and I am sure you worked hard to get there. Either way, I will be excited to see what comes out of this. I know many people that would be happy to shell $xxx to buy something ready to go. I will say, I don't believe there is any such thing as take it out of the box and wear it. How would you handle various sizing issues. We are all different sizes. Some tall and skinny some short and broad, some tall and broad, short and skinny, you get the idea.

[Skywalker]

Woo...hoo...that was awesome. More to follow soon...!

[Skywalker]

So, I went to the Archives, I got a ton of pics and learned so much about the original armor as compared to a lot of our fan made armor...I even took some pics of original white tk armor next to fan made white tk armor...

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

Now those are pics I want to see

[Evilboy[501st]]

Pics or it never happened!

[Skywalker]

It happened...! I have to see if I can post anything, because I don't want Georgie Porgie suing Museum Replicas over something that got leaked on the internet that he didn't want, keep in mind those are pieces nobody including fans have ever really seen, why? I have no reason, if it were up to me, I'd show all the pictures I took, I even got close ups of how he insides of the original TK helmets were made, which is really cool, and comparing them to fan made, ours are much MUCH thicker than the originals, and there are a lot of nifty little ways they put the armor together so it was wearable back then, somewhat similar to ours. I also pretty much have literal confirmation that the stunt and hero tk lenses were green although most already know that, hm what else...the boots are really neat, they were actually similar to the boots we shadow troopers wear, they were simply spray painted white!