Original 1977 ANH Stormtrooper Armor and Helmet

The suit does appear to be sandtrooper .
We all know the sandtroopers were filmed first in tunisia, then cleaned up and modified for use as stormtrooping in England.
Maybe unmodified sandtroopers were used for shots when the troopers backs are turned ? Maybe a time saver ?
The belt/holster has already been i.d.`d from screenshots (pictured from behind only) The holster is a slightly differant shape to all the others seen on screen , maybe the first one made ? The term prototype sound so nice ...

Whatever the story , the fact that it is a sandtrooper and that the helmet is such a sharp pull indicates its an early suit .

The utility section of the canvas belt is indeed the same plastic as the rest of the suit.

Stormtrooper said:

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Let's hope that if he does decide to sell, it's to a competent mould-maker and vacformer, who will be careful when removing rivets and taking apart the glued limb components.

Cheers,
John

.. and there's the problem.. Rivets can be carefully drilled out and replaced afterwards, but it would a very very brave person to risk prising apart those intact screen used components. Not only would they have to be separating both halves, but obviously the covering strips that hide the joins would have to come off first..

Not that I wouldn't jump at the chance for a copy taken from the inside of course! but a note of caution. If it were mine I don't think I'd risk ruining it.


I'd love to see this suit on a mannequin with the helmet properly resprayed, the broken cod fixed and the black paint chemically removed.

Jeremy,
My sentiments exactly. Not worth the risk. And you haven't even mentioned the risks of casting heat and expansion to already brittle aged plastic.
Nooooooooo

Interesting thread!

I wonder if Lucas has seen this set? And i wonder if they would have any say on what happens with it.

Would it be classed as their property?

Nice find.

sskunky said:

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Jeremy,
My sentiments exactly. Not worth the risk. And you haven't even mentioned the risks of casting heat and expansion to already brittle aged plastic.
Nooooooooo

There is a way of moulding it with moulding materials that do not heat up or expand and have almost zero shrinkage for that matter - just the materials cost more.

You wouldn't need to remove any rivets or take anything apart either to get the suits main parts cast up from inside it would just take a pro to do it. It's all in the planning, materials and who does it that matters.

Edit - meant to mention the belt is the only part that would be a problem to cast without dismantling but in all honesty it looks like they just used standard sized wood blocks vac formed over so it should be hard to replicate with measurements and a vac former.

This suit has lasted 30+ years and had a total kicking its first year I am sure it is pretty durable .

LDR I wouldn't think that LFL would think it was their property there have been hundreds of original trilogy props sold at auction in the past. There are also a fair few other full suits in private collections that LFL make no claim to having any rights to. At the end of the day they were either given to crew members, employees or thrown out back in the day.

Cheers Chris

Hi Guys,

Just throwing out a few ideas out here on the new found suit and helmet. First up is a comparison pic posted on another forum by Troopermaster showing a comp with a pic from the Star Wars poster magazine. The eye trimming looks pretty bang on to the trooper used in the promo pics. Troopermaster clearly has a keen eye for trooper details - which we all know anyway



The other thing that is very notable in the SW poster magazine is the troopers are a mish mash of sandtrooper and stormtrooper parts.



The new found suit has black paint in the indents of the lower arms - if you look at the trooper on the far rights lower arm the indents look painted / dirty. Could this have been the reason why the future owners painted these areas?

The sandtrooper parts all look spray painted white in the SW magazine as does the new found suit just looking at a comparison between inside the suit and outside the suit colour.

I personally think this suit and helmet are in the poster mag not sure if the parts are dispersed over a few troopers in the pic.

Thanks to Troopermaster for his comp pic and thanks to www.starwarshelmets.com for the poster pic. Any objections to using them please give me a shout and I will take them down.

Cheers Chris

The helmet is a good match until you look at the teeth. The new found helmets teeth are more cut out and also have the 5th tooth cut out on the wearers right side which the poster helmet does not. Unless of course the owner decided to do some trimming as well which is very much possible.

Ben

voice in the crowd said:

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Glad to see the owner still has the piece that was snapped off the cod piece.

Aaaahhhhh, yes - the infamous 'cut scene' from the beginning of ANH.
Originally when the stormtrooper spots Leia and says "There's one. Set for stun", Carrie Fisher ran forward and booted the trooper in the balls!

The scene was quickly re-written for Leia to shoot the trooper instead, when the production-nurse discovered that the unfortunate stormtrooper actor now had 3 Adam's Apples!

I'm sure it will be in the Blu Ray box-set when it comes out next Autumn / Fall

Also, a big THANK YOU to Catfoodrob for sharing these fantastic pics with us all

Cheers,
John
swdvds@yahoo.com

Stormtrooper said:

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I'm sure it will be in the Blu Ray box-set when it comes out next Autumn / Fall

WHOA????

RoCKo said:

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WHOA????

Yep, Autumn 2011 apparently. All 6 movies in glorious HD and a tonne of 'behind the scenes' stuff

Let's just hope Lucas doesn't do any more tinkering with added cgi and prequel-esque nonsense.
Just imagine Vader chasing Luke down the Death Star trench, and instead of saying "The Force is strong with this one".... he'll say something like "We've analysed his blood sample, and he has an unusually high level of Midichlorians..." Bleh.

It's the perfect medium for serving up the *original* trilogy as we all remember it AND Lucas' mid-life crisis power-trip... since Blu Ray has 'seamless branching' you could choose which version of the movie to watch.
Will it feature seamless branching? No, unless Lucas flips out and releases the Holiday Special along with it

Cheers,
John
swdvds@yahoo.com

Well,now that the link on the first post is unavailable,hope the owner would share more on this suit for infos, and pictures.

Hey CatFood! How goes it?

modeleers said:

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Hey CatFood! How goes it?

Hi Mikel , still got that u.w.r. on the boil ...one day Ill get time Sorta got sidetracked into props for a StarWars fan film this year ... All the best mate.

Currently the suit is being restored, its not something I'm going to go overboard with just a general clean up and possible removal of the black paint in places. I full intend to document this, and any advice you have on paint removal would be helpful

Once restored I'll decide what to do with it.

If anyone has any questions on the suit please feel free to ask!

Ditto that,
every collector I know wants it exactly as is. If they want to clean it up so be it. You will add nothing to it's value messing with it or restoring it.

Please step away from the armour......

If anyone has any questions on the suit please feel free to ask!

pics of the helmet before the paint was removed would be supa doopa

I have no intentions of stripping it back like i foolishly did the helmet before i new it was an original nor scrubbing away at the inside of the armour to make it shine again, however there are the indent on the arms that could do with the black removing. By removing the black from the arms this will return it to its original condition.

geordietrooper said:

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pics of the helmet before the paint was removed would be supa doopa

Yeah you and me both but since the only pictures of the helmet prior to the strip were taken in about 1983 and have yet to surface from my mum and dads!

SiMan,

Glad to see you participating here on the RPF!

Art Andrews said:

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SiMan,

Glad to see you participating here on the RPF!

Cheers Dude!

SiMan,

Welcome to the RPF!

You are very lucky to own such a fabulous piece of movie history!

Please, consult some of the knowledgeable people about this before going ahead with any restoration work.

Personally, I wouldn't clean any of it up. I would just leave it the way it is and view it as part of this piece's history.

Looking forward to hearing and seeing more about this when and if you are willing to share.

Zenwalker said:

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SiMan,

Welcome to the RPF!

You are very lucky to own such a fabulous piece of movie history!

Please, consult some of the knowledgeable people about this before going ahead with any restoration work.

Personally, I wouldn't clean any of it up. I would just leave it the way it is and view it as part of this piece's history.

Looking forward to hearing and seeing more about this when and if you are willing to share.

I simply want it back to the way it was, any restoration I do will be a general clean of the exterior and removal of the black paint from the arms (which i painted on it when I was about 12)
the rest of the ab section will be left.

Believe me I'm kicking myself already with what I've done to it over the years!

SiMan said:

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I simply want it back to the way it was, any restoration I do will be a general clean of the exterior and removal of the black paint from the arms (which i painted on it when I was about 12)
the rest of the ab section will be left.

Believe me I'm kicking myself already with what I've done to it over the years!

Don't kick yourself, it is still an outstanding set.

Also, kicking yourself could hurt.