My First Vader Costume

[Smiling Demon]

I was trooping before I even knew what the hell trooping was. Here is a pic of me with my very first Vader suit. Not screen or any other kind of accurate for the sticklers among us.:lol Also in the pic is my wife as Princess Leia. I wear glasses and cannot wear contacts so she was there more or less to lead me around!:lol I was doing the Children's Miracle Network thing at Walmart!

Anyhoo, this is me in 1997.

 

[darthgordon]

Oh how I wish I had a picture of mine. I made the chest armor out of plaster, the chest and belt boxes were made of clay and the inner robe and cape were just costume capes. I ran out of time before Halloween and didn't even make shin armor.

Funny I wasn't worried about screen accuracy, but went as far as to take measurements from pictures and using 6'6" as Vader's height, figured out the sizes of the chest and belt boxes.

This was back in '96 so all of my reference material had to come from books from the bookstore.

Looking back on it, I think it looked ridiculous, but back then, everyone loved it.

 

[Smiling Demon]

I was just going through some disks and found it. I knew that there were pics of me somewhere but I didn't have a clue where.

My chest armor was a thin sheet of aluminum, no bells. My belt buckle was a piece of wood. A 1x4 cut down and painted. The belt boxes were 2x4 sections with hole drilled in them for the lights. The chest box was made from quarter round and 1\4 inch plywood. My boots were just black rubber rain boots. A jogging suit underneath and the cape was home made!!:lol

Sad thing is, I still have most of it packed away somewhere!:lol

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

I think that looks pretty sweet for 1997 !!

Given the state of available photos at the time, the internet as a whole, and the availability of Vader parts to purchase, that is really sweet.

It's amazing how costumes come together. This is the first test fitting of mine probably 2-3 years ago in 2005:

And the final result, only upgrade not in this photo is my Artisanprop Cod:

 

[Darth Cross]

It's great to see what people have done for costumes before we had all the reference material we've got today. You did a great job on your costume AnythingSciFi. :thumbsup

I know what it's like to work from pics with no other references. Here's my Vader that I made in 1980. The pic is in front of the Wertheim Germany army post theater when they were showing Star Wars. I also wore it for ESB when it showed a few months later. I had a lot of fun with that outfit.

Richard

 

[Smiling Demon]

Great suits guys and I appreciate the kind words!!