New / Old ROTJ "MC" costume - Finally recognized

[MonCal]

This is 501st related so ... if you are reading this and aren't aware of the Star Wars costuming group, some references might not make sense

Quoted from the Mountain Garrison GML:

Cal Pierce "and Gang" have done it again! From the shadows and background of ROTJ, these guys have created the long lost character of Mechanical Crew. The Legion CO and Membership Officer both talked this one over... and they LOVE IT! Why do I feel like we've discovered the Missing Link or Bigfoot?

From the LMO himself...

Next up, mechanical crew costume...
We both love this costume. I fully endorse it and look forward to seeing it as a legion costume. The simple fact that it was not discovered until now or at least thought to be done I find amazing. It astounds me that in near 15 years no one has brought this up till now and I am excited to say I can be apart of ushering in a NEW Original Trilogy costume.

I think for all intents it was a throw in extra to fill in space. With that all said we will add it in as IC - mechanical crew as a designation. If we get a couple dozen or so of these we can then entertain the idea of a new designation, but lets see how that pans out in the future.
So Status - Costume Granted to the Legion

Congrats guys! I'm sure I'll have hundreds of new Mechanical Crewmen banging down the door for new submissions to the Legion.

The red shirt in the background didn't escape Cal's eye...

 

[MonCal]

This is a project I have been threatening to do for about 3 years or maybe longer. I've probably told half of the garrison... or at leas those who have hung out at the shop over the years ... but... without Aaron pushing us to get it done we probably wouldn't have pursued it.

The costume is really plain Jane in the movie so we added "logical" embellishments based on other Imperials such as gloves, belt, comm pad, code cylinders, cogs on the shoulders. It looks a lot better with all the accessories so hopefully that can be the "officer" version or something.

So, Aaron, Ed, Azman, and I decided to embark on the project. We altered our own jumpsuits to get the accurate Star Wars stitching and pocket patterns. Notice it's a Navy blue color! It gives a nice contrast to all the accessories and black parts.

I also have begun looking for contacts at Hasbro... who knows... maybe there will be a "MC" action figure one of these days with all of us in the photo on the card According to Steve Sansweet this character has never been recognized and he was pretty ecstatic to see our discovery.

Kent was patient enough to wear the upper portion of his Vader suit for the shots. Our friend and helper here at the shop Ken, wore my Royal guard costume (that is screen used from Fanboys hehe ). Although the shop lights washed out the red of the guard costume. It was tough getting the shot. We still didn't nail it but it's pretty good!

It was a lot of fun.... plus bringing recognition to an Original Trilogy character is pretty awesome even though it's not the coolest nor that prominent but there are like 30 of them in the movie! Plus it's a comfortable costume and perfect for running a droid. I actually received a lot of positive feedback for the costume at Starfest. I was pleasantly surprised.

We'll have to post more pics soon.

 

[MonCal]

These are my favorite pics, with all the accessories:

Ed:

Me:

Azman:

Aaron:

 

[MonCal]

Here is where I would like some opinions

... AND PLEASE... NO 501ST BASHING!!

The sole purpose of my asking is simply for discussion and fun.

I guess they're not allowing the embellished "officer" version. I need to follow up with this as it is pretty much the same scenario:

Why would a tie pilot or at-st driver be allowed with one of 3 blasters when they don't have them in the movie and this costume wouldn't be allowed to have a belt, gloves, etc.? There are probably other examples in the CRL's of allowing typical accessories based on the ideals of the star wars universe.

The problem with this costume is it is backwards from the norm.

For Example: The 501st will allow many costumes that aren't 100% accurate and many parts of the costume can get by with minimal representation to components in the movie and then it is recommended that you improve upon your costume and you can move up to "Elite" status or "Lancer" etc. And this scenario is completely understandable!

This "Mechanical Crewman" costume would have to be plain Jane to be accurate but you can add things that aren't 100% accurate to the character in the film to make it look like a typical imperial outfit, where as the accessories can be 100% accurate to the other imperial characters.

... if that makes sense

 

[MonCal]

No interest in this at all?

Come on... where are the die-hard O.T. Star Wars fans this community used to thrive on. This is a character that has never received recognition and there were like 50 of them in the movie

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Ok MonCal, I'll play.

Here is the way you should look at it. Although we tend to be limited to what we see (we don't see imperial characters change into other uniforms), I think it is reasonable to believe that an imperial has a few different type uniforms. For example, something for dress, something for standard duty, something for (messy) work. This looks like a a work uniform. I can draw on real life naval aviation experience and tell you that there are reasons why regulation prohibit items from being worn. Such as these characters may work around sensitive equipment with moving parts. They are not allowed to wear items that could come loose and fall into the equiment. They could work around electrical fields so they want to restrict needless metallic objects. They could move around confined areas where a belt and buckle might get caught or scratch sensitive components. We could further hypothesize that they do have a need for head protection and constant communication.

Never the less, I applaude your passion for this costume/uniform.

 

[Psammead]

I can't believe I've never noticed these guys.

I do understand why it's jumpsuits only. It makes sense, that's the costume and unlike the TIE or AT-ST there is no belt to hang anything like the boxes or a holster off and as MJF said that could be for many reasons. It would be like a TIE pilot have TK shin armour.

Regarding weapons I've always thought the only reason a TIE pilot or a driver would have a weapon was if he was in poop city; shot down etc. After all an E11 isn't exactly a sidearm but it is a more logical extension of the costume in an on the streets trooping context.

 

[RICHIES ARMOR]

Man this post pulled Frank MJF out of the nether region!!!

Richie

 

[TK171]

I"m not on as much as I used to be... but MJF and Richie all in one post!?

My- what a day. :lol

been a while......hope alls well.

sorry to hijack.

OT- Cool. Another easy costume to do and a comfy one.

 

[KaanE]

In the first pic you posted they look to have two comm. boxes, one on each side? Nice work you've done here!

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Man this post pulled Frank MJF out of the nether region!!!

Richie

Sorry about that. But never enter a taco and bran muffin eating contest. You'll spend the next ten years in the bathroom. Anyhow, I washed my hands and ready to go.

MonCal, I do sympathize with your dilemma. I understand the 501st's postion, they want to ensure some sort of costume control/quality. Drawing a line at screen-seen is fair.

However. I am like you when I think of uniforms, gear, ships. In (lack of a better word) reality, there has to be more than what you see. Just think. If for some reason Luke and Ben were not on a desert planet, we would never have seen Sandtroopers and therefore not a recognized costume but in the "reality" of the star Wars universe, well.. they exist. After all, the more locations you saw the Imerial troops, the more you saw different uniforms.

 

[Aeronnz]

Wow, looks great! You guys actually look like the real thing!

 

[MonCal]

These are excellent points and I agree completely.

Do you think there could be an "officer" version or "foreman" who might be in command of a squad of these guys and if so would they wear the same uniform and would they have the accessories? That was my thought behind the accessories

 

[MonCal]

I finally got around to taking some photos of the helmet.

This is based of of the WWII Navy Talker helmet so it is the correct size and shape as the original helmets. Also this is off the same mold as our Rebel flight technician, Rebel Fleet Trooper, Gunner, and one day our Navy trooper helmets :

We decided to use relative knowledge of Star Wars costumes for the foam liner so we inserted the typically accurate clover / star shaped foam:

 

[MonCal]

So... with Hasbro allegedly cancelling the VC figures.... could there be a chance of a Mechanical Crewman action figure?