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Happy 25th Anniversary 501st Legion On March 14, 1997, Albin Johnson and Tom Crews don Stormtrooper armor for the release of the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi. Changing in the same room as the popcorn machine, they laughed at how crazy the stunt was. But the fans exploded with excitement, the sight of actual Stormtroopers sending the theater into a frenzy. Al and Tom could feel it: the power of the magic of Star Wars had come to life. They created the website Detention Block 2551, telling the stories of troopers TK210 and TK512 and stories of an Imperial unit dubbed “Vader’s Fist.” Within months, Star Wars fans from all over the world contacted them, asking to join the ranks. So Albin drafted an expansive design for a virtual Imperial Squad where all fans could feel like a part of that galaxy far, far away. It would be an army. It would be a family. It would be the 501st Legion. Today, thanks to our amazing LMBO team and the work of TK-92802, we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the 501st Legion with a logo that looks to the past, present, and future. As the twenty-fifth anniversary is the ‘silver anniversary’ the team incorporated silver throughout the logo, from the ‘25’, to the stars and design elements. The TK honors our founding members and first costume of the 501st. In 2019 the logo was updated to make an accurate ROTJ TK, and so the Death Star II symbolizes our continued growth and development over the years. The sixteen stars honor the sixteen current Detachments of our Legion. Lastly, the TIE fighter flying high across the stars represents looking towards the bright future of our beloved Legion. Thank you team for your incredible work.. Now let's officially kick off this year long party celebrating us all! Full post here on the legion forums Hopefully we sill see some legion merchandise this year.

I'm going to point out the major stress areas of the armour from a wearing it perspective. These areas I see as almost impossible to be able to duplicate with a 3D printed set of armour and have last any period of time without repair rebuild or even complete part failure. Before I go into this, I would recommend anyone looking to attempt a 3D set of armour, take a good look at a correct ABS kit, understand how flexible it is and where it needs to be able to flex when worn. Shins: These need to be able to flex open to get into them, They need to be assembled in two hemispheres like all other limb pieces but they clam shell at the back. With ABS plastic at 1.5 mm you get the flex you need to be able to open them up and get your shin in. Printing in a hard medium will not work for this, rigidity is going to send the stress strait to the front join and it will fail at the weakest point. Shoulder bridges: these flex when putting the chest/back torso armour on. Even with the flex of ABS they still tend to crack over time. 3D printed could break on the first outing or so. Agian a rigid material like PLA or ABS filament will fail. Chest piece has a degree of flex just from moving your arms around and taking certain poses. it needs to have a small degree ot twist and flex. But plate: this also needs to flex when you strap it to the Cod piece. Remember, these files were designed to use as a bucks for vac forming, not necessarily to build a functional set of armour that is 501st approvable, that would come from the bucks and refining them until Chris could vac form something that is functional and how the original suits were constructed. His 3D printed helmet looks ok but the vac formed version he does from the buck looks much closer to on screen as an example. Not only will you need to be prepared to sped a lot of time and money on printing and trying to make this actually work, you need to then refine it so it looks like all the vac formed TK's out there. No one is going to give a guarantee a GML will ever approve a printed kit unless side by side it stands up to all the kits available that look identical. I can't wait to see someone try, but be prepared for disappointment, i can't be more honest than that.

Good luck Nicholas! Fingers crossed, you got this!

Good luck Trooper!

Good luck Nicholas!

Hi Nicholas, thank you for your Centurion submission. Added to the processing line.

Good morning legionaries! My name is Chris. I'm based in Buffalo NY and a member of the Nickel City Squad and Garrison Excelsior. I've been a member for a couple years now with a Line Officer, but have been a part of our local Fan Force for 15+ years. I have a few non legion costumes, and am purchasing a TK kit in the next couple of weeks. A member of our garrison is selling his Anovos TK and it should be a perfect fit for me. It's been a dream to troop as a TK for many years now, and I'm happy to finally be in a position to get a kit.

Congrats! You have done a great job steering the ship these past couple years and I look forward to this term, as well.

Lotsa love to you girl - big hugs! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

So sorry to hear Angie, hope you get to troop soon, I've had a bad run myself and getting out there and making people smile can take your mind of things for a time. Thoughts and best wishes for you.