dougefresh

Agreed. Few things hold the romance and magic of skimpy metal underthings. Although, you have to admit-- it's a little weird to find so much appeal in a pair of unmentionables that might require a tetanus shot. Lockjaw can really spoil a moment, if ya' know what I'm sayin.

Yeah, but sometimes I get mad that 5'11" is too tall to be a Jawa. I love those guys.

Smitty's on a roll today -- between this post, and your riff on bathroom convenience in another thread, you've made coffee come out my nose twice in one morning.

I'm only 5'11", but there are plenty of tall guys who have gone Elite-- Scott M., BigTurc, and I think Daetrin are all pretty tall, if I'm not mistaken. And they all look fantastic!

Last year, my girlfriend at the time and I were lucky enough to Maui over the summer... and when V-Day rolled around, she kept joking about how nice it would be to go back. Well, I hadn't robbed a bank or won the lotto that year, so instead, I went to Cost Plus and bought a butt-load of tiki lamps, little tropical x-mas light thingies, some cargo net, a ukelele CD, and a bunch of pineapples from the grocery store, and tried to make the house look like a beach-front bar or something. She wigged out, loved it. And it paid off pretty nicely for me too. I was just thinkin' that if your town is kind of boring that maybe you could try something similar. Just an idea.... I'm single again now, so what the hell do I know? I agree with Paul --as long as she can tell you've put some thought and effort into it, and you really tried to make it something SHE would like, I don't see how you can go wrong.

Hah! Holy crap, you have eagles eyes, Smitty! I think he was in the middle of layin' down for the rebels when his buddies came to bail 'em out, if I remember correctly.

Good stuff, J! It's always inspiring to me to see what can be done with nothing but skill, determination and some patience. My hat's off to you for tackling this project! Keep it up!

I'm not banned, because I've never registered. I dunno... all in all, Gino just kind of bums me out. I don't know him personally, so I can't really speak with any intelligence about him as a human being, but his online persona leaves me really frustrated. Here's this guy, who despite how you feel about him, has a metric butt-load of talent. Love him or hate him, he has top-notch skills as a re-creator, and really knows his stuff when it comes to backstory and research. Judging from his innumerable arguments, he's also a pretty smart cookie. The guy knows how to build a case, that's for sure. And lord knows he does some pretty first-rate politicking as well. Looking at his site, he's also got a decent amount of talent as a graphic designer and art director. So... you combine all those things, and you would think you would end up with a BAD-A$$ prop builder with a ton of smarts, a library of SW knowledge, and a keen artistic eye, who could make ENORMOUS contributions to the hobby. (And sometimes does). He's got all the makings of someone who could help every prop collector, builder and costumer alike take their stuff to the next level. But instead-- he's just kind of a d*ck. I have nothing but admiration for his work, to be honest, but his personality and behavior are sufficiently a**hole-ish enough that the other stuff doesn't mean a whole lot to me. It's like Russel Crow, or Tom Cruise -- good actors, turning in good work. But everything I read and see from them off-screen indicates that they're horrible, awful, unbearably self-aggrandizing douche-bags as people. And when they go on Letterman to pimp their movie, I turn the channel. I don't want my money, or my attention going to subsidize their colossal ego, or their crappy behavior. Same deal with Gino. His crap far outweighs his talent. Which is a shame -- because both are substantial. Just my $.02

Thanks for passing these along, Billy!

Nice! I've got a massive Rubbermaid thing that I could transport small livestock in. Your's looks much more fashionable, and is probably WAY easier to lug around, I imagine. Way to be smarter than me!

Dean -- all things considered, I think your buddy has done an amazing job, and should be proud of taking the Rubies as far as he has. It's obvious he's put a lot of care and effort into it, and that's what counts for me. Just my $.02. The Rubies is definitely not my cup of tea, but far be it from me to knock someone for really going the extra mile to make it work.

Matthew-- that's outstanding!!! You are one ambitious dude, my friend. Color me impressed with a big yellow crayon. Nice job! Looking forward to following your progress!

Good to hear your priorities are intact.

Thanks for all your hard work, Greg!

No photos of Kristen Belle in the slave Leia outfit? I think you totally mised the point of the movie, buddy.

Wow -- that's pretty uncanny. Fantastic work, Keith! Very inspiring.

Your post rung a bell, so I checked, and sure enough, there's a guy in the UK selling FX armor on eBay that also offers kid's and women's versions. He says his is "the fancy" version. Hehe. Dunno--might be worth sending him an email? EDIT -- Scratch that, Jonas. After closer examination, looks like he's peddling some pretty sloppily recast FX. No bueno. Sorry for the red herring!

Me too! And thanks a lot, Steve -- now I want to know how the heck someone gleaned a Christian allegory in Halo 3! I just thought it was about shooting a bunch of blue aliens with some of the dudes from Firefly. Hmph.

You're rockin' and rollin', Andy! Looks the business! Keep it up!

As a few people were nice enough to enlighten me, I now understand that the TE smooth cap involved creating a duplicate cap mold from the original, which was then filled and sanded quite a bit to create a nice smooth finish, which a lot of trooper customers were requesting, as they were interested in having a more idealized version. Judging from photos, it also looks like TE had someone sharpen up the ridge in the back a little bit, as well as enhance the traps. To me, the bumpy version seems more like a "used" object, and stays truer to the screen, but the smooth cap looks more homogeneous and mechanically produced, like something you'd expect a cold, implacable Empire to manufacture. I like 'em both, but I think I lean more towards the bumpy version-- I like all the little quirks. Again, my thanks to those who responded and taught me something new!

Thanks for filling me in, guys! I knew I had seen photos of smooth-cap TE's before, and now I know the back story. I appreciate you passing on your knowledge-- it's always fun to learn somethin' new about trooper stuff!

I apologize if this is answered somewhere else, but do the smooth and bumpy caps originate from two separate helmets, or did someone just extensively clean up the bumpy mold to create a derivative smooth version? Also-- I know the AP (and earlier GF) cap is smooth, and TE had a smooth cap as well. Are those the only two from the screen-used lineage with the smooth cap? Has there ever been a TE2 or GINO smooth cap version? Just curious.... been scratching my head about it for the last couple days. Thanks to anyone who can set me straight on this!

You gotta check out Hard N' Phirm-- they do a piece called "Rodeohead" that's an all-bluegrass medley of Radiohead songs... it's utterly BRILLIANT. I could listen to it over and over.

If anyone likes Old-Timey country, here's a great online station: http://www.customchannels.net/player_pages....php?page=ranch Tex Ritter, Gene Autry... good stuff.

Hehe -- I don't even know why I'm given you a hard time... I don't even really like Country music that much. It's just fun to razz you. My iPod's kind of all over the place too. Everything from Claude DeBussy to Iggy and The Stooges to Woody Guthrie to Radiohead, to Dieselboy, to The Pharcyde. And yes-- AC/DC does indeed bring the rawk.