JTR555

Hi, my name is Jim. I'm not new to Star Wars (saw it in '77 as an 8-year old and now my 6-year old son has all my original Kenner toys), but I'm new to this side of the fandom.

As a kid, I remember being on vacation and seeing a store in Cape May, NJ around 1979-81 that was selling Stormtrooper and Darth Vader helmets as well as a C-3PO full-head mask (and in '80 or '81 they added a Boba Fett one after TESB came out.) These were actually really high quality and looked like ones from the movies. I really wanted that Stormtrooper helmet, but it was $40 and back then that would be about equal to what ANOVOS is charging today when adjusted for inflation. Needless to say, my parents said, "No" and that was the end of it. Well, except for the time as a kid I made a Stormtrooper Halloween costume using paper / cardstock to create the armor, a black magic marker for details, and a cheap plastic Stormtrooper mask over a knock-off Stormtrooper wannabe helmet.

Fast forward to May 2016 when I was on another trip to Cape May, probably my first since then, and I told my wife about that store I had seen all those years ago and the cool stuff they had. Needless to say, it was no longer around (or at least we couldn't find it and even if we did they wouldn't have had those for $40.)

Then in early July 2016, I was at Disney World with my family and when we were in the Star Wars Launch Bay at Hollywood Studios I saw they were selling the ANOVOS Stormtrooper helmets (both OT and TFA). My wife knew that I had wanted one since I was a kid from the story I had told her just over a month earlier. She told me to go ahead and get it and that would be her present to me for our 15th wedding anniversary. I thought for sure i was going to go with the OT helmet, but when they let me look at both of them out of the case, I wound up surprising myself and went with the newer TFA one.

So, the downside is the stated delivery time for my First Order Stormtrooper helmet is 6-10 weeks (which is now 4-8 by my calculations and yes, I now know you can order the ANOVOS helmets on Amazon and get them in 2 days). The upside is now I've decided to go beyond just owning the helmet and go for the full armor set so I can join the 501st. Now I just have to figure out my best option for getting the armor... (UPDATE: helmet arrived early on Aug. 5 -- Yay!!!)

I've been in touch with some of the people from the local 501st here -- Garrison Tyranus -- and they steered me in the direction of this forum as well as inviting me to drop by an armor party (I couldn't make last weekend's, but I hope to make their next one). I've just begun reading reviews and researching the various sources for armor.

Feel free to drop me a line with any advice or tips.