The beginning of the end

I’m not exactly sure when it was that I fell in love with Star Wars. As far as my albeit feeble human memory serves it has been my whole life. I know, from gathered stories told to me by my father, that I had a stuffed Ewok as my favorite toy when I was 5 and flew to Florida to go to DisneyWorld. That would place the date sometime in 1984. A mere year after Return of the Jedi hit theaters.

I do know I have loved the movies most of my life. I remember watching them on my parent’s Beta VCR, taped from a friend’s HBO, and swinging a yellow magic marker in my hands like a lightsaber. This shows us 3 things: that, decieved by the color of the toy Luke’s “arm saber,” I thought his lightsaber was yellow and was too young to differentiate, that I was apparently young enough that a magic marker was large enough to simulate a saber handle, and, most importantly, as a small child I wanted to be Luke Skywalker.

Every kid did. C’mon, before you are old enough to figure anything else out, you see a guy who destroys the Death Star, moves things around with his mind, and seemingly destroys an Empire by himself. I don’t know what kid wouldn’t want to be Luke. As icing on the cake he gets to use a lightsaber. Still an object of fantasy and fascination even to my “old” 27 year old self.

As I grew older and girls entered into my scope of consciousness, I begun to realize the power behind being a scoundrel. There’s a mystery there that is very attractive; the loner seemingly beholden to none who eventually decides to fight for the side of good and win the princess. Not to mention he gets to wear a low slung holster, make wisecracks, and fly the most kickass ship in the galaxy. From then on I wanted to be only one person from the Star Wars Universe.

Captain Han Solo.

It was a fascination that would last me through college. I’ll admit I was slightly sidetracked in 1997 when I heard George Lucas planned to do prequels; finally telling us of the rise of Darth Vader and the birth of the twins. Movies, no doubt, mired in Jedi sorcery and lacking in smugglers. When The Phantom Menace opening in 1999 I couldn’t help but taken in. Do you remember seeing Obi Wan v. Darth Maul sword fight for the first time? I have been told I giggled like a little kid throughout. But once the flash of the Nick Gillard choreographed sword play faded, my mind was always drawn back to the man in the striped pants. Never failed.

I had always wanted to make a Han Solo costume. My dad had instilled in me a love for home made Halloween costumes. I could never buy some cheap plastic thing at a store when I could make something at home using all means of duct tape and Shoe Goo. My problem was not the motive; it lay squarely in the means.

This was the time before the pervayance of the internet. The heady days before DVDs. Old school Star Wars costumers scoff at us young people and our ease of research. While they poured through old cinema and sci-fi magazines for screen shots, we kids just log onto Parts of Star Wars, Obi Wan’s Jedi Academy, or The Padawan’s Guide for free and download images from the tubes of the interweb to our heart’s content.

I have that luxury now. But the late 90’s, when I first thought of the idea of donning the Vest, was a bit different. I still had a dial up 56k baud modem. I watched the Original Trilogy on Special Edition VHS tapes. I had none of the resources at my disposal I do now.

I contented myself to make a rough and tumble Darth Maul costume for Halloween of 1999. Based solely off the many promo shots available of everyone’s favorite Sith Lord. The prequel had given a lot of costumers new abilities due to well lit, well shot promotional material blitzed across the globe for the opening of Episode I.

I stagnated in the pauperism of college and post-college; lacking the funds to finance a costume of my liking. Eventually, Lord of the Rings dominated my life for a while. I took a liking in Strider as he is very similar in initial features to one beloved Correllian pirate. I made a rather fine Aragorn costume in 2003. It rekindled my love of costume making. When I was promoted at Nickelodeon in 2004, receiving a sum closer to a Los Angeles living wage and finally given the funds to attempt an accurate costume.

I decided to finally bring Han into my closet for good.