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501st Legion
The 501st Legion is an international fan-based organization dedicated to the construction and wearing of screen-accurate replicas of Imperial stormtrooper armor, Sith Lords, clone troopers, bounty hunters, and other villains from the Star Wars universe. The 501st Legion, called by its nickname Vader's Fist, is made up entirely of volunteers.
Formed in South Carolina by residents Albin Johnson and Tom Crews in August 1997, the Legion now has over 14,000 active members worldwide, with over 26,000 approved costumes. The Legion is active on 6 continents, with local units known as "Garrisons" and "Outposts" in over 60 countries. Legion members make appearances at casual, promotional, and charitable events, often at the request of Lucasfilm's Fan Events department. Although not officially affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or Lucasfilm LLC., the 501st Legion is Lucasfilm's preferred Imperial costuming organization, and its members were featured as extras in the official series The Mandalorian.
In 1997, Albin Johnson set up a GeoCities website called "Detention Block 2551" as a place to post photos of himself and his friend Tom Crews in their homemade Stormtrooper costumes. Arnie DeHerrera started "Stormtrooperland" at the same time in 1997 and started email conversation with Johnson and Crews. Shortly after that, Scott McArthur of Canada became involved and developed the original logo with the words, "The Fighting 501st!" as its catch phrase with a stormtrooper helmet with red eyes in front of a purple Imperial logo. This evolved quickly into the current red, black, and white logo with the phrase, "Vader's Fist" to express the force with which the 501st led. Within weeks of launching the sites, Albin was fielding email requests from people across the country and around the world looking to be featured on his website in their own homemade Stormtrooper armor. The Legion ranks swelled, and regional subdivisions called Garrisons, Squads, and Outposts were created to facilitate the organization of events and appearances on a local level.
While the Legion was initially based only on the white-armored stormtroopers stationed aboard the Death Star, as the group expanded, it grew to encompass every other canon trooper variation, and other villains from the Star Wars saga, such as Sith Lords and bounty hunters. Custom creations are generally not eligible for membership, and all applicants are reviewed by their local units and Legion Membership Officers prior to approval into the member database.
Early events attended (or "trooped") by the Legion were mostly science-fiction and comic book conventions or related to the release of the Star Wars movies in theaters and on video. But members were looking for more frequent reasons to meet up with their new-found Legion friends and show off their costumes together. The Legion expanded into a charitable organization.
A decade after Johnson and Crews founded the Legion, on January 1, 2007, two hundred members of the Legion marched in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, with George Lucas himself as the grand marshal. At this watershed moment for the club, Lucas and Johnson discussed the future of the rapidly growing Legion, and an unofficial partnership was born. Lucasfilm would grant the Legion a limited use of their copyrighted characters, as long as members of the 501st promised never to use their costumes for personal profit and that they represent the franchise in a positive and respectful manner.
Johnson and Tom chose the club's name in 1997 to represent a fictional unit of Imperial stormtroopers. He wanted to ground the group in a "realistic" world and to pay homage to the fighting units of true military heroes, like his World War II airman father.
In 2004, author Timothy Zahn, with Lucasfilm's approval, honored the costuming group by incorporating the 501st Legion Elite Stormtrooper Unit into his Star Wars novel Survivor's Quest. Several other authors have since followed suit and solidified the Legion's name in the official Star Wars universe. In 2005, the 501st Legion finally hit "mainstream" Star Wars canon with its inclusion in the novelization of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The blue clone troopers led into the Jedi Temple by Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith are officially designated as the 501st Legion, with the nickname "Vader's Fist" because of his exclusive use of the unit. Although not mentioned in the film itself, all of the licensed support material and merchandising for the film make this reference, including Hasbro's 501st Legion action figures, the DK Publishing Star Wars Visual Dictionary books, and the Star Wars: Battlefront II game. The story-driven campaign mode of Battlefront II even expanded the role of the 501st Legion to the main fighting force in almost every battle in the "Clone Wars" and "Galactic Civil War" eras of Star Wars, from the Battle of Geonosis to the Battle of Hoth.
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501st Legion
The 501st Legion is an international fan-based organization dedicated to the construction and wearing of screen-accurate replicas of Imperial stormtrooper armor, Sith Lords, clone troopers, bounty hunters, and other villains from the Star Wars universe. The 501st Legion, called by its nickname Vader's Fist, is made up entirely of volunteers.
Formed in South Carolina by residents Albin Johnson and Tom Crews in August 1997, the Legion now has over 14,000 active members worldwide, with over 26,000 approved costumes. The Legion is active on 6 continents, with local units known as "Garrisons" and "Outposts" in over 60 countries. Legion members make appearances at casual, promotional, and charitable events, often at the request of Lucasfilm's Fan Events department. Although not officially affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or Lucasfilm LLC., the 501st Legion is Lucasfilm's preferred Imperial costuming organization, and its members were featured as extras in the official series The Mandalorian.
In 1997, Albin Johnson set up a GeoCities website called "Detention Block 2551" as a place to post photos of himself and his friend Tom Crews in their homemade Stormtrooper costumes. Arnie DeHerrera started "Stormtrooperland" at the same time in 1997 and started email conversation with Johnson and Crews. Shortly after that, Scott McArthur of Canada became involved and developed the original logo with the words, "The Fighting 501st!" as its catch phrase with a stormtrooper helmet with red eyes in front of a purple Imperial logo. This evolved quickly into the current red, black, and white logo with the phrase, "Vader's Fist" to express the force with which the 501st led. Within weeks of launching the sites, Albin was fielding email requests from people across the country and around the world looking to be featured on his website in their own homemade Stormtrooper armor. The Legion ranks swelled, and regional subdivisions called Garrisons, Squads, and Outposts were created to facilitate the organization of events and appearances on a local level.
While the Legion was initially based only on the white-armored stormtroopers stationed aboard the Death Star, as the group expanded, it grew to encompass every other canon trooper variation, and other villains from the Star Wars saga, such as Sith Lords and bounty hunters. Custom creations are generally not eligible for membership, and all applicants are reviewed by their local units and Legion Membership Officers prior to approval into the member database.
Early events attended (or "trooped") by the Legion were mostly science-fiction and comic book conventions or related to the release of the Star Wars movies in theaters and on video. But members were looking for more frequent reasons to meet up with their new-found Legion friends and show off their costumes together. The Legion expanded into a charitable organization.
A decade after Johnson and Crews founded the Legion, on January 1, 2007, two hundred members of the Legion marched in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, with George Lucas himself as the grand marshal. At this watershed moment for the club, Lucas and Johnson discussed the future of the rapidly growing Legion, and an unofficial partnership was born. Lucasfilm would grant the Legion a limited use of their copyrighted characters, as long as members of the 501st promised never to use their costumes for personal profit and that they represent the franchise in a positive and respectful manner.
Johnson and Tom chose the club's name in 1997 to represent a fictional unit of Imperial stormtroopers. He wanted to ground the group in a "realistic" world and to pay homage to the fighting units of true military heroes, like his World War II airman father.
In 2004, author Timothy Zahn, with Lucasfilm's approval, honored the costuming group by incorporating the 501st Legion Elite Stormtrooper Unit into his Star Wars novel Survivor's Quest. Several other authors have since followed suit and solidified the Legion's name in the official Star Wars universe. In 2005, the 501st Legion finally hit "mainstream" Star Wars canon with its inclusion in the novelization of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The blue clone troopers led into the Jedi Temple by Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith are officially designated as the 501st Legion, with the nickname "Vader's Fist" because of his exclusive use of the unit. Although not mentioned in the film itself, all of the licensed support material and merchandising for the film make this reference, including Hasbro's 501st Legion action figures, the DK Publishing Star Wars Visual Dictionary books, and the Star Wars: Battlefront II game. The story-driven campaign mode of Battlefront II even expanded the role of the 501st Legion to the main fighting force in almost every battle in the "Clone Wars" and "Galactic Civil War" eras of Star Wars, from the Battle of Geonosis to the Battle of Hoth.