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Bad guys doing good
Members of the 501st Legion donate their time to make appearances for charities. From left to right, snowtrooper Bone Beaupré, sandtrooper Greg French, Darth Vader (portrayed by Justin Branfuhr) and sandtrooper Jeff Miller mug for the camera with Special Olympics athletes in Myrtle Beach.
Photo by Mic Smith
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Vader’s fist
Darth Vader, portrayed by Jerry Sienkiewicz, and stormtrooper Andrew Rochelle make the rounds of Myrtle Beach Pelicans Ballpark on Star Wars night. According to the costuming group’s fictional backstory (now written into the extended Star Wars canon), the 501st Legion consists of Darth Vader’s hand-picked shock troops.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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The man who started it all
Albin Johnson, a member of Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative, founded the 501st Legion with friend Tom Crews in 1997 but never imagined their idea would go global. Johnson’s current project is R2-KT, a radio-controlled droid that he operates to cheer up sick children during hospital visits. The robot was created and named for his daughter, Katie, who passed away at age 7 from cancer.
Photo by Milton Morris
It’s way too hot in the hidden chamber where elite Imperial troopers—storm, sand and snow— cram together to prepare for battle. Sweat drips from their black spandex unitards as the troops unpack enormous rolling cases of essential battle gear: armor, blasters, helmets, backpacks, AA batteries and emergency Velcro. Soon, Lord Vader will decide if these PVC-clad troops will defend the Galactic Empire or welcome young athletes to the Special Olympics at Myrtle Beach Pelicans Ballpark.
His priorities are clear: The Empire will have to fend for itself until 350 kids have had their fill of photos and cavorting with beloved movie villains. These bad guys belong to the 501st Legion, a fan-based costuming organization of 12,600 Star Wars devotees from around the globe that was born—no, not on planet Mustafar or Naboo—but right here in South Carolina. The legion, aka Vader’s Fist, launched in 1997 with a few devoted fans mesmerized by Star Wars. It has since become the preferred costuming organization of Lucasfilm Ltd./Disney, recognized around the world for movie-accurate costumes and raising millions of dollars for charity.
Bad guys doing good
The Carolina Garrison is comprised of more than 200 active cosplayers from North and South Carolina.
“I was the first member in Myrtle Beach,” Greg French says as he slips into his ’70s disco boots, the perfect sandtrooper footwear. Each piece of custom-aged armor is numbered and donned in a specific sequence from the ankles up. “Once you get your armor on, you can’t bend over.”
At 49, French is typical of legion volunteers, most of whom are active professionals with families. They lead demanding lives, but managed to arrange a day off from work to brighten the day for children they’ve never met.
Besides teaching science at Socastee High School, French serves in the Air Force Reserves and is a trained stuntman who has appeared in Spiderman and performed stunts on The Walking Dead. Any spare time is spent building robots and sourcing elusive parts, like the toilet thingamajig he located in Ethiopia that was perfect for his armor.
“Hey, Vader’s here,” someone shouts as Justin Branfuhr hauls his trunks into the dressing area. His costume was approved a couple of weeks ago, so this is his official debut as villain-in-chief. Unlike troopers, pilots and Tusken Raiders (the more the merrier), there can only be one recognizable character, such as Vader, at any event. The honor goes to whoever signs up first.
“I made my first Darth Vader costume in 2003 out of papier-mache and cardboard,” says Branfuhr, 31, who now makes movie props for a living. “It was terrible, but I’ve been building stuff ever since.”
Branfuhr has since perfected costumes of Captain America, Batman, Iron Man and Master Chief from the video game Halo. If Branfuhr shows up at a costume contest in his 80-pound fiberglass Halo getup, the other competitors may as well go home. His Vader costume is no less impressive.
Stormtrooper costumes can run from several hundred to several thousand dollars and take substantial time to build, even with the kits available today. Vader is the most complex and expensive costume, but Jawa attire could be had for about $200. Message boards help members source parts, offer advice and sell to each other at cost.
A lone good guy has somehow crashed the party. Hans ‘Chad’ Varn of Murrells Inlet, donning Obi-Wan Kenobi’s familiar hooded brown cloak, is part of the Rebel Legion, an alliance of Vader’s adversaries. Formed in 1999, it’s home to Princess Leia, Han Solo, Yoda, Luke Skywalker and the Jedi crowd. Many Star Wars cosplayers are active members of both groups, which often appear together.
“If my mother was alive, she’d think I was nuts,” says Varn, a disabled Marine Corps veteran studying communications at Coastal Carolina University. His teenage son and daughter are used to their father making Halloween a daily event.
The soft costumes, like Obi-Wan, are less expensive than the heavy armor types that require more than a sewing machine to create. But lightsabers are a different story. “I have seven,” Varn confesses. The cost averages $100 to $300, but his favorite—the one with the sequenced flashing lights and aircraft aluminum circuit board—cost him $450. His Jedi mind control tricks have yet to convince his wife that his saber collection is a great investment.
Sandtrooper Jeff Miller, an Horry Electric Cooperative member, has two dozen pieces of armor and a dedicated wife to help him dress. Christine Miller attends almost every event, manning snaps and straps and escorting her husband around. The helmet, which is equipped with a microphone and two fans for cooling, cuts vision by about 50 percent. The helmet is strategically padded to keep troopers from becoming bobbleheads. Like all troopers, he can’t hear anyone who isn’t speaking directly to his chest. And if anything itches, well, tough luck.
“If you want to get away from a sandtrooper, just run up some steps,” Jeff Miller says. “We’re not very mobile.” Trooper armor weighs about 20 pounds and the large, unwieldy backpacks aren’t built for comfort. “It takes 20 minutes to get the costume on and 15 to get it off. That’s with help.”
Jeff Miller gets his greatest satisfaction appearing at children’s hospitals and greeting Make-A-Wish recipients. Last year at Myrtle Beach International Airport, he joined a team of Horry County police officers and fellow troopers to fulfill a young Star Wars fan’s wish. When the boy’s plane landed, the pilot took him on a tour of the cockpit while a Tie Fighter pilot (Frankie Gore of Surfside Beach) snuck in behind them.
“There’s no better feeling than seeing the surprise in a kid’s eyes when he realizes that a Tie Fighter pilot has boarded his aircraft and offered to give him some tips on flying in an actual cockpit,” Jeff Miller says.
Another child was delighted when troopers, led by Vader himself, came to his school to grant his wish: He and his family would be going to Disney World.
Family affair
It’s not uncommon for 501st members to drive several hours to support charity work or Star Wars promotions. On Star Wars night at Pelicans Ballpark, good and bad guys from both legions came from all over the Carolinas. There were Tusken Raiders from Charleston, a snowtrooper from Aiken, and another Vader from Greensboro, North Carolina. Most were in their 40s, but some had yet to be born when the first Star Wars movie premiered.
Dressed as an AT-AT driver, Mt. Pleasant resident Jason Boyd is the commander of the Carolina Garrison, a position he’s held for five years. His wife, Carolyn Boyd, helps him with his balaclava, the head-to-chin cover that flattens his beard and absorbs inevitable sweat inside the helmet. “If they did it for the movie, we do it,” Jason Boyd says.
A tiny part flies off the complex driver helmet, but Carolyn Boyd chases it down, glue in hand. “Just a greeblie,” Jason Boyd says. “That’s what we call anything we don’t really have a name for.”
In the 501st, men still outnumber women about five to one, but that’s changing. “More women are getting into it,” says Carolyn Boyd, who is dressed as an Imperial officer tonight, but also has two Rebel Legion Princess Leia costumes for warmer weather. The Boyds’ young daughters amuse themselves nearby. They’ve witnessed this friendly chaos before.
Charleston’s Brad Butler is Luke Skywalker tonight. His wife, Betsy Butler, helps him dress. She is a tattoo artist licensed by Lucasfilms to replicate Star Wars characters at their conventions.
How it all began
The 501st Legion is the vision-gone-wild of Albin Johnson, of Columbia, and his friend, Tom Crews. Johnson was only 8 when he saw the original movie, and the seed was planted.
Decades later, after a horrific car accident and 20 operations that couldn’t save his leg, Johnson became an amputee. Depressed and withdrawn, he found his way back with Crews’ help and their mutual fascination with Star Wars. Stormtroopers armor became a great equalizer. With no face, race, age or gender, it provided ready camouflage for someone with a disability. Name-wise, “500” sounded military and Johnson threw in the “1st” for authenticity. “Legion” was borrowed from ancient Rome.
The modest Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative member works for the state as a self-described “computer nerd.” Johnson’s original dream was assembling 10 stormtroopers in one place. The legion, now represented in every state and 50 countries, has appeared in Star Wars novels, comics, cartoons and more. Members come from every walk of life.
“We have doctors and lawyers,” Johnson says. “Oh my gosh, we have a rocket scientist and a guy who went to Antarctica on a science expedition and a guy tight with the Arab Emirates.”
It took a while for the 501st Legion to distinguish itself as an asset to the Lucas crowd. The group had to prove it wasn’t out to violate copyrights, misrepresent characters, or profit from charity work. “It took 2½ years to get a face-to-face with the Lucas team,” Johnson says.
When George Lucas was named grand marshal of the Rose Parade in 2007, he flew 200 stormtroopers from around the globe in to escort him down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. He also hired drill sergeants (from Earth’s military forces) who prepared them to march 5½ miles in sync. Johnson marched up front, leading the group.
“Having only one leg, that was difficult. We tried to rig the armor so it didn’t pinch. Those plastic plates don’t care that there’s skin there. We call those red welts on the back of the knees ‘trooper tracks,’” he says. “We were all pretty bloody by the end of it.”
Johnson has come a long way since the 1980s, when the self-described “Dungeons & Dragons-playing, Star Wars-quoting geek” couldn’t get a girl to talk to him. “I met my wife through the 501st. She was in a belly dancer outfit, a slinky Leia costume,” he says. “I’d do it all again just to meet her.”
Despite the legion’s success, Johnson downplays his contribution.
“Star Wars created a beautiful fairytale of perseverance and triumph over incredible odds that people around the globe relate to,” says Johnson, who encourages his bad guys to have fun, help others, make friends and stop scrutinizing costumes for something 1/64th-inch off.
“I’m no one special, but I had faith that if I put my work into something and didn’t put one over on people, God would anoint it, bless it and use it for his glory,” Johnson says. “God smiles on love being shown anywhere. It’s never wasted.”
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R2-KT: Katie’s droid
Katie Johnson would have been 20 in May if cancer hadn’t intervened. The daughter of the 501st Legion founder, Albin Johnson, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor at age 7.
Her love of Star Wars was hereditary. “Katie would see R2-D2 guarding Princess Leia in her sleep,” Johnson says. “She thought it would be nice to have an R2 watching over her.” Her sister, Allie, knew pink was her favorite color.
Say no more. The R2 Builders Club, a group of droid builders who work with the 501st, jumped on the project, but time was short. Unable to complete a pink droid in time, another R2 builder repainted his droid pink for Katie. She threw her arms around the robot the moment she saw it. The droid was dubbed RT-KT in Katie’s honor.
“Steroids had done a number on her, but she never complained. She loved having R2-KT at her bedside,” Johnson says. “As a father, I wept with gratitude that people would do that so selflessly. You’re in a rush to make their dreams come true as fast as you can.”
Katie’s memory inspired some of the legion’s preferred charities, especially Make-A-Wish. Since the R2 Builders Club completed the little astromech, the pink droid has been around the world. It appeared in The Clone Wars, became a Hasbro action figure, and delivered smiles to children’s hospitals, most recently in Singapore.
Johnson has driven R2-KT, beeping away, into children’s hospital rooms remotely, watching from a distance. “The nice thing about a droid is there are no human characteristics. It sounds crazy, but the droid lets them connect with something abstract. Imagination takes over and they forget.”
For more on the adventures of “the pink droid with a heart of gold,” visit r2kt.com.
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Get More
How to join the 501st Legion
Do you have what it takes to be a stormtrooper? Applicants must be at least 18 and own a screen-accurate costume, subject to approval. Select a five-digit Legion ID number, a garrison and a squad near you at 501st.com/members/join_form.php. Members must abide by a code of conduct and demonstrate exemplary behavior when representing characters trademarked by Star Wars films.
How to schedule an appearance at charitable events
Request an appearance (at least two months in advance) at 501st.com/request.php. The legion does not charge for appearances, but donations to a charity in the name of the organization are welcomed and encouraged. To enlist the legion's help for a Star Wars promotional event, contact Lucasfilm at fanevents@starwars.com.
How to join the Rebel Legion
Must be at least 18 and own a “good guy” costume from the Star Wars saga. For more information, visit rebellegion.com/membership-qualifications. To request an appearance, go to newsite.rebellegion.com/event-booking-form.