I love this site and I hope to hire my friend Sara to photograph the collection to make a proper Web page on this site. But for now, here is my latest arrival, Troopers! Normally I have passed on the other Star Wars creations because the names are clumsy and/or too long. A sports team or battle unit should be succinct, to the point. A famous example of my point…The Mighty Duck of Anaheim when Disney owned the team. Thankfully they’re the Anaheim Ducks as they should be. I forgot a couple choices were just a stretch. I loved the show Breaking Bad but calling a team based upon Walter White “Empire” didn’t make any sense to me. I’m sure I’ll get mocked for the next one on the horizon based upon Fritz Lang’s 1927 Masterpiece yet in my defense, some teams have alternates in which the logo is the city’s name!
TK-421! Why aren’t you in goal?
In my quest to have every Geeky Jersey of mine a unique number (0-1729), I had to go with 76 instead of the traditional 77 (the year Star Wars debuted); one of my three Planet Express jerseys already used 77 with O.M. Waterfall (a guess at his age). Why 76? A couple reasons. It was the year the movie’s primary shooting was done in England with all these English extra thinking, “What the hell kind of movie is this?” The other involves a favorite comic book artist/writer, Howard Chaykin. Besides being the creator of Jaxxon the green rabbit alien peer of Han Solo that Lucas hated, he did the first Star Wars comic book cover which was then made into 1000 posters for 1976 SDCC. They were given away for free and if the legend is true…there were plenty left over.
All Star Wars geeks/nerds/whatever have to know the inside joke about the name I put on the back if it’s a stormtrooper. ‘Nuff said.
The final touch I love are the patches on the shoulder. I obviously have a ‘translation’ of the Aurebesh characters; OK, it’s not a translation, more of a lazy cypher or character sub they’ve had since the first movie. “Imperial Troopers.” Drat. I was hoping for a little joke as my Mars University shirt has.