Welcome to the world that Ralph McQuarrie never intended. A world of stormtroopers. Willing volunteers, the world over, dressing their selves up for the greater good of the hypothetical Empire. Based in the universe of the Star Wars phenomenon, these human beings make it their business to be in the coolest club in the whole world. Take a journey with me, if you will, into the twisted and splendiferous world of the troop.

ABOVE: Photo by Kiku.

You might know about the world of cosplay, that being the people who make it their MAIN goal in life to be a character from a fantasy world, especially characters from movies, comics, and video games. I’d put this stormtrooper situation in a different category. Not just because the people who dress up as stormtroopers are part of probably the biggest group of people to dress up as the exact same character, but because there’s stormtrooper groups that do charity events. For realsies!

The most important group of stormtroopers in the real world is the Fighting 501st Legion: Vader’s Fist. They are a real deal club. They organize via the official webpage http://501st.com/ and make appearances for charity, for conventions, and just for fun. Conventions are their home turf, though. If you’ve never been to a convention yourself, that being a comic convention, Star Wars convention, or otherwise, please do yourself the favor of experiencing this unique version of reality.

There are MANY different kinds of stormtrooper. Even before the Star Wars movies I II and III were released, there were many many different iterations of the original stormtrooper costume. Now with those prequels and the stories they told released into this universe, there’s a big fat list. Not to be limited to the following (NOTE: I tried to include at least one of each of these in the gallery below):

Stormtrooper
Biker Scout
Sandtrooper
TIE Pilot
Snowtrooper
Royal Guard
Clone Trooper
Imperial Crewman
Special Operations
Imperial Gunner
Clone Trooper (ROTS)
Clone Commander
Imperial Navy Trooper
AT-AT Driver
AT-ST Driver
Republic Commando
ARC Trooper
Specialty Clone
BARC Trooper
Galactic Marine
Clone Pilot
Clone Firefighter
Spidertrooper
Tusken Raider Trooper
Jack Sparrow Trooper
Kidtrooper
Femtrooper

+if you’ve got more additions you don’t see here, please feel free to communicate with us about that. Like all posts on WFDJ, we’re in this for the long haul. Any and all posts are open for additions and improvements!

Ralph McQuarrie is responsible for giving Star Wars its aesthetic. Ralph McQuarrie was the original, and certainly most influential conceptual artist on the original Star Wars project. If you take a peek at the gallery below, you’ll notice one of the first images is a painting of a stormtrooper with a lightsaber. Behind this troop are several others, some of them holding small shock-shields. This is the beginning! Ralph McQuarrie made this painting to show his first vision of the stormtrooper. NOTE: this painting was made to show how a lightsaber would be held as well as how a stormtrooper might look.

And so! Now! On with the contributors to this collection: No Onions, Kris McElman, Nala, Mirka23, kbaird, mhaithaca, tofuguns, Duderama, Arkansas Crimson Nova Squad, Steven Weng, Dideo, Old Line Garrison, bns3178, Aralani, Phinzup, Femtrooper Julie, Evil Benius, Jedi Trilobite, Matt & Kristy, Lori Goldberg, nwalkner, earthdog, Madchengeist, the Official Star Wars blog, myleneann, zolotkey, Zanthia, Storm Cab, hyku, madchengeist, mchulin, pathogen2001, kimncris, Agent Kenobi, elmoizme, howiemuzika, Vogue, WF&DT, and Corsair’s Boutique.

Look! Look to your heart’s content! It is troop mania!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies category.