Boba Fett – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Diamonds in the Rough – Colin “OddViking” Adams (part 2)

Welcome back to our monthly spotlight series, where we discuss Star Wars costumers who have ‘gone the distance’ and put in the effort to create solid, in-universe outfits or personas. This is the second half of our two-part interview with Colin Adams, and after digging deep into the design stages in last month’s entry, we’re ready to follow along as he starts his actual build process!

When first considering this project, Colin said he knew how to sew “at a moderate level”, and knew there were other folks who made custom Mando-style flightsuits. However, he also knew that if he was able to attempt this and succeed at it, not only could he learn some new skills, but he would also be able to alter and tailor it himself! I’ve always been a big fan of Lev Vygotsky’s ‘ZPD’ theory when applied to reenacting-crafting, and it helps to choose projects which not only build on one’s existing skills but which can help push them to the next level – but not to bite off something completely outside your existing skillset! If you’ve never touched a needle and thread before, sewing something as complex as a screen-quality flightsuit for your first project would likely result in you getting frustrated and giving up. There are no ‘skip three levels ahead’ cheat codes IRL, so it pays to work smart, start small, and build on what you already know! Looking back on his project, Colin said that while things like setting a zipper fly were so much more complex than they seemed at first, “I feel like I leveled up two levels doing this suit: it really came out great and fits me perfectly.”

the secrets of authentic Star Warsy crafting continue…

Galactic Style Guide – Ponchos I

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, the bimonthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! It’s been a minute since our last entry in this series, but here on the last weekend of Star Wars Month, we’re taking a look at examples of garments which have been part of the GFFA look since the very beginning: ponchos! For our purposes, we’re defining a poncho as a garment worn as an outer layer for protection from the elements and which covers the front of the body; things like capes and cloaks tend to be open in the front and worn more for form than function (hence their frequent use by ‘classes’ like gamblers and politicians). As we’ll see, ponchos on the other hand are almost always associated with salt-of-the-earth folks who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Let’s dig in!

The first poncho we see in the Original Trilogy is worn by Luke as part of his farmboy attire:

While it’s a fun idea, as we’ll see next month, this is *not* Qui-Gon’s poncho.

more examples inside!

Some further thoughts on in-universe branding

In an earlier post, I wrote that I like to play a little game whenever a ‘custom Mandalorian’ costumer comes across my feed. The game is called ‘how many mythosaurs will this costume have?, and which pieces of kit will they randomly adorn?’
Unlike the ur-Mandalorian example (Boba Fett) who bore a single small mythosaur on a pauldron, the ‘custom Mando’ crowd seemingly can’t help but slap them everywhere: side of the helmet, on their cape, covering their entire chest armor, on their blaster stocks, on their belt buckle…sometimes all of the above???
What does this have to do with a truck covered in bald eagles and American flags? I’m glad you asked!

Improve your Mandalorian cosplay with one easy trick!

Familiarity breeds contempt as they say, and once I notice a trend, it starts to bug me and becomes hard to unsee. Each week, I see scores of ‘Custom Mandalorian’ costumes, and like the diehard Disney fans who hide an obligatory ‘hidden Mickey’ in their props, whenever I see a Mando come across my feed, I like to guess how quickly this standard cockeyed, off-kilter, cracked-skull Mythosaur will show up: “Is it hiding in the first photo? Second photo? Third photo?”

A kit which turns out to be sans mythosaur, on the other hand, is always a pleasant, refreshing surprise! (One of the things I really appreciated in The Mandalorian was that—so far as I can tell—none of the non-Boba Fett character designs included this stock symbol.)

Thoughts on ‘The Rescue’

Aaaand just like that, I think I’m done. Erm, I meant…Welcome back to my commentary series on Season 2 of The Mandalorian; for this installment we’re breaking down the Season 2 finale, Chapter 16 ‘ The Rescue’.

We open with Slave 1 chasing a Lambda-class shuttle, and wasn’t it nice to hear those high-pitched lasers again? We see the inside of the shuttle, and it was amazing how much more open the cockpit feels versus what we saw in Episode VI—is it something to do with being widescreen, depth of field, or is the set here just twice as big? It just feels like we’re seeing two totally different ships to me.

Thoughts on ‘The Tragedy’

Welcome back to my breakdown series on The Mandalorian Season Two. I’m about a week behind, but we’re looking at Chapter 14 ‘The Tragedy’ this time around.

Boba Fett (played by Temuera Morrison, nice continuity!) has somehow tracked our Lone Wolf and Cub to Tython. I really have to wonder…HOW? Last we saw Boba, he was watching the Titular Mandalorian swooping into the sunset on Tatooine. After walking back to Mos Eisley, they went sublight with Lady Gecko to Spidery Ice Planet, then to Fish Planet, took a detour back to Navarro, then to Dead Forest Planet before heading to Tython. We know the ship has been tracked since Navarro due to Gideon’s spy, but how would Boba be able to follow that convoluted-ass trail?

Anyway, Boba shows up and I’ll be damned if he isn’t packing around the longest gaderffii I’ve ever seen…over five feet by my calculations, so literally as long as his long-ass Tusken rifle! Also, as this hobby includes an element of approaching on-screen things through a realism-and-practicality lens, I have to ask: just how is that gaffi staying on his back? (Note that we never see Boba take it off his back, he just magically has it in his hands in a different shot.) His rifle has a sling, but the gaderffii just seems to hover on his back, which is silly and purely just for ‘cool points’, to give a ‘Hollywood swordsman’ silhouette.

Thoughts on ‘The Marshal’

Since The Mandalorian is the hottest thing in the galaxy right now, and with my queue of current projects winding down and no opportunities for public interpretive events in the foreseeable future, I want to share my thoughts on each episode shortly after each airs. Because…I have thoughts! These won’t be general reviews, but I’m going to try and focus on applying the topics of this blog (character design, material culture, issues of in-universe consistency, etc). Additionally, my research tends to uncover random details which enhance our knowledge of the galactic setting, but which aren’t always meaty enough to merit their own essays; I think Mandalorian episode writeups will be the perfect place to sprinkle these in.
I’ll be discussing topics in the order they appear, so let’s get started!

Since S01E06(‘The Prisoner’), the show seems to have a problem with its male Twi’leks. The size, shape, and angle of the head-tails is all wrong—they’re female-style(ish)—and I think it’s a side effect of the show’s relatively small budget. Since the usual male Twi’lek doesn’t wear a headband to hide the transition between actor and prosthetic, the look requires much more time in the makeup chair; the show’s makeup team have apparently decided it’s simply easier to pop a pair of female-style lekku and a headband on and call it good…but it looks hella weird:

This post from DIY the Galaxy gives a good overview of previous lekku depictions.

Boba Fett’s survival knife: Accuracy vs. Authenticity

bobaknifeSWVD
I’ve been thinking about this item a lot recently, as a possible easy project to bang out with the drill press and benchgrinder some weekend. We don’t have many references to non-vibro knives in the Star Wars galaxy, and its identification as a “survival” knife lends itself easily to my purposes of wilderness adventure and interpretation. With a beefy 5 or 6 mm spine, I can easily see it being perfect for batoning firewood and other tasks around camp (in GFFA style, of course).
The problem is, there are two versions of Boba Fett’s ‘survival knife’ out there – so which one is ‘right’? Continue reading “Boba Fett’s survival knife: Accuracy vs. Authenticity”