|
 |
|
|
|
|
The Disney Star
Wars event's are huge fun, and there's still a couple more week-ends to go
yet. This year has been the best for 501st members as
for the first time EVER the Mouse allowed non-Disney employees into one of
its parks in costume. It was therefore a huge honor for the World-Wide
501st to be a part of the Star Wars Parade and much praise must go to the
Florida Garrison and specifically Jerry Jones for organising this. What great timing it was for me to be Orlando for this great
opportunity, and in costume!!! Note that my images are video
grabs so the qualities not brilliant. However thanks to Jay Harris
(TK-1010 of the Florida Garrison) for the excellent Main Street shots.
|
|
|
|
There was the usual security on patrol to welcome the
guests
|
|
501st Disney Star Wars Parade |
|
|
|
These excellent new main street shots are all courtesy
of Jay Harris (TK-1010 of the Florida Garrison) |
|
|
|
Carrying the 501st banner, it was great that Disney allowed us to front
the parade |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
The ranks of Bikers, Tie Pilots and Stormtroopers file
by, again thanks Jay Harris for the photos. |
|
|
|
Chewy, R2 and Ewoks lead the Celeb's cars. |
|
|
|
Mr. C-3PO himself. |
 |
|
Following Main Street, the parade moved on towards the
Endor Village |
|
|
In total there
ware about 40 of us, Imperial Officers, Tie Pilots, Bikers and Troopers. |
|
|
|
It was about 94 degrees out there, god knows how hot in
those helmets! |
|
|
|
We received a fantastic reception from the crowds, and
lets face it everyone like Star Wars! |
|
 |
 |
|
Who's that
damned-attractive-yet-clearly-distinguished-with-age Imperial Officer
there saluting? (BTW Cheers to Dom from the UKG for the lend of the
costume) |
|
|
|
Next we marched on the Endor Forests to give them Ewoks
a bit of pay-back |
|
|
|
Anthony Daniels was great and said hello to us all
before we set off. A nice guy. |
|
|
 |
|
Billy Dee Williams was there also, along with the Woman
who played Aura Sing (sorry forgot name) |
|
|
|
Darth and the other bad guys. |
|
|
 |
|
A couple of nice looking Disney Jango and Shark Ti
costumes. |
|
|
|
...finally a couple of Clones |
|
|
| Following the Parade the Disney
Star Wars Characters patrol the area around the Star Tours ride ( Endor
Village/Tatooine Traders) allowing the usual photo opportunities.
As mentioned before on this site, the Stormtrooper costumes have an
overall look reminiscent of the ROJ troopers, although they've been
drastically modified to allow greater freedom of movement and longer usage
in hot park conditions. I understand they originated in Japan (DisneyLand?)
and were initially used in live stunt show there. |
|
|
 |
|
|
| The helmets appears to be a single
piece design as the ears are molded into the overall design, rather than
applied later as will all other helmets. The eye bridge area and frown
pieces have been cut out and replaced with a soft gauze allowing air flow.
The suit is more flexible than ABS, although by no means bendy. Despite
that the overall look of the helmet and suit is very good and look to me
like they've been cast off an original. |
|
 |
 |
 |
| Coming from the same Japanese
source, the ANH Vader also has the lenses replaced with black screens.
However the size and features are very good and again I wonder if it has
been cast from an original. |
|
|
 |
| MGM's excellent C3PO statue (i.e. no
one's inside) which is actually the Don Post Deluxe Statue (see Don Post
section for other images of this range). A wonderful prop. |
|
|
 |
| There were two R2's on display. The
static one (a DP Statue again I believe), and on the right a brilliant
full size Radio Controlled model which scurries around the parade beeping
at the crowd. Excellent! |
|
|
 |
| A couple of Tusken Raiders, there
are usually three of them. Close up of one of them on the right. |
|
|
 |
| The Imperial Guard has been adapted
like the stormtrooper and Vader with the open mesh area around the eyes,
which is also larger than the screen used helmets. The Greedo on the right
looks OK. |
|
|
 |
|
There's a great Gamorrean Guard who hangs around wiping
his slobber on the kids - great! |
.. and above MGM's Admiral Ackbar with
what I hope is his arm raised up! |
|
|
 |
|
The Clone Trooper armour looked good, although the
helmets looked very similar to the Kellog's Helmets available last year
(see Fans/Clone), and possibly could have been molded from them. |
 |
|
Jnago , Zam......
and finally Chewy |
|
|
|
For
photo's from the 2001 Disney MGM Star Wars Week-end click here |
