My Star Wars Fandom

To say that I am a Star Wars fan is... well... inadequate. I fell in love when I first saw "Star Wars" ("A New Hope" hadn't been tagged into the title yet) in the theater at the age of 9. My first Star Wars toys were the Landspeeder and an R2-D2 action figure. You'd think I'd get a Luke Skywalker figure to drive the Landspeeder, but R2 came first. But I digress... expect that a lot on this blog. ;-)

My love affair with Star Wars continued through grade school, high school, college... there was never a time when Star Wars was not a significant part of my life. It was always easy for family to know what types of gifts to buy for birthdays and Christmas... if it had "Star Wars" printed on it, it was a pretty safe bet. 

Even to this day, 37 years after the initial film's release, Star Wars still reigns supreme in my interests and hobbies. However, instead of collecting action figures (I still buy a few here and there), I've become a life-size action figure myself: I'm a proud member of the Rebel Legion.

My Jedi costume, without the outer robe.

For those not in the know, The Rebel Legion is a worldwide Star Wars costuming organization, specializing in the "good guy" characters of the franchise (for the bad guys, it's the 501st Legion), comprised of and operated by Star Wars fans. While not sponsored by Lucasfilm Ltd., it is Lucasfilm's preferred volunteer Rebel costuming group. It is a fantastic group of like-minded people, gathering to raise money for charity while sharing our love of Star Wars and costuming with each other and the public, and making children (and adults) smile. I've only been a member for a little over a year, but it has been a truly awesome experience. I hope to eventually have multiple costumes, as well as membership in the 501st.... but building film-accurate costumes is time consuming and expensive. 

I get occasional chuckles from people when I tell them about my costuming with the Legion, until I explain what we do, why we do it, and they see photos. Then they realize that this is far more than just being an über-geek, though that definitely helps. And though they might think it's a bit silly and admit that THEY would never do it, they understand why I do.