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Backpack parts.... REVEALED!


Art Andrews
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From the forthcoming book "The Making of Star Wars:"

"George announced that he was going to take some stormtroopers on location, and he wanted them to be in 'combat order.' I said 'Oh yes, George, what's combat order for stormtroopers?' and he said, 'Lots of stuff on the back.' So I went into this Boy Scout shop in London and bought one of these metal backpack racks; then we took plastic seed boxes, stuck two of those together, and put four of those on the rack. Then we put a plastic drainpipe on top, with a laboratory pipe on the side, and everything was sprayed black. George asked, 'Can we have something that shows their rank?' So we took a motocyclist chest protector and put one of them on their shoulders. George said, 'That's great!' We painted one orange and one black and that was it!"

If you haven't preordered this book yet... ORDER IT! Let the hunt begin!!!

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could these be the original pauldron makers ?

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Chest protectors: We weren’t big on protection in the early seventies. This was a man’s sport (at least in Europe men were doing it) and we, American teenagers, weren’t going to pansy-out. The dynamics of crash protection were limited to wearing a helmet; after that, all we worried about was roost. It stung. The manly among us ignored roost. Kent Howerton claimed that he didn’t wear a chest protector, because if he did he would lose the incentive to pass the guy in front of him. Those of us who weren’t as macho wore a Hallman GP chest protector. It isn’t even a distant relative of a modern chest protector—it offered almost no protection. It, like quilted knees, consisted largely of a soft felt pad you strapped across your chest. The felt pad was spiffed up with a two-tone nylon cover.

The Hallman GP chest protector reached its apex at the Superbowl of Motocross when a vitamin company got a handful of stars to wear GP protectors emblazoned with the words “Whoop-De-Chews.” Although it didn’t sell any vitamins, it did sell a lot of Hallman GP chest protectors. We immediately took to removing “Whoop-De-Chews” and putting our own names on the front. It was the first all-out self-promotion in motocross history.

looks like a similar design to me though looks somewhat flimsy what you think ?

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The Hallmans are close, but not the right shape. The GA/ebay replica pauldrons are patterned after them, and there are a few things about the overall shape that aren't right. Some of the old ones also look very thin, although I have seen some that are thick. I'm willing to bet there were a host of companies making them in the late 70's, so its reasonable to believe there were a few variants and a few knock-offs floating around.

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And those guys are ust as big jerks as they sound... I called them years ago and they were completely nasty... apparently they had a bad incident with some Star Wars fan even before me and the minute I asked about the colors they knew why and became very ugly from then on.

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And those guys are ust as big jerks as they sound... I called them years ago and they were completely nasty... apparently they had a bad incident with some Star Wars fan even before me and the minute I asked about the colors they knew why and became very ugly from then on.

Same storry here my friend.

I call em up.

They and talk about colors, he write:

Dont write to us again, only if you are buying over 100 of them.

Somthing like that

Well cheers boys

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I have moved these threads here as this is such a fantastic find and is full of trooper knowledge it would be better all together. This is fantastic stuff, probable one of the best threads in a while with some good references to being a sandtrooper.

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Strange but all the online stores selling gravel trays are in the UK? Do people not use gravels trays in the US? Clearly I know nothing about plants. Anyway check out the green tray on the bottom.

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Here are a few more.

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