TK8315 in Active Deployment!

Credit: Keith E Moss

The no-post drought over the past weeks was due to my mid-year exams, which lasted a good part of last week, and will end this Thursday. I sit here typing this as I think to myself "I really ought to be studying for chemistry tomorrow".


Me and the respectable man I worked for over the June holidays, Reno Tan. Credit: Jason

My job commitment over the June holidays had prevented me from performing the bulk of my revi- No, it only took up my weekends. I was simply too lazy to study much in the weekda- No, I just didn't want to study. I tried to stay away from studying by doing housework, as though I do housework for a living. I simply dread revising, especially for physics, chemistry and mathematics, when I am forced to attempt questions which I have no idea to answer, or have the misconceptions to answer incorrectly. This needs to change, and fast.

Needless to say, my grades are gonna suffer. I don't need to see my results to know it. My parents are gonna be so pissed...


I'm not actually a lefty, but... Credit: Keith E Moss

Me and my badass sound system. :D Makes me sound just like a Stormie Credit: Rid Rahman

But that's besides the point. what I really want to talk about is my developments regarding the 501st Legion. After a month's worth of hard work (I shouldn't even consider it as 'hard work' since I enjoyed every session of it), I finally managed to raise a substantial amount to get done on my very first armour kit for entry into the 501st Legion, the standard and ever-popular Stormtrooper.

Over three seperate days, my fellow Legion members and I worked hand-in-hand to trim, Dremel, file, velcro, screw and paste bits of vacuum-formed ABS plastic together to get the armour into a wearable state.


After an armour-building session, it's nice to chill out and relax in a jacuzzi pool. Credit: Picture, Pool: keith E Moss

TK8316 is happy at my joining him in the legion. Credit: Rid Rahman

The photos were sent in, the application was approved, and I went home from the armour party at 12 midnight that day as the Legion's newest member, TK8315, with the Stormtrooper ID that comes just before TK8316.


Can't find me. Credit: Jason

But I'm quite easy to spot here. Credit: Brian Benitez

The very next day marked my official maiden trooping event (my unofficial one being the St. Pat's Day Parade), Toy Carnival at the Singapore Art Museum. Having put on costumes numerous times for Movie Mania, and doing minding work for my fellow troopers during previous trooping events, I had modified my armour to be more easily wearable, and dressing up as a Stormtrooper all by myself was like putting on a new set of clothes. I clocked a timing of 5 minutes, exceptional for a raw 501st recruit (I'm cheating D:). The plan for the day was basically traipsing around, 'droid hunting', posing for pictures, posing with civilians for pictures, and posing for funny pictures.


Guess which?

The 'Heaven and Hell' stance from Grenado Espada. Credits: Picture: Brian Benitez, Lightsaber: Olivine Lin

Trooping aside, the Toy Carnival was also where i made a very unexpected purchase. There were only 5 boxes when I first spotted the both while in armour, 3 when I returned during my lunch break to secure mine, and none left 15 minutes later. After all, Figma Yuki was Max Factory's very first Figma product, released around this time last year IIRC, so I should think finding her would be very difficult. The best part was that she was on sale at nearly a 40% discount. A most worthy buy. I chose her over the other models available like Mikuru (waitress ver., cheerleader ver.), Haruhi (ponytail ver., cheerleader ver.) and waitress ver. Tsuruya, since she would complete my mini collection of the humanoid interface characters in the Suzumiya Haruhi series.


The photographer. Credit: Rid Rahman

The photograph. Credit: Camera: Demonick Angel

The girls are very pleased.

Two more points of note that day:

1. One half-inactive member in the Singapore garrison lives in the same apartment block as me, on the same floor, two doors down from me. He has 3 Clone Trooper costumes, and the CT was my very first costuming objective when I joined the 501st community as a volunteer (before I had to settle for the regular TK due to time and monetary constraints). I can hopefully get tips on how I shall get about doing my own Clone Trooper in future, and maybe even hitch rides in his car if we're ever going to trooping events together, as he suggested. Very nice man indeed. It was kind of embarrassing that he recognized me when I didn't. I guess, I haven't been maintaining close relations with neighbours after my under-10 childhood days, and also, because my door is just beside the lift landing, I rarely walk down the common corridor past their gates, so I don't make any acquaintances through passing compliments and casual exchanges, etc.

2. An acquaintance of mine, this very pretty girl who was at that event, commented to a friend that I looked cute in my stormtrooper armour, as he related to me later on (he even ventured as far as to tell her that I was still a virgin @_@). If anything, that was a big morale boost for me, and it made me feel great the whole day, knowing that people have good opinions of my looks. I don't normally receive compliments like that, call me deprived of whatever, but I was still very happy about it all the same. I can't wait for my next opportunity of meeting her, when I can say, "you look very pretty too". Ah, whatever.


Dual-wielding trooper. Credit: Keith E Moss

For now, TK8315 signing off. Next stop, the trip to Batam, then Cosfest 2009. See you then.

St. Patrick's Day - A 501st Legion Trooping

15th March marked an epic milestone in my normally mundane life. It was just one month back, on the 15th of February, after doing a minding stint with the 501st for their China Square Central trooping (minding is where you accompany your armoured buddies around as they mingle with the crowds, to ensure they don't encounter anything serious like a fall or a boisterous crowd member wanting to peel stuff off his armour kit. Visibility inside a Stormtrooper helmet is severely limited as it is), I was asked by the Singapore Garrison CO if I had the time to borrow his spare armour kit and take part in next month's St. Patrick's Day Trooping. I was elated to know that it was on a Sunday (absolutely nothing on that day), and gladly accepted.


Guess who?


Darth Vader and the Jedi Knights lead the procession.

It was just two years ago when I first encountered the 501st legion, at a Cosplay event in Ngee Ann City's Civic Plaza (later met them again at Cosfest the same year. I was still a greenhorn back then). They were doing promotional work and escorting duties, and I conversed a bit with a stormtrooper manning the booth, who handed me a flyer. He was a Blackhole Trooper, a black variant of the usually white stormtrooper.


Company of heroes.


Troopers need their hydration too. This is Keith, our commanding officer.

I turned 18 in January, meaning I am fully qualified age-wise to officially join the legion. The only thing holding me back is the lack of funds to purchase my own armour. One needs to have his own so that he can file his application to the headquarters. And with the poorly state I live in currently, plus the added stress and time consumption of my 'A'-level studies, joining this year, like what my other same-aged friend (younger than me by a few months) managed to do, would be quite the impossibility. While I understand and acknowledge how eager the garrison is to accept me into the family, I really don't have the money to back myself up. Such is the misery of the world today, more so than your financial crises and MRT deaths and what have you.


A youngling gets educated about the teachings of the Empire.


He would make a fine soldier.

While I present to you some pictures courtesy of Lester Lim, a comrade at the 501st, of the event, I thought I'd just say something somewhat related to this topic.


Lester looking strong indeed. Stormtroopers look cute when they do funny poses.


Everybody's favourite snowtrooper, Leonard a.k.a Dranoel.

What kind of leisure do grown men and women, already settled down with jobs to work and families to support, partake in to walk among society dressed up as fictional characters with cumbersome, non-ergonomical costume designs?


Cue the Imperial March.

A documentary, Heart of an Empire, was produced to answer that very question.

Human beings, from the beginning of time, have always felt the compulsion of being part of a large congregation in society, among breathren of a similar cause.


SEJA (Sub-Esplanade Jedi Academy, from this we all can derive where they go for practice sessions) guys get to sit down. Troopers can't sit due to their armour. This guy's called Spiff around these parts.

All interest groups, big or small, share this same characteristic, but the 501st distinctly involves Star Wars fans who have dreams of emulating their silver screen heroes, and set about bringing onscreen fantasy into real life, obtaining armour moulds from the original prop manufacturers and blueprints from movie costume designers, and building up from there.


A rare smile from Ivan, a senior in our company.

The Stormtrooper, in particular to most other cosplay, enjoys the added value of having this aura of mysteriousness and anonymity around his costume; it is uniform, worn by many all across the world, and somewhat detaches the wearer from the rest of the world, which he views from behind his visor.


Our resident Boba Fett. We're good friends but I forget his name sometimes. :P

In extreme cases, the armour, bulky as it is, offers santuary to the wearer, a portable security blanket that covers him wholly, providing warmth (too much, during sunny days) and protecting him from the elements (I should say at this point of this that it poured heavily during the marching procession. I received ample shelter from the rain while inside my armour). It is like a life support system, emotionally speaking (as long as the person does not suffer from claustrophobia).


I'm in love with his P90-modded sniper rifle.Complete with bipod and scope.

The 501st is also not just a costuming group who entertains the masses. We play a part in promotional events and charities, such as movie premieres and various fundraising programmes all around the world.


Yes, the Imperial Army trains their men from young sometimes. That's Samuel, Keith's son. The other dude I dunno.

As an international community, we take the opportunity to bring the world closer by understanding each other's lifestyles and cultures through regional exchanges, visitations and event participations. We have troopers from Australia and Malaysia coming over to join us in trooping events, members from our legion fly to Taiwan every year to take part in the Asia-pacific 501st showcasing, and a lucky few have attended the highly-acclaimed Rose Parade in CA, USA, which features a gathering of garrison members from all over the world.


Awesome Commando Cody. He's Reno from Movie Mania if I'm not mistaken.

Man, if it weren't for the pictures I think you might've mistaken this post to be an errant General Paper / Knowledge & Inquiry essay without a conclusion. Yeah, I suck at writing conclusions.