5/7/2013
501st Legion


Growing up in the sci-fi scene always had a huge impact on nerds everywhere, especially if you were a Star Wars fan. I remember watching Return of the Jedi for the first time at the age of four, and was instantly hooked. I was so fascinated at the fact that the technology and effects were so advanced for the time period; it was a whole new dimension for a kid my age. Everything was so original in every way, from the plot, the characters, and one of my favorite aspects, the costume design. The costuming aspect of this ground breaking movie has inspired tens of thousands of fans to recreate their own costumes for the dark side of the force. The fans are a part of a group called the 501st Legion/ Vader’s fist.


The Legion was founded by a man named Albin Johnson in 1997. Albin originally had no intent of starting a costuming group let alone a world wide organization; he simply just made a storm trooper costume for the rerelease of Empire Strikes back. Sadly, his daughter Katie had died of brain cancer at around the age of six or seven. To raise money for cancer awareness, Albin started wearing his Storm trooper costume to charity events; this is where the chain reaction started. The more charity events he had went to, the more and more fans built star wars costumes in support of Albin and the many charities. Finally in 1997 Johnson decided to form a group called Detention Block 2551. He hadn’t the slightest clue that his few hundred members would soon turn into the largest costuming group in the world.


As the group got bigger he decided he needed an organized way to keep track of the members, so he did what was movie accurate, each member was given a two letter sequence followed by a 1-5 digit number. For example in a new hope, the officer asks the storm trooper, TK-421, why aren’t you at your post? Johnson then created a special system or each type of costume in the same matter. Not only did the system require an over haul, but the group needed a new name, so he went with the name, 501st legion, or Vader’s fist. In the past 16 years, the Legion is going strong with over 10,000 active members in over 45 countries including Antarctica.


But there is the softer side of the Legion that is far more important than the movies or the costumes, and that is the charity work. Vader’s fist raises tens of thousands of dollars for charities worldwide, hoping to make a difference in people’s lives. Not only do they raise money for charities but they are willing to take time out of there day to visit sick children at local hospitals. Even though they are the villains of star wars, they do what they do because nothing is more satisfying than the smile of a young child.