Right around the time of Revenge of The Sith, I saw in a costume shop in Toronto a life-sized, screen accurate costume of Darth Vader being sold as a costume for $1500. I knew I wanted it but, $1500?? Not in the budget so I decided to make my own. I did buy the helmet at the lower cost of $250. :/
Something not widely known is Darth Vader's mask is actually two tone as seen above. There is an alternating dark metal and gloss black on the helmet which carries over on the armour. The helmet originally was just molded in black plastic.
The chest-pack here came from a Darth Vader Voice Changer. it's about 90% of the size it should be but I'm okay with that as it is highly detailed. I had to repaint though and added lights to it. The larger green light and red light i believe don't light up for the original 3 films and the green was blue but I think that changed for ROTS (Revenge of the Sith). It is on a separate circuit if I don't want to light it.
The belt had some damage as I unpacked it. I built it from scratch using 2 project boxes from Radio Shack, LED's, plastic screws, a black switch cover and a belt from a thrift store. Missing one lens on the box on the left and I lost the buckle. Aluminum duct tape is a temporary solution. The outer and inner capes I sewed with material from Fabric Land. The armour is in rough shape but was built up from laminating acrylic plastic and using super glue to hold it together. The cod piece was also made from material from Fabric Land. The body suit is a thermal suit from MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-Op) and the boots are biker boots from Giant Tiger for $20!! And the gloves were are a Star Wars licensed product, like the helmet. I will be doing an overhaul of this costume for next year.
Hope you had a great Halloween!! (and yes that is a Death Star Pumpkin!)
Rock on!!
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