Tag Archives: star wars

May the 4th, Sternenkrieger style

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For those of you who are Star Wars fans, May the 4th be with you today!

The below is a different take on the more historic term of “German stormtroopers,” showing a Star Wars reenactment group with several generations of Imperial troops (and a token Jawa) accompanying Lord Vader arrayed before of a “real steel” Bundeswehr Schützenpanzer (SPz) Puma fighting vehicle.

(Photo: Bundeswehr / Jonas Weber)

Of note, the Germans refer to the Star Wars franchise’s Stormtroopers not with the1917-era term Stoßtruppen, which has negative connotations in modern Germany due to its later use by the little Austrian and his black-uniformed crew, but instead as Sternenkrieger, which translates roughly as “star warriors.”

The term is also the title of the German-language translation of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.

The more you know…

A galaxy far, far away

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I just realized that the Rebel “A295” blasters from Hoth (Episode V) are actually modified German StG44s and resin repros. As that part of Star Wars saga was filmed in Norway, wonder if they were just recycled from the ones handed in there in 1945…

Arve Juritzen, Norwegian rescue skier and later noted author, with a vismodded StG-44 as a “Hoth rebel” during filming in Finse, Norway

German soldiers from 1st Ski Division (1. Skijäger-Division) armed with StG 44 Sturmgewehr 44 in Pripyat, Ukraine, February 1944

Imperial Forces send up

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With Halloween creeping in and having some Episode IV withdrawal, I worked up my own version of a blended bad Stormtrooper helmet with some psychedelic and sugar skull overtones.


Even got some 501st Legion guys (Vader’s Own) to pose with the final version.

‘No disintegrations’

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Just going to drop this right here as I have always been a fan of pre-Edo period Imperial Japanese Ukiyo-e imagery, and Star Wars, which as many have noted, draws many inspirations from the old Empire.

Ukiyo-e Heroes by Takao Nakagawa

Ukiyo-e Heroes by Takao Nakagawa

 

These are not the droids you are looking for

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If you ever had a question over whether George Lucas based the whole space opera thing that we know and love off Japanese warrior culture, watch this light-saber enhanced Kendo sparring