[The Royal Guard, Men In Red]


      The Imperial Royal Guard,
      The elite line of troops, dedicated to protecting the Emperor.
      [Royal Guard]

      The most feared troops in the entire Empire, who grace our screen in Return of the Jedi for but a few moments, simply marching and standing....Nobody messes with these guys!
      Then we got the prequels...and again we only make a brief appearance in the last movie. Yoda easily dispatches a pair of guards in Revenge of the Sith as he confronts Emperor Palpatine.

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      Royal Guard Adorned in their blood red robes, and armed with lethal "force pikes", the Imperial Guard live to protect the Emperor at all costs. Hand-picked from an elite group of stormtroopers who have stood out in combat, they receive the best training and equipment in the Empire. Only the most promising soldiers who fall within the required size, strength, intelligence, and loyalty ranges are chosen for this duty. They are trained in the use of a wide range of weapons and unarmed combat styles, and conditioned to obey the Emperor's will and protect him with their very lives.
      The Royal Guard report only to Palpatine, and a handful are always with him. They are fighters, assassins and protectors, according to the Emperor's wishes.

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      My Royal Guard Costume

      [Me In Costume] [Me In Costume Again]
      You know the drill...click on the picture, and it gets bigger!


      So Hallowe'en rolls around, and I needed a costume, well, an eBay deal and a sewing Mother-in-law later, viola, I had myself a hum dinger of a Royal Guard costume...All I needed was a weapon...how to make the force pike?
      I was looking at the pictures everywhere, and the pike looked worn, tarnished, dull, whatever, and it had been bugging me where to get a rod that thickness, and the proper length...then I looked up one day, and saw the perfect answer, our shower rod had been weathered almost perfectly to be a force pike...well, I wasn't going to rip apart our shower just yet, the bar was one of the set size ones, and I didn't want to cut it or anything, so I ran out to Canadian Tire, and picked up a new tension shower rod for about $10. This was perfect because I could adjust the length appropriately...the 2m guide on the Star Wars page bio for the Royal Guards seems highly unlikely to me, mine worked out to about 65" tip to tail. I had toyed with the idea of making it adjustable in length, but decided it wasn't worth it, and just put a few screws in it to hold the length...
      Then it was a raiding of my Home Depot lightsaber parts, every few weeks I just wander the aisles looking for neat things that could become part of a prop or whatnot...so I had a handful of leftovers from the lightsabers I had built and figured they were open season... The bonus of the tension rod was that one end was thinner than the other, making for a nicely tapered look, and to cover the break and the screws holding it in place, I slid a foam bicycle grip down 1/2 way, and on top of that, added a backflow preventer and slid it down to meet with the grip, I know it should have been further down, but it covered the joint and was a comfortable grip when holding the staff, butt end on the ground, and not over the shoulder...further up, I figured it needed some coily things, and found some...the sockets from a double light fixture, so I pulled it apart, and screwed it to the staff, with a little duct tape underneath to keep them from flopping about. The point at the end was the most challenging, and I ended up with a piece of porcelin tubing from the old knob & tube wiring in our house, painted silver and held tight in the clamped end of the rod. To keep it looking nice, I cut out the end of a whisk, and pulled the hook off it, and slipped the shroud over it...Later I figured the end of a tube of caulking would have been ideal, but not having any empty tubes about, I stuck with what I had. These are all visible in the pictures above...
      At the other end, another backflow protector, and a part of one of the sink drains I used for my lightsaber, this was an additional drain I guess that screwed into the main drain pipe...well, I guess this is the part that would be in the sink, and the lightsaber part would be underneath....anyway, I screwed it into the end of the rod, making a nice pommel...
      Other bits for my costume...I had a bugger of a time finding red gloves, and still haven't, so I spray painted a pair of rubber gloves, they looked great at the beginning of the night, at the end however...the paint had cracked and peeled, and was flaking everywhere. That's why in the pictures you can't see my hands, or the end of the pike. I will get a proper picture of the pike soon, and put it up. After painting the gloves a nice poppy red, I was seriously considering doing the mask, but time would not allow it.
      As for the mask? It's just a regular Don Post mask, got it off of eBay ;)

      [My Home Made Force Pike]



      Here it is, as promised, a picture, that of my home made Force Pike, that I detailed above.
      [Pomel] The pommel of the pike; the screw in part of a sink drain.
      The grip of the pike; the bike grip, and backflow prefentor. [Grip]
      The tip of the pike; part of a light fixture, and a bit of tubing. [Tip]

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      Royal Guard Links


      [Royal Guard!] Official Star Wars Page
        [Royal Guard!] Back