1984 Proton Packs Background

1980 - My first costume using high-end materials, with the helmet and armor made from fiberglass. My references consisted of a notebook cover, some bubblegum cards, and The Empire Strikes Back album set (featuring photos that made the armor look like it was painted lavender and blue). My mom sewed the suit. The jetpack was primarily a styrofoam cooler. The helmet was so small I had to remove the lenses from my glasses and tape them inside the visor. Note the futuristic production design in this photo.

1980 - Special rangefinder for my family's Christmas card, Tucson, Arizona.

1981 - I reworked the helmet, jetpack and knee darts. I could now wear my glasses inside the helmet. I cannibalized an amp and speaker from an old cassette player and wired it to a mic so I could amplify and filter my voice.

This is a forced-perspective photo, with the MPC Slave 1 model in the foreground, attached to a ladder sitting just off-camera. I forgot my gloves for this shoot.

1983 - Newspaper photos from the Arizona Daily Star surrounding the release of Return of the Jedi in May. In both captions I'm referred to as an Imperial Stormtrooper. Also note that ROTJ opened at a whopping TWO local theaters.

I won a waterbed with this costume in 1983 at Cowboys in Tucson, a big dance joint. That was second place. First prize (a trip to Disneyland) was won by a guy in a werewolf mask, plaid flannel shirt and jeans walking around on drywall stilts. He was supposed to be Chewbacca. I'm still bitter.

1983 - Bryan Ambacher and me in our Star Wars costumes. Our mutual interests in Star Wars, science fiction, special effects and David Letterman brought us together on several projects and as roommates for a while.

1983 - Leaping to our feet to cheer as extras in Revenge of the Nerds, filmed in Tucson on and around the University of Arizona campus. Kudos to Bryan for sussing out this primo spot to ensure getting on camera. This shot is in the trailer at around 1:13. I'm wearing and waving a home-made cap featuring a Revenge of the Jedi patch purchased from the Star Wars Fan Club.

1984 - I'd just graduated from the U of A with a major in Radio-Television, working at KOLD-TV in Tucson. It was time to create some new costumes. It would be awesome to build Ghostbusters outfits, but where could we get decent references of the packs? Without those there wouldn't be much point in trying to build replicas; they'd be horribly inaccurate. Then in late summer we heard that Richard Edlund would be giving a presentation at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts as part of a film festival featuring movie magic. His new company, Boss Films, had just completed the effects for Ghostbusters and 2010...

1984 - There were several presentations the day we attended the event. As a lover of sci-fi and special effects I was quite excited to see these luminaries of the craft.

1984 - The main event featuring Richard Edlund and his team. They showed a lot of slides and behind-the-scenes footage. I think of the 80s as the golden age of visual effects. Physical props, matte paintings on glass, guys in costume on miniature sets, puppets, models and motion control.

1984 - The main reason we went to these events was to see some of our special effects heroes, but we also thought, wouldn't it be amazing if Edlund brought along a real Proton Pack for display? We didn't know what to expect ahead of time, but just in case I dug out my postwar-era Steinheil Casca II camera (non-SLR), a handheld GE light meter and 1000 ASA film.