Prince Armory has created a medieval-ized version of Darth Vader’s iconic armor.
Darth Vader is a character perhaps best defined by his almost overwhelming sense of presence. And while it’s something you could attribute to many factors (the voice, his movements, his casual brutality), it’d be hard to deny that a good portion of his force as a villain comes simply from how intimidating he looks. When a guy wearing that armor walks into the room, it’s hard not to notice. That being the case, it can sometimes be fun to imagine how the iconic baddie might have looked had he hailed from somewhere other than a galaxy far, far away.
Take, for instance, the work of the custom armor makers at Prince Armory. Late last month, the site debuted a gallery showcasing a new project aimed at transforming the Dark Lord of the Sith into a sci-fi tinged medieval warrior. The end result managed both to be faithful to its source while still projecting a menace uniquely all its own. It’s also a project that the armory itself found to be “very challenging” thanks in no small part to the “iconic” nature of Darth Vader.
“When you work on a very iconic character you have to think long and hard about how much liberty you want to take with the design,” they said in the armor’s write-up. “On one hand you don’t want it to play it too safe and have it [be] a borderline carbon copy; that would be boring. And on the other you don’t want to go so far it is no longer recognizable or make design decisions that puts the fan base up in arms.” Aiming for a blend of “sci-fi, medieval and mystical fantasy,” they decided to take “a number of the design elements” from the classic Darth Vader outfit, such as “banding patterns,” and then “expanded [them] into the fantasy realm with the red inlays and articulated armor designs.”
Just speaking personally, I think it all comes together quite brilliantly and definitely manages to meet its creator’s goal of taking the original armor and transforming it into a hybrid of sci-fi and fantasy. In the least, I find it a lot more effective than some of the other adapted Darth Vader’s I’ve seen in the past. Take a look and let us know what you think. Do you like this version of Vader’s suit, or does it need a few more hours back at the smithy?
Source: Prince Armory
