Fett and his Mandalorians out in force for Dragon*Con 2008

It is astound­ing to think that an entire cul­ture was spawned out of one man’s few short min­utes of screen time in a cou­ple of movies nearly 30 years ago. From Boba Fett, George Lucas invi­sioned Jango, patri­arch of the clone army. The rest is his­tory. Now names like Can­der­ous Ordo, Cas­sus Fett, Spar (Alpha-Ø2), Jaster Mereel, Fenn Shysa, Jango Fett, and Goran Beviin are nearly syn­ony­mous with the leg­endary Boba Fett him­self. There are books, comics, a new lan­guage (Mando’a), and a fan base with amaz­ing cre­ativ­ity and loy­alty to the Man­dalo­rian way.

This year’s Dragon*Con in Atlanta brought out one of the largest gath­er­ings of Fett Fans and Man­dalo­ri­ans alike. Dressed in their best beskar’gam, mem­bers of the 501st Legion, The Dented Hel­met, and the Man­dalo­ri­ans Mercs Cos­tume Club took the the streets for the 2008 Dragon*Con Parade. The fes­tiv­i­ties lasted over the long Labor Day week­end. The Mercs even caught the eye of Mr. Boba Fett, Jeremy Bul­lock him­self. After see­ing the group, he was quoted in saying:

“I am sim­ply amazed by the pop­u­lar­ity of Boba Fett nowa­days, as the orig­i­nal part was not very big.”

As far as these fans are con­cerned, sim­plic­ity often leads to great things. Oya!

Jeremy Bul­loch and his creations

Lego Fett and Jeremy get­ting into character

Man­dalo­rian Merc flag-bearer

The Man­dalo­rian Mercs cos­tume club, Dragon*Con ’08

(Pic­tures cour­tesy of Man­dalo­rian Mercs Forum.)