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Ziptie T-straps


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Okay kids here's some fun facts for you....

 

A little birdie (okay, Gino from eFX) told me that when he examined the biker scout costume at the Lucasfilm archives, he saw that the shoulder bells were permanently connected to the shoulder bridges of the chest armor using zipties of all things!

 

The shoulder bell has a ziptie anchor glued inside the deepest part of the bell. The ziptie is secured around it.

 

The other end of the zip tie is glued to a piece of fabric that is then glued under the shoulder bridge. This is a permanent connection -- the bells never separate from the chest armor.

 

The bottom of the bell has a 1/2 inch elastic strap that goes around the Scout's arm and keeps the bell snug to the shoulder.

 

Now that's all fine and good for me to describe, but you probably want to see a picture.

 

Well as it turns out... it was staring us in the face the whole time. I've circled the zipties:

 

Biker-Scout-Helmet%20-and-armor%20zipties%20circled_zpsoeyorwng.jpg

 

On the right shoulder bridge, you can see the fabric that the ziptie is glued to popping out.

 

SO BEFORE ANYONE ASKS: NO, THIS IS NOT THE NEW LANCER SPEC. We may or may not ask for this in the future but as of now carry on with the Lancer specs as written. I only share this with the folks that are into hyper accuracy like I am :)

 

Carry on, Scouts!

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I'm doing it!!!!

 

Hell yeah, buddy! Me too!

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Interesting observation :) maybe a future change for myself as well, seems like a quick little mod that can help make life a tad easier

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Interesting observation :) maybe a future change for myself as well, seems like a quick little mod that can help make life a tad easier

 

The best thing about it is it keeps the bells really close to the shoulder join and gives them that "floating" appearance that they have in the film

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Great find Mickey!

 

My guess was they did this for one practical reason: Many of you know there were around 20 scout helmets made and it would be a pain to keep up with 20 sets of armor as it is, and then have 40 loose bells roaming around the film set already covered in white armor.

 

So they zip-tied the suckers on with readily available materials and save the bells running away.

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Chex and I have know about that for a while. I'm going to use the zip ties

 

Oh for sure! I know a few of us have seen Gino's photos.

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Great find Mickey!

 

My guess was they did this for one practical reason: Many of you know there were around 20 scout helmets made and it would be a pain to keep up with 20 sets of armor as it is, and then have 40 loose bells roaming around the film set already covered in white armor.

 

So they zip-tied the suckers on with readily available materials and save the bells running away.

 

That and they didn't have adhesive backed Velcro in the 80s.

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That and they didn't have adhesive backed Velcro in the 80s.

 

Excellent point. It is interesting that considering it had been around 30 years by that point that nobody had thought to make it sticky! It is so useful now.

 

I think like many of the other suits (cough cough omg Sandtroopers cough dies x_X) they just did things with the mentality "Oh well this is easy and cheap and fixes the problem right now and nobody will ever knowwww....."

 

Little did they realize that years later a bunch of clinically insane adults would be buying 1970s Starburst candies and scratching off the wording of the red wrapper to make an accurate red light on a suit...lol

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Excellent point. It is interesting that considering it had been around 30 years by that point that nobody had thought to make it sticky! It is so useful now.

 

I think like many of the other suits (cough cough omg Sandtroopers cough dies x_X) they just did things with the mentality "Oh well this is easy and cheap and fixes the problem right now and nobody will ever knowwww....."

 

Little did they realize that years later a bunch of clinically insane adults would be buying 1970s Starburst candies and scratching off the wording of the red wrapper to make an accurate red light on a suit...lol

That's awesome! I have a saying "be an adult when you have to be. Be a child when you can be." I decided to be permanently 5 years old when I don't have to be an adult. If I find any Starburst from the 70s I'll be sure to send them your way:)

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Lol no kidding. Those suits only had to last a few weeks. We put ours on and take them of so often I question some zip ties endurance.

 

True, but we aren't exactly putting our suits through the rigors of what the screen scouts went through. And the zipties I've used elsewhere on my costume have held up these past 2 years. They are easy enough to replace!

 

But I think that when I do this I will use velcro instead of glue to attach the ziptie to the shoulder bridge, just for the practicality of bin storage.

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But I think that when I do this I will use velcro instead of glue to attach the ziptie to the shoulder bridge, just for the practicality of bin storage.

 

That was my biggest concern, I have a relatively small tote (The half size Husky as it were) and I need to be able to put the bells in separately...

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Wow, cool find, Mickey. Did you fill up Gino with a couple of drinks? When I ask him something he usually refers to the allmighty NDA ;-)

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Wow, cool find, Mickey. Did you fill up Gino with a couple of drinks? When I ask him something he usually refers to the allmighty NDA ;-)

 

Ha no I just waved around that "Pathfinders Executive Officer" badge ;)

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Sooo... what size zip tie are we talking about here? I hope they're not the tiny ones, but perhaps the standard size?

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Sooo... what size zip tie are we talking about here? I hope they're not the tiny ones, but perhaps the standard size?

 

I wouldnt trust anything but the thicker ones honestly, I have seen the skinny ones bend enough to kink and never sit "right" again, that would be annoying on armor. Probably just have to test it out and see because the thicker ones may have the added side effect of making the bell "float" too much, each persons armor fits uniquely to them so only testing will show us I think...

 

I would probably use a removable zip-anchor like Mickey suggested by adding a square of velcro to the anchor perhaps?

 

9806_primary_225px.jpg

 

Then again, maybe you could just have the illusion of zip ties, and not havee them touching anything, afterall my bells stay put with only the bicep straps, although I may add velcro to the inner bell for my suit someday.

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This is some great news!! I'm totally doing this too, because I was also just about to redo my T-straps anyways.

 

The only thing I don't quite understand is how the other end of the zip tie was glued to that piece of cloth(that attaches under the shoulder bridge)... Obviously you want to attach it to a piece of velcro instead, but I just can't figure out a way to attach the zip tie to the velcro securely. I've tried a few ideas now, but nothing seems to work.

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This is some great news!! I'm totally doing this too, because I was also just about to redo my T-straps anyways.

 

The only thing I don't quite understand is how the other end of the zip tie was glued to that piece of cloth(that attaches under the shoulder bridge)... Obviously you want to attach it to a piece of velcro instead, but I just can't figure out a way to attach the zip tie to the velcro securely. I've tried a few ideas now, but nothing seems to work.

Ya I'd love to see how this is done as well. Anybody who has done this already have any pics?

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This is some great news!! I'm totally doing this too, because I was also just about to redo my T-straps anyways.

 

The only thing I don't quite understand is how the other end of the zip tie was glued to that piece of cloth(that attaches under the shoulder bridge)... Obviously you want to attach it to a piece of velcro instead, but I just can't figure out a way to attach the zip tie to the velcro securely. I've tried a few ideas now, but nothing seems to work.

 

I would glue the end of the zip tie to the piece of velcro that you would stick to the underside of the shoulder bridge. If that makes sense

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Funny what you find when you know what to look for. You can see the ziptie connecting the left bell to the left shoulder bridge. It's dark, but it's there:

 

2014-10-28221117_zpsd980b1fa.jpg

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Velcro is pretty sturdy stuff.

 

You could just punch a hole through it, feed the zip tie through the hole and then lock it off.

 

 

I am going to have my zip ties permanently attached to the shoulder bridges because I can anchor it around the connection strap but with a patch of velcro that goes under the shoulder bell, rather than permanently attaching the tie to the bell.

 

Just because it's easier for me to get kitted up this way, not because of any form of voodoo.

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