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[Mar'eyce]

Although the bright Marvel green is techically "canon", I still side with the more subdued shades of green for Fenn's soft parts. Canon or not, the comics are from the 80s. Like I pointed out before, Boba has on awful, bright green too and Dengar wears blue and purple. And if I remember correctly, the stormies have bright blue belts in some of those issues too.

And even though the action figure has inaccurate armor and weapons(Jango repaint), it reinforces all green as being associated with the character.

Concerning a uniform look for the protectors, I do remember in the old comic "Death in the City of Bone", where Tobi Dala is putting on his armor before blowing the place up....he says something to the effect of:

 "This is the uniform of the Mandalorian protectors, so I think it's fitting that I wear it while protecting."  

 I think that also implies uniformity, meaning the green armor was associated with the protectors, at least during this time. It would make sense in keeping with the meanings of different colours; green=duty.

Ah, when I was typing there was a new post.

The more recent comics do seem to retcon the uniform green by showing variety during the clone wars. *sigh*  

[Dar'manda]

which clone wars comic is that?

[Ghez Hokan]

Sorry, it wasn't part of the Clone Wars line, but the CW IS the timeframe for that issue. It's from Republic #67: Forever Young.

[Venn Tosa]

I remember that issue of Republic, for anyone that has the collected volumes it's in Star Wars Clone Wars Volume #6. I never understood why there were Mandos shown, they have nothing to do with the story, they just sit there in the background of that one panel. Weird.

I would still mute the garishness of Marvel's colours. Go for something more kelly green or hunter green. That'll mesh well with accurately-coloured armour.

That's what I was thinking too. OD plates and a darker flightsuit.

[Ghez Hokan]

I remember that issue of Republic, for anyone that has the collected volumes it's in Star Wars Clone Wars Volume #6. I never understood why there were Mandos shown, they have nothing to do with the story, they just sit there in the background of that one panel. Weird.

Yeah, not even Wookieepedia seems to know, but it does make it clear that they're Protectors.

[Kyr'am Jag]

By "soft" costume I mean the appearance like in the picture Venn posted above (as he also first appeared in Marvel).  It is a soft looking vest (quilted maybe?)  over a flight suit (or integrated into) but with standard Mando helmet and gaunts. 

check cheaperthandirt.com they have old military flak jackets pretty cheap and if you wanted to make soft armor that would be your starting point also sportsmansguide.com/hq also has a ton of similar items so good hunting

[Peregrinus]

My mind tends to accumulate data dn sort it into patterns, ongoingly in the background, all the time. The melange that's evolved out of all of the (often conflicting) backstories from the novels and presskits and comics and storybooks and so forth -- all the way up to the new stuff in the Clone Wars series, for Boba and Jango and others, looks something like this:

After the war that devastated Mandalore, the disarmament movement came into ascendancy. In time, those Mandalorians who remained in their home sector, and hadn't left to become roving mercenaries and bounty hunters, had all but abandoned the resol'nare. The Protectors had been formed as a paramilitary ad-hoc police force whose members didn't even wear the armour except in an official capacity. There was individual cariation, but the consistent trent was medium-green armour and helmets, with yellow shoulder and knee armour -- the colours traditionally associated with duty and vengeance, respectively. (I personally find it interesting that "justice" isn't in the palette.)

When the splinter factions of the Death Watch and the True Mandalorians showed up, it was in contrast to the pacifistic mood of the rest of the sector, and they had to scrimp for support where they could from sympathetic individuals. Jaster Mereel, the founder of the True Mandalorians, had been a Protector. Something happened which hasn't been detailed in the EU yet, and by the time we met him in Open Season, he wasn't any more. My theory (italicized fo remphasis) is that he stripped his Protector colours from his armour when he left/was kicked out of the organization. Many Protectors sided with him against the Death Watch, but the rest were probably civilians who heeded his call, and stripped their armour to bare-metal to show solidarity with Jaster.

I have more about the Apprentice/Journeyman/Master system and visor frame colours, but I note Jaster and Jango kept that, even when the rest of the colour was gone.

So that issue of Republic tends to support this... That even after Jaster's and Jango's death, Spar both kept the Protectors going and had volunteers joining up with him -- some of whom stripped their 'gam as their predacessors had.

Maybe the pressure suits are all green, maybe they're available in a wide variety of off-the-rack colours and all the Mandos we saw during Marve's run happened to like green... *shrug*

--Jonah

[OriKad]

If you think about it, in Marvel's run, we see them fighting a jungle-based guerrilla war for the most part.  Might explain the green.

[Peregrinus]

The jungle-based guerilla war was just #68. #69 was all about Leia being captured and taken to the City of Bone, Shysa infiltrating, freeing her and Dala, and escaping while Dala sacrificed himself to cripple the Imperial base and kill the Suprema. When we next saw Shysa, it was after ROTJ, the Rebels had won, and the Mandos were working with them in the Nagai-Tof war -- all space-combat stuff. That was #99-101, and #107. Still with the green pressure-suits, except for the random panels where Shysa had the white/silver full armour.

--Jonah

[Peregrinus]

Update time. I've scanned every instance of Shysa appearing in Marvel Star Wars -- mostly #68, some from #s 100, 101, and 107, and one from #99. The variation is rather annoying. Even from panel to panel in a single issue. Not ot mention the colouring matter. I've scanned Boba from the ESB adaptation, and need to get them cleaned up and upladed to show in comparison. He's got the same "all-green-with-white-cheeks" scheme seen in the flashback in #68 -- it wasn't a change in uniform colours from one time period to the next, just inaccuracy/inadequacy of early '80s comics technology.

A reminder, dragged back up from page three of this thread.

Cover:



Two-page flashback splash panel:



Actual photo reference for the above:



Okay, here we go with #68...

First clear appearance (he was a silhouette in the previous couple panels):



Then we get a close-up:



'Nother action shot. Note the different blasters now:



Taking out one of the slavers. Different blasters again, and note how much higher the missile is on his rocketpack in this panel. Also, the slaver seems to have this artist's version of Mando gloves, gauntlets, and shoulder armour. Another example of Mandos preying on Mandos?



Disabling the slaver's control box. Different blasters again. Note the plasma cutter/mini-lightsaber:



I wonder how it might have affected the EU if Leia hadn't kept Fenn from getting slightly dead just now. His rangefinder also seems to have the same problem Boba's did in ROTJ :



He's actually giving Leia's blaster back to her after taking out a baddie who jumped her:



Not a lot here, but I'm including everything. He finds out she's mad at him because she thinks he's Boba:



So he introduces himself and shucks the lid:



And lets Leia know she's "invited" back to their camp:



Gonna break it here, and do the rest of #68 in the next post.

--Jonah

[Peregrinus]

Strolling through the camp, and discussing the Empire, the Mandalorian resistance, etc...:













This is where the flashback panel goes. When we pick up again, it's after dinner and Leia's decided she has to free Dengar (who Shysa's people have captured) and in return he'll tell her where Boba took Han (even though they all knew at the end of ESB). Fenn finds her "going for a stroll" suspicious, but valiantly resists for all of five seconds when she throws herself at him. Frankly, I think he deserved to get "treed" for falling for such an old trick:













As always, pay attention to the blasters and rocketpack. Also, in this post and the last, look carefully at the suit itself. From panel to panel, sometimes it looks just padded, sometimes some portions look like hard plates. No consistency.

Of course, it was a trap, Leia is captured and taken to the City of Bone and the Imperial overseer (an alien, very surprisingly). Next issue sees Fenn infiltrate as a Stormtrooper, take out Leia's guards, they bust out Tobbi Dala, who the Suprema shoots, so he tells them to escape while he sacrifices himself to take out the Suprema and the Imperial garrison. I forgot to scan the several panels of Tobbi's undersuit and armour. I was focussing on Fenn, and feel silly now that I skipped this issue. *heh*

--Jonah

[Xyon Koreen]

heck, Ive been confused for boba.

[Peregrinus]

The one shot from #99. The only appearance of his "Mandalore" armour.



This next batch is from #100, when he was at the Rebel encampment on Endor post-ROTJ for tactical training.

















Actually more-or-less consistent, even though crappier than the previous artist's version, and dfferent to boot (abdominal quilting is higher and wider, and no quilted chest diamond).

On to #101. Han's getting in Leia's face, so Fenn throws him to the ground.



I love Han's reaction, so I've left the words in :



A couple more:







Nice to have some consistency to the previous issue.

Then things get weird, though. The next couple are from the same issue, but on the bridge of the Rebel command ship. Fenn's helping direct the action. This seems to be intended to be the same "Mandalore" armour from #99, but in execution ends up looking like the quilted "is-it-armour" from #68:





I'm going to include the three from #107 just for completeness. Different artist, crappy (IMO) art, not consistent with anything that's come before, but whatever:







I'll be in to clean up a couple of things I missed in some of these images, and to add the scans of Boba from the ESB adaptation for further comparison. Discuss.

--Jonah

[Mar'eyce]

That is a wealth of reference images! And although they show a variety of looks and some inconsistency, there are some things that seem to remain constant, most noticeably the green suit with the cording and quilting on the front. I would love to see this made; it is so unique and cool.

It's also interesting to see the sigil on Fenn's shoulder plate depicted in more than one image.  Perhaps it is his clan's crest? (I know, I know, it's just something a comic artist in the 80's slapped on him. But I see it as a clan crest)

Anyhow, being that he is never shown with a mythosaur skull(and that casual fans associate it exclusively with Boba anyhow), I think it would be safe to say that Fenn's armor would need to have this design on the shoulders instead of the skull.

I like the white version of the soft suit too. I hope I don't get rotten vegetables thrown at me for saying this, but the use of the chest diamond in the design reminds be of the garb worn by Mando civilians in TCW. *ducks*

EDIT: Eh, looking back at the pic of the three from the flashback in #68, I see that Tobbi has the same design on his shoulder as Fenn  and "Boba" has something similar as well. Protectors emblem maybe?

[Gratulor]

My interpretation is that the Mandalorian Protectors under Spar were more uniform, as Tobbi, Fenn and Spar all wear the green base colour but with differences in certain areas, such as Fenn's blue outlining around the visor are and Tobbi's crimson markings on each shoulder. The white armour on orange only appears after Fenn had freed Mandalore from the Empire, and when he is Mandalore himself.