Ok for may years the debate regarding the closure of the shins at the back was a hot debate. I remember this pic from the RPF from years ago, and even before the days of hd telly could see something along the back but what exactly?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Now we know thanks to the release of the archive pictures that the shins were in fact held closed by three hooks hand sewn onto white elastic, simply glued into one side of the shin and a hole drilled directly into the shin on the other side.
This is a feature that would have been present on all the costumes to start with but also something that over time would easily fail as we can see in the Tantive IV scenes which were some of the last filmed using the stromtroopers.
A closer look at the closure system we can see the white elastic is an inch wide, about 4 inches long with the hook sewn onto the end thats been folded over. The elastic is glued into the side of the shin that has the cover stripe glued to it on the outside. And there are 3 on each leg. One near the top, one about 2/3 of the way down and one at the bottom. The hooks are size #3.
Replica suit showing elastic glued in place
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Holes directly in shin
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] When the shin is closed you cannot see the elastic, hooks or holes
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] LFL reference
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Subject: Proper Shin Closure for ANH 
Sun Jan 16, 2011 10:52 pm
