Alternate Style Gloves in ANH

In ANH we see there are 2 style of latex hand plates, regular and these more unusual looking alternate style.

Some people misleadingly refer for them as hero style, due to Han Solo being seen with them on. But he also is seen in the same scene with the regular style and other troopers throughout the film wear these so i think a better description for these latex handplates would be 'alternate'

These gloves here were made by Sonnenschein a regular contributor in the trooper forums.

Here's a great picture of the 2 types of gloves being used by the troopers..

Another one of the great mysteries! I have often wondered why they had two different versions. I can only assume that the mold was shot for the first one and whom ever had the responsibillity of supplying the hanplates re-sculpted them and made a fresh mold. It is amazing, knowing generally how much stuff is written down for continuity and costume on film-sets, just how little seemed to be recorded about the Stormtrooper armour! Wouldn't it be nice if a great big folder marked 'Stormtrooper' was discovered and all of these things were in it, I'm almost sure something like this existed and it is clear they did the same for Vader and the other costumes as we have seen examples in books etc.

I have often wondered if there were more than one person responsible for producing the handplates.

And looking at how the 2 versions are made up it could be that the design of the mold was simply reversed at where the raised part that runs in parallel with the wrist, with the standard version being on top of the vertical stripe and the alternate version running under it.

Although without clear pictures it looks like the overall shape is just a little different between the two?

So maybe they did make a second mold to replace damamged parts ruined during filming?

I guess we will never know

I know - bloody irritating to say the least!! But at leats allows us all to have our varying opinions

And the option for 2 types of latex hand plates

Did you get my pm about handplates Dan? Do you do both styles??

Regarding the gloves themselves, has it been established what type/brand they were?

I'm currently using black marigolds and was wondering if something like these would have been used due to their cheap cost and ease of availability?

89batman wrote:

Did you get my pm about handplates Dan? Do you do both styles??

Dont worry about hand guards Garry i have that covered at last,bingo eureka,i had a dream,it has come true

Excellent!!

I am also using black chemical/rubber gloves.

But lets be honest, regards to trooping with they are not nice to wear, wet and a bugger to get on and off is there a recommended alternative?

If you get the correct gloves they have flocking inside and are not really that sweaty - I've never had any trouble in the last 5 years anyway..

Mines smelled like rancid mushroom soup.

I got some cotton-lycra inner gloves to wear from a fellow trooper. wearing those inside helps a lot!

Before I could go maybe an hour tops. Now all-day troops are no problem.

While tweaking my armour this weekend i wanted to show the size difference between some of the latex hand plates i have.

The standard style are by John aka Pugman or Stormtrooper and the alternate style are by Karin aka Sonnenschein.

The Pugman version are quiet a lot smaller and look better in my opinion..