The story goes like this: Prop designer Andrew Ainsworth, sculpted the Stormtrooper helmets for the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Ainsworth sells replicas of the helmets and armor, made from the original molds, on his Web site.

George Lucas who has more money then God and can’t make a decent post 80’s Star Wars movie to save his flannel shirted ass didn’t like that, so Lucasfilm sued and won a $20 million judgment against the prop maker in a California court in 2006. Now he’s trying to do the same to this guy in British courts.

Ainsworth is now countersuing, and says the copyright rests with him. He wants his share of merchandising revenue from the six films which comes out to the measly $24 billion Lucas wipes his ass with every morning.

Lucasfilm claims that the design was created by Lucas and his team, and that it was already in place by the time Ainsworth was hired.

Whatever dude. I forgave you the ewoks AND the puppets you used in Jedi. But when I saw that asswipe Jar Jar and the rest of the nonsense from the prequels, you hurt me. You hurt me real bad.

Poptherapy rules in favor of the Prop guy!

Hey, I only just noticed how reinforced the crotch is on that armor. Stormtroopers probably get kicked in the nuts a lot.

[MSNBC]

These Star Wars plush dolls have been around for awhile now, in the shape of Darth Vader, Chewbacca and Yoda. But everyone knows that Stormtroopers are the coolest. His big head won’t even scare you in this cuddly form.

He should arrive in July 2008 over at Entertainment Earth.

[EE]

This Samurai Stormtrooper was created by artist Yoshi Isao and was on display at Gift Show 2008 in Tokyo. It’s a follow-up to his rendition of Darth Vader as Dark Lord of the Shogun.

It makes my geek heart yearn to see a movie with about 50,000 of these things all wielding katanas and chasing Yoda around after beheading a young Anakin Skywalker for bad acting.

[Gizmodo]