What looks at a first glance as Darth Vader sans helmet is in fact a phenomenally accurate costume of Darth Malgus, a lesser-known Sith Lord, at least for the ones who’ve only watched the movies.
While not as popular with movie buffs, Darth Malgus is well known by gamers, who had the chance to see him in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Leaving the CG characters aside, we get to see how a Darth Malgus costume would look like in real life. Irish Star Wars fan Julian Checkley, who goes by the name plaigeous on YouTube, shows everyone how cosplay should be done.
If you’d like to learn how this costume was brought to life, a step-by-step guide is available on The Replica Prop Forum. As no one is producing parts for this character, Julian had to do everything from scratch. On top of that, he did everything alone, as the others seen in the following video only helped him to put the costume on.
Darth Malgus’ body build sets this Sith Lord apart from the others, so not everyone would be able to impersonate him properly. Luckily, Julian stands 6′ 6″ tall and weighs 255 lbs, so one could say that he was born to play Darth Malgus or even Bane. Every single detail about his Darth Malgus costume is outstanding. Besides, the accessories complete this unique picture incredibly well. Julian used contact lenses and a UltraSabers Malice lightsaber to increase the realism of the character.
According to the description of the following video, Julian has worked in the film industry for 20 years, but now he has retired from that and only makes private commissions. He admits that if JJ Abrams called him to work on the set of the next Star Wars movie, he wouldn’t resist the temptation. His experience is well reflected in the costumes he creates, and I can’t wait to see more such incredible reproductions coming from his hands.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6qC-mrUpMs&w=600&h=338]
As someone put it on Kotaku, Darth Malgus might as well be considered a Darth Vader ripoff, mostly because of the respirator. Still, even the one who stated this admits that the costume is incredibly accurate. Another commenter noticed that the Sith Lords have a long history of breathing problems, hence the need for a respirator. Darth Vader ripoff or not, this Darth Malgus is the best example of cosplay I have seen in a very long time.
If you liked this post, please check these Star Wars Sith soaps and the Star Wars corsets.
