Submitted Photo Last year at the Star Wars celebration in Florida, all active troopers that attended got together for a group photo. Joshua Rhoads and ten other North Dakota members were present in the photo.

Star Wars has been around since the very first movie premiered in 1977. From there, generations have grown up on the stories and the movies that have come from it and they likely played a big role in many lives. Generations of fans have devoted their time and energy to the galaxy far, far away, and at iMagicon on Friday through Sunday, a world wide group of devoted Star Wars fans and charity givers will be there to promote Star Wars.

The 501st Legion was started in 1997 in South Carolina by two big fans, Albin Johnson and Tom Crews to give fans a group to be themselves. Johnson became an amputee, changing his life, and Star Wars is what helped him. After talking to his coworker, Crews, he decided to create his very own, authentic stormtrooper costume to wear to the re-release of the Star Wars movies that was coming up because “no one would know someone was an amputee if they were fully kitted up in the armor of a stormtrooper,” said 501st member Joshua Rhoads.

While his first attempt didn’t go over well, a few weeks later, Crews followed suit, making his own costume and going with to the theaters again. It was a success as people turned and stared in awe. Johnson decided he wanted to try and get 10 stormtroopers together and created a group. Quickly fans came out, joining it and it kept growing.

Now in 2018, 21 years after it’s creation, the 501st Legion has 12,705 members and is growing daily. They have over 24,149 approved costumes for their members and along with their nationwide members, they occupy over 60 countries worldwide.

Rhoads became a member of the legion in 2015 after a year of research and weeks of hard work creating his sandtrooper costume. He was born in Stanley and after moving away for some time, returned to live in Bismarck where he is a member of the 501st Central Garrison, which covers North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa.

In the 501st, everyone is part of the Legion. From there, it goes down into Garrisons that cover certain areas and then in each Garrison there are different squads. North Dakota’s squad, and the one that Rhoads is a part of, is the Wampa Hunter Squad. Their slogan is “Bad guys doing good.”

Rhoads will be one of many Star Wars fans attending to have a booth. At the 501st booth, there will also be the Star Wars group Mandalorian Mercs and The Dark Empire, both of which are costume clubs similar to the 501st.

Rhoads says they have quite a bit planned for iMagicon, such as the Jail-n-Bail, where friends and family can put “bounties” on one another for $1 per minute with a max of five minutes. Then a group of the 501st and Mandalorian Mercs will go to take them to jail where they can either sit until their time is up, pay to get free, or pay $10 to reverse the bounty onto those who put the bounty on them.

“It’s a fun game of tag, and photos in a jail with a bunch of troopers with you is always fun,” Rhoads said.

A new game that Rhoads and the others will be bringing for this years iMagicon is a “Blast-A-Trooper” game where anyone can shoot stormtroopers or a Jawa with a nerf gun, something that Rhoads said is always fun for kids and brings laughs and smiles.

Along with the games and costumed members, the Star Wars booth will have displays of helmets, costume kits, and other items used by the 501st for their stuff as well as a backdrop of the Death Star for guests to get photos taken with Star Wars characters that are in attendance. They will have screen accurate items like blasters, helmets, cuffs, and information on joining the Legion.

“We love discussing more with anyone who comes to the booth and we are one big happy family that try to help one another. At iMagicon, it’s full of fun,” Rhoads said. “Every year I see it get bigger and bigger and that makes me happy. People are running around having fun.”

The members of the 501st work to do community events and charities within their many communities as often as possible, never charging for appearances. Any money donated goes to different charities. Anything donated from the iMagicon event will be going to the Make-A-Wish foundation in North Dakota.

iMagicon will run today to sunday opening each day at 11 a.m. at the Holiday Inn-Riverside with a lot to offer.

“The best thing you get out of this is that you meet amazing people and become close friends without even knowing it,” Rhoads said.