Lehigh Valley Comic Con

The Mandalorian Mercs began life as the brainchild of Tom Hutchens in March 2007.  Noticing that Mandalorian costumers had distinctive and separate needs to “traditional” costuming groups, and being a big fan, Tom decided to create a costume group based on Mandalorian culture.

Utilizing a guild name from Star Wars: Galaxies and references from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic„ computer games, the Mandalorian Mercs as a costume organization was born.

The infrastructure of the Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club is based on all known references to Mandalorian Culture in Star Wars Expanded Universe canon.  The cultural leader, or Mand’alor (Mandalore), is the public figurehead with a ruling and advisory council used to debate and guide the club’s direction and finally the “command” staff, the leaders who help guide the Mercs at a local level.

This makes the Mandalorian Mercs Costuming Club unique as it is based on methodology and ideology as opposed to visual accuracies based on the Star Wars films.  The Mercs are an inclusive and friendly club, following the Mandalorian way of “Clans” or family units and a clans’ ability to adopt anyone who wishes to be a Mandalorian.

During the formation of the club, Tom began uniting Mandalorian costumers in the USA and UK; the regions were given names using the Mandalorian language developed by Karen Traviss.  Talon Clan became the first Mandalorian Mercs clan in April 2007, shortly followed by Falco, Sun Raider and Storm Raider clans.  The UK Vok’Chi Clan was founded in late 2007.

From humble beginnings the club has grown from five to thirty-eight clans, spanning several countries with over four hundred members as well as several hundred prospective members from new countries, including Australia and Japan.

The Mandalorian Mercs, in true homage to the characters they portray, have changed and adapted over the years to support the growing amounts of people interested in Mandalorian costuming.  In 2008 the Mercs introduced smaller squads to allow people to better serve the communities in their region, with facilities to grow into bigger clan units.

The Mandalorian Mercs Costuming Club set the standards of Mandalorian costuming based on canon movie references (Boba and Jango Fett) as well as canonical comic-book references, book references (Karen Traviss) and computer games.

Our CRLs allow us to be more open with approvals, however, even though there is a minimum standard that can be reached; every Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club member is constantly encouraged to improve their costume to elite standards.

The Mandalorian Mercs has grown to become a truly global club that entertains Star Wars fans, promote the creation of costumes, and raises money for charities world-wide.

Offical website:  www.mandalorianmercs.com