Star Wars costumes are awesomely elaborate these days, but back in the 1970's and 80's the fans that made their own costumes didn't have much to go off of other than what they saw in magazines, or recalled by memory of what they saw in the films. Some of them turned out great, other's turned out crude, but they all turned out pretty awesome in their own special way!

This is just a small collection of several other photos from the Flickr group Growing Up Star Wars. Here's a little background and description from the photo above from Walter Keegan:

Back in the late 70's everyone wanted to get in on the Star Wars money train. Places like Great Adventure in NJ found a way around licensing with these "Star Battles" pictures with Derth Nadar and C3Copeia. Here's how it's done: 1. Grab 2 mannequins

2. Buy a Darth Vader helmet and stitch some shiny edging onto black material to hang on one

3. Spray paint one gold and glue on a bunch of electronic parts and bungee cords

4. Find a kid who lives and breathes Star Wars, give him a non-laser gun (who makes sure to point at the robot, not Darth. Darth was cool.)

5. Charge the kid's parents $5 for the photo

Check out all the photos and let us know what your favorite costume is! Did you ever make your own Star Wars costume? If so, how did it turn out?