"Uncomfortable doesn't begin to describe it!" says Eller, who could lose up to a couple pounds of water during a mid-summer appearance. The act of repeatedly putting on the costume and taking it off countless times over the course of five years has given Eller a unique expertise in the process of becoming Darth Vader:
"First, I came up with wearing a Danskin leotard underneath the costume to try and absorb some of the sweat, so at least I would have something dry before I got into the soaking wet costume [for a multi-appearance day]. Next, I had to put on the pants. They originally had elastic suspenders, but it just lost all of its strength after a short period of time. So I went out and bought clamping suspenders, and I wore that underneath the suit. Then I had to put on the boots, which are English riding boots. Around that goes the shin armor, which is very thin black plastic that would strap around the back with Velcro. The next thing to put on was a shirt, but the arms were leather. The leather vest was next, and I'd put my arms in through the front and it zipped up the back, so had to have somebody help me. Next was the codpiece, which would cover my lower midsection, and it Velcroed to the bottom of the vest. Once you've got the codpiece on, you can't really sit down again, because you can't bend.
"Now there's this chest box that I'd have to wear," continues Eller, "and that goes on with straps over the shoulders and around the midsection that tie through elastic loops. A battery pack attached to the strap behind me. The next thing is the shoulder pads, which are very heavy, and they force the shoulders forward so I couldn't stand naturally. They're hinged at the shouder and made of thick, half-inch thick fiberglass [these were lightened for the Empire costume, and also worn over the inner cape after A New Hope]. Once that was on, then comes the inner cape, which is the Samurai cape that's made of wool. It's got big arm-holes that you put your arms through. Then I'd put the belt on, and that has to sit in between the chestbox and the codpiece, holding the wool cape in place. That gets plugged into the battery pack, which goes through D-cells like you wouldn't believe. It would last two appearances, that's it.
"The next thing is the outer cape. The outer cape is a full semi-circle -- wool on the outside lined with satin. It's enormous and very heavy. Next is putting the mask on. The whole inside of the mask is fiberglass, and is lined with gray pieces of polyurethane foam so your face gets pressed into it very tightly. [It's fastened] so it's all rigidly held to the head. Then comes the real trick -- getting the helmet to go on and stay on. They had three points on the head and three spots in the helmet that had to all get lined up and pressed down so it would snap into place.
"At later appearances, I started to put on makeup so nobody could see my eyes or my chin out of the screen below. By the way, that screen is how you see where you're going and where your feet go, because otherwise you could only see straight ahead.
"It was a very long, involved process, and the whole suit must have weighed 75 pounds. Putting on the costume, with someone who knew how to help me, would take me maybe 15-20 minutes."
