The Fantastic Fifty: Local costuming group Chattooine celebrates a decade of masked do-gooding

Members of Chattooine dressed as various characters during the Ronald McDonald House Autumn Children's Festival.

Peyton Martin, center, has his picture made with Superman (Jamie McCurry, left) and Captain America (Chris Mullins).

Even if your name doesn't end in Skywalker, seeing Darth Vader walk through the door at the head of a platoon of stormtroopers is generally a good sign that it's time to make a quick exit.

When the faces behind the helmets belong to the members of pop-culture costuming troupe Chattooine, however, most people forget to beg for mercy in their haste to grab a camera.

"We try not to be obnoxious about it," says group co-founder Jeff Hickey of the approach he and his 50-odd fellow costumers take when dressing up for events around Chattanooga.

"We'll stand out of the way and let people come to us," he explains. "Once we see there's interest, we'll get them in there with us. Then, they have a blast because we'll have them pose or hold one of our props or whatever."

Hickey and a small group of local Star Wars fans founded Chattooine on Sept. 29, 2004, after meeting via a message board on TheForce.net, a news site for enthusiasts of George Lucas' science-fiction franchise.

With only eight months to go before the premiere of "Revenge of the Sith" - the then-final film in the series - they formed an official Lucasfilm fan club, where local fans could gather and gush about all things Star Wars. After getting approval from the management at Rave Motion Pictures 18, now Carmike East Ridge 18, they began hosting monthly meetings every second Monday in the theater's party room.

Leading up to the debut of "Revenge of the Sith," Hickey says, Chattooine members decided to make the midnight premiere even more of an event courtesy of extra activities they put on with the theater's approval. While waiting to see the conclusion of Anakin Skywalker's journey to the dark side, filmgoers could distract themselves by watching lightsaber fighting demonstrations or play video games on the side of the theater using a projector on loan from Best Buy.

Hickey and other members of the fledgling club attended the event wearing homemade Jedi robes and stormtrooper armor - the evening also featured a costume contest - but at the time, dressing up was almost an afterthought.

"We were just winging it, but we had fun," says Hickey, who made a Jedi robe for the occasion by tea-staining a karate uniform.

Ten years later, however, Chattooine has become known across the city for its members' increasingly elaborate costumes, which they have worn to events ranging from Star Wars Night with the Chattanooga Lookouts to a wide gamut of charitable affairs.

BEHIND THE MASK(S)

Although Chattooine started off as a Star Wars-centric group - it's even named after Luke Skywalker's home planet, Tatooine - the group's no-fandom-excluded philosophy has attracted members with interests in a variety of pop-culture franchises. As a result, they're now as likely to appear dressed as Disney characters or comic-book superheroes as they are Jedi knights and Sith lords.

From his humble, tea-stained beginnings, Hickey painstakingly has crafted re-creations of many characters, including Professor Snape from "Harry Potter," the horned trickster god Loki and ranger-turned-king Aragorn from "The Lord of the Rings."

Chattooine's menagerie of handcrafted costumes is a hot commodity at local events.

In 2014 alone, Hickey estimates, he and his fellow members have made about 75 purely voluntary appearances, many of them at fundraisers such as the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and Ronald McDonald House Autumn Children's Festival. Last weekend, they read stories to children during Star Wars Reads Day at the Chattanooga Public Library and Hamilton Place Barnes & Noble. The next two weekends, they'll pose for photos during the Chattanooga Zoo's annual Boo in the Zoo celebrations.

"They come dressed to the nines. Their costumes are no joke; they look like real, professional costumes," says Hannah Hammon, the zoo's special events coordinator. "They're so friendly and so willing to help us with anything."

THINKING OF THE CHILDREN

In recent years, using their costumes to brighten the lives of children, in particular, has become a central focus for Chattooine.

"We've entered a completely new era from what Chattooine started as," says Rickie Blevins, the group's event coordinator and unofficial photographer. "What originated as a small group of people who like to talk about Star Wars and go watch the movies together has grown into something that touches people's lives and that there's a lot of demand for."

Blevins, 38, and his wife and current group president, Shellina Blevins, joined Chattooine about three years ago. Like many of their fellow members, he says, it was exciting to find a group of like-minded pop-culture fans, but the ultimate reward has been seeing the public's responses to their costumes, which range from curious peripheral glances to full-on geek-outs.

Infant Nico King, held by Amanii Bryant, checks out Superman impersonator Jamie McCurry, right, during the Ronald McDonald House Autumn Children's Festival.

Some adults will occasionally feign indifference and nonchalantly ask for a photo, he says, but the best reactions tend to come from kids, who are completely unabashed in their enthusiasm at meeting their favorite characters in the flesh.

""If we can do ... what we want to do all the time anyway while also have the added benefit of doing it for other people to make them happy, why not exploit that to the highest level possible?" Blevins says.

In September, he and a handful of Chattooine members dressed up in response to a last-minute request for special guest characters at the Buddy Walk benefit for the Chattanooga Down Syndrome Society. The event concluded with a dance, at which time Blevins - who was dressed as Spider-Man - was besieged by a group of youngsters who dragged him onstage to shake it to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

"There were so many times ... that I was glad that I had a mask on because I was about to burst into tears at how much it brightened these kids' day," Blevins says. "I can't even put into words how great that makes me feel and how much joy that brings to me that it makes them that happy.

"Some of the kids might not know that you're really not a superhero, but a lot of them do. It still makes them happy; it really sells that character to them and makes them fall in love even more."

CHOOSING THE LIGHT SIDE

Todd Patton, 44, joined Chattooine in the early days when dishing about Star Wars was still the primary focus, but the transition to costumed appearances has been a welcome one, he says.

Before moving to Chattanooga, Patton lived in Memphis, where he made frequent costumed appearances as part of wish fulfillment for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Whenever a wish involved a special appearance by a child's favorite character, he says, he'd buy the costume to make it happen.

He now has a packed out wardrobe of about 100 outfits ranging from Scooby-Doo and SpongeBob SquarePants to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and - his personal favorite - a screen-accurate replica of Star Wars bounty hunter Jango Fett.

"To me, it's awesome that we can reach out to the community and give them something. I think it's awesome that we can give back what Star Wars gave to us," he says. "It gives you a chance to be somebody different.

"Whether it's somebody they hate or they love, they still want to get their picture with you. [Darth] Vader is loved as much as he's hated, even though he's the bad guy."

Hickey says he's been surprised at the effect on his life by what started off as little more than the science-fiction equivalent of a knitting circle. It's how he met his wife and fellow member, Kerys Dolan, to whom he proposed in 2012 after a Chattooine gathering for the premiere of "The Avengers." His children - Abby, 16, and Anakin, 14 - also dress out for events.

"In my wildest dreams, I never thought we'd be together this long doing this stuff," he says. "Honestly, I just wanted to make friends, and this was the easiest thing we had a common bond in, but I can't even imagine stopping at this point.

"I intend to stick with it as long as I'm able to."

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.