All in the family: Dony (left) and his wife, Endah (right) with their children, Alya and Vio, pose with their lightsabers.

Regardless of their favorite characters in George Lucas'€™ Star Wars, the cosplayers, who pretend to be Sith Lords, Jedi Knights, bounty hunters or Clone Troopers, come together and bond over their love for the space saga franchise.

'€œThere are many Star Wars communities in Indonesia, but we are interconnected and support each other,'€ said Riza Satyagraha, the lord of the Star Wars Indonesian Troopers Homebase (SITH).

Riza founded the first Star Wars community, Order 66-SITH, in 2008 with 15 members he met on an online chat forum.

Over six years, the community became the umbrella for a handful of smaller communities that were established to accommodate the specific interests of the members.

Those communities included JakSaber, FightSaber Indonesia and the Bandung-based Urban Jedi with their intricately choreographed lightsaber battles '€” and the 501st Legion Indonesia Outpost, the only international charity cosplay group recognized by Lucasfilm.

The number of dedicated fans has jumped to 1,600 on its Facebook page with 700 registered members nationwide.

'€œThe Indonesian communities are the largest in Asia,'€ Riza said.

Adventure, excitement: A Jedi craves not these things, according to Yoda, (holding lightsaber), whose statue is photographed during Star Wars day.
As the world'€™s oldest, largest and most dedicated fan-based community, the geeks are now the mainstream, which is expected to grow bigger when the seventh installment of the movie hits screen at the end of next year.

George Lucas gave birth to Star Wars in 1977, which not only changed the face of the cinema, but also the popular consciousness of the Force, Darth Vader, the Jedis as a religion and the lightsaber.

Thirty-something Riza, a lawyer and entrepreneur who initiated the Jakarta Toys Fair, fell in love with the movies when he was young and started to collect Star Wars memorabilia and toys.

Although he set them aside as his priorities changed, while pursuing a graduate degree in Australia, a Darth Maul figurine made him start collecting again.

Riza currently has about 2,000 pieces in his collection, which he claims is worth hundreds millions of rupiah.

'€œThe most valuables in my collection are the life size R2-D2 and C-3PO robots. But the Darth Maul has become my most priceless.'€

Toy photographer Seno Haryo has 80,000 pieces of one-sixth scale figures and toys on the shelves he often uses for his works. His enthusiasm has infected his nieces Ayla, 9, and Vio, 7, with the Star Wars virus.

As time went by, the Force entered the whole family.

'€œI was the first collector in the family ['€¦.] My younger brother, Seno, continued our childhood thing until now,'€ said the children'€™s father, Dony.

He welcomed his children'€™s new hobby. Together with his wife, Endah, the entire family joined in JakSaber and practiced lightsaber fighting every week.

'€œIt'€™s our family bonding,'€ said Dony.

Contrary to general belief, their hobby did not affect the family financially.

'€œThe organization is unofficial, which means we are not required to wear screen-accurate costumes. Our costumes are all self-made. I sew them all myself,'€ said Endah.

The most expensive accessories in their costumes were the lightsabers, whose prices could reach up to Rp 2 million (US$171.9) each.

'€œWe use the bootlegs for practice and fight performances because the original sabers are too fragile,'€ she said.

'€” Photos by JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak