Clonetrooper armor to Stormtrooper armor. Why?

Ok, I searched through the first 4 pages of this board for a topic like this, forgive me if there already is.
Why is the armor of the clonetroopers different in the OT? They both are still hard to see through. It seems like it was nothing but a big waste of money one the Empire's part. Would it be simply because now Palpatine has so much money he just wants to waste some of it? Whats the point. Just because the stormtrooper armor looks alot cooler than clonetrooper armor, doesn't mean that the others arne't just as good. Please discuss.

 

As with almost everything. new technologies and ideas come along. I'm sure the Stormies armor is alot better than that of their clone predecessor's. Perhaps the EU has some info on this subject

 

Well, it doesn't seem much better to me. That armor can't deflect any kind of laser bolt. Not even Leia's weak sporting blaster. But atleast it looks cooler than the clonetrooper armor.

 

Fashion changes, even in the army. It´s 20 years in between, don´t forget that!

Besides, the body armor design isn´t that different, it´s only the helmet that´s been radically changed. I´m sure the new helmet is better at some things.

 

In the Visual Dictionary the stormie helmet is upgraded big time. Thats probably why.

 

The Stormie helmet has thermal optics and nightvision plus a lot of other extra things so that's probably one reason

 

Think in real terms. Go back 20 years and look at what police and firemen wore then and compare it with now. They are different due to fashion and technology eg. more lightweight body armour and stuff for SWAT teams etc. So is possible that the same advancements in fashion and technolgy happen in the GFFA.

 

I think the Stormies armor is supposed to be more menacing, meaning once the Empire is in place they issue the "Rule by Fear" doctrine. And it looks like to me the Clonies helmet is supposed to resemble Daddy Fett's helmet.

I think I read somewhere(probably the "Clones" board) that the Clonie armor is metal and the Stormie armor is plastoid. Does anyone have any additional info on that? Here is what TOS says:

Stormies:

They are completely encased in a white armored spacesuit shell...

Clonies:

Clone troopers were fully encased in hard white armor...

 

I agree with medleyoz.

 

It seems to me that one improvement is that the Stormtrooper mask has a built in gas mask.

 

The Clonetrooper helmet had that too.

 

It's like with the US army (or any army). Their clothing back in the 70's is different from their clothing in present day. Times change. Chances are, new improvements were made over the twenty years, so they decided to re-design their armor.

 

no, Darth_Vader, I'm talking about the gear below the mouth of the helmet. If I had pictures to post I'd show you, but I don't know links to any.

 

Yes, I know what your talking about. The clonetrooper helmet had an air filtering system as well, but it was not built into the helmet the same why as in the stormtrooper helmets.

 

I think they are two reasons why the helmets look different.

1) George wanted to distinguish the clonestroopers from the stormtroopers because the stormies were thought of as completely evil while the republic clontroopers were thought of as the good guys. It would seem kind of odd to see the evil stormies of old fighting side by side with the jedi in the arena. We wouldn't know who to root for.


2) George wanted to sell more action figures.

 

To Darth_Vader: Oh.

To DarthMaul13: That would be a perfect reason to keep their uniforms the same. Especially for those of us who've watched the OT before the PT. I can't wait till the troops that the Jedi command during the Clone War turn and destroy their Jedi Generals!

 

Yeah, I guess its kindov like that new computer generated camoflauge the U.S. soldiers are gonna be getting soon. Or do they already have them? O well.

Stay Away from the Yellow Bird!

 

I read somewhere that the initial clonetrooper armor was designed by the Kaminoans and not ergonomically efficient for the human clones (look at the fin on the helmet that resembles the one on Lama Su). The stormtrooper armor probably has improvements on the initial design for maximum mobility.

 

Maybe the new armor is more cost efficient.Or maybe after some research it was found that the old armor was too light and not nearly comfortable enough.I don't know,your guess is as good as mine.

 

The theory that me and a freind of mine have is that after ahwile the clone army got old, or died in battle, and the cloning process was probably a bit expensive after awhile, so the new empire simply recruted more soldiers and gave them less expensive standered issue uniforms.

why spend money on troops deemed expendible?

they were under a dictatorship, palpatine could simply draft more troops, give them crappy equipment and a little basic training, then send swarms of them to do his dirty work.