Tech

This man makes amazing gorgeous medieval armor mashups that go for thousands

Sidney Fussell

2016-04-21T19:56:00Z

Samuel Lee is the founder and leading construction artist for Prince Armory, a design studio that produces wildly imaginative, fully wearable armor suits modeled after comic icons like Batman, Joker, and Iron Man. Founded in 2007, Prince Armory has created hand-crafted armor for films, commercials, Broadway shows, and top-tier cosplayers.

Lee tells Tech Insider he's been in the costume design business for nearly 15 years, starting out as a teen by making armor for himself and friends when visiting Renaissance fairs or role-playing with friends. Now, he is a highly sought after, leading artist with a commission backlog three years long.

"I like to work from a concept, general idea and just go with the flow and let the concept evolve organically over the course of the creation process instead of trying to shoehorn the entire design into something that was rushed together at the start," Lee tells us.

Prince Armory's suits are custom designed for the wearer. As a policy, the company doesn't replicate custom-made suits, making each of the fantasy superhero crossover pieces one-of-a-kind. A full suit can cost anywhere from $7,000 to $15,000.

"In time I expect to transition to doing more commercial projects than ones for private clients but I’m content either way," he said. "Commercial projects can be more profitable but private client projects afford more artistic freedom and time to really develop the project as I go."

Read on to see Lee's dazzling work and why it's more than worth its hefty price tag:

This take on Tony Stark's Iron Man suit is a dazzling mix of gold and red. The chest armor is especially detailed.

Here you can see the equipment disassembled. The golden pattern on the forearm of the gauntlets is incredibly detailed.

The cuirass (body armor) features overlapping red/gold details. The patterned gold goes up the chest leading to the arc reactor, which is a beautiful, sky blue.

The suit resembles more traditional armor when viewed from the back. Each suit is fully wearable and customized for the client.

Prince Armory also patterned a suit after Aquaman, the King of Atlantis. It keeps his original green/orange palette, with great fin and scale details.

The scales, fins, and gills patterns give the armor an aquatic feel without the color blue (an obvious reference to water and marine symbolism) appearing anywhere.

In this in progress picture, you can see the scale and fin details, as well as the script written on the left shin.

The gold gives the armor a regal feel (Aquaman is a king, after all) while the shinguards, boots, and shoulder armor all have recognizable aquatic imagery.

The most unsettling of the armor sets is the one for the Prince of Crime, the Joker. It's a terrifying take on the medieval jester.

The face mask immortalizes the demented ear-to-ear grin that's the Joker's signature.

The early sketches show off the purple/green color scheme and the repeating skull imagery.

The details continue: the helmet has the heart/spade/diamond/club imagery from playing cards, while small skulls hang from each point.

The back view shows off more of the jester symbols and reveals awesome hidden details on the shoulder pads. The two masks on the pauldrons are different.

The shoulder armor has the classical Comedy and Tragedy masks. Notice how the horns curve upward for Comedy and droop downward for Tragedy.

Batman's armor suit is the most imposing of the fantasy sets. He looks like a literal Dark Knight.

The Batman armor was actually Lee's first of the fantasy armor spin-offs.

The huge, harsh helmet is an especially intimidating take on Batman's cowl.

Darth Vader, perhaps the most infamous villain in fiction, gets his own terrifying suit of armor.

The early mock-up shows how the individual pieces will fit together to form the full suit. The breastplate, midsection armor, and shoulder armor are sketched onto the cast as they'd be placed onto the body.

The gated design of the helmet repeats in both the breastplate and lower midsection. The red underneath makes the patterns especially dramatic and imposing.

The helmet piece is fully wearable as well.

You can read more on Lee's Vader suit here.