Mandalorian armor/Legends

"Verd ori'shya beskar'gam (A warrior is more than his armor.)"

- Mandalorian proverb

Because of their warlike culture, the Mandalorians developed distinctive armor, known collectivelly as Mandalorian armor.

Mandalorian armor has changed a great deal throughout the seven millenia since the Taungs first settled Mandalore, first came the Crusader Armour, it had an jagged organic form that varied from soldier to soldier, but always gave the same general appearance. Crusader Armour was centered around defending the wearer from melee attacks, considered by the Mandalorian Crusaders to be the greatest honour in combat, no additional weapons were yet added to the armour as are to Supercommando Armour. Following this, during Mandalore the Ultimate's reign came the Neo-Crusader Armour, now the armour had uniform appearance throughout the Mandalorians, with ranks being shown by colours, blue, red, green, and yellow. Still no additional armaments were added. Finally we come to Mandalorian Supercommando armor which was no longer full body armor, but partial armour that left your limbs almost completely undefended, and focused it's strength on the vital areas (torso, head, and groin). The Mandalorians began to see the value of extra weapons mounted on your suit, and so simple dart shooters, grappeling wires, wrist-mounted rocket launchers and flamethrowers were added to the overall assault capabilities of a Mandalorian Supercommando. Throughout Mandalorian history, three things have remained constant in armour. 1: The wearer is always protected by lightsaber-resistant Mandalorian Iron, which could also deflect blaster bolts. 2: The helmets always possessed a T-shaped visor for sheer intimidation, and sophisticated heads up displays (HUDs) so the wearer always knows exactly what is going on. 3: Mandalorian warriors decorate their armor to reflect personal accomplishments, clan affiliation, or simply personal preference. They will often repaint their armor to reflect a change in clan or a new mission.

A few suits of Mandalorian armor were also present during the Galactic Civil War. One of the most famous was worn by the Bounty Hunter Boba Fett. But rumors told of possibilites of crafting a set of Mandalorian armor in the dreaded Death Watch Bunker. It is assumed that Mandalorian armor is like everything else, not Force-immune, though it is unknown if this has ever been formally tested.

Behind the scenes
Classic computer game Crusader, although totally unrelated to Star Wars, featured a main character that wore a red Mandalorian-like armor, perhaps inspired from Boba Fett's popularity.

The same can be said about the enemie, Vile, in the SNES game Megaman X  has a helmet similar to a mandalorian.

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * See List of Boba Fett appearances
 * See List of Jango Fett appearances