this is one near and dear to my heart.
i go for "what it wanted to be" myself.
i've mentioned this numerous times, but i'll say it again, since these are some of my favorite "trooping" experiences.
kids around 12 - 14 years old tend to be miserable at events. they are at the age where they still think you're cool, but don't think that they SHOULD think you are cool, so they instead want to make you look dumb.
so they ask you to shoot them, say your stuff isn't real, whatever...
my fett armor is all metal. not thin stuff... thick, solid, made by a medieval armorer. a kid comes up to you "that stuff isn't even real" and whacks you in the chest. then you see his eyes open wide as he starts shaking his hand, holding his now red knuckles.
or my tusken raider. i carry a 14 pound wood and steel gaffi stick. the point is sharp, just like a real one would be. at another troop, a pack of teenagers were doing that same sort of thing. hitting troopers, causing trouble. they came up to me and did the "yo, you gonna kill me wit dat thing?". i lowered the spiked end and poked him with it. he yelped, jumped back, and became a totally different person. they started posing for pics with us and being fairly decent people.
so yeah. i go for as realistic as i can. i've got a rubber fett rifle, but i'm thinking about getting one of the MRs to replace it, so that when someone asks to see the gun, they get a big, heavy metal and wood thing.
