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Fan-Made Darth Vader Helmets
ANH -
very low volume or one-off's |
| This page features ANH Vader helmets which
have not been produced in any sort off numbers and in the case of the
first two below may have actually been a "run" of just one. |
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RPF ANH
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| Update March 3 2006 - two years down the line
and some new great shots of this wonderful replica helmet. This is the
replica most prop fans believe to be the most accurate replica ever made.
Note that this was a ONE-OFF so the rest of us will have to satisfy
ourselves with pictures! |
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| Apparently cast off an original ANH helmet, the
finish is much rougher than most would expect, you can see the bumps and
blemishes in the fiberglass. Wonderful! |
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| Below - a dead on shot showing the asymmetrical
beauty of the original helmet. Note how far the l;eft hand side of the dome
just out (Vader's right) compared to the other. Irrespective of whether "it
was not supposed to be like that in the REAL Star Wars Universe", that's
what it DID look like on-screen and why IMO I really dislike it when
original helmet designs are sanitised. Great to see how this helmet reflects
the asymmetrical beauty of the original. |
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| Below, as an example of how "wonky" the original
helmet was, just take the above photo and flip it. The difference is huge.
It just doesn't look right. Looking at it from this perspective not only
does the dome look strange, but also the irregularity of the mouth grill.
The helmet looks completely different! |
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| Below, back onto the "proper" pics. This one
just has ANH all over it |
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| The paint finish on this helmet is just perfect.
Like the original, it appears that the silver highlights were done by hand
(remember on the original this was a late addition to the look of Vader,
since originally it was all-black). In addition the curvature of the eye
lenses are just perfect. Many replicas give Vader too bulbous eyes (more
like the original RotJ Vader). |
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| ...and below the final (new) shot |
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| oh and just as an indication of how accurate
this helmet is, a comparison against the original ANH helmet. Note that I've
added a bit of blur, contrast change and added the eye reflection. Looks
pretty darn close to me! |
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Jan '04 - Previous shots of what is probably the very best ANH Vader helmet
produced. It's owned by a RPF board member and is a strict
one-off (so no casts unfortunately). However at least there are these
great photographs to show off |
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| Its a direct pull from LFL moulds
and as you can see its absolutely superb. The edges are sharp and the dome
flare looks perfect. |
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| It has also been painted by its
owner using gloss black and silver car paint in a can from PEP BOYS. |
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He's added three layers of screen in the mouth just to
give it more of a "grill" look too |
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| ...and finally below a comparison
shot. Wonderful! Cheers to the RPF'er and Chris for the pics |
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I've just received two more pics of this wonderful
helmet so couldn't resist posting them |
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....absolutely magnificent! |
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Gino ANH Vader - one off |
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| Another really impressive looking ANH helmet,
and another one-off. This time its Gino's lifesize he's currently working
on, with had painted detailing. |
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| Above a close-up of the face and blow a longer
shot showing his overall progress so far. Looks really superb and tempts me
into looking at doing a full size Vader again. |
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ANH Original - Recast |
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I've received these photo's from Arthur Hall of his
prize possession. He purchased it 1993 from an auction house in LA and it
came complete with a full set of papers detailing its prominence (although
some documents from Lucasfilm never came thorough. |
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The auction described it as a pull from the original
mould used in the Star Wars - ANH and it was originally dressed up and
auctioned for charity. Whether this is correct or not has not been
substantiated and it could possibly have been cast from a mould taken from
an original helmet (or descendent thereof) |
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The overall appearance of the helmet is sharp although
it may well be that this has been dulled slightly by the painting which
appears to been over-applied. Arthur says that the detailing isn't
authentic (ie. mouth tips and visor) but he believes that everything else
is. |
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However as you can see from these images it is a very
impressive helmet and one which I am sure Arthur is very pleased to own. |
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Check
out a Comparison page of Vader's here
..or click
here to go back to the Darth Vader sub-menu |
