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Imperial Helmets, Armor and Costumes
 

 

SW Movies Character Appeared in - ANH, ESB, RotJ, AotC  
Brief Prop and Costume History
For Star Wars - A New Hope, Imperial Helmets such as the Fleet Trooper and Death Star Gunner were produced by Andrew Ainsworth at Shepperton Design Studio's in 1976. Their designs based on art work and drawings from Ralph McQuarrie and John Mollo - with the latter providing Ainsworth with a couple of real-world US Forces helmets from which some of the final designs were derived.
For The Empire Strikes Back McQuarrie and Mollo were again called upon to produce additional helmet designs including at Elstree (which by 1979 had expanded their vac-forming capabilities). For Return of the Jedi it was the responsibility of Nilo Rodis-Jamero to design the look of various new characters including the red Imperial Royal Guard (IRG) which also featured fleetingly in the prequels.

Replicas:
From a licensed perspective, only Altmann's produced replica Imperial Fleet or DS Gunner helmets - although Don Post did produce a quality Imperial Royal Guard from RotJ - as did Altmann's.

A number of unlicensed producers have delivered some really excellent Imperial helmets from ANH including Andrew Ainsworth/Shepperton Design Studio's DS Gunner and Fleet Trooper.
 


Now Click below for Original Screen Used, Lucasfilm Licensed Replicas, or Non-Licensed/Fan-made Replicas...

 

 

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