| JB's just sent me (Jan 04) these shots of some
work he's been doing on his Vader helmets, both the ANH and ESB's
versions. Note that these are on-off's and not being produced in
numbers. However they are still
interesting projects. Update December 2008 - BUYER BEWARE - There are still a number of
people who have ordered from this vendor, some over a YEAR ago who have
not received their helmets. You have been warned!!!! |
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JB ANH Version 2 |
The JB ANH v2 is a one-off to test a helmet
theory, that a second helmet with a slightly different (e.g. longer) dome
was used in certain sections of the movie. Chris Kings theory is that the
ANH and ESB faces are more similar than many believe and taking two very
similar shots from ANH and ESB has transposed the domes. This backed
up my belief that the 20th Century ESB face was probably one of the
original ANH faces and a pointer to this is the 3 vertical old connection
strips still visible on the top of the 20thC face (for more pics of that
go here). Anyway I digress so on with the
story............
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| Here are the two pics Chris found (ANH and ESB)
taken at almost exactly the same angle. |
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| So if we take the dome of the ANH helmet on the
left, and "place" it on the ESB face on the right... |
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| ...whatever way you look at it you've got a
damn close match. So now on the left its the same ANH, but on the right an
ESB face with ANH dome and therefore apart from a couple of minor
differences (such as the lack of widows peak and a larger lower grill) imo
they look identical. Nice one Chris! |
Taking his one stage further, Chris and JB decided to recreate this helmet
using an existing ESB face (20th Century) along with an ANH dome from another provider, with
very interesting results..... |
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Below a comparison shot against an original film-used
helmet showing the similarities. |
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| Note that this is NOT the helmet many of us
have been waiting for from JB, but as mentioned previously this is an ESB
face with an ANH dome from another provider.
Regarding the standard "JB ANH Helmet", I understand that
he's now going
through the outstanding orders following a number of problems with the
project. These new helmets will be going out with a slightly revised dome
but its not the one above. Apologies for the confusion!. As soon as I have pics I'll post them on
this site.
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JB ESB Prototype |
| He's also been working on an ESB and here are
some early pics. These test shots give a good indication of what the final
helmet will look like, although you have to ignore the dull paint effect
which will be later replaced with an ESB screen-accurate glossy finish.
Again the face is a 20th Century and the dome probably an adapted recast
Ghost Host. |
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These three images above and below make the dome appear
to look quite tall. As with his ANH helmet the facial features are very sharp. |
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| It will be interesting to see the final version
with the correct screen-accurate glossy finish. |
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