Does anyone know what lenses they used for the original Vader helmet in 1977? I have been trying to find anything that would resemble the lense for this helmet with no avail.

On another topic, does anyone have a good source for lenses?

Origins, I have no idea unfortunately.

If you can find the correct colour plastic it's not hard to make lenses yourself, and this method guarantees they fit.

All you need is a heat gun and a tablespoon, just cut out the correct shape plastic, place the plastic cut outs over the eye socket from inside the mask, heat the lenses until soft and using the tablespoon press the lenses into the eye sockets, maybe use some felt between the spoon and the plastic to avoid scratching the lenses. I've done it and it works well

Give it a try.

Maybe they weren't even lenses 'per se'.

Could have been perspex or helmet visor material that was
cut and shaped.

I actually have copies of the original lenses - they were cast as part of the VP helmet...

Good post Fatherless One, that's apparently how the originals were made. It explains the slightly uneven curve you sometimes notice, at least on the vader reveal. As to the colour of the ANH lenses I'm not sure if a definitive answer's ever been reached amongst fans but I'd say probably a reddish-brown. The actual plastic may have started out a lighter tint as they apparently had to darken them during production to hide Prowse's eyes. (which they still didn't do completely)..

Jeremy

Must be difficult to see out of those... they're not transparent at all!

I like what Fatherless One said about how to make lenses. I've tried 4" and 4.5" diameter plastic clear spheres to determine an approximate shape for the lenses, and found that going that route was always a tradeoff between having an almost good fit versus an almost good lens shape. I think the spoon method would produce better results.

I pressed a piece of paper into the eye sockets from inside the mask and traced the shape of the eyes onto that, then I added a centimeter or so around the traced line and that became my template, lay that template onto the plastic sheet and cut out your lense.

All great suggestions guys. Now.....where do I find tinted plexi-glass? I have tried every hardware store to find safety glasses that are close and tinted but still come up short.

You can try http://www.eplastics.com. They have a sample pack for $7.50 that has both the Red and Amber and they are large enough to get a set of lenses out of...

Might be worth a try...

http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Plexig ... rent_Color

Amber has never struck me as a good ANH color. But that dark red looks promising....

So Alex, if you end up going the dark red route, please share pics!

I'm pretty confident (I'll have to check my photos at home of the VP I had) that the VP lenses are not the same as the originals. I'll have to double check to make sure but if there's a groove on the inside of the eyes next to where the lenses are seated then those are not the original lenses, but apart from that, there wasn't that glue bead line on the outside edge of the original lenses that the VP has...it could have been added later but again the original lenses have a particular shape in how they are seated into the eye socket, especially noticeable on the sides of the nosebridge. Also the VP lenses are seated further back into the eye sockets, meaning they would be a bit smaller. I'll have to look at my own VP reference when I get home to double check. Vader looks so bug-eyed in ANH in part because the lenses sat fairly close to the inside edges of the eye sockets.

Well, it was mentioned elsewhere that they might have changed the lenses during the tour so it would be easier for Eller to see, so it could be the pre-production grey lenses, which we also see in the Corbis pictures and the Elstree ANH face picture, rather than the screen worn lenses!?

It all depends on when the mold was made - before, during or after the tour.

Just a thought.

It's a really interesting question as to what happened with the lenses...I hope a couple of people I think know better than I will chime in...I know what you mean about the Elstree photo but that was taken probably around 1979 if the whip next to it is really an Indy production whip. The Corbis photos are black and white. Definitely something I'll look further into...I'm not sure I believe the story that they were switched for the tour...who told that one? It might be true...

I think it was mentioned in that Kermit Eller interview - "the 2nd guy in the suit" or something - on Hyperspace... though, I don't have access anymore, so I can't verify.

True... the Corbis pictures were B/W... however, iirc, browns and reds would show up as really dark grey, nearly black... and you could clearly see the eyes behind the lenses in those shots. Though, maybe we should leave them out, as they are impossible to judge by, in a way.