yeah your absolutely right on this one dcarty. legendary hype for sure. i just cant comprehend why they wouldn't want to produce the most authentic prop replica they possibly could. they had the chance to. even if it was 3rd gen. they could have kept all the details but didn't. it had to be in the license agreement that kept them from doing so. its the only logical reason i can think of. becasue if the license agreement didn't have any restrictions. then they were pretty foolish (dropped the ball if you will) to do away with most of the details.

I'm speaking from a purely "display only" point of view. I have no interest or experience with trooping, so I don't want to moouth off on what's good or bad for that, as I don't know.

With tabs, you risk scratching the paint - like is seen on the original facemask, but sure, that one was used more like a trooping helmet than a display helmet would be - but even the tiniest scratch or flaking in the paint and the owner would be in contact with eFX immediately to get a replacement. And it would have given eFX an even bigger nightmare than they are already facing from bad shipping and those CQ issues with the new domes. It's a real shame they ran into all those problems and I hope they pull through.

oh ok. i wasn't sure if your were talking about trooping or displaying it. thanks for clearing that up.

but i will tell you. even though the efx has the ring mount. they would have been better off not adding the magnets they put into it. or using magnets not as strong. because they put the face plate as risk for damage. even more so i think than with the tabs. only because i think you would have more total control over the tabs compared to the magnets. but then again. i dont know how difficult it is to separate the tabs. from the sound of it. you do. but i know first hand that the magnets they used are very strong and have a constant forceful pull. so if you dont make sure to line up the dome precisely the magnets will pull it on if you want it to or not. which pus the mask at risk. and when you take off the dome. due to the magnets being as strong as they are. they let go quickly. kind of like if your playing tug of war and the other person lets go of the rope. because thats what happened to me. when i was taking the dome off the magnetic pull caused the dome to jerk off out of the mount ring causing the dome to rub up against the face plate scratching it. magnets or not. ring mount or tabs. you could still damage the face plate taking the dome off and on any way. i guess either way you look at it you just have to be careful on what you are doing.

but i didn't contact efx for a replacement becasue that was my fault for not being careful. but i guess form what you have said. it would be their fault because they were the ones who put the strong magnets on the helmet. but im pretty sure they would have told me that it would have been my fault and not theirs.. and i think that would be the case if the helmet was damaged if they used the tabs. but i understand where you are coming from. and that could be the reason why efx choose to go with the mounting ring. it would give the helmet a lower risk of being damaged. but im sure they didn't take that into consideration when they decided to add the powerful magnets. because they clearly have the ability to cause damage to the helmet as well. because it happened to me. but again. for an authentic point of view they should have gone with the tabs. purely for nostalgic and authenticity reasons. thats just my opinion. and i can respect and understand yours.


as far as efx's problems. they really should have put more thought into all of it. specially the packaging issues. and the QC definitely should have been better. considering the price and the item they were selling. but as long as they make everything right. and from what im reading they have been. and if their communication gets better with their customers. im sure they will pull through just fine.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I would have thought they'd go for the accurate mounting as well. But it really IS a pain in the ass. I'm weak as hell, so that may be the reason I couldn't easily pull the tabs apart when I had some - putting them together was pretty difficult too.

Personally, I hate magnets. Sideshow used magnets on the exclusive Predator maquette I have and it's insane trying to get the helmet off to put the head on - there is just no way you can do it without ripping or damaging something. I HATE MAGNETS! Because, as you said... it's a tugging war and suddenly they just let go. I hate that. That sudden jerk is just damaging and you can't quickly compensate to prevent damage from potentially happening.

I understand the dome mount, but simply do not understand the decision to use magnets - 'cause, then they might as well just have gone with the authentic tab system.

I'm sorry your faceplate got scratched, DynamicMenace.

Personally, I like the use of magnets, but don't understand why efx didn't pad the inside of the dome where the magnet is to make sure it doesn't contact the faceplate and scratch it. I'm putting a layer to two of felt in there that will protect from scratching and make the magnetic attraction less strong. You might try that, too.

Efx's packing was terrible. I wonder what the damaged rate ended up being. Don't some people buy them and keep them in the original sealed box to sell later. I would never buy one of these helmets on the secondary market in the sealed factory packaging. Who knows what you will get.

oh ok no humor man, i guess i was taking what you said wrong. i thought you were all against the authentic tab system.
but yeah, i understand what you were saying about the tabs being a pain in the ass to put together and pull apart. even though i have never dealt with them personally. i totally know what your talking about. i can comprehend the fact that they would be a pain due to the manor of how they work. even if a person is weak or strong.

and i totally agree with you on the magnets. for keeping the dome connected to the face plate i can understand them being used. and it makes sense. but the potential risk of damaging the helmet should have out weighed the logic of even using them. specially for the legend anyway. as i found out personally. ill be honest. i liked them at first. but when it damaged my helmet. i hated them.
and yeah, thats exactly what i am talking about. they would have been better off going with the authentic tab system.

thats why i really think they should have done both. make the legend a display piece only giving it the authentic tabs. making it a true legend. specially for the purist collector who only display them.
and make the limited the wearable one giving it the mounting ring. to make it a true idealized prop for the trooper. in a sense though after thinking about it now. they sort of made the legend an idealized helmet with some of the details left behind. its more of an idealized legend if you ask me..

well thanks for being sorry 3danimator. but it was my own fault. i really should have been more careful.
good idea on adding the felt. that should help for sure.

yup efx totally dropped the ball on the packaging issue. and dropped it on a lot of other aspects of the helmet IMO. specially the QC.

Apart from the packing issue causing the paint flaws, I would say in fairness to eFX that quality control has been really good, if you look at it from a business standpoint. The quality of the helmets coming out of the factory has been very reasonably consistent and good in terms of the castings themselves, paint quality, etc.. I have two helmets to compare against each other and apart from the cleanup in the casting which one could grumble about, they are otherwise very nicely done. Sure the brushed paint could have been better but given what they had to work with in terms of mass production methods, it really is an accomplishment.

yeah i guess thats fair enough to say. taking into consideration what you just mentioned.

So I know someone who stripped the paint off their eFX ANH Legend Vader helmet. Interestingly, there is nothing revealed under the paint, which isn't very thick, that isn't already evident as far as detail goes. So I just wanted to save anyone else the trouble of attempting a strip-down in case they thought it would reveal a treasure-trove of detail below the paint. What is also interesting is that there is extensive bondo work under the paint, possibly to cover some imperfections, which is exactly what buyers of the eFX Legend would not want. Strange that they would have gone through the trouble of doing this to each casting after the fact? Why not do it to the secondary master for the Legend line so that each copy would have these changes in the casting ready to go? Also of note is that the type of resin seems to be similar to that used for the master copy we saw as I thought previously it might have been primed because it had the same light grey color to it. Thanks to the Legend owner that let me share his photo below. The bondo appears to be added to the lower right part of the right cheek, left part of the nose, various spots inside the eyebrows, left side of the mouth triangle on the lower part, inside the mounting ring (which is part of the casting), and curiously on the lower lip of the chin where there is the most extensive addition.

Excellent! My thanks to the owner for sharing the pic as well (naturally I'd love to see more). Does it appear that the Bondo is there to fill in imperfections in the casting? When I stripped down the DP Deluxe that I reworked years ago it was covered in Bondo in a similar fashion to fill voids in the casting and make it safe to sell.

this was very cool to see. thank you Sithlord and thanks to the owner of the Legend helmet for letting you post the photo.
i do have to agree with the bondo issue. it would have made more sense to do the bondo work to the secondary master instead of having to do it to each and every casting that was made.
unless of course the imperfections were a result of something that went wrong during the casting process? and or that they wanted to keep the secondary master true to its origin from the molds?

thhanks for sharing .. still looking forward to your comparison of the legend and SL. but i guess the stipping of the paint revealed a lot didn't it?

Thanks for sharing that. Must admit that's pretty disappointing. It really IS as cleaned up as a 20th C helmet.

That is EXACTLY what was thinking after reading the post above - thank SL for the info. Really disappointing from eFX. This doesn't live up to the Legend name afterall... :(

yeah true. so much for being a true legend. lol