BP, do you own an RS lid? If not, you owe it to yourself to get one. The details on the RS lid are what swung me in the direction of wanting a good grimy (detailed) ANH Vader helmet. The bumps and wonky nature of the RS is just awesome to hold in your hands.

I considered getting an RS helmet about a year ago, but the US dollar to British pound exchange rate wasn't too good and didn't want to pay that much for it. I went on a bit of a buying spree when I first found out authentic kits were available and bought several from different sources which I've been sitting on a few years. I'll get around to building and completing them at some point, and I do have fun with getting hands on, assembling, painting, starting over, converting ANH to ESB etc. I've put my initial Dan laws white HDPE Stormtrooper kit through about three different iterations so far and it's held up quite well to my abuse. Still looks new when it's "completed" each time. I've gotten a lot of replay value out of it! And I'm convinced HDPE was brought to us from an alien civilization; that stuff is wickedly strong and resilient. And the natural enemy of paint, as the movies clearly show especially in high-def.

Very nice BP! I also like the comparison shot

At the risk of having to turn in my "Rivet Counter's Card" I have to say I really like the Anovos Helmet/armor for what it is. I think we all know by now that, despite any "sourced from screen-used" hyperbole, you don't go to licensed products for all the scratches and dents we all love so well.

BP has demonstrated how well the helmet can be tweaked with his fantastic re-working (something I intend to do with mine at some vague point in the future) which shows what a solid base this helmet is to work from.

I have one of RS Props vintage HDPE helmets (#31) and, comparing the two in-hand, on the Anovos nearly all of the lines, dimensions, and asymmetry match up -- unlike the MR/efx helmet which sanitized the dimensions/asymmetry as well as the warts. What I see in the Anovos bucket is that they've cleaned up all of the lines without damaging "the look".

Now, I will absolutely agree that the lines on the Anovos are too sharp. Next time I am in China I volunteer to drop by the factory with a sanding block and some 800 grit sandpaper and knock all of the edges on the molds down a hair. In this I feel the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme from fan-sourced "authentic casts" I have owned like TrooperExpert and AP which I have always felt were far too soft.

The irony here is that given a bit more fabrication time and better materials back in 1976 the screen used helmets would probably have looked a lot more like the Anovos does than what AA delivered by grabbing whatever crap he had lying around and cranking through them.

Thankfully, we have RS Props for screen accuracy but for a knock-around helmet Anovos can't be beat.



Cheers,

Dave

^ The Don Post above is the most accurate

It was certainly the most fun back in 1978

Looks like the DP helmet got a whiff of some REALLY bad cheese...

Dave, I think we might have a great idea what the Stormtroopers would have looked like had the production team had better materials and more time.



:D

Yeah! I wildly jazzed about Rogue One. As a stand alone movie, this has the potential to be my favorite of all. ...kinda wished they'd have turned it into a trilogy.

Thanks guys!

craigjohn, while I was researching the RS helmet I wanted to know which production helmet it actually came from. I couldn't find that anybody had identified it on screen. I found one from A New Hope which looked a lot like it, and I posted to whitearmor. Locitus (then Detachment Leader) and troopermaster agreed. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28570-possible-screen-match-of-rs-propmasters-helmet/



You can keep your card Dave. You've got enough accurate props to qualify, and limited exceptions are allowed. Plus it's *knowing* the Rivet Count that's most important. No issue with 2016 renewal ;)

ANOVOS must be scratching their heads. First we complained that the prototype looked too soft. And in the production one that it's too sharp. There is just no pleasing us! Unless it's 100% percent accurate. That would be acceptable.

Another factor as a pro for the ANOVOS helmet compared to the other licensed helmets is that it is composed of materials, parts, and assembly methods similar to the original helmets. This makes modifications a lot easier.


It is. It's what a stormtrooper looks like as an embryo. Haha. I was glad to buy that DP standard in 1996 when they switched back to using lenses, not just punching holes in the vinyl of the black-painted eyes. Adding the lenses I thought made it much more accurate. Ah ignorance is bliss.

Unfortunately beyond the Iron Curtain where I lived there were no SW toys :(



LOL

I wish I still had the lens for this one. This 97 trooper was my first helmet and it shows I preferred lowbrow troopers with the stain of permanent marker. I tried making it a lowbrow by painting the bottom of the brow. I wish there was a way to restore it.

For what it is, I actually think the Anovos TK looks pretty damn good. Not RS good, but good enough for a trooping lid.
However, I have to figure that the Vader lid is going to look like a pile of turds...

I thought by now we would have seen a lot of guys moding their Anovos helmets to appear a bit more accurate, but I havent seen a single one. Has anyone seen any threads or builds trying to improve the bucket?

From the beginning I've thought the over all shape is there, but like it was mentioned before the prototype was too soft and the production model is beyond sharp. The other thing I didnt like about the production model was the weird cut on wearers right eye hole. The very round cut. However I do believe someone with talent can make a really nice project out of it.

I'm sure that '97 helmet can be restored. Vinyl is tricky be careful what is used for cleanup / regluing. I can only tell you what not to use: rubbing alcohol. I used it on the inside. No visible damage but produced a really strange "degassing" odor for a couple of months.

Many of the 501st guys at FISD have modded their Anovos helmets. One of their most experienced builders, gazmosis, rebuilt his from the ground up: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/35356-anovos-helmet-rebuild/.

The Anovos out of the box comes with a low brow. That combined with the face tilt evoked too much of a hero rather than a stunt look to me which is why I changed my mine. But certainly you'll find examples of on-screen low brow stunts as well.

Trimming some of the flashing behind eyes is a simple (albeit irreversible) mod just requiring a steady hand and an exacto knife or box cutter. The plastic is very thin there and cuts easily.

Thats exactly what I wanted to do had I not canceled my order for the Anovos helmet. I was gonna convert it to an ESB bucket and fix all the little details that were somewhat fixable.

As for the Don Post 97'. I'm just not sure how to remove the purple leftover stain from the permanent marker. I think the Vinyl really sucks in the ink and its nearly impossible to get it out. I am gonna try soaking it in Hydrogen peroxide and letting it get some UV rays out in the sun. A lot of peopl have been restoring their white vintage toys this way, so it might work for the helmet. We'll see.

Thank you for posting the link to the Anovos mod /build thread!

You're welcome! I did a web search for "removing ink from vinyl" the first link was for removing ink from vinyl doll heads faces. Using a 10% benzoyl peroxide acne cream on the ink stain under a bright light for a few hours they claim will fade the ink away completely.