Thanks Thomas.
I believe the provenance on these to be very solid.I defer as far as accuracy is concerned to the more experienced in that field here however as far as their history and authenticity are concerned,and after speaking with Stephen last year about a number of these pieces,I believe they are original,unused production test pieces.
I still stand by my assessment that they were hugely over-priced though but that's Vader stuff for you.

Nah!

I still think they're tour shins.

I've always had a suspicion that this armor is vac-formed, based on the soft details and how thin it appears to be. It just doesn't look fiberglass to me. Just a theory though as I don't have better shots of it. If they vac-formed the shins, then why not the armor as well?

Two silver tusks on the face as well and the narrower Board Room scene dome. Is this the second ANH production helmet or one of the tour helmets people keep talking about, but never really show any conclusive pictures of?

Karo...

I don't know how many of us have just glanced at that photo, looked at the poor dome positioning and moved on.

I just did a comparison of the box with the shots I posted at:

http://thepropden.aokforums.com/anh-box ... t1240.html

I can't seem to match the box in that photo with any of the photos and screen captures in the thread. Moreover, the helmet's paint finish is truly smooth yet it seem so the little nick in the left side of the bridge of the nose near the bottom notch. Perhaps it's cast off of the screen used but really cleaned up before taking paint?

So the idea of ANH promo suits is perhaps more reinforced by this photo?

That pic is very intersting. The gloves, cape and inner robe are all ESB. The chestbox is ANH and looks to be the original. The faceplate and dome are ANH, but do not look like the screenused, possibly the second vader helmet that has been spoken about. You know what I think of the chest armor and not sure on the leather suit.

Not necessarily Mac considering the combination of ESB and ANH parts. It just show that at the time of this photo, both parts were used for the shoot. I do believe it would have been logical to make some parts for the tour/promo/publicity, but how many of each is the question.

I agree The gloves, cape, inner robe and chestbox straps are all geared up to become ESB, possibily even the suit as a wild guess on that one, hard to say as so little of it is shown and the physique does not look like Prowse. I can't say they are 100% screen used but definately share many similarities.

Anyway...The chesbox is screen used IMO as it matches the Corbis picture scuffs etc that were not seen on screen..

That kind of reminds me of the Chronicles Vader in that the dome looks very tall.

The armor appears to be one color too.

definitely a strange mix....gee I never bothered to go back and check if that's the screen helmet or not...I always thought it was a tour helmet...

I think that it's a screen mask. I can think of two scenes that we see it in ANH.

it's certainly possible but I was thinking of checking the mouth grill alignment and the patterns inside the helmet...too much to do lately

I'm thinking the board room scene... but what scenes where you thinking about?

I think that there is a distinct possibility that picture was taken in
the U.S. as that lid looks like the one used for the pick-ups in Vader's
Tie Fighter.

The dome only looks to tall because of where it is on the facemask.

Remember though that there wasn't a Vac-forming machine at Elstree
until Empire Strikes Back's pre-production.