darthlvr wrote:
Hi, My name is Sid and i have a DPD #151. Actually i had 2 DPD but i sold one some years back.
I held on to this DP because of the extremely nice condition and very little warping that
most other DPD helmets suffer from.. I am sorry for the poor quality of this picture i will try
to take more this week. I will also show pictures of the other DPD helmet i once owned so you
can see the differences..
If memory serves me i ordered my first DP from an add in Galaxy Trader. Some months later
I received it and was a bit disappointed with the warping so I contacted Don Post and after
overcoming some obstacles finally got a chance to talk to someone there about these problems..
I had a list of questions to ask them, just like a good Star Wars Nerd would
and here is
what they told me....
I had asked them why my helmet was warped and sagging and they told me they were
receiving a lot of the same questions from other concerned owners and thought that the master
helmet had the same issues but under further examination of the many molds they made for
the production, found that a few of the molds were faulty leaving many of the production
helmets with a low, to moderate, to extreme warping problem.. I asked if they could tell me
if they knew what #rd helmets were affected and they told me it varied throughout the
production line, some good and some bad. Basically a flip of the coin....
I have heard people in the past say the earlier DPD helmets had less warping but as all of you
can see from the pictures in this thread, that is not the case at all. I also asked if the helmets
had any other changes throughout the production and they told me the only thing they felt it
necessary to change was the Lenses because of the poor visibility they were experiencing
with the initial batches.... I for one can verify that my earlier #151 had Crap lenses compare
to the near perfect lenses in my higher numbered DPD i sold....
Here is my current DPD.. I will upload another picture with more detail, but you can see
already how the neck has very little if not any flare at all, I also noticed that my earlier
DP has more surface detail unlike my higher #rd DP almost as if they were cleaned up more
as the production went on.....
Sid/darthlvr
Thanks for the post!
I hear what you say, and while I do believe this is what you were told, I think this was more a customer frustration appeasement measure. Based on what you're saying, they were using many molds but a "few" were faulty that resulted in warping. So "few" = "warped".
Let's just do some conservative guesses as to how many were warped verus unwarped.
Theoretical Scenario 1Let's pretend there were was an 8 man team and enough shop space to handle 8 helmets at a time. The production would call for 125 batches to total 1,000 helmets.
So when you say "few" molds were "warped" then let's assume a few means 3. That would mean that 37.5 percent (or 375 helmets) would have inherited the same flaw. But that means 625 would have had more slender necks.
We don't see those ratios among fan-owned Don Post Deluxes.
Theoretical Scenario 2Let's redo the math. Say they had 25 molds and enough shop space to handle them, so that 40 batches of 25 each would produce 1,000.
Let's say a "few" was 3-5 molds being "warped" as you say. That means that 120 to 200 helmets would be warped. That means 800-880 were of more slender necks.
Again, we don't see those ratios among fan-owned Don Post Deluxes.
What they told you is still quite possible, however. However, the math doesn't add up. The majority of the Deluxes we see have pretty wide necks. If you have a slender neck, we can see it's a welcomed exception but even so it does not appear to be due to it being a low number.
Now regarding lenses, I suspect these were vacuum formed, and it may very well be that some vacforms were better than others.
Your current DPD does show neck flare. I wouldn't consider it to be "very little if not not any flare at all".
There is certainly more than on the CKing which was the point of Post #1, which is almost straight on the left (as you look at it). I think what you have is approximately the norm. I think that from the norm (which is flared) you have variances in addition to the norm. If, for example, the masks were pulled prematurely and set upright on a table, the weight would bear down on the neck and cause the neck corners to flare outward. This, however, would not be a mold issue.
If the resin and curing agent mix ratios were incorrect, then some masks may have required additional curing time.
i feel bad that before
Let's see a few more pics of that helmet. It's very nicely shaped.
