The DP Deluxe was the best we had back when it was released.

But as we've discovered over the last almost ten years in particular it certainly isn't what it was advertised as (it's clearly an ROTJ, not an ESB).

But again we didn't have anything better to compare it to back then. It's facial features are very soft, many many casts suffered from a lot of neck flare particularly around the wearers left.

If I was given another chance to buy a well shaped DP DLX (and I did own an original way back), I'd pass and buy a fan made.

If you're referring to fan made helmets from authentic casts, I completely agree. But many fan made helmets have employed a degree of "artistic license" which deviate from what is accurate. The dome size in relation to the facemask is often done incorrectly. Many have said that the dome is too short on the DPDLX, but that is incorrect. Once the mounting tube on the mask has been trimmed to lower the dome, the DPDLX looks much more accurate. The dome itself is the right size in terms of overall height. The dome and flanges are actually a bit wider than screen used ANH/ESB and closer to the ROTJ dome.

Fan mades have often increased the size of the dome. It may look good from closer in distances, but pull back to 10-15 feet, and you'll find that the dome will look huge and clearly incorrect. It's the perspective distortion or "selfie" effect at work.

The dome looks larger in many movie scenes simply because depictions of Vader were taken from greater distances than we often photograph our own helmets from. At greater distances, a depth compression due to differences in angular magnification along the depth of the object will cause parts of the object further away to look larger.

The neck flare in some DPDLX helmets, including mine, I think is more attributed to not trimming the bottom of the facemask enough. The neck flare is more apparent from distance photos because the back of the neck is only about 3-4 inches from the back of the dome, where perspective distortion would make it look even wider than from close-up.

Here's a good example comparing a Vader screenshot from ANH and a photo of my DPDLX taken from about 12 feet away. It shows that the dome height and shape are well matched, and also shows how trimming the excess fiberglass at the base of the neck would improve its accuracy. The shape looks to be correct at the neckline, there's just too much of it!

ANH "The Plans You Refer to Will Soon Be Back in Our Hands" screenshot:


DPDLX from 12ft:


50% overlay of the above two photos:


50% overlay showing a better neck trim curve for the DPDLX in red:



Video blending of the ANH screenshot with the DPDLX photo:

http://vid89.photobucket.com/albums/k240/bpoodoo/Vader/DPDLX_Details/PhotoGrid_Video_1462799517808.mp4

Good analysis, some vendors did play with dome length etc.

Yes the DP's proportions were correct. I trimmed the mounting tube on my DP DLX to lower the dome, it looked much better afterwards.

The sides of the nose were sanded down quite a bit, but with the right lighting, you can see some of the detail for the correct shape remains.

With the photobucket images gone, here's a YouTube video I uploaded a few days ago.

https://youtu.be/BBZS3AwGrrc

I have this on a motorized display turntable thats pretty good. This one was $30 and can hold up to 20kg. Single speed, but can reverse direction.