I'm still baffled by this...apparent difference in the tube lengths of the early (Death Star) ANH mask and later on near the end of shooting on the Tantive IV. Any thoughts? If it was just a perspective problem then why is it consistent on both sides as being shorter on the earlier still image of the ANH mask?

What scenes have the tubes you are saying are shorter? Here's a Deathstar scene ( see the guy in the backround ) where they look normal ( or long) to me...

Both are stills taken on set, the top one being from when Leia is speaking with Tarkin and the bottom one is Vader posing in the Death Star Conference Room....

Any further clue on which conference scene? Wasn't it shown that there were irregularities with the tusks in that scene - with the black one having possibly fallen off (not visible in the original version, but added for the SE and later versions possibly digitally)?

EDIT: Oh... you said they were photographs (that's what you mean by stills, right?) and not taken from the movie. Well... then I'm a bit at a loss... but the Tantive scene also showed the right tusk tube (left side when looking at the face) having some damage up along the front of the tubes up to just a bit after they part.

Hmmmm...I am digging thorugh pics now..the confrence room tubes do look short...the pic I posted is from when Leia is infront of Vader just before they blow up Alderan...

I have previously shown that the bottom two pictures of the tubes ends in the bottom picture SL posted in the first post suffers from an optical illusion caused by shadow and lack of shadow which makes the tube end (after the area where the two tubes merge into one and out to the tusk tip) on the Tantive shot appear longer. You can still see the line vaguely, but not as clearly as in the other picture.

Yes I know I remember that and still have that but I'm looking at the end of the tube convergence in relation to the side of the mouth...not the overall length from the cheek area...

Hmm - at top, on the right - make sure you are measuring from the mouth and not from the parallel line created by the helmet BEHIND the mouth. Are you taking that into consideration?!

Well, to be honest I wouldn't expect anything that was sculpted by hand
in clay to have precisely matching dimensions.

yes I considered that, thanks

I'll show more of those two photos later...but they are well known still...

Maybe someone with a mask with tusks on it could get photos rotating it to try to recreate this effect if it is just an angle effect but I really don't think so. None of my masks have tusks so it isn't easy for me to do...

But Hal, it's the same mask...just at different times during the production...or I'm not sure what you mean?

I'm just trying to figure out if the tusks or one of them broke off early on, requiring the tube ends to be repaired...it just looks weird to me...

After digging through some pics I have to say it seems to be a trick of the light on the knurled base of the tuscks making it blend into the tube end depending on angles and lighting...thats what it looks like to me..

..best I could do quickly..

nice thanks so look at Vader's left tusk in your image....it doesn't really change in terms of how far it sticks out from the mouth...if you can't make it look like the Death Star image then the tubes must have been shorter or the tusks replaced or the tube ends slightly damaged/fixed....but I'll need to look at more screen caps...

Interesting thread Thomas. It does truly look like one set of tubes is shorter than the other. Didn't Brian say that two, possibly three, helmets were made for ANH? Maybe something happened to the tusk tubes on one helmet coming out of the mold so they just shortened them. Just a thought.

RBJ's pictures look exactly like your posted screen captures in terms of how far the tusks protrude... I don't see your point or I'm not getting what you are seeing.