This screen pic is from a Japanese studio interview with Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Gary Kurtz.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhMIlgOrppk

Hmm, from the Kurtz collection, maybe? The mythical unused helmet? This is 1980, so it could be a SL... ah, I mean, a casting from the Baker/LFL mold...?

We had another discussion about that somewhere, if I remember correctly. I believe I mentioned it could be an eFX at the time, as I thought that interview was more recent... but I believe it's the same program and the same female interviewer and seeing as this one is from the eighties then it certainly can't be an eFX. It has the eFX paint scheme, sans the black whisker under the left cheek (right in the picture), so if this is an official LFL helmet, then it certainly strengthens the eFX paint scheme as being correct - at least for what that helmet is concerned.

As to what it is... seeing the weird looking trooper helmets (any thoughts on those?) maybe it's a tour helmet?

I have this picture from that other video, but cannot find the thread discussing it...

I wonder if this was a promotional tour and the next stop was Australia? That could be the MP helmet.

Cheers,

Kraig

The thought was good, but that's a definite no on several counts.

It was just a thought. It's hard to tell with the low res image, but it seems to not have the grill and has the silver mouth bit like the MP and there's a dark spot on the tube near his left cheek (our right) that looks in a similar spot the the damage on the MP. However, I'm not up with accurate castings, so I'm not sure if it's in the cast or not.



Cheers,

Kraig

Very interesting. It has filled tusk tubes like a pull from the ILM/Baker mold, however after very careful examination of the mouth grill, the grill pattern lines up from what I can see with that of the original ANH mask (!!!).

Also there should be tells on the cheeks that, if it were from the ILM/Baker mold, should be there, and it doesn't seem like they are. Also, the Vader's right nail mark has flaws inside it that match the screen mask, but are not found on the ILM pulls. There's also a detail on the left side of the front mouth triangle face that seems to match, a small white spot.

My gut says this is the original mask, albeit it completely refinished. I'm not exactly sure about the dome, but there is some indication of slight flaws around the front flaring edge matching the original but it is harder to tell with just black paint there, so not too sure about that.

So maybe we are looking at the original mask with filled tubes.

If this helmet toured the world with Kurz, then what? Holy cow.

Where in that whole video do you get a clear shot of the grills?

Looking at the lenses, teeth and so forth it's definately interesting but other than to say it is cast off screen I can't find enough characteristics with the screen used from the low res to determine 100%. My gut instinct is this isn't the screen used and not just because of the possiblity of it being majorly cleaned up/repainted.

Definately has a better relationship to the screen used than the later tour items and this Vader was used to promote ESB, note the ANH set up and the stuff that went on tour were screen used at times before they paid greater care but even after Jedi things were still getting mixed up on occasion.

Cool picture Paul. We also have an ANH style helmet in the RotJ Leia beach pictures, with the Jabba guard and an Ewok. I believe they are Corbis pictures.



And the low res video really is not good enough to say it's one over the other.

Last part. And it is based not on a clear image but on intensity distribution of light vs dark areas in the grill and finding corresponding positions on the known original grill. And there is quite a bit of coincidental lineup.



For those who would like to take their own stab at confirming/discounting this, here is the original version of the image I was working from...



Note the paint detail on Vader's right cheek....particularly on the outside edge...the silver marks against the black front face of the cheek, and what looks like a remnant of the C-scar (although that would not be a definitive indication, but those marks on the cheek edge would be).

Very nice, but it is painted differently than the Japanese one and looks softer as well.

Also in that large image I posted, look at the chin vent. Look at the inside edge with the black paint. There are areas where the black paint encroaches on the gunmetal of the surrounding chin, and although not conclusive, looks to me compelling.

It's a great looking helmet.

Out of interest, with accurate casts, is it a consistent "feature" that the right (Vader's left) top of the chin vent is squared off a bit, where as the other side is more pointy? or would that just be a trimming thing?

Cheers,

Kraig

The corners are fairly similar, so it could be a slight difference in trimming, or if there was residual material left in a corner.