Here is another comparison photo. The face on the left doesn't look so narrow from this perspective. And remember: Bingo's helmet may suffer from some perspective distortion (so people, please consider standardizing on photographing 4 to 5 feet away to minimize perspective distortion -- it would be very helpful to the fans!)
I see a divergence of opinions and I don't know if I'm opening up a can of worms that's going to become political. I'm a newcomer to the study of TIE Pilot helmets. When I was a kid, I instantly felt they were cooler than the regular stormtroopers.
The purpose of my question is: what do each of these helmets look like in relation to the original prop.
I don't want to buy something if the reasoning is automatically "Buy Andrew Ainsworth because he has the origina molds" irrespective of mold deterioration and deformation because -- and with all due respect -- that would be dogmatic. Hypothetically speaking, if Gino's Stunt Stormtrooper was based on an actual prop from 1977 and Ainsworth recently made a casting of his from his molds but the mold suffered deterioration or deformation and no longer perfectly resembled the helmets of 30 years ago, then as a collector I would prefer a Gino over an Ainsworth irrespectof of Ainsworth's mold's lineage because the Gino is proportionately and structurally more true to the original prop.
(Case in point:
http://www.looksirdroids.com/davin_replica2.html)
There are very few people who have seen the prop of the TIE Pilots. I've yet to see HD screen captures of Ep IV's Death Start battle scene to look at the TIE Pilots (if someone can post them that would be great).
Now when I examine these two from this particular angle, the Dan Laws helmet's face doesn't look so narrow, but if you're talking "narrow" as in relation to the dome the black trooper facemask is wearing, then I undertand what you're saying.
But then again, it's
perspective distortion. What that means is if your camera is 2 to 3 feet away, then the facemask will look larger and the helmet will look proportionately smaller. This is a false positive. I am therefore hoping Bingo can rephotograph his TIE Pilot so we can do a more accurate comparison -- without the perspective distortion.