eFX sent me a review RMQ helmet and it arrived today - hence have have put a photo review together in time for its pre-order release this coming Monday







All in all an extremely impressive collectible and an excellent tribute to Ralph McQuarrie whose work had such an influence on my favourite movie. I know it wont be a lot of people's "cup of tea" but IMO its a really nice interpretation of one of McQuarrie's initial designs



Full review here....

http://www.starwarshelmets.com/EFX-mcquarrie-darth-vader-helmet.htm

Cheers

Jez

Although I, without question, prefer Brian's sculpt over this one, the more I look at it, the more I like it. It certainly is the best (IMO) representation of the Vader RM envisioned through his illustrations.

Thanks for the review Jez (and great job on the pics btw)

Well, I'm not into collecting CA, but I certainly wouldn't mind having this in my collection

Well, the execution and finish-work is worth a praise. If the production helmets are of this same quality it is a very good purchase. Not a favorite of mine and will probably not be in my collection, but they did a damn fine piece of work on this one, which makes me confident that they will produce other excellent helmets in the future.

Thanks for the comments regarding the review and photgraphy guys - much appreciated

I agree with much of what you say Carsten - I normally would not stray into EU or "what would have been" territory - although am looking at some of the fan-made Stormtrooper Concepts with fresh eyes now.

However, like you said it bodes well for the next helmets they plan on producing. They could so easily have cut corners on this helmet but instead have produced something thats probably the best it could possibly have been. Roll-on some X-Wings, ANH Vader, TIE, Biker and AT-AT I say!

Cheers

Jez

Thanks for posting Jez.
Not a fan of the concepts personally but I appreciate their look and at the same time glad they didn't become the final design.

I too prefer Brian Muir's sculpt. With much respect to RMQ's design, I think there is a difference between a concept design and an artistic illustration - the latter which merely conveys the character artfully but not necessarily how the prop would look in real life. It's like making a maquette out of a cartoon character. Even if made 1:1 scale, the maquette would not necessarily work in a movie with real actors.

I must give high praise to the artist who did the realization of the sculpt. I recall one or two fan interpretations of this sculpt but this is truly the most accurate to the RMQ drawing.

The paint job is also very good.

Excellent review as always Jez!

Yeah, props to the craftsmanship in realizing this helmet but I won't be buying one myself. Having seen a few concepts helmets up close for Fett and the Stormtroopers I wouldn't mind owning a concept helmet for my Vader collection. Darth Stone and JRX's work are my two favorite versions so far.

Beautiful piece, although I never have had a desire in owning the concept art based stuff myself. I'm sure those getting it will be happy. Having McQuarrie's signature is a neat plus.

Here is a simulation of the RMQ Concept Vader in a scene of ANH.



Since Brian Muir had sculpted the armor as well, there is a possibility that had they gone with this RMQ concept that the armor might also appear differently.

It actually looks comedic onscreen.....not like a serious villain......more like "I'm an evil robot guy and you are in trouble, whahahah".

Nice illustration, but I think we are emotionally fooled here. Brian Muir's sculpt of armor and helmet is one entity that fits together. If the character in the picture was wearing the McQuarrie type armor/costume with that helmet, the whole tonal look might be different and he probably wouldn't so much look like a cartoon character or out of place. Things have their own aesthetics, and even though the final Brian Muir sculpt was based on the concept art, in part, it's its own creature, so to speak, with its own life.

Also... we've been conditioned to the Brian Muir sculpt for more than thirty years... I'm sure that has a mental effect as well. And this concept chosen is not really of the same style as the one that carried over to Brian Muir to sculpt into physical form.

But I agree. It feels more robotic than menacing.

It's interesting that the design retains some very elemental characteristics of the early concept sketches:







You ahve the helmet (with a foldline between the domecap and the flange) and you also have the teeth bars.

It struck me how important those teeth bars are in conveying the concept of the character. One one hand you can see them as holes, implying a breathing mechanism. On the other hand, you can see them as teeth bars which, in turn, give you an impression of prison bars or imprisonment. The imprisonment aspect is important to the depth of the character.

I do admit that it looks robotic. When I was a youth first watching ANH, I thought Vader was a robot. I think that it may have due to prior exposure to robots with teeth bar like Mazinga from classic Japanese animation:

http://roma.campusanuncios.com/picanunc ... 492009.jpg

Always liked this one. Always reminded me of a skull under a hood, like death coming for you.

Agreed, though it does remind me of a fisherman's raincoat:

http://blog.danshamptons.com/entertainm ... herman.gif

I forgot to mention. The teeth bars in that particular shot reinfoce a skull-like appearance which is a symbol of death.