I've had a chance to study this helmet and I must say that it is a nice helmet. IMO it is not a fan made helmet. However, I don't believe it be a screen used helmet either.
If it were, it would be an ESB action prop, not a hero prop. ESB did have action level Darth Vader helmets, however, this helmet falls somewhat south of the line even compared to them.
I am impressed with how it is prepared, i.e., painting and fit. I do feel that it was prepared by someone who either prepared actual Darth Vader helmets for the production, or
had direct access to an actual screen used helmet(s) and/or the paint that is used to paint them, as the colors and how the helmet is painted is consistent with the production ESB.
Having said that, I still have some concerns with this helmet.
While I do feel it was painted by someone who knew what they were doing, it does seem as if they were in a bit of a hurry doing it. If you look at the top of the right cheekbone the highlight
paint actually comes up over the top of the cheekbone into the flatter area under the eye. I've never seen a screen used that was that sloppily mask off, they usually follow the edge of the
cheek pretty well. Also, the terminator line between the gray and black above the nose is a bit high up on the side of the nose compared to actual screen used helmets.
I am somewhat curious about the damage on top of the nose. It appears as if someone deliberately sat there hitting it again and again with something hard that has an edge to it, all the way down the nose.
When I got to the bottom, they started going around its edge. An angry little sister perhaps?
One major concern is the lack of the lip on the dome. The dome edges are simply the width of the fiberglass and the edges smoothed off. Compare this to the ESB stunt lip which is inserted.
The lip on the ESB stunt is typical of all ESB helmets. Next is the small size of the grille work inside the teeth, which is roughly half the size of what it should be. The chin grille is reasonably
consistent with the ESB action helmet, except that the grille mesh appears to be an angled expanded metal, whereas ESBs used a flat diamond grille.
Lastly, I have issues with the quality of the casting, specifically the mouth, the chin, the tubes and the base of the neck. The mouth and the bridge between the tusks is fairly deformed and snakes in and out.
The straight black line is simply to show a straight line, to help illustrate how deformed it is. It appears to have a deep depression at the bottom of the fourth grille opening. This appears to have distorted the
chin somewhat as well. Also, the tubes are somewhat poorly formed, with a little too much in and out along their lengths. But the biggest problem I see is at the base of the neck where it sinks in just off to the
right of center. This does not appear to be a dent, but an issue with the cast itself. I do not believe that production would've allowed any of these issues to make it to a possible screen used helmet.
So in my opinion this was most likely a tour helmet. Made for ESB, but then modified somewhat for duty as an ROTJ. It's got that real deal look, but I know it isn't. I hope she didn't pay $15,000 for it.
The helmet definitely doesn't look like something that was made recently, it's got a good patina to it. And despite all its flaws it still looks really good sitting on that table.