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The MR Stormtrooper Helmet should be
Just like the original 83%  83%  [ 20 ]
More symmetrical 8%  8%  [ 2 ]
Symmetrical 8%  8%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 24
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 2:21 pm 
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MR still has a looooong way to go IMO.....

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 2:22 pm 
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That last picture still reminds me of the RotJ or SE style trooper.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:06 pm 
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At least the frown is grey. The mini helmet is labeled as ANH but has a black frown. :grumpy

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:14 pm 
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NoHumorMan wrote:
That last picture still reminds me of the RotJ or SE style trooper.


I agree, it does look a bit like an SE or ROTJ.

I'm starting to wish they went "idealized" instead of movie accurate.. :rolleyes :pale


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:14 pm 
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Those pictures on their sales page don't look like the ones of the toyfair helmet posted here to me.
Yes the frown is grey but why does the paint join up the teeth :rolleyes
Truly horrid piece i don't know how they have the front to describe it as authentic :lol

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:21 pm 
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Here's what Bryan from MR said about it last night...

Quote:
I just want to say something about the picture. I was supposed to get the latest helmet from Asia this week, but it did not make it. So, the picture that you see is the one that was at Toy Fair, but we "photoshopped" the some of the revisions. I am hoping to have some pictures this weekend to post of the real one.


Hopefully it will get better. (well I don't think it can get any worse :lol )


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:13 pm 
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From the MR forums:

Hi Everyone!

As most of you know, the much-anticipated StormTrooper Helmet goes on sale Monday. Remember, only the first 500 people who order the helmet directly from http://www.masterreplicas.com will receive one of the free Tom Hodges exclusive piece of art so you should order quickly!

There have been some questions regarding the helmet so MRBryan has wrote up some bullet points for you all on how this awesome piece was made. Enjoy!

Here are the facts and reference materials that the Master Replicas Stormtrooper helmet was based on, developed and produced. Lucasfilm will only us to base our reference on people who worked on the projects or had direct knowledge that they can confirm.

1. All of the Stormtrooper helmets, whether it was a stunt or hero version, were vacuum formed from the same molds. We had an actual stunt version and we cast the INSIDE of the helmet and not the outside in order to get the copy of the actual mold and not the resulting vacumm formed helmet, which varied from piece to piece. This included the face, dome and ears. We also digitally scanned the Hero helmet that was in the archives to use as reference.

2. The finishing of the helmets differentiated the stunt and hero versions. More time was obviously spent on the Hero versions than on the stunt versions. For example, in the frown, you can see different variations. Some had more “breathing” holes cut out than others. Some have even said that the hero versions were made from a thicker material, but we have not been able to actually confirm that.

3. The placement of the brow is a critical element. However, the position does vary from piece to piece. Some are higher and some are lower. Remember, these helmets were put together very quickly and were only to be used for a few days of filming. We have placed our brow in the lower position, to have a slightly more “menacing” look, rather than “surprise”

4. The paint scheme is based on the hero version that is in the Lucas Archives. This includes the PMS colors of the grey, blue, etc. Some people make think this is wrong, but we took the colors off an actual helmet and not off of screen shots, which as you know can alter the color depending on your monitor, printer, photo finishing, etc.

5. The nozzles were cast from a casting of the actual piece that was used on the helmet. Even though we had to remove it, the piece that we cast had the manufacturers name on the side of the piece that we cast.

6. For the stripes on the cheeks, the artwork was developed from a tracing of the Hero version at the Lucas archives supplied by Lucasfilm. If you look closely each of the “crescents” are not the same, or evenly spaced.

7. The earpieces are not exactly correct. This is because we are making these helmets in fibgerglass and not a thin piece of Polyethylene. Therefore for the “step” between the dome and the face piece is much larger. We therefore made a small step on the underside of the earpiece to accommodate this larger step.

8. Also, the bottom cut-out may not be exactly correct, since it varied from piece to piece. These were cut out by hand. So for the bottom, we could only extrapolate what the whole pattern may have looked like.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:30 pm 
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It was also posted on Rebelscum - this was my reply....

Let me firstly say that I think MR helmets are extremely nice, I have 3 MR clones and the Vader and have been extremely impressed with them – and not least the build quality. As Hedjii72 has said the MR helmets feel more like “real” helmets (like a bikers) than the fan made or SDS helmets, which are more like the original props. People have their preferences, I like both.

With regard to Brian’s comments, with respect they didn’t so much explain why the MR helmet looks different from the originals, but more a history lesson on Stormtrooper helmets (and much of which could have come from my site!), so let me provide a bit of background and perspective…..

1976 - The original STUNT and HERO helmets were made using 2 significantly different plastics. The STUNTS were a khaki green HDPE (Polyethene) which were subsequently painted white, whereas the HERO’s were a less flexible (but naturally white thus unpainted) ABS.

Fifty painted HDPE STUNTS were made over a period of several weeks, before the six “Close-up” unpainted ABS HERO’s were made some weeks later. Due to the aggressive timescales of production the STUNTS were rushed and this resulted in greater variation of finish, and significant damage to the moulds, most noticeable in the undercut where the STUNT helmets often had to be cut away from the mould. By the time the HERO’s were made several weeks later, they looked slightly (but noticeably) different from the STUNT’s, and in addition the material used also significantly affected their appearance since it reacted differently from the vac-forming process.

2006 - The MR helmet was cast off an original STUNT helmet owned by Gary Kurtz and Jason Joiner. Ive had this specific helmet in my possession (a few years back) and can confirm its this one….

Image

Taking a cast from the inside of the helmet was exactly the right thing for MR to do. However the problem is they have produced a HERO helmet from the 2nd generation moulds of a STUNT helmet, and therefore the inherent differences in the STUNT have now been reflected in this MR HERO helmet – and that’s why many see this as a “hybrid”. I’m pleased they had access to HERO helmet in the archives and have scanned it – which should help the detailing (although the HERO in the archive is missing its eye lenses WHICH WERE SMOKED GREY NOT GREEN).

With regard to the detailing on the MR helmet, we’ll all need to see the final version. However the prototype had black tube stripes which is incorrect since the originals had Blue stripes (HERO’s and STUNT’s). MR’s confusion over this may have been due to the paint scheme on Kurtz/Joiner’s Stunt which had been repainted (badly) sometime since 1976 (and confirmed to me by Jason), and it featured Black tube stripes.

I hope that fills in any of the missing information people have. For the record I’ll be getting one of these as I love trooper helmets!

Cheers

Jez

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:00 pm 
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Just for the heck of it... I would have loved the $99 MR trooper helmet... don't really think I'll be getting this more expensive helmet... though, I do hope they get the look right. :thumbsup

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:28 am 
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NoHumorMan wrote:
don't really think I'll be getting this more expensive helmet... though, I do hope they get the look right. :thumbsup


Right there with you NHM ... I hope I'll be able to save up some serious $$$
for one of GINOs - those pics blew me away ... not impressed by the looks
of the MR Trooper at all. For those who want a clean neat and shiny Mass
Product wich pleases the eye it might be a great choice, but without all the
lumps, bumps, faults and stuff it is just as boring as the SDS Helmets to me.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:21 pm 
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Jez i don't understand why MR would take a mould of the inside of the helmet to produce a fibreglass helmet surely it would be a mould of the outside they need or am i crazy ?

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:00 pm 
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Defstartrooper wrote:
Jez i don't understand why MR would take a mould of the inside of the helmet to produce a fibreglass helmet surely it would be a mould of the outside they need or am i crazy ?


The Originals where Vac-formed - meaning that a thin sheet of plastic is put
ONTO a Positive Mold and then "pressed" onto it using a so called Vacuum
Table. Using heat also the air is "sucked out" wich creates high pressure and
out you'll get your casting or copy - I don't know 100% how exactly it works.
So the "inside" of the actual casting is sharper than the outside and has a lot
more of the Original molds sharp features - :wink: ... I hope I explained
that right ... hard to explain such things when your native tongue is not English ...

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:31 pm 
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Right so they took a mould of the inside to get a positive then took a mould of that positive to produce a negative yeah ?
Thats makes sense to me now although why the hell is it so sloppy looking ?
looking at the helmet it doesn't appear they were overly worried about capturing every little detail.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:19 pm 
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Defstartrooper wrote:
Right so they took a mould of the inside to get a positive then took a mould of that positive to produce a negative yeah ?
Thats makes sense to me now although why the hell is it so sloppy looking ?
looking at the helmet it doesn't appear they were overly worried about capturing every little detail.

Because... doing it like that would never give the surface detail that we are used to. They made a mold of the inside... not the outside... so no matter what they do, it'll never look as the helmets we know, but look like the molds from which they were vac-formed on.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:25 pm 
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Thats what i thought NHM

To me what they have done here is produced the budget version they had as one of the three original helmets planned and stuck a premium price on it

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