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 Post subject: NEED HELP IDENTIFYING THIS DARTH VADER MASK
PostPosted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 7:32 pm 
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Hello everyone.
One of your members suggested that maybe the Darth Vader experts here can help me identify this Vader helmet for me.


First a bit of background on this cast.
I got this from David Lady who originally got it directly from Henry Alvarez.
Henry was a master sculptor who worked...well for any movie effects house you can think of. This is a link to his IMDB.
Henry Alvarez - Biography - IMDb
I was told that Henry cast this directly from the original ANH molds over 30 years ago.

I went to the Star Wars Helmet site which lists all of the different versions that were made of Darth and for the life of me I can't figure out which helmet this is.

This fiberglass cast was obviously pulled from a very worn out mold and it's taken me weeks to get the helmet smooth enough to paint and I'm now working on the face mask.

From the shape of the widows peak on the helmet it looks like this was pulled from the ESB molds.
But the face mask has details I can't identify. Especially an odd shape above the bridge of the nose which is under the helmet when it's assembled.
The face mask and helmet are both very asymmetrical and very HUGE.
This first pic is the way I received it. The next pics I just took for this thread. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,[/B]

Sam McCain
Horror Sanctum Studios
www.horrorsanctum.com
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 Post subject: Re: NEED HELP IDENTIFYING THIS DARTH VADER MASK
PostPosted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 7:58 pm 
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Location: Denmark
That appears to be a Fyberdyne helmet. A very early piece that was reputed to have come directly from an original, but it has been documented that these helmets are hugely doctored from their original source. You can always recognize that particular helmet from that bump on the forehead. May be connected with an early effort by Don Post to make full scale A New Hope helmets back in the day. The work done to this line of helmets almost removes it from the accurate style of helmets.

Frankly, for the most part, it is never a good idea to sand pieces like this prior to investigating their origin, as the sanding is removing surface details that may help identification and may be part of its value. High end helmets are sought after because they retain many of the on screen scuffs and damages of the original helmet. If you can believe it... the more authentic details and what looks to be damage and from a rough mold the more expensive the piece can get. However, I'm not sure that has any bearing on one of these helmets from this lineage, but still. There are several helmets in this line that is oftentimes referred to as the Jeff/GH line of helmets.

The history of the piece is what adds value to this piece, moreso than the helmet line itself - they don't fetch as high a price as they did several years ago, when there weren't that many options available.

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 Post subject: Re: NEED HELP IDENTIFYING THIS DARTH VADER MASK
PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 4:08 am 
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Thank you for the info. That at least gives me more that I had to start with.
I used to work at Don Post Studios so the next time I see Don I'll ask him if he recognizes this helmet.
I understand what you mean about the blemishes and such. I really don't care about the resale value of it. I've just always wanted a real nice vader in my collection.
Here's a link to my photobucket with all of my collection and pieces that I manufacture.
http://s234.photobucket.com/user/RedDwarf81/profile/


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 Post subject: Re: NEED HELP IDENTIFYING THIS DARTH VADER MASK
PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 12:25 pm 
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Cool. Well, they may not remember that exact style of helmet, but it may be sourced from a piece they worked on that ended up having specific features. It would be interesting to hear more of that story, whether they still remember the events.

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 Post subject: Re: NEED HELP IDENTIFYING THIS DARTH VADER MASK
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 3:46 am 
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Fyberdyne helmets are recasts of one of jeffs old helmets that came from don post


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 Post subject: Re: NEED HELP IDENTIFYING THIS DARTH VADER MASK
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 5:49 pm 
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Nice mask collection! :cheers


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