There's no question at all if you want a Darth Vader helmet the efx Legend Edition is as close as you can get to the screen used helmet with a licensed replica--and I don't say that lightly. It is copied from a master taken directly from a mold at LucasFilm. The Don Post Deluxe and Rubies helmets have made similar claims but that is advertising hyperbole. The efx is my 8th Vader helmet, well 9th if you include the old Don Post Halloween mask, and is one of my favorites among them all. I've got at least one version of the helmet from each of the original trilogy but the "A New Hope" version (I can't stand having to call it that) to my eye is Darth Vader and I am really glad they chose to produce that one.

Prop replicas are the center of my collection -- Vader helmets especially -- and I have an unfinished basement waiting to display them too lol.

That helmet looks awesome, Bill. Great addition.

dcarty wrote:

It is copied from a master taken directly from a mold at LucasFilm. The Don Post Deluxe and Rubies helmets have made similar claims but that is advertising hyperbole.

It's funny you mention the DP helmets. A while back I was able to confirm that they did actually (well, at some point)
have 1:1 molds from the original.
This is the only remaining master-cast prototype from those molds:


There were two created for each helmet/character. One was sent to China for production, and the 2nd was kept as a
back up. Unfortunately, a lot of the details get lost in translation, but this is an amazing piece in real life. In toy terms,
this would a huge hard copy stage prototype.

Bill

Cool, I had heard something similar but hadn't heard any confirmation. The sample you have looks light years better than what ended up on the market--the dome especially (you can even see where they ground off the inside lip of the dome curse them)!!

You probably already know all of this but where it gets confusing is that there are several Vader molds at LFL all pulled at various times during, between, and after the production of the original Trilogy (I got this info from Don Bies). The Don Post Deluxe helmet that made it into production has the "funnel" connector on the top of the face mask which is consistent with what I believe are post-Jedi made masks for touring costumes. At one point the rumor I had heard was the original mask they cast from, the one yours is a closer copy of, was owned by Steve Sansweet. Have you heard anything along those lines?

For those interested the efx helmet is from a casting of the ANH helmet made by Rick Baker either during pick-ups for ANH or immediately post-production making it the earliest production related Vader casting at LFL (since the original master mold was lost). They've done some clean-up to their master but left the wonky geometry of the original pretty well intact.

dcarty wrote:

Cool, I had heard something similar but hadn't heard any confirmation. The sample you have looks light years better than what ended up on the market--the dome especially (you can even see where they ground off the inside lip of the dome curse them)!!
You probably already know all of this but where it gets confusing is that there are several Vader molds at LFL all pulled at various times during, between, and after the production of the original Trilogy (I got this info from Don Bies). The Don Post Deluxe helmet that made it into production has the "funnel" connector on the top of the face mask which is consistent with what I believe are post-Jedi made masks for touring costumes. At one point the rumor I had heard was the original mask they cast from, the one yours is a closer copy of, was owned by Steve Sansweet. Have you heard anything along those lines?

That is pretty much what I have heard about the helmets as well. As far as the molds go, Don Post created the molds via LFL, then used an outside vendor to created these masters.
These were then sent to China to create the production molds(negatives), so you can imagine a good bit of detail was lost. I have the other production DP helmets, and I didn't
think it would be "that" big of a deal really, but it was. Probably the most noticeable thing is the lack of symmetry, which I guess they did try to correct to a degree. Still, considering
the Deluxe was the first official 1:1 replica, I still think it's a great piece.
Man, the more I look at the eFx helmet, the more I like it, that is just an amazing piece. That is usually a good gauge of a piece, it if looks that awesome in a normal pic, it has to
be incredible in real life ... hmm .. time to go look around I think LOL

Bill

You aren't kidding about the loss of detail! The issues with shape and geometry were extremely variable. I bought my first DP Deluxe in (I think) 1996 from The Earth and it was one of the better DPD castings I've seen. It was serial numbers 166-167 (the dome was #167).



Over at the Vader prop forums the general assumption was that the earlier the serial number was the better the geometry would be based on the working theory that as time progressed the molds wore out and the "chin sag" and neck flare just got worse and worse. That myth was finally busted when pictures started showing up of early numbered helmets with the massive geometry issues and later numbered helmets that were fine.


I let my wife talk me into selling it back in 2004 and at the time it was probably the best thing to do but I still wish that I hadn't. In early 2008 I found one for sale fairly cheap that needed some TLC so I bought it to restore and put in my office at work. I figured it would be a weekend of stripping paint, a little sanding, and then another repainting and that would be that. Little did I know that once I got the layers and layers of paint off it would lead to a 6 month rework/rebuild project but it was a lot of fun:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/don-post-deluxe-vader-restoration-project-finished-53841/

Wow !! That is def. some amazing work, and the before/after is pretty shocking actually. I don't think I've seen someone do this level of
"corrective surgery" before. (needless to say, the "after" is off this planet .. I probably don't need to unpack my Deluxe DP anytime soon )
I probably need to take some better pics and post them, especially with better orientation(s), level shots, etc. The loss of symmetry from the
master cast to what I'm seeing is a lot more dramatic that I remember.
Some people might not want to rehash an old issue like this, but I don't know how many people even know the master from DP even still exists,
so it would make a valid discussion if anyone wants to bat this around. I can say that just from what I'm seeing, my gut reaction is that the major
issues would have had to come from the production/mold side of things.

Bill

Thank you for the compliment! I am rather pleased and proud of how it turned out--even though when I look at it now all I can focus on are the things I'd like to tweak.

I completely agree with your assessment that the flaws are a product of the molding stage. The distortions that are evident in the really wonky helmets (like the one I restored) seem to be pretty consistent--a characteristic exaggerated neck flare and downward droop of the mouth toward the right tusk (as you 're looking at the helmet). Almost like those helmets were de-molded and then set down on their necks before they were completely cured so that they sagged from their weight. This is all just speculation but, looking back through my photos, it almost seems like there may have been several molds that Don Post was running simultaneously--a good one and a really wonky one. The wonky castings all had the droopy neck and mouth but the chin vent was also thicker and slightly misshapen compared to the good ones. It seems like there are just waaaay too many of the wonky helmets for it to be a question of improper de-molding. Who knows, it was 17 years ago (!)

I would love to see more photos of the DP Master--a nice 360 would be excellent and maybe a few shots with the dome off. I'd better stop before I start drooling and give you too much work lol. Yeah, the DP Deluxe has been superseded several times over since it was released but I still have a soft spot for it

dcarty wrote:

I would love to see more photos of the DP Master--a nice 360 would be excellent and maybe a few shots with the dome off. I'd better stop before I start drooling and give you too much work lol. Yeah, the DP Deluxe has been superseded several times over since it was released but I still have a soft spot for it

Not a problem !! I'll post some pics when I get a chance to work out a way to make sure everything will be leveled as much as possible on the different
axis, so there is some sort of baseline to get a decent "gauge". The only problem is the bottom portion of the cast, that you can see from the neck collar.
This is actually part of the cast itself, and is not level, so it ends up giving it about a 15degree tilt. (for display, I usually compensate by using something to
shim up the right side, so it's level)
I'm in the process of a display room "distillation" at the moment, so things are a bit of a mess. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics here shortly !!

Bill

well , not exactly a prop .... but I could make it one

dcarty wrote:

Wow--you guys are serious!! "Props" to your Props

I don't know about a whole costume but some day it would be fun to have a Greedo mask like that and I like the Fett costume. One of my best friends is on the committee creating Fett costume standards for the 501st.

Bootyhunter--tell us more about your buckets!

Budspencer--I envy your acquisition of the SiMan armor. I've held off buying trooper armor for more than a decade waiting for that suit to come along. I have to finish Vader first.

Hi,

My kit is not from Siman. My kit came a guy codenamed ATA.

He bought molds from a guy that had the molds and these molds apparently came from a casting of a stunt helmet used in the first movie.

The suit came from a cast from an exhibition suit ( promo suit ) made for ROTJ apparently. You can modify it to resemble the one in ANH with some work.

Siman's suit got out after i bought my kits. Siman's suit is based on a sandtrooper suit from ANH. He casted all of the suit and is selling it now in kits or already made.

His suit and helmet are quite expensive but they are considered top of the line replicas right now, because of their accuracy to the original suits. You could say ( almost ) that these would be original ANH suits....

So far he is the only reseller that can claim that his helmets and suits are exactly like in the movie and he is correct since his helmet and suit are molded from a screen used suit.

My suit is sort of semi accurate kitbash of original stuff from the movies.

A lot of other stuff on the market are repros, meaning they were sculpted from scratch to try to match the original as much as possible and even modded enough to hide all the defects of costuming in the movies. the EFX stormtrooper helmet is a perfect example of that. It has been embelished to be better looking.

so if you are looking for accurate stormtrooper suits, you would need to get the siman suit, this is the king of the hill stuff, unless someone is able to dig up the true molds that were used to make the suit in the movie you wont be able to come close in authenticity other than the siman suit. But so far no one was able to get the original molds as legend is told that they were destroyed in a fire. you can always buy the ATA suit or any other fan made suit if you want to.

Another person Andrew Ainsworth ( who actually manufactured the original suits in his Shpperton shop back then ) is selling stromtrooper suits and other star wars props and he has claimed that his were made from original molds. A lot of people say that he does not have the original molds and cannot claim that what he is selling is authentic. Many people say that he resculpted the suit. Also this upset George Lucas who sued him because of his authenticity claim ( this and other reasons ) and the lawsuit ended up in some weird decision. Andrew can still sell his suits anywhere in the world except the united states. ( this is the last i read about )

i summed this up like severely but if you want the full stories on this you can easily google these stories and urban legends up.


for information about who made what, the best site to look at would be:

Star Wars helmets

I do collect and have some eFX studio scale and helmets.
Have the eFX Legend Vader, Luke X-wing helmet and X-wing, and am waiting for the Limited Vader and Tie Fighter.

Still waiting for replacements for my Legend Vader and X-wing helmet tough.
eFX seems to be an one man operation and the guy seems honest but just cannot keep his promises.

i would not know enough of efx to pass judgment. I never bought anything from them. But some of their stuff does look good.

budspencer wrote:

i would not know enough of efx to pass judgment. I never bought anything from them. But some of their stuff does look good.

If your lucky enough to get an item with no problems, eFX makes thes best licensed Star Wars prop stuff.
But if you have an items with flaws you're screwed.
eFX customer service is done by the president of the company, who is also handling all shipping etc etc, e-mails or phonecalls will mostly go unanswered.

Try reading the eFX Vader Helmet thread on rebelscum last couple of weeks for some more complaining about eFX.