Hey guy I need some help. I purchased this Luke Stormtrooper and it's all good except for the helmet has black markings on the back of it. I have no issue with the legitimacy of the helmet I cannot find any pics, images or info on any other helmet like it. The seller insists it came off the card and was/is under no threat of negative feedback ect and that he has not tampered with it at all. In the flesh it does not look touched up. Any help appreciated.

Welcome to TIG. I can see that our V2 Repro on the main site has two black paint apps on the back http://www.imperialgunnery.com/helmetsandhoods.htm I'm not saying your example is this one, it's hard to tell much from your pic. As far as I know an original doesn't have black paint on the rear. Some additional pics of the helmet might help?

Here's some more. Had to change the image size. The helmet is hard resin and detailed...

The extra photos didn't show up. If you could do pics of the front and rear so we can see the details in the helmet. Just going off the pic I can see there is some bleed where the black caused the helmet to have a gray haze, so it may be an original helmet someone customized a bit, but the one pic is not enough to see the detail of the helmet itself.

Oh 4 or so said they uploaded, give it another go...

I am at work at the moment, so I don't have my original to compare to. The mold lines look right, but the mouth detail looks as though there is some loss of sharpness there. I am leaning towards real though as it could be the angle of the photo making the mouth not appear as sharp. I will look closer tonight when I get home.

closer of the front.

Ridge inside the back, top sprue mark, face grill all correct, rear paint is odd :scratch:

I know and the seller swears black and blue it came off the card to display then storage for a heap of years. I told him I have no doubt the helmet is original I just need to know if he coloured it or sharpied it so I could clean it off if I needed to. He said he hadn't ....

I believe the helmet is original, but someone somewhere has customized it. If he doesn't remember or whatever, it was a long time ago. I have no doubt though the paint or whatever it is isn't original to it. I outlined the entire paint area in green and the bleed areas in red. You don't see this bleed on the other black applications because they were factory, This one was not. At this point though removing the black will still leave this gray color to the plastic I would think. Probably best to leave it be rather than remove it and it be discolored anyway.

Thanks for the input. Still hard to figure the why's and how's as to why it was done but it could just have been his son when he was younger and just never thought about it as an adult.

Welcome fellow collector!

... just to add to the others comments, the frontal image shows a dash of black paint on the lower right cheek. this shouldnt be there either, so maybe when the person modified the rear they caught this with the brush? it's unlikely to be factory mistake because they tended to be splatters if they missed the mark. Also the factory is sprayed so you either get a good straight edge (which is hard to reproduce with a paintbrush) or it fades out toward the edges (like the black circles either side of the mouth piece, again impossible to reproduce with a brush).

That rear paint is definitely a paintbrush job.

If you were to attempt removal (and I'm not suggesting you do or don't), then I would try very small amounts of acetone (nail polish remover) on a cloth and rub gently. Too much on the cloth at a time WILL melt the plastic though so be aware. I tried it on a snow speeder which had something undesirable on it but I got impatient and used too much - it cleaned it but it did slightly change the plastic edge to be smoother, ie. melted it a bit.


My Stormy Luke helmet is an original and it doesnt have black at the back.

Interesting anecdote... it was after finding my Stormy Luke helmet in an old toy box along with only 2 figures (C3PO + R2 Scopey) from my childhood after emigrating to the US that kicked off my collecting Star Wars! I'm now 93 complete figures deep, nearly all the vehicles and my wife is close to killing me!

Just found another one for sale....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Star-Wars-Last-17-Luke-Skywalker-Stormtrooper-Complete-No-Repro-/262478977428?cp=1&sojTags=bu%3Dbu&bu=43196243255&euid=6432c4a4d4ee4d4097873cf7682a44d4&nma=true&si=kpMKw2lom2ZRtl5kpR2BsRCpqmM%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557