My only problem was people saying there were "MYSTERY" helmets before mine. There weren't because "I" came up with that name on the RPF. I've got no problem with the phrase "Mystery-STYLE" helmet because that's a reasonable comparison and provides a quick description. I just go nuts, when I see a kit I didn't make called an MH, because that kit might be a pile o' bantha poodoo and it might confuse people into thinking it's one of mine. If all these other kits originated with the Pre-Pro helmt (COOOL!!!
) I'm fine with "Mystery-Style" just not "Mystery Helmet"
Sarge,
I believe I recall you coming up with the name "Mystery Helmet" as the true source of your helmet was a "mystery" but what was clear was that there were some significant differences, between your helmet and the Don Post standard and Deluxe, the most obvious being the dome. We have learned a lot since then, one being, as Tyler said, that virtually every replica available that has any lineage to an original comes from a casting of the Prepro 2 helmet. If you feel the need to stake a claim on the name "Mystery Helmet" I can understand that to a degree, but the fact is, your helmet is one of many, many similar castings, most which are casts of casts, and recasts of recasts. I don't really know how you could be too upset that all of these helmets are now referred to as "Mystery helmets" as you helped make this possible by casting a helmet you simply bought from eBay. I am not trying to point fingers, but that is like taking something that is not yours, putting your name on it, and then complaining when someone else takes it from you, because your name was on it. It wasn't yours to begin with. In regard to people claiming their were mystery helmets before the one you bought on eBay, they mean that helmets of the same or similar generation were out there and in the hands of a very few people. There is no doubt that they were much more rare, but yours was definitely not singular.
I just want to find out the origin once and for all, because it's really awkward and embarrassing when you think you've know something for like 5 years, and then find out you been passing along bad info all that time.
I can certainly appreciate the awkwardness of this situation. In regard to exact what generation your casting is, the truth is, we will simply never know. Were there an original 10 that came out of Don Post? Honestly, I don't know. That story seems to have been spun long ago by Jeff Ritzman, who was attempting to impress everyone with a Fett helmet he had which may have been an "unknown" casting like yours. What we do know is that there are generations to these helmets, the "mystery" helmet being one of the last before the helmet became the mass marketed DP helmets. If anything is the "master" or first gen copy, it is Rogue Studios plug. The person he bought it from was the original owner, and caster of this piece, as well as a highly respected member of the industry. The RS plug is clearly a direct cast from the PP2 right down to easily identifiable paint chips and physical scratches captured in the casting. Some of those same features, although greatly softened and obscured are still present in the mystery helmet.
Is the lava helmet from the same gen as the mystery helmet? I tend to think not. I believe it to be at least one step back towards the original, but I could be wrong. How many steps are between the PP2 and the mystery helmet or the dp mass marketted helmets? Again, it is unlikely that we will ever know for sure. At the very least I can say the mystery helmet is not 1st gen or 2nd. Beyond that, we simply don't know.
Now, you're POSITIVE that's where they all came from? There's one possibility that I'm not supposed to talk about, but I'll just say Don Post originally toyed with doing a Boba helmet back right after ESB, and the Deluxe Boba project wasn't the first time they'd had an original helmet in their possession. 8)
All indications point to there being specific tells to each real helmet and all of the replicas with lineage to a real helmet that haven't been completely retooled have tells that point directly to the pp2. The pp2 is the only helmet in private hands. The pp2 was at DP. We know that DP had a Fett helmet in the early 80s, but that project was aborted. The only thing that seems to have come from that was the RS plug and as I have said before, everything else appears to have come from that.