Yeah... yeah... as with many things, we are a bit late on this!
March 1, 2012 was thedentedhelmet.com's tenth anniversary!
For those of you who are new, here is a brief history of the site.
The Dented Helmet’s history began in early 2001, at the Replica Prop Forums (the RPF) with a thread dedicated to the details of Boba Fett’s costume. That thread grew to over 300 posts, which was legendary at that time. Due to the massive amount of useful information it contained, the thread was archived and a second thread was created. This thread too grew to over 300 posts, followed by a third. It was quickly becoming obvious that Boba Fett’s costume was too complex a subject to be contained within a few threads.
One of the primary contentions back in those early days was the identity of the knurled rods on Boba Fett shin tool. It was accepted as "common knowledge" that the rods were X-acto handles, but a few people, many of who became the core of the Dented Helmet's early membership, challenged that belief. It wasn't until years later that we discovered those pieces were actually a Transcriptor Stylus Brush!
In August of 2001 a new ez-board was created for the express purpose of scrutinizing Boba Fett’s costume and making that information readily available to Fett fans. The board was called “As You Wish” (AYW) as an homage to one of Boba’s most memorable lines. A forum for the new character “Jango Fett” was also created at AYW. Unfortunately ez-board was not the ideal platform for a high-traffic discussion board. It was very sluggish and overrun with pop-up ads making it almost impossible to use. Within a few months of AYW’s creation talks began of creating a new forum based off the same software as the RPF and hosted on a private server.
With the help the help of Cliff Wright and Nikki Burdett, the software used at the RPF was customized to suit the needs of the new board. The domain name Boba Fett Costume Resource - Boba Fett News & Articles was purchased on Jan 30, 2002 and on March 1, 2002, the Dented Helmet Discussion forums (TDH) officially opened to the public. Credit for the name “The Dented Helmet” goes to Chris Skidmore, who suggested it as a joke. All the posts from AYW were transferred and AYW was permanently shut down.
The lead graphics designer of TDH was Dallas Poague, an avid Zam Wesell fan and the creator of TDH’s early shirt designs. As a favor for all his hard work in helping create the look and feel of TDH a forum for Zam Wesell was added to the new board.
Unfortunately, only 6 months after opening TDH, it exceeded the capacity of the hosting server. TDH was temporarily shut down. Fortunately, Nikki Burdett, owner of the RPF generously offered to host TDH on the same server as the RPF.
In Januray, 2005 The Dented Helmet struck out on its own server and upgraded to vBulletin as its platform.
In Nov 2009, Art Andrews (me) took over the RPF and brought the Dented Helmet under a single company; Movie Prop Sites, LLC.
In 2010, Scott Kaufmann, TxFett, took over the reigns and now is the primary person handling the day to day running of the site.
Here we are today, ten years later and wow, what a journey the last ten years have been. I never would have guessed just how popular this little group would become or how influential we would be. It has been exhilarating and humbling. While some feel that Star Wars has seen its best days, this site still thrives as one of the largest costuming sites focused primarily on a single character.
I won't even begin to try to mention the dozens if not hundreds of people who have helped make this site and this community what it is today for fear of leaving someone out. We have had so many come and go and so many contribute to the knowledge that is found here that it is just incredible.
Thank you all for all that you do and for just still coming and contributing to the site.
It has been my pleasure to serve you for the past 10 years and we are looking forward to another 10!
March 1, 2012 was thedentedhelmet.com's tenth anniversary!
For those of you who are new, here is a brief history of the site.
The Dented Helmet’s history began in early 2001, at the Replica Prop Forums (the RPF) with a thread dedicated to the details of Boba Fett’s costume. That thread grew to over 300 posts, which was legendary at that time. Due to the massive amount of useful information it contained, the thread was archived and a second thread was created. This thread too grew to over 300 posts, followed by a third. It was quickly becoming obvious that Boba Fett’s costume was too complex a subject to be contained within a few threads.
One of the primary contentions back in those early days was the identity of the knurled rods on Boba Fett shin tool. It was accepted as "common knowledge" that the rods were X-acto handles, but a few people, many of who became the core of the Dented Helmet's early membership, challenged that belief. It wasn't until years later that we discovered those pieces were actually a Transcriptor Stylus Brush!
In August of 2001 a new ez-board was created for the express purpose of scrutinizing Boba Fett’s costume and making that information readily available to Fett fans. The board was called “As You Wish” (AYW) as an homage to one of Boba’s most memorable lines. A forum for the new character “Jango Fett” was also created at AYW. Unfortunately ez-board was not the ideal platform for a high-traffic discussion board. It was very sluggish and overrun with pop-up ads making it almost impossible to use. Within a few months of AYW’s creation talks began of creating a new forum based off the same software as the RPF and hosted on a private server.
With the help the help of Cliff Wright and Nikki Burdett, the software used at the RPF was customized to suit the needs of the new board. The domain name Boba Fett Costume Resource - Boba Fett News & Articles was purchased on Jan 30, 2002 and on March 1, 2002, the Dented Helmet Discussion forums (TDH) officially opened to the public. Credit for the name “The Dented Helmet” goes to Chris Skidmore, who suggested it as a joke. All the posts from AYW were transferred and AYW was permanently shut down.
The lead graphics designer of TDH was Dallas Poague, an avid Zam Wesell fan and the creator of TDH’s early shirt designs. As a favor for all his hard work in helping create the look and feel of TDH a forum for Zam Wesell was added to the new board.
Unfortunately, only 6 months after opening TDH, it exceeded the capacity of the hosting server. TDH was temporarily shut down. Fortunately, Nikki Burdett, owner of the RPF generously offered to host TDH on the same server as the RPF.
In Januray, 2005 The Dented Helmet struck out on its own server and upgraded to vBulletin as its platform.
In Nov 2009, Art Andrews (me) took over the RPF and brought the Dented Helmet under a single company; Movie Prop Sites, LLC.
In 2010, Scott Kaufmann, TxFett, took over the reigns and now is the primary person handling the day to day running of the site.
Here we are today, ten years later and wow, what a journey the last ten years have been. I never would have guessed just how popular this little group would become or how influential we would be. It has been exhilarating and humbling. While some feel that Star Wars has seen its best days, this site still thrives as one of the largest costuming sites focused primarily on a single character.
I won't even begin to try to mention the dozens if not hundreds of people who have helped make this site and this community what it is today for fear of leaving someone out. We have had so many come and go and so many contribute to the knowledge that is found here that it is just incredible.
Thank you all for all that you do and for just still coming and contributing to the site.
It has been my pleasure to serve you for the past 10 years and we are looking forward to another 10!
