Dressing a Bounty Hunter in 40 Stages - A Black and White Story

[KaanE]

I count at least four. I mean, three plus the PP1.

 

[Funkyred]

I had never seen that picture! FOUR jetpacks in it! Do we know if the ESB jetpack is the PP1/3 repainted? I think I've seen it on tour pictures with the PP1 helmet in UK.

It's always puzzled me how and why fett ended up being mostly green in ESB , the jetpack and gauntlets were always different colours in promotional material and the pp2/3 images but suddenly ended up green ? I had read on the t'internet that somebody at pinewood didn't like the colour scheme when the costume landed in the UK and decided to paint it green. How true this is I don't know but somebody must have made the call and then reverted back to the original incarnation for ROTJ......any ideas ?

 

[RafalFett]

It was (supposedly) Kershner who wanted the change. It is possible that the jetpack was badly damaged between ESB and ROTJ (we know the helmet got some too with the casting process) and they replaced them with the Promo #1 parts (now known as ROTJ hero).

 

[jusdrewit]

Has there ever been any reason why they decided to completely repaint the helmet for ROTJ? Not even close to similar to ESB's like previous early iterations of Fett's helmet? Just curious who's call that was, and what was the reasoning behind it. I find it very interesting given how detailed the ESB helmet was to just redo it

 

[KaanE]

Has there ever been any reason why they decided to completely repaint the helmet for ROTJ? Not even close to similar to ESB's like previous early iterations of Fett's helmet? Just curious who's call that was, and what was the reasoning behind it. I find it very interesting given how detailed the ESB helmet was to just redo it

The ESB has never been repainted. The RotJ helmet is a different cast and paintjob.

 

[jusdrewit]

The ESB has never been repainted. The RotJ helmet is a different cast and paintjob.

Sorry that's what I meant, but why a different cast and paint job, why not just paint it to look like esb's?

 

[boba87fett]

It was painted as a promotional helmet with the PP2 and Sandy helmet.

 

[RafalFett]

Sorry that's what I meant, but why a different cast and paint job, why not just paint it to look like esb's?

I recommend you to read the Fett Helmet History thread for more info on the origins. Initially there were at least 6 helmets cast for the Stormtrooper II/Supertrooper project, but when Lucas merged the trooper into a single character, they had 6 suits: 2 of them were pre-production suits and 1 to be used in the movie, while the other 3 (as boba87fett said) to be used as promotional/touring suits.

 

[RamSkirata]

Sorry that's what I meant, but why a different cast and paint job, why not just paint it to look like esb's?

(most of this was typed before Rafals answer, but Im leaving it in nonetheless)

I am by far not the best guy to answer that, but beeing relatively new here myself, I know how confusing this can be. So I'll try to at least point you in the right direction. RafalFett or boba87fett or KaanE please correct me if anything I say is wrong.

Ok. Now regarding your question.
There were at least 5, more likely 6 versions of the Boba Fett helmet. The first one was painted by Joe Johnston (I dont know if he paintet the rest of the costume also?) that had ornamentation on the dome. This was sort of a prototype. Johnston ended up painting 2 more helmets, one of which is the helmet that ended up being used in ESB and later in the Special Edition of RotJ. 3 more were painted by a girl named Sandy, one of which is the helmet used in the original RotJ.
In my estimation, it must have been either an artistic decision to go with what is now known as the ESB suit and helmet for the production of ESB. Availability might have played a role, too, but with so many different suits available theoretically, that had as a whole a quite different feel, I am leaning towards artistic decision. The ESB suit stands out from all of the Boba variants as the most subdued version.
Then, between ESB and RotJ, likely damage happened to the suit. Definately the helmet, as that damage is now famously known as the RotJ SE helmet, and maybe also to other parts like the Jetpack.
That damage might have played a role in not using that for the filming of RotJ.

An interesting fact to note is, that they recasted the ESB helmet for the stunt helmets in RotJ and applied the "same" painttjob to those. So maybe the decision not to with the ESB helmet for the Hero RotJ suit came afterwards? (Although the ESB helemt at the point of the casting has already been damaged.)

Also, keep an eye on this thread:

The Unofficial History of Boba Fett's Costumes

*** Update 8/22/20 - This book has now moved from "The History of the Boba Fett Helmets" to "The History of the Boba Fett Costumes" *** Hi everyone, As some of you already know, I have been working on a photo book detailing the known history of the original Boba Fett helmets. I am hoping to...

www.thedentedhelmet.com

Hugely interesting and going to more or less contain the entire (known) story when its done.

Kind regards from Germany,
Ram

 

[KaanE]

I would like to point that more than six versions were made (from supertrooper, to ESB hero) but only with the six casts made for the ESB movie.