Fett from 1986

[Art Andrews]

Welcome to our conundrum... That is exactly what Tyler and I have been asking each other all day. HOW could it have all the details on the dome but NONE od the details on the rest of the helmet? It almost seems like a combo of two helmets (which, no I am NOT suggesting).

It took me a couple of times reading that to work out what you were saying.

So there's details there on the dome from damage from after filming
but.......
there's details missing below the dome that were there during filming

confusedconfused

that just doesn't make sense....how, (without time displacement ) could that have happened?

 

[never ending fett]

Again, showing my lack of knowledge in regards to the casting process, but is it possible that because these helmets are typically put in the mold upside down could the weight of the helmet pushing down into the mold give better details of the upper half than the lower half resulting in the details being there in the dome but not in the lower half of the helmet.

similar train of thought: Given that Banzai's friend was in highschool a the time the casting was made could he have just done a better job making the mold of the upper portion than the lower thus the better details in the upper than the lower.

 

[boba87fett]

Has anyone learned anything more about the Banzai 1986 helmet over the course of the past 12 years?

 

[boba87fett]

No, it isn't. The Lava is a recast of the PP2, possibly taken from a repaired mold that Rogue Studio original plug came from. The Lava helmet and mystery helmets have no ties that we can see to the ESB or stunt helmets, aside from our belief that ALL of the original Hero helmets, ESB included, came from ONE mold.

I would argue stating that "there are 4 known casts from LFL in private hands" as I think it is a bit misleading, although I know what you are trying to say.

To the best of our knowledge there is ONE hero helmet in private hands; the Prepro 2. The Prepro 2 was cast back in the early 80s and the result was the plug that Rogue Studios now owns. The mold that created Rogue Studios mold was heavily damaged while taking the plug out and was THOUGHT to be discarded. However, it would seem that either the Prepro 2 was cast a second time OR (and I think this is the more plausible explanation) another plug or helmet was taken from that damaged mold which eventually resulted in the Lava helmet (don't know how many generations the lava helmet is from that original mold) and well as the mystery helmet(s) and most likely the Don post helmets.

We know that there were originally 6 hero helmets and we more or less have them all accounted for. However, we don't know how many stunt helmets were made. We know of the two in the archives. We believe the helmet Max Cervantes got (with almost the EXACT same story as Banzai shared with us) is a stunt, as I believe Banzai's helmet is a stunt as well. Are Max's and Banzai's helmet's brothers? They share some but not all the same feautres. Banzai's looks closer to the stunts than Max's. Did Max's and Banzai's come out of the same mold as the stunts in the archives or were they cast off one of the stunts in the archives or were they cast off a stunt we have never seen... We don't know.

This other helmet we have talked about is something that we really can't talk a lot about and quite honestly, at the moment, I am dismissing it entirely. It does lack the top reangefinder ear platform like Banzai's but that is about all the similarities that they share. Unless the owner of that helmet cared to share more... I am not even throwing it in the mix.

That is about all I can think of right now.

More about the "Max DP Helmet" cast from a PP2 in 1980-81 in the Helmet History Thread: Fett Helmet History

 

[Baruopa]

If Banzai's friend had started working on the helmet, it makes sense to me at least that the first thing he'd do is fix some of the cracks, notably those on the right hand cheek that appear to be missing here. When I showed my friend my lineage casting that was the first thing he asked, if they were supposed to be there or if it was a bad casting. Of course WE all know from studying these things what marks and dings belong to which helmet, but in 1986, I'd be surprised. The repair process would've likely not just undone the characteristic scratches and cracks, but probably bondo-ed and sanded over the faint layers of paint detail preserved from the mold. I think that's a pretty simple explanation that accounts for the absence of detailing on the lower half of the helmet, where so many cracks are, and the presence of it by the killstripes, where there's much less work to repair. Occam's razor, makes much more sense to me than an amalgamation of multiple helmets.