The Fate Of The Twin Armors: Pre-Pro #1, Pre-Pro #3 and ESB

RafalFett

Well-Known Hunter
This is part of my thread called 'The Boba Fett Suit Fact Files' and is located here The Boba Fett Suit Fact Files. The idea is to identify all the armor and possibly the soft parts so we can have a full image of Boba Fett's history.


I will focus on the so called ROTJ armors (hero and stunts) because of the rumours about the origin of that armor:
Source: Star Wars Aficionado ==> BEHIND THE SCENES INFO ON ALL SIX STAR WARS FILMS

JEDI-CON 2008
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(NOTES FROM THE EVENT RELATING TO THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF STAR WARS)
Compiled by Scott Weller

JEREMY BULLOCH
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Though the original armour was heavy on set for filming, his shoe wear was very soft, allowing him to move/glide along the floor quite easily whilst playing the part.
Some time ago he visited LUCASFILM to see his original Boba Fett costume (which, though created for EMPIRE, was later given a new paint job for his appearance in RETURN OF THE JEDI).

I know this has been discussed partially here on TDH, and some of you pointed out the origin of the paint underneath the ROTJ abdominal plate to be the ESB paint. While this is true, there are more to discover, than we think, using only reference images from the Gallery. It seems that almost all the 'Johnston' armors (Pre-Pro #1, Pre-Pro #3 and ESB) were recycled for ROTJ, mainly because these armors had ALMOST the same phisical damage. Note the uppercase word, which is significant in it's contex because those armors are slightly different and will help us to identify with more ease those parts.

My main concern is the fate of the ESB armor... It's forever gone!!!

ESB To ROTJ 01.jpg Boba-Fett-Costume-CIV-Britt-161.jpg

Not all the drawned outlines are visible on the ROTJ chest plate, but I did it to show you the approximative placement of the ESB paint scheme. If you study the second image closely you can see some of the yellow paint underneath the base green.

ESB To ROTJ 02.jpg

It seems that they used the ESB chest logo on all the ROTJ chest plates and the crack on the right chest plate occured sometime during the filming of the Empire in the Carbon Chamber scene (possibly the scene when Boba draws his blaster against Chewie).

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New Addition 27-09-2011
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Here is a comparison image with the ESB Hero and the known ROTJ Hero and Stunt chest logos. While the ESB and ROTJ hero logos are not too visible (in lack of good reference images) you can still see that they used the ESB Hero chest logo to creat the ROTJ ones.

ESB To ROTJ Chest Logos.jpg

End of new addition.
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ESB To ROTJ 03.jpg DaG Belly.jpg

There isn't a good shot (just a couple of black/white images) with the ESB abdominal plate so I used four different visible parts of this armor.

And here are two more images with the used twin armor parts:

Boba-Fett-Costume-CIV-Britt-021.jpg Boba-Fett-Costume-DaG-112005-066.jpg

In the first image the right chest plate is not 100% sure that is part of the Pre-Pro #1 or the Pre-Pro #3. The abdominal plate is Pre-Pro #1 specific because of the bottom dent placement which is further out compared to the ESB and the Pre-Pro #3. The collar plates are even more difficult to be identified, but not impossible. I will post later images to show these differences.

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Additional images
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Here are the comparison images with the abdominal and collar plates:

Belly ROTJ PP1 And ESB Compare.jpg ROTJ Collar PP1 PP3 And ESB.jpg
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But there was a sister armor (the Sandy armors = Pre-Pro #2, Sandy and ROTJ v1) part that was used for the ROTJ suit: the right chest plate from the ESB Promo #1 armor.

Sandy To ROTJ.jpg

Next time I will try to identify the cod pieces.

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New Addition 26-09-2011
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As I promised, here is a comparison image with the ROTJ vs Twin cod pieces. While this might not be a 100% proven fact, but is pretty close in lack of other reference material.

ROTJ Cod PP1 PP3 And ESB.jpg

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New Addition 29-09-2011
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I did these comparison images mostly because of my discussions with James (BGHunter) in the 360° Of Real Armor!! thread, who still think (and might be others too) that the ROTJ armors were painted by Sandy before the Empire and are not the repainted ESB, Pre-Pro #1 and Pre-Pro #3 armors.

ESB vs PP3.jpg

This image shows a comparison between the ESB Hero and the Pre-Pro #3 left chest plates. You can see that the upper left dent isn't in the same place on the armors and the pair of dents are positioned slightly different.

ESB To ROTJ Stunt.jpg

The image shows how well the original armor match the later repainted ROTJ armor.

Here is a link to an image in the Gallery (photo made by Britt Diez in high rezolution at Celebration IV) which show you, if you look closely, some remnant yellow paint from the original ESB under the ROTJ Stunt base green, especially around the chest display and at the edge of the left chest plate near the center diamond. But there is visible paint on the upper edge and around the bottom edge of the left chest armor.

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New addition and correction 11.11.2011
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Thanks to BOBA PHAT's keen eyes, I have to make some corrections to the facts presented here!

I based my own research by comparing the dents and its placements to track back the origins of the armor parts, but it seems that the ROTJ Hero left chest plate (from the MoM/DaG/SWtE exibits) is NOT the repainted Pre-pro #3 chest plate, but part of one of the ESB promo suits (some of us call it the Sandy suit, photo by Heilman) with later added dents to look like the Twin Armors, while the actual Pre-Pro #3 left chest plate might be part of the stunt suit from ROTJ.

Sandy To ROTJ Stunt Armor Dents.jpg ESB Promo To ROTJ Hero.jpg ESB Promo To ROTJ Stunt.jpg ESB Promo To ROTJ.jpg

While some of the scratches (center diamond) and dents (collar plate) looks the same, these are NOT 100% a repainted ESB promo suit part.
 
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Great stuff as always Rafal , how ever Id have to say dont take all that is said as gosple , there is no proof or reason to think any thing was repainted ,
as we know the ESB is not the ROTJ not at all
Sandy painted all 3 suits at the same time , and the PP2 shots arew b4 ESB so there for ROTJ was painted b4 ESB was filmed

n e way great detectice work
 
OK, to clarify all, here are the armors from 'The Boba Fett Suit Fact Files' thread:

Johnston Armor 2.jpg

In the first image we have the Twin Armors because these armors has almost the same dent placements and almost the same paint scheme.

Sandy Armor 2.jpg

In the second image we have the Sister Armors because these armors don't share the same dent placement and the same color scheme, but was painted by the same person.

ROTJ v2 Armor 2.jpg

In the third image is the ROTJ Hero armor which WAS painted after ESB because they used all the leftover parts from Empire, this is why the ROTJ armors (hero and stunts) has that rushed paint job.

The most significant proofs are the physical ones (dents and original paint marks) and the fact that almost all the ROTJ armors (hero and stunts) has the physical Twin Armor characteristics.
 
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The end of the first post was updated with some corrections of the fact regarding that the ROTJ Hero left chest plate is part of the repainted Pre-Pro #3 armor, but thanks for BOBA PHAT for pointing out, it seems that the ROTJ Hero plate is actually one of the repainted and dented ESB Promo chest plates, the one called Sandy armor (photo by Heilman).

ESB Promo To ROTJ Hero.jpg
 
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