The Unofficial History of Boba Fett's Costumes

[boba87fett]

*** 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 finish the first edition of the book within the next month or two.

The photos and information in the book come primarily from posts and threads on TDH in addition to some of the "making of" and costuming Star Wars books. Conversations with some of the people mentioned in the book and articles on sites like Boba Fett Fan Club also provided information.

For the first edition of the book, I am focusing solely on the original, lineage helmets - no replicas or fan made helmets. That version is in the works, but is incredibly time consuming and will take at least until the end of the year to get close to where I want it to be.

So, what I am asking is that anyone that is interested help peer edit the pages over the course of the next few weeks. This first edition is currently sitting at 45 pages - which is about where it should end up.

I will post up a couple of the pages I am working on at a time and ask for feedback, revisions, updates, better versions of photos, etc.

I appreciate any help you are willing to invest!

Thanks,

Steven

Sneak Peak of a Cover WIP:

 

[RamSkirata]

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 finish the first edition of the book within the next month or two.

The photos and information in the book come primarily from posts and threads on TDH in addition to some of the "making of" and costuming Star Wars books. Conversations with some of the people mentioned in the book and articles on sites like Boba Fett Fan Club also provided information.

For the first edition of the book, I am focusing solely on the original, lineage helmets - no replicas or fan made helmets. That version is in the works, but is incredibly time consuming and will take at least until the end of the year to get close to where I want it to be.

So, what I am asking is that anyone that is interested help peer edit the pages over the course of the next few weeks. This first edition is currently sitting at 45 pages - which is about where it should end up.

I will post up a couple of the pages I am working on at a time and ask for feedback, revisions, updates, better versions of photos, etc.

I appreciate any help you are willing to invest!

Thanks,

Steven

boba87fett so good to see, that this project is coming along! I am happy to participate in the ways that I can!

 

[boba87fett]

Alright, up first is the "Lineage Helmet" family tree pages.

There are a couple things I might want to change on here. Not sure whether or not to just use the one "Supertrooper Dentless" photo for all of the helmets starting point or if I should differentiate the photos based on our suspicion of which ST helmets became which BF helmets.

I would really like to hear from Levi, because I believe he shared some of the information with me that is on the chart that was previously unknown to me... some may just be speculation. So, RafalFett intwenothor Keegan Art Andrews and anyone else that want's to chime in... please give me feedback!

Thanks,
Steven

 

[boba87fett]

Next up are the pages related to the initial concept of the Stormtrooper II/Supertrooper that lead to the creation of the individual, bounty hunter version of the character that became Boba Fett.

 

[RamSkirata]

Alright, up first is the "Lineage Helmet" family tree pages.

There are a couple things I might want to change on here. Not sure whether or not to just use the one "Supertrooper Dentless" photo for all of the helmets starting point or if I should differentiate the photos based on our suspicion of which ST helmets became which BF helmets.

I would really like to hear from Levi, because I believe he shared some of the information with me that is on the chart that was previously unknown to me... some may just be speculation. So, RafalFett intwenothor Keegan Art Andrews and anyone else that want's to chime in... please give me feedback!

Thanks,
Steven

View attachment 193867

Since I cannot help with information, I will do my very best to be helpful in other small ways where I actually CAN be helpful.
That would be with suggesting another way to display the connection between the individual pictures. We need to differentiate visually between what IS the same helmet (Eyes and Ears) and what derived from a helmet of a previous generation. (Stunts cast form ESB). Right now it could be read that the Ears helmet was cast from the Eyes helmet just like the stunts were cast from the ESB.

 

[boba87fett]

The Supertrooper Prototype Helmet. Again, I need some clarification from folks about whether or not the 4 helmets were painted gloss white. I think that part again came from Levi RafalFett .

 

[Funkyred]

This will mean I will now own 4 books , Subway art , the history of star wars costumes, The bounty hunter guide , and now this ......I am going to need a book shelf !

 

[Mythos Fenn]

Dude!!!! Off to a really good start man.

 

[RafalFett]

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 finish the first edition of the book within the next month or two.

The photos and information in the book come primarily from posts and threads on TDH in addition to some of the "making of" and costuming Star Wars books. Conversations with some of the people mentioned in the book and articles on sites like Boba Fett Fan Club also provided information.

For the first edition of the book, I am focusing solely on the original, lineage helmets - no replicas or fan made helmets. That version is in the works, but is incredibly time consuming and will take at least until the end of the year to get close to where I want it to be.

So, what I am asking is that anyone that is interested help peer edit the pages over the course of the next few weeks. This first edition is currently sitting at 45 pages - which is about where it should end up.

I will post up a couple of the pages I am working on at a time and ask for feedback, revisions, updates, better versions of photos, etc.

I appreciate any help you are willing to invest!

Thanks,

Steven

Sneak Peak of a Cover WIP:
View attachment 193896

OK, for this I would go as Supertrooper ==> PP1 ==> PP3 ==> ESB <-- replace the ROTJ SE image with the ESB Hero one (this is the natural evolution of the screen used helmet for ESB), then add the PP2 ==> Sandy ==> ROTJ (the second 'evolution' of the screen used helmet for ROTJ).

 

[RafalFett]

Alright, up first is the "Lineage Helmet" family tree pages.

There are a couple things I might want to change on here. Not sure whether or not to just use the one "Supertrooper Dentless" photo for all of the helmets starting point or if I should differentiate the photos based on our suspicion of which ST helmets became which BF helmets.

I would really like to hear from Levi, because I believe he shared some of the information with me that is on the chart that was previously unknown to me... some may just be speculation. So, RafalFett intwenothor Keegan Art Andrews and anyone else that want's to chime in... please give me feedback!

Thanks,
Steven

View attachment 193867

I think here you should add 6 dentless helmets on the first row, then for the second row add the PP1 v1 and 5 dented white helmets (1 variant is enough), then on the 3rd row add the rest of the helmets (PP1 v2, PP2, PP3, Promo #1 - or ROTJ, Promo #2 - or Sandy and ESB Hero)

 

[RafalFett]

Next up are the pages related to the initial concept of the Stormtrooper II/Supertrooper that lead to the creation of the individual, bounty hunter version of the character that became Boba Fett.

View attachment 193868

View attachment 193869

The earliest concept drawing of the Supertrooper drawn by Johnston is dated January 1978:

McQuarrie had the first drawings of the Supertrooper somewhere in October-November 1977 (as you already noted), but his drawings are not dated. If I'm not mistaken, I read somewhere that he had a notebook where he wrote a list with dates and numbers of each drawing. I think this was the 1st drawing of the early Supertrooper:

The change from the Supertrooper to Boba Fett occured in april 1978 when Lucas finished the 2nd draft of Star Wars Chapter II (as it was called at that time):

While this thread is a bit outdated, it is a good start for your research ==> The Boba Fett Suit Fact Files.

 

[RafalFett]

The first image is the 2nd version of the suit breakdown drawn by Johnston, which was preceded by this drawing:

The second image is drawn by Nilo Rodis, who did the concept drawing for Slave I.

 

[RafalFett]

The Supertrooper Prototype Helmet. Again, I need some clarification from folks about whether or not the 4 helmets were painted gloss white. I think that part again came from Levi RafalFett .

View attachment 193870

It was Keegan not me.

View attachment 193871

At the second image of the Supertrooper (from the back) remove the missing toe spikes, because while not visible in that image, the suit already had them (also would be nice to note that the suit was weared by the late Alan Harris):

View attachment 193872

We know for sure that the Supertrooper was transformed to the Pre-Pro #1, because according to the Supertrooper/Boba Fett Documentation Progress (dated 3rd October, 1978) only 1 suit was finished, the rest were in different stages of construction/assembly.

 

[RafalFett]

By the way, great job for doing this, Steven! I will email you some more info regarding the development of Boba Fett.

 

[intwenothor]

Well, anything I was going to add would now be meaningless; I defer to Levi, whose knowledge in these matter far exceeds mine.

All I have to add is that I think this is coming along marvellously. A great piece of work to bring it all together and a fantastic, meaningful contribution. When you are finished I will read it so I can learn something!

 

[Keegan]

Looking good! A few points:
The breakdown in your helmet tree is correct to how we have been calling the helmets for years, but the reality is there should be 3 batches: the Supertrooper/PP1 being the first prototype; the PP2,ROTJ, and "Sandy" being all finished for use in tour and promotional appearances but also could be considered a second batch of prototypes; and the PP3 and ESB which were finished for use in the film as two similar looking copies of the costume.
Not sure how to present this without moving away from our old and broken naming conventions. The ROTJ is the sticky one since it was a Tour helmet completed before the ESB and was used as the main helmet in ROTJ. So it's both Tour and ROTJ.

Yes 4 of the helmets were done in gloss white: PP1, PP2, ROTJ, and the Sandy Tour.
The ESB was just primed grey and the PP3 was black I believe.

 

[Fett 4 Real]

Do you have to title them "lineage helmets"?

 

[KaanE]

It would also be nice (just my opinion) to post a picture of the master at the topof the tree.

 

[RamSkirata]

It would also be nice (just my opinion) to post a picture of the master at the topof the tree.

As far as I am aware the original sculpt is not preserved at least not known where it is. So you could only place a stand in up there.

 

[boba87fett]

Do you have to title them "lineage helmets"?

Nope. That was carry over from the draft of the book that had both lineage and replica. Do you think it should be titled something else or no title?