Boba Fett; tour and archive shots

[lambotour]

I am planning to do a Fett display sometime in my life, but not until I finish my Vader displays and we all know how long those can take. So I came upon these Fett tour shots while searching the net. I'm sure most have seen them and I'm wondering what, if anything, may have been screenused? I believe it was stated that these pics were taken in 1979, but I could be wrong. For you Fett experts, what are your thoughts? This has probably been discussed on TDH, so forgive me if I'm being redundant. Not sure who took these, so if the owner wants them removed just say the word.

These come courtesy of my good friend Tom (Vadermania) from his archive visit. I realize they aren't high rez, but there are stipulations and anything is better than nothing. These were pics Tom personally took. He's shared them with a few people in the community and has been gracious enough to allow me to share them here with all of you.

And for those of you who are into accuracy, god knows I am with regards to Vader, here's shot of the inside of the helmet.

 

[cayman shen]

Who wears the tour suit? The guy is always standing with one hip thrown out like in that top pic. He looks like Boba Hooker. "Hey Solo!" instead of "Hey sailor!"

 

[Darth Niob]

These are some fantastic pics mate...thanks for sharing. My ROTJ is still in the work

 

[lambotour]

Thanks Nick. The ESB version is my favorite, but I love the ROTJ look as well.

Yeah that tour guy does have a rather funny stance.:lol

 

[PHArchivist]

What's all the gadgetry in the helmet? Lights and fan?

And what are those orange X-Wings all about?

 

[JoeR]

That has the same hard hat liner as the Jedi Stormtroopers. That is elasticated cord not string holding the elastic in place. Interesting, thanks for sharing pictures.

Joe

 

[Art Andrews]

Yes, a great deal of this has been discussed at TDH (if you are building a suit, you definitely should come check us out), but no reason not to share it here as well. A number of parts from the tour suit have been mix-matched and seen in the films. Those pics came from a guy on flickr (very nice guy by-the-way). The helmet in the top two pics is the Return of the Jedi hero helmet and other pieces of the suit are also seen again in the films.

Not sure why all the cloak and dagger on the archive photos... those photos have been publicly available in a much larger size for years...

 

[Art Andrews]

What's all the gadgetry in the helmet? Lights and fan?

In the back of the helmet you have the guts to the MQ-1 calculator covering the upper key slots.

You also have a battery pack, circuit board, and wiring that run into the rangefinder to light it.

 

[lambotour]

Thanks for the reply guys. Art, thanks for your input and yes, I'll have to take a look at TDH since that is, of course, the pinnacle site for all things Fett.

Art, no cloak and dagger stuff on the archive shots and yes I have the larger version, but when sharing pics I like to give credit to the person they originated from. Seeing as these pics originated from Tom, the right thing to do is give him the credit. Whether that was done in the past when the higher rez versions were being shared privately is something else.

Ok, back on topic.

 

[Art Andrews]

lambotour, thanks for the clarification. Almost seemed like you were saying those were restricted images.

Moving along.

Here is a link to the guy who took the top two photos. It is just amazing what turns up on the internet and those photos are some of the BEST we have ever seen of the tour suit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/3207080964/

Going back to your original question, unlike Vader or troopers, for Boba Fett there really is no clear distinction between tour suits and the suits used on screen. Initially, 6 suits were made and as mentioned earlier, those have been mixed and matches, repainted and repurposed repeatedly from 79 through the filming of the SE scenes... and even at the exhibits, parts change from time to time... One of our greatest challenges has been trying to keep up with what part ended up where.

 

[lambotour]

Those pics came from a guy on flickr (very nice guy by-the-way). The helmet in the top two pics is the Return of the Jedi hero helmet and other pieces of the suit are also seen again in the films.

That's interesting info on the helmet. So then a tour helmet was later used as a screenused one? Any special reasons for this as opposed to just doing up another helmet or re-using the ESB one?

 

[lambotour]

lambotour, thanks for the clarification. Almost seemed like you were saying those were restricted images.

Moving along.

Here is a link to the guy who took the top two photos. It is just amazing what turns up on the internet and those photos are some of the BEST we have ever seen of the tour suit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/3207080964/

No problem Art and you can call me Pete.:thumbsup

Thanks for the link, I was looking for it but couldn't find it. The pics are huge, so I had given a smaller version.

 

[Robbie TPC]

Is this the ESB version ?

 

[PHArchivist]

Nope - the "rabbit" at the forward end of the yellow/orange hash marks is a dead give-away for the ROTJ (Dead Rabbit?)...

 

[slave1pilot]

That is the ROTJ hero, the same helmet as seen in the Flikr pics.

 

[Robbie TPC]

I never really studied the Fett helmets, I always thought (with my crappy English :rolleyes ) that the one from the LFA was the ROTJ version.

 

[lambotour]

Ok, the archive helmet has the yellow hash marks and no rabbit ears. So those are two distinct details. The other colors appear to be the same. Anything else that distinguishes the two? Any detail changes to the range finder?

 

[Art Andrews]

That's interesting info on the helmet. So then a tour helmet was later used as a screenused one? Any special reasons for this as opposed to just doing up another helmet or re-using the ESB one?

Pete,

It has never quite been clear why what piece was used where.

6 fiberglass helmets were initially created (with additional red "stunt" helmets made for RotJ that were cast directly from the Hero ESB helmet). We can account for 5 of the 6 originals today.

We generally break the helmets down to 3 and 3, with 3 being painted by a lady named Sandy D (and outside contractor) and 3 being painted internally. Supposedly one of the three that were painted internally was done by Joe Johnston himself, but all 3 of the helmets painted internally have a strikingly similar paint style while the 3 Sandy painted had a very different paint style.

The PP2, one of Sandy's helmets, was used for virtually all of the early publicity photos, but when it came time for the movie, for reasons that have never been clear (although rumors abound), they went with the helmet we now call the ESB hero instead.

When it came time for RotJ they made stunt helmets from the ESB hero, painted the stunts like the ESB hero... and then picked up another helmet (what we now call the RotJ hero) to use instead of using the ESB hero again. There seems to be absolutely no interest in continuity as there was a plethora of parts to choose from, they just grabbed up something and threw it on. I would love an explanation, but I don't really think there is one. I think they just grabbed what was there.

 

[Art Andrews]

Ok, the archive helmet has the yellow hash marks and no rabbit ears. So those are two distinct details. The other colors appear to be the same. Anything else that distinguishes the two? Any detail changes to the range finder?

The one in the archives that you initially posted photos of is the ESB helmet while the "tour" photos is the RotJ. They are extremely different in paint style and color.

The main rangefinder difference is that the RotJ has lost its SX-70 viewfinder lens while the ESB still has it. Otherwise, the rangefinders are more or less the same.

 

[Art Andrews]

I never really studied the Fett helmets, I always thought (with my crappy English :rolleyes ) that the one from the LFA was the ESB version.

The archives house a number of Fett helmets, the PP3 (which was the helmet MR scanned for their replica), the Sandy helmet (which to our knowledge was never used outside of touring), 2 stunt helmets from RotJ, and when not on tour, the RotJ hero and ESB hero, so you aren't entirely wrong.