eFX A New Hope Darth Vader Helmet

[Art Andrews]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

I was going to ask the same question...:lol

BTW: Thanks for these awesome pics Art! thumbsup

I can ask about taking shots of the inside, but I imagine Bryan isn't going to be too keen on that. What specifically is it that you are wanting to see? If he will let me, I'll be glad to take pics of whatever you want, but again, I don't think the mounting method has been finalized.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Just the inside of the dome and top of the mask. The mounting points for each. But if it isn't finalized then no worries, no point seeing it.

 

[Trilogy]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

For those whom are awaiting news of pricing, wait no longer. According to this article in the LA Times, the helmet will cost $899.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

From that article quoting Bryan Ono:

"These are the Darth Vader's helmet from the first film, the 1977 movie, and we never did them before because we couldn't get the correct reference material to do them right. For the first film the helmets were hand-sculpted by a guy named Brian Muir. Back in 1977 there were three helmets made from Muir's original mold. Only one of them was used in the film. The other two came to the States. One went to Don Post, and Rick Baker got one of them and made a casting of that original helmet for the touring helmets for Darth Vader to go all around to promote the movie. [Ours is based on that cast] so this has direct lineage back to the original helmet."

That's incorrect, and I'm surprised they don't have it correct.

The original ANH helmet, the single one used onscreen, was molded by Rick Baker.

That same original screen helmet also went to Don Post studios to be molded. We know that from the Kermit images.

It seems like they don't really know what the background of the mold is.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Just the inside of the dome and top of the mask. The mounting points for each. But if it isn't finalized then no worries, no point seeing it.

I don't believe they are finalized yet.

 

[CGClone]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

So if we follow the steps to which we get to see this helmet, we get:

eFX gets to go into the Archives, finds the Rick Baker mold from ANH Vader
eFX gets to make one pull from the mask and dome molds
eFX makes a mold from that pull (2nd gen)
eFX presents two distinct 2nd gen pulls, one more sterilized then the other
eFX shows us a sdcc

So now the question begs, how many more molds are going to be made for manufacturing? What amount of warp, problems, angles changing etc are going to happen.

Something to chew on.

 

[Nightwing Returns]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

cool. I dig it.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Well there's the master pattern and then they would have to have two different molds taken off that for the two different versions, so third gen. But these two castings we see at Comic Con probably came from the same master mold and then each were individually worked on.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

"These are the Darth Vader's helmet from the first film, the 1977 movie, and we never did them before because we couldn't get the correct reference material to do them right. For the first film the helmets were hand-sculpted by a guy named Brian Muir. Back in 1977 there were three helmets made from Muir's original mold. Only one of them was used in the film. The other two came to the States. One went to Don Post, and Rick Baker got one of them and made a casting of that original helmet for the touring helmets for Darth Vader to go all around to promote the movie. [Ours is based on that cast] so this has direct lineage back to the original helmet."

Something else came to mind about this quote that doesn't jive. Don Post studios would have themselves made molds of the original helmet and armor for the tour suits. Rick Baker was not involved in that. He was involved in second unit production of ANH and so it is my understanding from someone who worked for ILM that near the end of production or shortly thereafter, he molded the original screen-used ANH Vader helmet, for what reason I'm not sure, probably for posterity or because by that time the original mold might not have been available since it was discarded at some point during the production (it would be good to know exactly when it was or could have been discarded and perhaps Brian Muir knows this).

I'm curious where eFX is getting their information about this mold from.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

It would be good to get an accurate size measurement from one of these castings to see how the mold has held up over the years...although I suppose we'll find out (and see) eventually how it has...just thinking out loud.

 

[Davy Jones]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

So if we follow the steps to which we get to see this helmet, we get:

eFX gets to go into the Archives, finds the Rick Baker mold from ANH Vader
eFX gets to make one pull from the mask and dome molds
eFX makes a mold from that pull (2nd gen)

eFX pulls cast(s) from that mold and sends it to Gino who cleans it up.
Gino sends new master back to eFX
eFX sends it to factory to be molded
factory molds it and pulls casts
casts are painted

eFX shows us at sdcc

So now the question begs, how many more molds are going to be made for manufacturing? What amount of warp, problems, angles changing etc are going to happen.

Knowing China, anything could happen. Look what happened to the Master Replicas Fett! It didnt come out anything like the paint masters prototypes. So unless this is handled with care be prepared for more warped domes etc.
Not trying to put a damper on things, just worried that China will continue their awful track record.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

A comparison from Art's exceptional photos of the modded widow's peak with sculpted Y-crease on the hand-brushed helmet. Strangely enough, the clean version doesn't look like it has been modded to the same extent...that's really odd because I would expect it the other way around...maybe the domes were switched. :confused

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

eFX pulls cast(s) from that mold and sends it to Gino who cleans it up.
Gino sends new master back to eFX
eFX sends it to factory to be molded
factory molds it and pulls casts
casts are painted

Did Gino tell you this or are you assuming it?

There would be one master casting from the ILM mold. They wouldn't send that out to Gino. They can only do one pull since that mold is so old they wouldn't risk it, nor would they have to, make more than one master pull. From that they would have to mold it, make two copies from their own master mold and have Gino work on them as display pieces. Being in the prototype stage they themselves wouldn't have a final production mold ready yet, but they would have to keep the master pull from the ILM mold. But I am sure Gino will clarify this for us.

 

[Davy Jones]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Assuming it. I dont know if everything CG clone or myself said is correct. I dont know if there was a factory involved or what. Could have been anyone molding the new cleaned up master and pulling what we see at SDCC

But dude, you just repeated what we just said.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Assuming it. I dont know if everything CG clone or myself said is correct. I dont know if there was a factory involved or what. Could have been anyone molding the new cleaned up master and pulling what we see at SDCC

But dude, you just repeated what we just said.

Ok, well the factory in China wouldn't be involved at this point.

You said Gino received the master pull (or two pulls from the ILM mold) to work on. I said he didn't. He would have received two copies from eFX's own mold, not two master pulls from the original ILM mold.

So I fail to see where exactly I repeated what you said.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Knowing China, anything could happen. Look what happened to the Master Replicas Fett! It didnt come out anything like the paint masters prototypes. So unless this is handled with care be prepared for more warped domes etc.
Not trying to put a damper on things, just worried that China will continue their awful track record.

You are forgetting the MR RotS Vader as well. Aside from the domes being scuffed, the pulls came out perfect. So, we are 50/50 for pulls from China.

 

[Davy Jones]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Right...
SithLord, Let me add it together, because maybe you didnt get that my post was adding to what I quoted CGclone.

eFX gets to go into the Archives, finds the Rick Baker mold from ANH Vader
eFX gets to make one pull from the mask and dome molds
eFX makes a mold from that pull (2nd gen)
eFX pulls cast(s) from that mold and sends it to Gino who cleans it up.
Gino sends new master back to eFX
eFX sends it to factory to be molded
factory molds it and pulls casts
casts are painted
eFX shows us at sdcc


Better?

I agree with what you are saying because its what I already said. But still there is nothing official as to what happened.

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Gotcha, thanks, but I'll just mention again I don't think a factory would be involved at this point and all of it done in-house or as we know with Gino's assistance at least on the touch-up/finishing side.

I noticed something else about the eFX dome on the brushed version. The original dome was a bit asymmetric in the length of the front flaring edges. It looks like eFX trimmed off Vader's right bottom edge of the dome (the longer of the two on the original), almost in an effort to make the front flarings symmetrical. However, it doesn't look like they did the same with the dome for the clean version. :confused

Please, please don't trim the dome..... :eek

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

I don't think these have seen China yet, Davy. So, it is more like:

Gino sends painted masters back to eFX.
eFX shows them at SDCC.

Wouldn't the masters be 3rd gen? After all, the Baker molds are 2nd gen from the Tantive helmet, no?

 

[SithLord]

Re: eFX ANH Vader?!?! WOW

Wouldn't the masters be 3rd gen? After all, the Baker molds are 2nd gen from the Tantive helmet, no?

Well if the original ANH is 1st gen, and it was molded, a casting from that would be 2nd gen. So the eFX master pull from the ILM mold would be 2nd gen and molding that would give you the final 3rd gen copies.