eFX Sandtrooper helmet
- Thread starter ghostryder
- Start date
OldKen
Master Member
Wow. It's STILL hideous. With little in common with the originals. (yeah it's white, has stripes a black vocoder and 2 eyes. THOSE things it DOES have!)
And now it appears someone sprayed it with poo-colored spraypaint from a distance in the wind.
Fail.
Seriously. I HATE this sculpt. I hate it worse than the old FX buckets. I swear I do!
At least the FX buckets serve a purpose! They are for those with large noggins that still want to troop! I get that!
But these? They are just ugly. Everytime I see one posted I wonder to myself... self, how is it that a Vader helmet as close to the real deal gets so scrutinized down to every warble fingerprint and paintscrape... yet THIS is RPF quality?
Alienscollection.... I love ya brother. Not trying to bash you! Love your bro's cakes and all that your uber talented team do. Please do not take this as an attack. I just really don't get how this thing is STILL being sold and accepted as passable when they have stuff like the ANH Vader that are sooo close to SA?????
I just don't get it.
And now it appears someone sprayed it with poo-colored spraypaint from a distance in the wind.
Fail.
Seriously. I HATE this sculpt. I hate it worse than the old FX buckets. I swear I do!
At least the FX buckets serve a purpose! They are for those with large noggins that still want to troop! I get that!
But these? They are just ugly. Everytime I see one posted I wonder to myself... self, how is it that a Vader helmet as close to the real deal gets so scrutinized down to every warble fingerprint and paintscrape... yet THIS is RPF quality?
Alienscollection.... I love ya brother. Not trying to bash you! Love your bro's cakes and all that your uber talented team do. Please do not take this as an attack. I just really don't get how this thing is STILL being sold and accepted as passable when they have stuff like the ANH Vader that are sooo close to SA?????
I just don't get it.
OldKen
Master Member
Umm... not the TK helmet. It is a Master Replicas Collectors Edition.
You want accurate? Get a AP, Gino etc etc. There hasn't been a liscensed ACCURATE TK helmet made... ever.
Which is why this really is a let down to me. eFX had a great opportunity here... I'm hoping the ANH Vaders sell well so they see there is a market for accurate assymetrical SW helmets. Probably not. But I can hope.
Lichtbringer
Master Member
Maybe they do this cause a accurate helmet looks wonky and shabby - unless some really fanatic "geeks" noone else would buy them.
They are made to be shown as a mass produced military item - anything that is not symmetrical and evenly shaped would be ridicouluos to believe.
All the sometimes requested accuracy is only the result of the the poor and hurried craftmanship of the guys who had build the cheap plastic stuff for the cheap movie.
Idealized may not be accurate - but it is way more believeable for that what the helmets should represent.
They are made to be shown as a mass produced military item - anything that is not symmetrical and evenly shaped would be ridicouluos to believe.
All the sometimes requested accuracy is only the result of the the poor and hurried craftmanship of the guys who had build the cheap plastic stuff for the cheap movie.
Idealized may not be accurate - but it is way more believeable for that what the helmets should represent.
EvilRocketeer
Master Member
These Trooper icons are more accurate than that helmet...
just my 2 cents
:angel
just my 2 cents
:angel
OldKen
Master Member
Totally.
And human faces aren't symmetrical. Even the most beautiful people... If you were going to have a sculpture of Angelina Jolie... wouldn't you want it to actually LOOK like her??? :rolleyes Cause if you "fixed" her face so it wasn't all wonky and "imperfect" it wouldn't look like her.
See what I'm getting at? :angel
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Lichtbringer
Master Member
Human faces are irrelevant for this stuff.
A Stormtrooper helmet is a mass produced item (thinking of the size of the empire surely in the millions) - and todays military helmets are symmetric. construction helmets are, and so are motorcycle helmets.
Every wonkyness in the movie helmets is a direct result of poor fabrication. It´s not a wanted feature, they just failed in doing them. And they failed on soooooo much other stuff, too.
A Stormtrooper helmet is a mass produced item (thinking of the size of the empire surely in the millions) - and todays military helmets are symmetric. construction helmets are, and so are motorcycle helmets.
Every wonkyness in the movie helmets is a direct result of poor fabrication. It´s not a wanted feature, they just failed in doing them. And they failed on soooooo much other stuff, too.
EvilRocketeer
Master Member
The almighty dollar...
Will that tarnish their reputation though for putting out an extremely inaccurate stormtrooper helmet?
Lichtbringer
Master Member
Even without that ....
What is better for the SW fanbase - making a good looking cheap one (but inaccurate) for many fans, or a junk looking high dollar (but accurate) one for a handfull of fanatics?
OldKen
Master Member
If I was buying a hard hat and it was wonky I would be letdown. Cause that isn't the way the ones I have seen look. Trooper helmets have a certain look to them. A thing of beauty. A natural organic imperfection brought to us by a living sculptors hands. That is what I want to see. Not this... thing.
It looks like a toy. It may be all "real world symmetrical" in your hands. In pics it looks nothing like the original. The angles we percieved from what we saw onscreen is part of the magic in actually holding an accurate prop in your hands.
I understand the toy collecters eat these up. Just thought we had higher standards here?
Oh, and ROTS Vaders helmet ON SCREEN was hideous too. I'm soo glad they didn't use MR buckets and TK's for ROTS. And pray to God if we ever get the live action series we wont see efx troopers (or worse, RUBIES SUPREME!). I swear I will finally be done with all things SW.
I will leave this thread alone. love em if you want. But don't think for a minute they look accurate to anyone who knows anything about SW props. Neat collectable. That's it.
Move along. Move along.
It looks like a toy. It may be all "real world symmetrical" in your hands. In pics it looks nothing like the original. The angles we percieved from what we saw onscreen is part of the magic in actually holding an accurate prop in your hands.
I understand the toy collecters eat these up. Just thought we had higher standards here?
Oh, and ROTS Vaders helmet ON SCREEN was hideous too. I'm soo glad they didn't use MR buckets and TK's for ROTS. And pray to God if we ever get the live action series we wont see efx troopers (or worse, RUBIES SUPREME!). I swear I will finally be done with all things SW.
I will leave this thread alone. love em if you want. But don't think for a minute they look accurate to anyone who knows anything about SW props. Neat collectable. That's it.
Move along. Move along.
Jamanticus
Well-Known Member
Even so, there's still the market of people who want things as close to the props they saw on-screen as possible. Sure, the makers didn't *mean* to make the helmets asymmetrical in ANH, but they came out that way due to limitations at the time. I see it as part of their charm, art through adversity.
Releasing an idealized version is something that turns away those people who want their replicas to have all the features of the originals, warts and all.
EDIT: Yeah, what OldKen said in the above post sums up what I was trying to say very nicely.
Lichtbringer
Master Member
Sure, there is a market - but they can still go and give their money to the existing places to get accurate V1, V2, ..., V4, ....
There are people out there that are SW-fans/collectors, they want stuff as it was thought to look - not the poor results from the crappy productions of that time (and time and money reasoned). It´s not my fault that these bearded guys were not able to deliver better stuff than they did to portray the proud of the empire - and if they would have produced such crap for Lord Vader, he surely would have "accepted their apologies". :lol
There are people out there that are SW-fans/collectors, they want stuff as it was thought to look - not the poor results from the crappy productions of that time (and time and money reasoned). It´s not my fault that these bearded guys were not able to deliver better stuff than they did to portray the proud of the empire - and if they would have produced such crap for Lord Vader, he surely would have "accepted their apologies". :lol
ghostryder
Legendary Member
Oh, no worries Ken, it's all good. I do think it's harder and harder for mass produced licensed props to hold up to the scrutiny of the rpf (not that that's a bad thing at all). I don't think this prop was made for "us", but more for the 99% of the casual fans and costumers for which a $169.00 helmet will work for just fine.
From what I understand, the PCR line of replicas was created at the behest of the license holder as a way to bring affordable replicas to the costuming market. I know plenty of people who used the Stormtrooper PCR helmet for Halloween, and for them it worked great.
As for the paint job - while I have worked for Master Replicas, I'm still no expert on manufacturing - perhaps Brian, Steve, Barry, Frank, or others can chime in on the challenges of replicating a "weathered" anything at the factory?
While an individual here can invest their time and talents in creating an eye-popping, jaw-dropping weathering job on a Pulse Rifle, Millennium Falcon, or Sandtrooper helmet - the realities of being able to do the same on an item and keep it at a certain price point are challenging at best. I mean, look at the thousands of dollars QMx is charging for their Artisan Replicas that ARE crafted and painted individually by hand. I guess it's all just a matter of which segment of the market the prop is aimed at.
All that said, I'm NOT a Stormtrooper expert - and I'll leave that discussion to those that are - but if this was, say, a Pulse Rifle, well, I'd like to think I could tell you everything inaccurate about it
From what I understand, the PCR line of replicas was created at the behest of the license holder as a way to bring affordable replicas to the costuming market. I know plenty of people who used the Stormtrooper PCR helmet for Halloween, and for them it worked great.
As for the paint job - while I have worked for Master Replicas, I'm still no expert on manufacturing - perhaps Brian, Steve, Barry, Frank, or others can chime in on the challenges of replicating a "weathered" anything at the factory?
While an individual here can invest their time and talents in creating an eye-popping, jaw-dropping weathering job on a Pulse Rifle, Millennium Falcon, or Sandtrooper helmet - the realities of being able to do the same on an item and keep it at a certain price point are challenging at best. I mean, look at the thousands of dollars QMx is charging for their Artisan Replicas that ARE crafted and painted individually by hand. I guess it's all just a matter of which segment of the market the prop is aimed at.
All that said, I'm NOT a Stormtrooper expert - and I'll leave that discussion to those that are - but if this was, say, a Pulse Rifle, well, I'd like to think I could tell you everything inaccurate about it
GINO
Sr Member
defstartrooper
Sr Member
They aren't going for the accurate market though dude that's the problem this is for the everyman collector which is a shame.
I'm not holding out all that much hope on the Vader release either if i'm honest, i bet the production pieces will be far away from the prototypes that have been shown.
CSMacLaren
Sr Member
Economies of scale. The more you manufacture, the lower the cost per item. The more this appeals to the mass public, the more these items will be purchased and profited from.
It's probably good business sense to get a large number of these made, then simply paint a portion of them black for one promotion, and then paint one sandy for another promotion. Give one an ESB paint scheme, and it can double as an ESB limited edition. It's a great business idea.
It's probably good business sense to get a large number of these made, then simply paint a portion of them black for one promotion, and then paint one sandy for another promotion. Give one an ESB paint scheme, and it can double as an ESB limited edition. It's a great business idea.
Why don't they just make an accurate cheap one then? Take the original, mould it and mass produce it. Where's the problem?
