Home Depot Darth Vader with Jazwares Helmet

[Hecubus114]

Just mocked this up tonight before I call it a night (helmet is not permanently attached in any way). My project this weekend will be securing the helmet so it has all the same functionality that it had with the original helmet. I think the Jazwares improves the overall look 1000%.

 

[Hecubus114]

Had it done in a jiff this morning, all using parts I had lying around:

 

[bigkidbiggertoys]

I agree that it looks waaay better! It seems Home Depot has copied me as I ran a Vader Halloween display the last 2 years

 

[Darthmax]

Exactly what I was looking for ! Made a thread yesterday looking for someone who did this to the home depot vader. Do you mind sharing how you fixed the helmet ?

 

[Hecubus114]

Exactly what I was looking for ! Made a thread yesterday looking for someone who did this to the home depot vader. Do you mind sharing how you fixed the helmet ?

I’ll see if I can explain clearly in just text, as I didn’t take any pictures of the assembly (I woke up eager to get it done, ha),

Luckily, the head of the animatronic doesn’t have any moving parts itself. So all that is needed is to remove the four screws that attached the head to the metal bracket.

I then took and old plastic paper towel holder I had lying around, and affixed that to the metal bracket.

Then stuck a styrofoam head on the stick of the paper towel holder (both of which I had to cut a bit shorter), and hot glued it into place.

The original head had a neck “skirt” that I then glued around the base of the paper towel holder. Reattached the whole assembly to the body. I didn’t want to plastic Jazwares helmet to have direct contact with the styrofoam head, as I was worried they would bond or melt to each other over time. So I stretched a black beanie over the whole head before placing the helmet on.

Now I have it working just like the original, but with nothing destructive done to the helmet or animatronic. If I so wished, I could take it all apart and go back to how I started.

Hope that makes sense. If not, I can take it apart and get some pics tomorrow.

 

[Hecubus114]

Added a cape chain.

 

[Hecubus114]

Working on upgrading the lightsaber. It’s a little tricky because I don’t want to add too much weight. But so far so good. The helmet and the lightsaber were the two worst things about this, so I’m pretty pleased.

 

[BudaFett]

Man, that small upgrade to that helmet makes a huge difference!

 

[jfileppi]

I have both black series helmets, would either of them work? Also is there a way to lower the arm with the light saber an inch or two? It barely hits my ceiling ib my office where i have him and the stormtrooper in the background of my zoom calls

 

[Hecubus114]

I have both black series helmets, would either of them work? Also is there a way to lower the arm with the light saber an inch or two? It barely hits my ceiling ib my office where i have him and the stormtrooper in the background of my zoom calls

I’ve seen people use the Black Series helmet on this no problem. Personally, I’d go with the one with the extended neck.

As for lowering the arm… the saber holding arm has a lot of electronics. I’m not sure there’s a way to lower it without major modifications.

 

[jfileppi]

Thanks, I am brand new to modding anything, So I would appreciate any instruction you might have on how to do anything. The only thing I’ve done so far is Purchase a mod kit to have regular sayings And a blaster for my storm trooper. I’m planning on installing the mod kit today hopefully I don’t destroy the storm trooper trying to do it lol

 

[Hecubus114]

I’ve done more work on this guy. Today I steamed the bodysuit to get rid of the wrinkles that were driving me crazy, and stuffed the arms and legs with extra foam to fill them out more. The lightsaber has gotten some major upgrades as well. I made vinyl decals the serve at the ports on the MPP. Will be swapping out the chest and belt boxes soon.

 

[jfileppi]

Looks amazing!!! How did you get the left arm pointing down? Also how did you update the lighstaber? I havent done anything yet, im petrified to ruin it

 

[Hecubus114]

Looks amazing!!! How did you get the left arm pointing down? Also how did you update the lighstaber? I havent done anything yet, im petrified to ruin it

Thanks! The left arm is just a metal bar, so I very carefully bent and twisted it. For the lightsaber, I used a chrome sink tube cut to a shape that fits over the (ground down) existing saber. I used as many lightweight parts from toy and 3D printed sabers as I could. It’s far from accurate, but also far better than what it came with. And in general, this will always have inaccuracies overall. I’m trying to find a balance between upgrading parts, but also keeping the cost relatively low. After all, if I was willing to drop major money, I would have just started from scratch on a 100% screen accurate Vader.

 

[jfileppi]

Gotcha. There is 0% chance i can do any of that lol. I am going to start with steaming it, stuffing it and changing the helmet. Where did you get the styrofoam head?

 

[Hecubus114]

Styrofoam head was one I had lying around for years, still available at Michaels.

 

[jfileppi]

Bought a Styrofoam head at Michael’s. Any chance you could give me instructions and maybe some pictures

 

[Hecubus114]

Can't take pictures currently, but one of posts a little ways back outlines how I did it.

 

[jfileppi]

Ok, im trying to figure out type of paper towel holder you refer to

 

[Mockle]

I did an upgrade of the saber working on the helmet