Well that was supposed to be a private in-joke but as you've now let the cat out the bag- this is absolutely correct. It came as a result of a number of questions that was put to the maker via myself and every time he answered the reply was "yes, but no, that doesn't sound right". I was forwarding these messages on and one day they said "oh god, every time I answer it's like yeah..but no..but yeah.." a few weeks later we were being asked to attribute initials to the cast and my friend didn't want his initials attached namely because he felt that would be like claiming credit for somebody elses' work, during a phone call I said "I've got the perfect name for it " and we both said "Vicky Pollard!" at the same time, and it stuck and that's why it's called the VP.
For what it's worth, it's derived from an ANH cast that was at Elstree studios, the dome was a ROTJ dome but it's incorrect that they were offered as a pair. In all honesty both myself and the owner were completely unaware of how desirable it was at the time, my friend had indeed begun clean up work on the face plate and had sanded the tabs off. At one point we did even consider if it was worthwhile adding tabs on as you can see the scratch marks where he sanded them but decided against it as it was original detailing that had been removed. All these conversations were relayed back and forth with a couple of collectors who guided us on what they felt would be the best option for the market. One bone of contention was that there were a number of minor air bubbles in the gel coat along the eye ridges, but this just went to prove the problems you have when trying to make a warts and all copy as one buyer believed this was a defect in the casting. A couple of other buyers made the point that this was present in theirs and indeed it came from the original cast which we had been told to stop working on.
The run was a fairly open run in so far as we never discussed numbers and a cut off point, we always said it would be available for a limited period of time and once that time had expired that would be it as to give people a fair chance. Sadly the silicone tore after the 7th pull, we did consider continuing to offer them but at that point we figured that it wasn't fair because there was damage present in the casts that was not an original detail and as such the run became limited by accident rather than design.
The original cast is still with the owner and to this date the lazy sod still hasn't gotten around to doing anything with them, in that time I have tried pushing him on the possibility of another run but in all honesty he simply doesn't seem that bothered, I have had a couple of ideas I've considered pitching to him but again, he just doesn't seem to have the interest I'm afraid. If the opportunity should ever arise again I will let people know about it but all I can really say on that front it don't hold your breath!
The really funny thing is I did post about the mask originally on here and nobody gave it much thought expect for Chris aka "voice In The Crowd", and as such he really is the guy who should get all the credit for making this available albeit very briefly.
