Kenobi TV series Darth Vader armor and helmet

[Imperial Weapon]

From what I understand and from what I have been told by the preeminent Vader expert, the lenses in the original ANH helmet were a tinted smoke color and not red or red/brown at all. There are recent photos of the actual ANH helmet as it's owned by a private collector (in France I believe) and the lenses are defiantly not red. ESB and ROTJ are absolutely a smoke tint color.

There are multiple scenes in ANH where the bright studio lights are reflecting Prowse's skin and giving a reddish color to the lenses, causing lots of action figures, toys, and artwork to show Vader with red lenses. Jump forward to Rebels, R1, and OB1Kenobi and Vader pre-ESB is always shown with red lenses now.

No ESB and ROTJ weren't smoke ESB was a dark amber (I did think those were smoke TBF) and ROTJ were yellow.

Image Courtesy of Darth Obsession from the Prop Den.

 

[lethyry]

the lenses in ANH were a Smokey grey, the helmet now resides in a private collection with the lenses having faded a bit, but still show they’re not red or amber. The lenses in ESB/rotj were bronze (not actually bronze, more of a yellowish brown if that makes any sense, tough to describe) same with the neck of the stunt helmet which was a slightly different bronze colour,I personally believe the lens tint between esb and rotj isn’t the same,close, but slightly different.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

You are correct, I mis-remembered. ANH was an amber on the brown side.

 

[DINVADER]

It's 100% the fit (maybe the difference in material, too) but I can forgive some of it in that padding out someone to fit inside the suit can only go so far. OT Vader mostly had his pauldrons under the chest armor, too, unless they were worn by the stunt guys (who also needed to be padded up to fill the suit). I think with them sitting flush to this chest armor and how high the arms are on the chair also contributes to how awkward the silhouette looks here, making him incredibly squat and square up top while everything just squishes into himself inside.

This is from a deleted scene in RotJ for an example on how it looks with him sat with a cape.

And, of course, without in ESB. Look at this animal.

View attachment 1583174

 

[DINVADER]

I’m watching ANH (OhTeeDee’s D+ Despecialized), and I kind of wish that Vader in this series had the tabards? robes? whatever they’re called, over the armor rather than under. I love ESB, I think Vader looks the best there, but part of that is his role in the film. It’s 100% his movie. The super clean look, the more exposed shoulder and chest armor, they don’t really work for me here the same way they do in ESB.

He obviously switches armor & outfit up, and has different variations of the cyber components. Sometimes it's an inner robe over the chest armor day, another an under the chest armor day.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

He obviously switches armor & outfit up, and has different variations of the cyber components. Sometimes it's an inner robe over the chest armor day, another an under the chest armor day.

I think its an 'oh no, I'm late for work!' situation.

 

[Kroenen77]

This photo reminds me of my good old EFX PCR helmet.

 

[darkapprentice]

In other words Kenobi Vader from some of the angles on the series and based on what some people already made as 3D stl files or fiberglass kind of reminds me of my unfinished Rubbies Deluxe "R1/ANH" mod I've made two years ago. Bear in mind I am not technical and can't even sculpt, so it's just new paint job, red goggles from old ski mask (not even temporary installed) and fixed the dome's angle.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

View attachment 1588834

This photo reminds me of my good old EFX PCR helmet.

Well I mean I have seen a pic of a Darth Stone ANH helmet and I renember thinking that the dome on that looks like the EFX PCR one and guess what they apparently used Darth Stones dome for RO/OWK combined with Quasi's faceplate.

 

[Kroenen77]

What they really used...nobody knows.I´ve heared that they used Quasis faceplate for the RO helmet.But I is that really safe?

 

[lethyry]

for OWK I wished they would have used a proper ESB or ROTJ dome, having the R1 dome with the widows peak gone looks a little weird to me,the brows on the dome to me look off.

 

[darthvaderv]

As a purist it surprises me to not only like this representation of this clear hybrid of ANH/ESB Vader, but the characterisation hasn’t been this reminiscent since 1980. Great job for this production in making Vader the icon he is.
I can certainly nit pick over details but as a collective this version of Vader in my mind has earnt its place.

 

[Joek3rr]

From what I understand and from what I have been told by the preeminent Vader expert, the lenses in the original ANH helmet were a tinted smoke color and not red or red/brown at all. There are recent photos of the actual ANH helmet as it's owned by a private collector (in France I believe) and the lenses are defiantly not red. ESB and ROTJ are absolutely a smoke tint color.

There are multiple scenes in ANH where the bright studio lights are reflecting Prowse's skin and giving a reddish color to the lenses, causing lots of action figures, toys, and artwork to show Vader with red lenses. Jump forward to Rebels, R1, and OB1Kenobi and Vader pre-ESB is always shown with red lenses now.

And I just came across those pictures the other day while doing some Googling.... Now I can't them again!

 

[mattleshman]

Can you imagine an official 501st Legio CRL of these?

 

[Too Much Garlic]

So, the helmet isn't important anymore regarding Anakin's survival? It was established that he would die if Luke took it off, yet, we see several times - in Rebels and now this - where there is no issue to have a big gaping hole in a pressurized helmet. He should be gasping for air dying right there.

I also always found it weird in RotS that he wasn't immediately put onto life support before he even got the suit and helmet on.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

The helmet could be supplying him with just enough air to survive and speak for a very short time but not enough to do much else.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Sure, but it could really have played on his one real vulnerability - that he's critically dependent on the suit and being inside the claustrophobic suit can aid in turning him more outwardly aggressive, because he's basically shut off from the rest of the world. And we all know that wearing a mask can sometimes remove inhibitions... so exploit that psychological effect in the writing. It's a waste. It's like they don't even really care.

 

[ggriffaw]

Sure, but it could really have played on his one real vulnerability - that he's critically dependent on the suit and being inside the claustrophobic suit can aid in turning him more outwardly aggressive, because he's basically shut off from the rest of the world. And we all know that wearing a mask can sometimes remove inhibitions... so exploit that psychological effect in the writing. It's a waste. It's like they don't even really care.

Is it inconsistent with the suiting up scene in ROTS? Like you said, I think that scene should have been different. If Vader needs the helmet and life support equipment to survive, getting those parts on should have been done immediately in ROTS. I thought that scene should have had a basic set of life support related items only. The rest of the decorative parts of the suit could be added after preventing him from dying. Show the basic life support version in the first scene and the full version in the Star Destroyer scene. I can understand they wanted to have him suited up in the iconic look, but I don't think it made sense unless the Emperor knew exactly what would happen and had all of the items made before the fight with Obi Wan took place.

Lucas himself established that the helmet isn't as critical as was stated in ROTJ. A possible explanation for ROTJ is he was more vulnerable because of the damage he took from the Emperor's lightning.

 

[Darth Africanus]

I believe he can use his hatred just like Maul to survive for a time, so he uses the dark side to survive just long enough with the helmet gashes and minor damages. But in ROTJ he turned back to the light so no need to keep alive any more and I believe the emperor fried his suite so bad that no matter if Luke kept his helmet on or took it off he would have died.

Luke just sort of had hope to save his father but Anakin knew nothing could stop his death and he was looking forward to dying finally I believe so he wanted to die being saved and at peace.

Plus the suite possibly has a fail safe that once one system is critically damaged another can possibly function to sustain whatever Vader needed from the damaged system for a short while coupled with him using the force to survive he can live for a long enough time to fix the problem.

 

[Imperial Weapon]

I'm not a big fan of Disney star wars but this has been seen before in the force unleashed he was absolutley wrecked and in the Lost command comics he didn't even have his breathing appartus in the last comic, and when he was getting his limbs attached, the thing I will have a go at Disney for is the fact that It took a smashed chest box and cut helmet to defeat him yet in legends nearly his entire suit was destroyed and he still kept on fighting, he had his entire helmet (neck brace included) gone and still carrys on fighting, he burried himself alive and yet willed himself back from the dead, as for the helmets importance it is still important because some ancient sith from the old republic were so disgusted by the humanity on there natural faces (this also applied to aliens) so they covered them with masks like 'Tulak Hord'