<div class='quotetop'>(Utinni @ Nov 15 2006, 06:05 AM) [snapback]1357986[/snapback]</div>
hmmmm......Looks like it's still "squished"..... guess I'll pass and hang onto my resin helmet....
Jeff
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First off, just to note again... I don't mean any of this to bash the MR helmet. I actually really like it and it's a dang good buy for the money IMHO.
Thanks for posting the pics p1xar..
All that said... Yep, still totally squished. That is assuming there aren't other helmets in this "batch" that were done differently. There were a few in the first "batch" that weren't quite as mashed from side to side.
Looks like a couple of details have improved judging from those pics but the worst problem was the width and that's still just as off as it was originally.
I'm pasting in a photo below showing some comparison pics... the helmet on the left is supposedly the hero helmet used as the pattern from what we've been told. I don't know anything about it and the lenses look to be photoshopped in (not to well either) but it has all the tell-tale signs of an original hero and serves as a good comparison regardless.
In particular, note the overall shape and the shape of the air intakes. That kind of bothers me as it seems that detail shouldn't be that hard to do better. Eye opening shape is still off too but not many would notice I don't think.
The welding lines are just like before - it's just a type of brass rod (or something like that) that has the dents mashed into it. It works okay if you don't look too close. Would have been cool to see real welds but I'm sure that's probably impossible to do, or to at least do remotely consistently from helmet to helmet.
Overall finish and weathering on the new helmet looks better actually and on the back where the side moulding lines join with the bottom of the fin - that area is much cleaner than the ones we saw from the first 'wave' (or whatever you want to call it.) That spot isn't 100% accurate but it looks better finished this way considering the way they are making these out of metal.
I'd say it's improved in the details but not improved at all on the big issue which is the width.
Oh, and a little trade secret for folks that take pics of Rocketeer helmets that I learned the hard way from taking a LOT of pics of the ol' fin toupe - back up as far as you can and then zoom straight in on the face. It'll reduce the optical distortion and you'll get a better idea of the width of the helmet on the resulting pics.
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