Preview of MR's new ESB Boba Fett Helmet

[Star Wars Helmets]

This week, Bryan at MR kindly sent me their Engineering Prototype Boba Fett helmet to preview, in advance of the actual helmets which are due to start shipping in a couple of months.
Note that MR has confirmed to me that this review helmet has been painted in exactly the same way as the final shipped helmets, hence illustrating just how good the paint quality of the finished pieces will be.

Key to the overall quality and accuracy of these helmets will be the painting - and note that ALL of the production helmets are hand painted and not painted automatically by some dumb robot. The Green base is initially sprayed on with much of the finer detail such as the yellow stripes and silver "damage" is tampo printed. The overspray is then done by hand by an operator and thus, will vary from helmet to helmet.

The specific ESB helmet MR used for this basis for this replica was one that currently resides in the Lucasfilm Archive. Understandably MR was not able to cast it (since would have had to cast the outside and thus potentially damage the helmet) so the best option for all was to 3D scan it.

By adopting this specific process of using Tampo and stencil/mask spraying, MR believes it is able to completely nail the details of the paint process - while still operating within the constraints of a production environment.


Next up some comparisons against my "pride and joy" - probably my favourite in my collection, a MSH helmet from Natty that was painstakingly hand painted by Steve the Swede some years back. The work Steve did on this helmet is incredible and imo represents the finest painting I've ever seen. In these shots the MR's on the left and the MSH on the right.

What is probably most relevant about these photos are the physical comparisons between these two helmets rather than the paintwork, although as you can see the MR is pretty incredible

The Helmets are about to go into production so I'll review fully when the actual production versions start to ship, I presume October time.

More pics etc on my site.

Cheers

Jez

 

[blewis17]

I REALLY would like one of these. If only the paint job is as good in production.

 

[Rogue Studios]

Well tell Bryan to get that darn scratch on the left cheek correct. Whoever did this at the factory used a picture of the prepro 3 scratch and did not properly reference the proto I sent them. Aka not a screen accurate scratch. I indiccated this to Bryan at Comic Con and also asked that the red knobs to be removed from the keyslots in the back too.

Thanks

Lee

 

[superjedi]

Thanks, Jez! Fantastic pics and description of MR's process.
I have one of these on order, and as Lee said, hopefully there's time to get them to eliminate that PP3 scratch from thte production helmets.
Either way, I'm looking forward to getting this one!

 

[belloq]

Wow, thanks Jez. Sweet prototype.

 

[Rogue Studios]

If you were willing to pop $600 plus for a DP back in the day this is a no brainer for the money. It's the most accurate in size in shape you'll ever own vs. casting an original. Also, it appears LFL nixed the white fingerprint sorry folks.

Lee

 

[cking]

Great pics Jez!

Hey Lee - is all that red / rust overspray accurate? I don't recall seeing it to that extent on the Art of Star Wars ESB Boba helmet. Was it a different helmet from the archives that was used for reference on this?

Cheers,

Chris

 

[micdavis]

How come the most badass bounty hunter in the galaxy can't afford a new paint job on his armor? After all his Dad kept the armor up nice and polished.

Damn kids, they just can't take care of anything you give them.

 

[bubba fett]

Wow Jez, great stuff. :thumbsup

I have one of these helmets on order. It looks like it will be a great base to start from, but that it will need a lot of detail work done to get it right. Hopefully I can color match what they have used. Jez says on his site that the red lights in the keyslots are being taken out, I really hope so...

I'll put that fingerprint back in! :lol It's great that you worked (and fought) with them Lee, never know what might have happened if you had not been there.

jon

 

[franz bolo]

Great Job Lee!!

FB

 

[RKW]

Well tell Bryan to get that darn scratch on the left cheek correct. Whoever did this at the factory used a picture of the prepro 3 scratch and did not properly reference the proto I sent them. Aka not a screen accurate scratch. I indiccated this to Bryan at Comic Con and also asked that the red knobs to be removed from the keyslots in the back too.

Thanks

Lee

Considering 99.9% of all Fett fans add scratches to their helmets not present during filming of ESB I really don't see this one scratch being an issue. Infact I'll be amazed if every production helmet replicates every scratch correctly. They're all going to be slightly unique.

Jez, were you closer to your own helmet when taking the side comparisons? A surprising difference in overall size aswell as the difference in width of the visors.

 

[defstartrooper]

Considering 99.9% of all Fett fans add scratches to their helmets not present during filming of ESB I really don't see this one scratch being an issue. Infact I'll be amazed if every production helmet replicates every scratch correctly. They're all going to be slightly unique.

Jez, were you closer to your own helmet when taking the side comparisons? A surprising difference in overall size aswell as the difference in width of the visors.

Not just the visor either there are several areas that differ in shape and proportion i'm also wondering about all that overspray too seems a bit much.
Overall though looks pretty damn good much better than the stormtrooper effort.

 

[Zenwalker]

Thanks for the great pics Jez!

I noticed after looking at some reference pics and comparing to the MR Fett Helmet that the vertical part of the visor tapers in a bit at the bottom in contrast to the screen-used helmet. It makes the flare around the bottom part of the helmet seem narrower, also affecting the overall look of the piece when viewed from the front. Does anyone else notice this?

If so, is this an issue MR plans to correct with the production run helmets?

 

[RKW]

Thanks for the great pics Jez!
If so, is this an issue MR plans to correct with the production run helmets?

No because the production helmet that MR scanned does exactly the same thing.

 

[Funky]

All things considered I think it looks fantastic. The only thing I would change is the odd overspray (notice the tiny spots on the stalk) but that's just me.

 

[Chewcy]

I believe MR scanned the PP3 helmet, which i dont think has the narror visor assembly, i think its how the visor has been glued that gives it that narrow look, to me thats what lets this helmet down, the person to chime in would be braks buddy, as he knows the differnces with all the boba helmet variations in the archives, as I believed it was only the rotj helmet that had the narrower visor

 

[B-Movie Zombie]

Looks great but has some of the other board members of stated, I not to crazy about the overspay on the stalk either.

 

[Tyler Durden]

The ESB hero helmet, the only one to appear on film and is currently part of the AOSW tour, has a significant amount of rust/weathering on the stalk. The Prepro 3 helmet, which MR had access to and scanned and mimics the appearance of the ESB hero helmet, also has a heavily weathered stalk. I think the factory painters misinterpreted the weathering color (too dark) and pattern (too heavy).

Oh, and in regard to the pinched visor, the Prepro 3 does not have a pinched visor. It just looks like visor assembly issue on the MR (similar to what happened with the ROTJ).

 

[Hedjii72]

Wow... I guess I never noticed the rust on the stalk. Thanks for posting the pics. That makes it a little easier to swallow on the MR replica.

 

[Star Wars Helmets]

Thanks for the comments guys, to answer your questions

1) MR's confirmed to me that the helmet in front of me IS in effect a production helmet made by the factory using the tampo, spray and overspray techniques outline in my preview. Hence will therefore shows just how good the paint finish will be of the helmets people will receive. IMO that makes it even more impressive and I'll amend my preview to clarify this point.

2) Archive shots I've seen of the original do show a lot of overspray on the stalk. Ultimately though these helmets are going to be hand painted so overspray could vary between helmets. However I'll certainly pass on the comments about the volume/colour.

3) As per the review the red LED's in the rear are not there in the final production helmets.

4) Not sure on the size issue as certainly not sure whether the MSH can be viewed as 1:1 screen size. People asked for a comparison against another type of helmet so I've tried to oblige but in my view it doesn't detract at all from the MR

My view on this helmet is that before I saw it, I was hugely skeptical that MR could replicate the intricate paint detailing found on the originals (and the best fan made replicas), on a production helmet. Having now seen it in person I am incredibly impressed, since it seems they have achieved it.

Quite simply it blows any other licensed helmet out the water - and a hell of a lot of fan-made helmets that have had countless painting hours spent on them too!

Cheers

Jez