Interesting discussion...I really have no particular "dog in this hunt", but I do see people making some wrong assumptions that I can speak to.
First...The whole "why didn't they just use what's in the archives" thing...
Lucasfilm doesn't own the archives, George Lucas does. It was 100% not part of the sale to Disney...And that is why many things had to be recreated/sourced from fans/etc for the new movies...The new 3P0 costume was 3d printed...The R2 was built by members of the R2 Builders group...and so on, and so on.
For the record, my understanding is that it isn't that they COULDN'T have accessed the archives, but that many times they didn't...Didn't want to jump through the hoops, or send people over from the UK due to time constraints and other factors.
Next...The only ANH Vader helmet seen in the film is in fact in that private collection someone else noted earlier...
But here's the main thing to understand...Even BEFORE the sale to Disney, it wasn't out of ordinary to see ILM and LFL reach out to the fan community...I personally have two examples.
1. Obi-Wans red R4 dome that gets all sliced up by buzz droids at the beginning of Ep3...That was a R&J R2 dome that Ron Barclay and I supplied when we first started making them for the group in 2003. The ILM guys had access to the archives, original domes, and the ability to make copies...yet they used ours, and it's in the archives to this day.
2. The tusks on the new hero Vader reveal helmet from ep3...They purchased 3 sets from me, and I still have the check from ILM to prove it. Again, they have lathes, and the ability to create those parts...But it made more sense to just buy some that are already readily available. And they are now in a museum tour somewhere...
Again, this isn't about me at all...But I do know of this type of thing happening...So I have absolutely no doubt believing what Bookface is saying about the Quasimodo being a source for the new R1 Vader helmet...If fact I can believe it pretty easily.
So...Congrats fellas!
Jason