TM/Troopermaster has recast CFO

sskunky

Sr Member
Hi everyone,

It is with great sadness that I have to bring this to your attention.

Troopermaster has recast my CFO ROTJ JoeR Stormtrooper helmet.

I know this will be a hard one for some people to accept as Paul has always maintained his excellence in sculpting.
Well Paul, I’m sorry to say your sculpting skills don’t really live up to what you proclaim.

What I’m about to show you are a series of photos of the JoeR faceplate next to the TM ROTJ faceplate I received in a kit from Paul, that a friend of mine purchased.
Whilst Paul has sharpened a few details, notably the tears have been sharpened along the edges and the middle bulge has been sanded down. The bridge of the nose has also been sharpened as has the eyes, more so along the underside. Other than that all the asymmetry is identical as are the lumps, bumps, dents and kinks. The way the light cast shadows across the two faceplates is a massive tell. There is no way you could create that similarity to that level through sculpting. I don’t care what you say. I’ve been doing this too long.
All helmets I have had the privilege to offer have their own unique asymmetry. That’s something that does not carry from helmet to helmet. A lot has to do with how it was assembled and then taken apart for moulding. The way the parts are supported when moulding and the way the helmet has been glued together effect the memory of the plastic and it’s asymmetry.

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Moving on to the video I show just how close TMs ROTJ back n cap is when compared to the CFO JoeR.
It fits inside the JoeR back n cap perfectly in asymmetry and size, yet the CFO JoeR does not fit inside the TM due to the fact that the helmet was cast from mine therefor shrinkage on a minuscule scale prevents this.
The trim lines are identical to the CFO JoeR.
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Now the most damning evidence I can show you is the TM ears.
When I saw these ear vacuum pulls from Paul I immediately saw a resemblance to my old production ear moulds I personally made, moulded and cast. Even down to my tooling and moulding marks and defects. This to me is the fingerprint of recasting. If you are going to blatantly recast and rip off a fellow vendor then at least have a bit of self respect and change the moulds. They pop on my moulds with an almost satisfying click. I say almost satisfying as they are a recast.

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I have lived with the JoeR and made these helmets, offering them to the community for over 10 years. I know this helmet inside and out better than anyone else on this planet.

As we all know, all the original helmets have their own unique asymmetry, details and character. That is also true for each replica.
I have many moulds of different original stormtrooper helmets and they all have very distinct tells to them. I also own an original screen used ROTJ stormtrooper helmet. The only way to accurately capture those unique features is by making a carbon copy. And they are obvious to someone with a trained eye, which I dare say I have, as I have not just been studying these, but been making them as well for a good decade now.

I have studied these helmets for over a quarter of my life. This is what I do.

What really gets me is that I have always shared my company in full transparency, honesty and a good customer service. I go to great lengths, time and financial expenditure to bring you, the community helmets and armour cast from original sources available nowhere else.
When I purchased my original screen used Stormtrooper helmet I immediately shared it with Paul, sending him many close up photos and sharing information on the mic tips and internal suspension system and materials. Paul engaged with me knowing all this time he was ripping off me, my company and my products.

To top it all off and to show just how confident he is, Paul sent me a message through Facebook to ask if I could help him out as he couldn’t get and decals for a couple of kits he was sending out. Turns out one of those kits was for my friend. The kit arrived without decals or mic tips.


So Paul, I would also be interested to see just what your mic tips are cast from. I would also like to invite you to show off all your amazing sculpting skills to this community in a bid to clear your name. Because as it stands if you are happy to recast my ROTJ helmet what else are you happy to recast?
I know a good number of very talented sculptors and all, yes all are proud of their work and constantly show pictures of their sculpts. You for some reason do exactly the opposite? This alone tells me something fishy is going on. It’s not normal. You are however happy to show finished products off telling everyone just how good you are at sculpting and how accurate you can get them. Strange that.

Shame on you mate. I honestly respected you for your fantastic work. But now all I see is a individual that just can’t stand to see another vendor producing accurate products that are not available to you..

I was thinking about contacting you privately and giving you the chance to explain yourself and remove this recast and any others from your product list. But as you did not pay me the same courtesy when you decided it would be a good idea to try and diminish my business and recast my products I see no reason why I should pay you that respect.

This will rock the costuming world and upset a good many people that have trusted you and spent their money on your recasts. For that I’m sorry.

Paul, this is inexcusable.

To think that you accuse me of being a recaster and criticise the accuracy of my helmets. How ironic. They seem to be accurate enough for you to recast!

This also brings into contention everything else you make. If you are happy to recast CFO then I’m pretty sure you are happy to Recast anyone and anything.

Nows the time to show us all those amazing sculpting skills you have from the beginning lump of clay to the finished product.
I’m giving you every opportunity to show us your sculpting skills. And by that I don’t mean tipping a slurry of body filler and resin into a vac pull. Because let’s face it we can all do that. But to sculpt a stormtrooper helmet from scratch, ground up and get every little bit of asymmetry, exact sizing and detail correct takes some skill. A skill you have so far eluded to demonstrate.

So after presenting my evidence and findings I invite Paul to explain himself.

Not only is the most frowned upon action in this community it is also a kick in the face to me as a trusted fellow vendor and all his customers and loyal fan base.
In a world that is tough enough selling props as it is, to have a fellow trusted vendor whom I share information and photos with do this to me is just soul destroying.


Thanks for looking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I was really disappointed when I first saw the info, as this hobby is in a difficult spot right now - and the one thing it really doesn’t need is one producer ripping off another’s hard work.

The evidence is pretty conclusive. For me the slam/dunk moment was how it’s clear that TM's casts have the exact same 'tells' as the CfO moulds - yet these give-away tells were specifically added by CfO as part of his mould-making process. Hence the TM can only have derived/been recast from the CfO.

Such a shame as there are so many opportunities for propmakers to come out with cool and exciting stuff, rather than poaching off others hard work.

Cheers

Jez
StarWarsHelmets.com
 
I was really disappointed when I first saw the info, as this hobby is in a difficult spot right now - and the one thing it really doesn’t need is one producer ripping off another’s hard work.

The evidence is pretty conclusive. For me the slam/dunk moment was how it’s clear that TM's casts have the exact same 'tells' as the CfO moulds - yet these give-away tells were specifically added by CfO as part of his mould-making process. Hence the TM can only have derived/been recast from the CfO.

Such a shame as there are so many opportunities for propmakers to come out with cool and exciting stuff, rather than poaching off others hard work.

Cheers

Jez
StarWarsHelmets.com

Completely agree, but I'm not sure buying an original helmet and moulding it classes as "hard work".
 
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buying an original helmet is certainly a lot more difficult and expensive than just buying any replica on the market.
Especially when most are in the lucasfilm archives which are a "black hole" due to the mouse.
 
buying an original helmet is certainly a lot more difficult and expensive than just buying any replica on the market.

I never said it wouldn't be difficult to source an original or expensive, but no "hard work" has gone into making the helmet i.e. someone hasn't done the work to create the sculpt, CFO have just recast an original helmet, albeit at great expense. This is one of the great grey areas of the hobby, in that it's widely considered acceptable to recast orignal props but not props that other fans have created.
 
I never said it wouldn't be difficult to source an original or expensive, but no "hard work" has gone into making the helmet i.e. someone hasn't done the work to create the sculpt, CFO have just recast an original helmet, albeit at great expense. This is one of the great grey areas of the hobby, in that it's widely considered acceptable to recast orignal props but not props that other fans have created.
that whole debate just took place in the vader thread, maybe no need to start doing that again here:
 
that whole debate just took place in the vader thread, maybe no need to start doing that again here:

Sorry not meaning to start a debate, my original comment was merely in relation to casting an original helmet (and not actually designing/sculpting it) being referred to as "hard work", expensive yes, but not hard.
 
sorry, last message from me but I think it is also hard in the sense that sourcing an original helmet is not easy to do. not many are around. So, i think we can admit it's hard in the sense there would be a lot of hunting, communication, meetings to arrange. Not comparable with just buying something readily available from a direct competitor, recasting it and just selling it to same crowd.
 
I never said it wouldn't be difficult to source an original or expensive, but no "hard work" has gone into making the helmet i.e. someone hasn't done the work to create the sculpt, CFO have just recast an original helmet, albeit at great expense. This is one of the great grey areas of the hobby, in that it's widely considered acceptable to recast orignal props but not props that other fans have created.

"Hard work" can mean a lot of things. Sourcing original pieces and getting access could also mean a deal or trade. If you personally have never sourced an original prop and negotiated the castings, you aren't qualified to weigh in on what is considered "hard work".
 
Completely agree, but I'm not sure buying an original helmet and moulding it classes as "hard work".

The issue here is the time, effort and money that goes into finding and then securing an original prop - believe me these things don’t just fall into your lap! Having done that the owner then needs to make the decision to mould it - potentially damaging and devaluing it.

Whether you agree that’s “hard work” or not is just semantics.

Cheers

Jez
 
The area that I have found confusing is the "tells" that an item is from a specific maker. I understand each original helmet has certain unique features. At times I think it is also manual work done by the maker to correct defects or replace missing parts.

Unfortunately many people get the impression that a final product with direct lineage to an original prop is an exact copy of an original prop. Often the original is not in great condition, so work is needed to get a final product that looks like what people expect.

I suspect if two people created copies of the same original prop in great condition, there may still be noticable differences due to the techniques and skills of the maker.

These are not comments about the specific recasting instance in this thread, but general comments about the confusion those of us who do not make props have in regards to how lineage replicas are created. I suspect there is much more work in the actual production of the item than many people realize. This is in addition to the time, effort, and expense involved in acquiring the original prop.
 
I was really disappointed when I first saw the info, as this hobby is in a difficult spot right now - and the one thing it really doesn’t need is one producer ripping off another’s hard work.

The evidence is pretty conclusive. For me the slam/dunk moment was how it’s clear that TM's casts have the exact same 'tells' as the CfO moulds - yet these give-away tells were specifically added by CfO as part of his mould-making process. Hence the TM can only have derived/been recast from the CfO.

Such a shame as there are so many opportunities for propmakers to come out with cool and exciting stuff, rather than poaching off others hard work.

Cheers

Jez
StarWarsHelmets.com

Kinda to the point where it might not be a good idea to promote the TM stormtrooper helmets on your website.

...maybe. [emoji6]
 
Kinda to the point where it might not be a good idea to promote the TM stormtrooper helmets on your website.

...maybe. [emoji6]

Maybe worth considering, although his RotJ helmet is not on SWH, just his ANH helmet/suit - and that’s not been called into question here.

Cheers

Jez
 
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