It would be cool to see some specific details that were only found on the reveal helmet.............but do keep in mind, that details could theoretically be added to any given helmet.
Here is another example of issues with some folks who worked on films. I met a fella who worked on ESB, he made claims about his involvment with a particular prop in the film. He has photos of himself working beside known ESB crew. He has photos of himself with the actual prop during production. Yet he shows off a licensed version of the prop (very inaccurate) as evidence he is who he says he is. He simply does not know the difference. He found something that to him looks like the prop from his memory, and in his mind it is identical to the prop. I have zero doubts he worked on the film, I have lots of doubts that his memory is clear.
It is far far easier to accept claims if the helmet you are talking about looks identical to it's screen counterpart. Then you can show details found on your copy that is actually identical to the screen helmet but not found on fan helmets. That makes your job easy. The thing that makes your job hard in a situation like this is that if your helmet is very different in many respects from what is seen on film, not just added details that are missing, but structural details that should at least match earlier versions of the helmet.............details that were in ANH/ESB, absent from this missing link helmet, but then show up again on the screen helmet. That makes it so very hard to accept from a forensics point of view.
Knowing how things work on a movie set, it's practically impossible that they would add the detail they accidentally removed..........back for continuity purposes. The simple fact is, they don't give a hoot about continuity. They give a hoot about staying on schedule.
On the ROTJ reveal helmet, there is a line where the crown portion of the head was added to the top of the mask. The filler used has separated over the years and there is a paint crack visible on the helmet today. That location of filler doesn't match what is shown on the helmet in question. Shapes of other details on the helmet, around the eyes, the nose, the nose bridge, the mouth............all those things are different in some respects to what we see on screen.
So IF, what you are saying is correct, this helmet was made at the same time as the reveal that we see................they would likely have scrapped this version and started over with a more accurate base helmet.......which resulted in what we see on film. Theoretically your helmet could have been some mockup to show George before proceeding with the full build. Who knows?
Please keep in mind, this is just one guy's opinion. I love to be wrong about things, because it helps me learn new information about that which I love. I hope you are proven correct.
Dave
