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Original ANH Stormtrooper helmet and Armor - Just the Facts

Yes - it's all about the money for him.

On a lighter note :- while signing at Harlow, Essex this weekend a young guy came over for a chat who said his grandad Dennis Plenty, now 78 years old, was the model for the Stormtrooper armour.

I didn't have a chance to have an in depth conversation with him but hopefully I'll be able to find out some more information as the grandson also works at the Studios.
 
Brian Muir said:
On a lighter note :- while signing at Harlow, Essex this weekend a young guy came over for a chat who said his grandad Dennis Plenty, now 78 years old, was the model for the Stormtrooper armour.

I didn't have a chance to have an in depth conversation with him but hopefully I'll be able to find out some more information as the grandson also works at the Studios.
Click to expand...
That's too cool. :)
 
I am kinda dissed at J.W Rinzler right now because i bought and almost read his book called " the making of star wars" and i swear to god there is barely any mention of how most of the costume came to be, no mention of Brian..they talk about LIz but never show her in any photo in the book...nothing on what went on for the creation of the costume...

i wonder if that was intentional or not...it seems that there is a lof of documentation but that part of things was completely left out of the book which kinda ruins it because they talk about almost everything else that went on while making the film...
 
I think it is a situation that a lot of the news we know now was not so common knowledge when the book was first published. Hell, the damning picture of Liz's sculpt next to Nick's was only dug up recently.
 
the author states that he went thru cases of material from data that Charles lipincott has gathered to make his own star wars the making of book. The info in the book was not information that the author gathered over the internet, this was info that charles had collected when the movie was being made, he went thru it and made a book out of the case of info that chuck had collected but surely there was way more info than the book is letting out.

I am not saying that the book is entirely bad but if you are a real fan you will read this and come to the conclusion that some folks did not get their due repects as to what they contributed for the movie and that saddens me a lot.!

unless i am blind or on some sort of drug i do not see Brian Muir mentionned once in the book, but the legends tells us that the sculpted the vader suit, surely that warrrants a few lines in the book!

plus there is not mention whatsoever of sheperton's studio and their involvment in the stormtrooper suit buidling process...ok we know what happened but still nothing...

the build for r2 is mentionned c3p0, chewie etc etc...but vader is not mentionned as well as the troopers...

kinda weird for a book that says definitive making of on its cover....i dont agree with that title at all...
 
I'm not saying your opinion is wrong, but you are still missing the point. A lot of this information has only recently come to light. The book was published in 2007. Who knows how many years before that they actually started on the book.

As far as where the pics came from, the Trooper helmet sculpt pic was NOT part of that research. I forget who finally dug it up, but it was part of someone's collection, I believe.

If you read this book expecting all of the information to be there, you are mistaken. I have this book on my shelf as we speak and at its release, it WAS the definitive book. New stuff is always coming to light every day. Like Brian saying Liz sculpted a clay Falcon.
 
budspencer said:
I am kinda dissed at J.W Rinzler right now because i bought and almost read his book called " the making of star wars" and i swear to god there is barely any mention of how most of the costume came to be, no mention of Brian..they talk about LIz but never show her in any photo in the book...nothing on what went on for the creation of the costume...

i wonder if that was intentional or not...it seems that there is a lof of documentation but that part of things was completely left out of the book which kinda ruins it because they talk about almost everything else that went on while making the film...
Click to expand...



If I am remembering correctly, both The Making of Star Wars and The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, were very largely built on both interviews and source material from 'back in the day' - when those types of topics maybe weren't as much interest as they are now. Or perhaps restated, when there wasn't as much widespread access to information as there is now.

Fan appreciation of Star Wars was/is a huge catalyst in the explosion of that interest, from the 1990s through now, hand-in-hand with sharing over the www. Even the good ol' RPF here had a Star Wars photo as a header until a few months ago.

The more painful literary offense about costume coverage in my simple opinion is the skimpy coverage given to original trilogy costumes in the Dressing a Galaxy.

Nice to see Brian here on RPF still - Brian I bought your book from you through here around the holiday season maybe 1.5 year ago, thanks so much for the "May the Force be with you" inscription + signature!

Cheers all!
 
Wow! I just spent the last hour reading this thread and there is alot of hostility about this subject and Ainsworth....my question is....is there any photos of Liz sculpting the original Helmet?
 
The reason many of the contributors to the production are not
Mentioned in historical documentation is that there were a) hundreds of them
And b) the people preparing this information were Americans who would intermittently
Visit the set.

You cannot reasonably expect them to have hunted down
Some guy in a plaster shed when Harrison Ford or Alec Guiness
Were available.

It's as ridiculous as harping on about which sound
Man connected the wind shield to the microphone
That recorded a particular line of dialog.

People don't care. Only obssessives.
 
i wasn't really being serious with my question since most know neither nick or aa sculpted the helmet we see in the movies,
but it would be nice if pics of brian sculpting the armour & liz the helmet turned up
 
budspencer said:
I am kinda dissed at J.W Rinzler right now because i bought and almost read his book called " the making of star wars" and i swear to god there is barely any mention of how most of the costume came to be, no mention of Brian..they talk about LIz but never show her in any photo in the book...nothing on what went on for the creation of the costume...

i wonder if that was intentional or not...it seems that there is a lof of documentation but that part of things was completely left out of the book which kinda ruins it because they talk about almost everything else that went on while making the film...
Click to expand...


I'll have to look in my collection. I had a behind the scenes pic or two of her. I think it was her (unless it was another woman) wearing the 3PO costume during design and some other items/costumes were in the background.
 
Big Al said:
Wow! I just spent the last hour reading this thread and there is alot of hostility about this subject and Ainsworth....my question is....is there any photos of Liz sculpting the original Helmet?
Click to expand...
There is a handy description from Nick and Ainsworth describing the other turd of a helmet on the table. Made with an ashtray and what not.
 
HAL9000 said:
The reason many of the contributors to the production are not
Mentioned in historical documentation is that there were a) hundreds of them
And b) the people preparing this information were Americans who would intermittently
Visit the set.

You cannot reasonably expect them to have hunted down
Some guy in a plaster shed when Harrison Ford or Alec Guiness
Were available.

It's as ridiculous as harping on about which sound
Man connected the wind shield to the microphone
That recorded a particular line of dialog.

People don't care. Only obssessives.
Click to expand...

Well my comment was simply that most all of those type of productions have behind the sceen shots such as Dykstra with the models, the costume people have always been photographed while creating their projects that's all.

There are many pics of people creating the props, costumes, models ships etc. so i just thought there might be.
 
Just to reply to a few of these last posts.
Thank you Azrok for your comments and I hope you enjoyed the book :)
I doubt that a photo of Liz sculpting the helmet will appear as she sculpted it away from the Studio while she was in Holland. She was trusted by John Barry and it was not unusual for her to sculpt pieces at home.
I have only seen one photo of Liz on the production that I have in my book. It is a rear view of her and she is fitting Anthony Daniels with the initial latex C3P0 leg parts - I am looking on in the foreground. This photo was found in Gary Kurtz's archives as well as the photo of the clay Stormtrooper helmet.
As I have said previously, I was filmed sculpting Vader but if and when that footage will ever be shown - I do not know.
I noticed a new photo of myself with the late John Barry in the new Star Wars BluePrints book so who knows what is in the archives and what will turn up in the future?
As neither Pemberton nor Ainsworth sculpted the Stormtrooper helmet there is no photo to show. Any relevant evidence was produced in court. If by chance Pemberton has a photo of him and his colleague sculpting the alternative Stormtrooper helmet made of component parts including a Morris Minor ashtray I don't suppose he would have wanted it seen in court ;)
 
Brian Muir said:
Just to reply to a few of these last posts.
Thank you Azrok for your comments and I hope you enjoyed the book :)
I doubt that a photo of Liz sculpting the helmet will appear as she sculpted it away from the Studio while she was in Holland. She was trusted by John Barry and it was not unusual for her to sculpt pieces at home.
I have only seen one photo of Liz on the production that I have in my book. It is a rear view of her and she is fitting Anthony Daniels with the initial latex C3P0 leg parts - I am looking on in the foreground. This photo was found in Gary Kurtz's archives as well as the photo of the clay Stormtrooper helmet.
As I have said previously, I was filmed sculpting Vader but if and when that footage will ever be shown - I do not know.
I noticed a new photo of myself with the late John Barry in the new Star Wars BluePrints book so who knows what is in the archives and what will turn up in the future?
As neither Pemberton nor Ainsworth sculpted the Stormtrooper helmet there is no photo to show. Any relevant evidence was produced in court. If by chance Pemberton has a photo of him and his colleague sculpting the alternative Stormtrooper helmet made of component parts including a Morris Minor ashtray I don't suppose he would have wanted it seen in court ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian, I have been reading about this for days as I am new to the forum...But wow!...these topics are stretched out all over here over many years and with great passion!,

I have read alot of stuff about this and all I can say is wow!

If what everybody say's is true about AA then I don't know what to say.

I am fairly new to making such stuff and have been surfing looking for the tech (Vacuum Forming, making molds) to make my own armor, buckets etc and i ran across this and other threads about this subject.

As I would like to sculpt my own molds, it was of interest to me to see AA videos of making his plugs and the demonstration of pulling a bucket, then another on assembly as well as a vatiety of other SW helmets.

Is it all a fraud?
 
Yes it is all a fraud. Ainsworth vacuumed formed the helmets and suits. He did not 'sculpt' the moulds as he would have you believe in his dvd. He produced that dvd for the court case and had over 18 months to do it.
The helmet was sculpted by Liz Moore and the suit was sculpted by me. He was given the tools to pull on.
He changed and changes his story continuously. The reason for the bad feeling against Ainsworth by so many people is because he lies and cheats and sees no problem with it as it just business to him. He is now even using the evidence I gave in court on his website to make his story more credible.
If you read the court judgement you will get an idea of his character.
 
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