Some great points Mac.
I agree with you on many of them.
I’m lucky enough to own a few of the castings You refer to. I have all the TM helmets and have had quite a few castings which have all differed in shape due to casting errors. I have a TD which is a nice helmet but it’s a casting of a painted helmet so lacks some details. I have a ANH SL dome with the TD and love the SL dome. I own the original 20thC helmet all DS helmets come from and of course the GS and my ROTJ version of the GS. They all have different traits yet are all cast from helmets taken from either the uk or US moulds. I personally and of course quite biasedly think the GS has one of the best shaped faceplates and domes yet. To my eye it just has the look I saw as a child. Other castings exhibit warpage and over trimming. Of course many will argue that the TM is the best or that the TD or SL etc. It’s all down to how you see it and what floats your boat.
Mac, It sounds like you have tried to do the same as I did in the Stormtrooper community regards to the “Lords of power” attitude. Transparency is king and I think we have done a good job of being transparent.
I got many hate mails when cfo released the archive LFL/AA photos of TK armour into the public domain from various vendors because suddenly they had had their “power” taken away. Now everyone knew the details of the originals suits and the likes of ( insert names here) couldn’t continue releasing V1, V2, V3 , V4 versions of their armour giving you a little more detail than the last, which of course was the most screen accurate replica money could buy. Until they released another version that was slightly more accurate than the last most accurate replica you could get. Of course this was all done with “Prop preservation” in mind. Not money. [emoji23]
What you get with Mac, Bookface, and myself is complete transparency. There are no secrets.
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Well said. Amazing you did that! That sure dealt a blow. Thank you for bring balance to the Force, so to speak! And your kind words of my and Bookface's work ethic are deeply appreciated.
This "Lords of Power" epidemic is extremely childish and, basically, narcissistic. Maybe these individuals weren't popular in school or weren't hugged enough as children, but they gather a fan following around them, feed them scraps of information and images. Unfortunately, some fans feel privileged to be in their inner circle, then, in turn, become their attack dogs whenever someone comes along with a different opinion, so now you're dealing with a herd as a force multiplier.
Some of the vendor hatred I've gained happened when I sculpted Darth Ugly - which is nowhere nearly as good as anything else vendors were selling based on their "lineage" and "accuracy". But watching deliberate information on Darth Ugly being posted was insightful. Watching them gather their composure and revise history when I confronted them was another matter.
Everyone was fine when one of these "lords of power" was associated with the Rogue One Vader. But when the truth came to light, and that it was my mask that was used on the screen-used R1 Vader, it's amusing how tones change.
That mask is a result of sculpting, not "rebuilding" it or whatever labels some have used to minimize my work. Sculpting became my journey because I couldn't collect all these high-end helmets at the time. Many of you remember those abysmal eBay kits and the vendors who wouldn't refund my money. But all the better: moving from prop *acquiring* to prop *sculpting* meant I was free of that vicious circle of having to kiss up to a "lord of power" for a mere chance to own what they offer - or even for a few scraps that fall from their table.
So people mocking my "schpeal" or "spiel" about "emotion" simply don't understand that this has become a fine arts journey. If you can move from trying to simply approximate accuracy to recreating the presence and essence of a character, it requires a fine arts discipline. In other words, the result you are looking for is not numerically quantifiable by clay or by "width between the tusk tubes is precisely
n millimeters". To me, if people feel the full Quasimodo bust on a table has a striking presence as if a person were wearing it and looking right back at them, then Bookface and I are on the right track. Our goal is not a prop but an experience. Emotion is an experience, and thus I'm intentionally branching off and pursuing a fine arts journey to create an experience.
My artistic journey does not require the approval of any of these little "lords of power". I'm blessed to have a great number of supportive friends here, over on the Den, and on Facebook.
No-one would mock my artistic journey if I mainly focused on, say, Michelangelo's David. Or any other franchise for that matter. It's only Vader where now this intrudes into some territories where some must maintain their dominance and authority. However, they're only contributing to the hostile culture.
It's too easy in this hobby to read information from one forum, then regurgitate it into another board without citing sources and then position yourself as an authority. That nonsense has got to go. And anyone who needs the recognition of authority, I strongly suggest self-examination with a licensed mental health professional, because the temporary attention and adulation by fans is essentially stimulating the pleasure center of your brain like a drug. When the drug wears off, you're back to where you really are, and you're going to clamor for that attention and make other fans miserable because of your online conduct.
Now, more on-point with props and ANOVOS:
We should talk about size. ;-) (Remember those days of superior posturing? Ugh!)
The 20th Century mask is smaller than the TM mask. The width of the tabs are about 0.5mm less than those on the TM, but up to a few millimeters in other areas. The TM has ANH traits - and the mold from which it was pulled is believed to be the UK production mold that gave birth to the screen-used ESB masks. I also documented this years ago back on The Prop Den that the 20th Century helmets also share a consistent flaw not found on the TM. It suggests that a flawed mask descended from the UK mold (not sure how many generations) was then molded itself to produce the masks of the 20th Century tour suits.
Some 20th Century-based vendor offerings have varied in shape and size, but some may have been made larger (probably due to me, as I once posted a side-by-side comparison between my Quasimodo V1 and a vendor's unaltered 20th Century mask). That bloated the mask and made it pair oddly with its dome. If you don't factor in the vendor's own deliberate modifications/tells, you basically have a mask that is technically accurate in features but not accurate in shape.
Also, the 20th Century masks, although descended from the UK mold, don't share specific traits with the TM. At one point, they were quite sanitized and less sharp in detail. One may have been used as the template for the Don Post Deluxe line. Years back, I showed a comparison where they line up very closely in the face. The Don Post Deluxe, interestingly, has a larger head size, but this may be due to warpage as it was curing face-up on a table.
Someone posted a SbS comparison between an ANOVOS and an eFX and it was an eye-opener. The ANOVOS was tiny compared with the eFX.
This is consistent with the SithPlanet ANH mask, which, too, is on the small side (as per a SbS comparison I posted years back between the SithPLanet and an original Don Post Deluxe helmet).
And this correlates with the SgtFang resin helmet. Years back, when someone found the dome to be too small and tried to pair the mask with a Rubies, the Rubies completely dwarfed the SgtFang.
Interestingly, three things I will speak in favor of the ANOVOS.
First, this is the first time, possibly, that someone's taken something of that Fiberdyne lineage and made an ROTJ conversion to it.
Second, from a distance, the paintwork takes over, and it looks decent if you're not scrutinizing it for accuracy.
Three, the "Reveal" greeblies on it are cool.
Addendum: The GS deserves mention and I'm going to begin including it as my "Top 6".
