Orange stains on SSW helm - what happened?????

Dear All,

I recently took out some of my pieces for display, including the Helm of the Mouth of Sauron, and to my horror, I saw orange stains all around hte inscriptions at the face. It sure looks like rust to me. I applied some water on a cotton bud and rub it off, but it couldn't come off. Without knowing the nature of the coatings/colour the SSW had used, I have refrained from using other solvents to wash it off.

Now the joints at the parts where the inscriptions are written are stained with an orangy stain. .

I have stored the piece in a dry place but its humidity is not controlled though, I lived in a humid country where the temperature difference ranges from 25 to 35 degreed celsius.

It is most unfortunate that I do not have a camera to show the extent of the "damage". I now worries for the rest of my helm is going to be like this? My Crown of the King of the Dead is fine. But I fear if those Helm of Battle Troll of Mordor etc - those that are made without any any further application of colour will suffer the same fate.

I wonder anyone who own this piece has similar experience. Please share. Appreciate very much!

P.S. I will be writing to SS to ask for assistance hopefully they will reply.

Mine has the orange rust look as well. I always assumed that it was intentional.

I have 2 and they both have the rust colored stains on them. That was how I got them from Sideshow, so I just assumed it was the way they intended it to look.

I tihnk it is intentional. Doesn't the Morgul Lord helm have some of this too?

Bannister said:

I tihnk it is intentional. Doesn't the Morgul Lord helm have some of this too?

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No!!! My Mask of Morgul Lord is fine. You should see a picture of the helm.. if you don't mind, will you pelase post a picture of your helm and I'll see if its the same issue.. according to the stock photo on SS website, it is not like this.!

gtb said:

No!!! My Mask of Morgul Lord is fine. You should see a picture of the helm.. if you don't mind, will you pelase post a picture of your helm and I'll see if its the same issue.. according to the stock photo on SS website, it is not like this.!

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My Morgul Lord helm is fine too....it's just the Helm for the Mouth of Sauron that had the rust look going on....

I guess I was thinking of the Legendary Scale ML bust with regards to the rust.

Cheetos?

No.... I am referring to the good old SSW helm....

gtb said:

No.... I am referring to the good old SSW helm....

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I know that. I meant that I must have been thinking of the Legendary bust when I said I thought the helm had rust on it.

I will post a pic of the helm ASAP. Then perhaps everyone will understand what I am talking about...

I ask my local distributor, and she told me that SS doesn't have a so-called "lifetime warranty" - and since SS still have stock and I have not "destroyed" the helm on purpose or any misuse, I wonder what is the chance they will replaced the product?

Can anyone share their experience? I saw many of you guys actually put them in the basement of your house that is common in the US/EU, does it have any humidity problem? Controlling humidity for such a large place is quite costly.

gtb said:

I will post a pic of the helm ASAP. Then perhaps everyone will understand what I am talking about...

I ask my local distributor, and she told me that SS doesn't have a so-called "lifetime warranty" - and since SS still have stock and I have not "destroyed" the helm on purpose or any misuse, I wonder what is the chance they will replaced the product?

Can anyone share their experience? I saw many of you guys actually put them in the basement of your house that is common in the US/EU, does it have any humidity problem? Controlling humidity for such a large place is quite costly.

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Post pics so I can compare with mine...like I said I got mine directly from SS and they had the orange stains on them already.

Bannister said:

I guess I was thinking of the Legendary Scale ML bust with regards to the rust.

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My Morgul Lord 1/4 helm has small touches of orange around the dents/holes in the left cheeck guard and on the left hand face of the spike. The holes/dents are seen clearly in this bust picture with what looks to be intentional rust spatter in and around them.
It all looks intentional to me.

This is weird. My Morgul Lord helm always had the stains, I thought it was supposed to be like that....

The rust color is intentional.

All is fine with your helm.

Mine has the exact same rust color on it.

The mouth of Sauron helm I got directly from Sideshow has the orange stains on them as well. I figuered it was intentional.

Aaron, don't worry about it. There's nothing to be alarmed, relax dude...

These helms are meant to look like that intentionally. It's not that the helm is rusting and getting damaged and you need a replacement.

Anyway, I actually thought the helms look better with some of the rust look on it. Gives an accurate aged appearance which should be the way. I see the same on my MOS, Morgul Lord and KOTD helms.

All is fine Aaron.

I had the Mouth of Sauron helm once and it was a lot more "rusty" than the SS products pics