eFX Darth Vader A NEW HOPE Helmet!

[FQRizzo]

The Limited Edition is now SOLD OUT from eFX as well. Took 5 days instead of 5 minutes, but that's still very good.

These helmets are a smashing success.

What do we win?

 

[IrishJedi]

From GINO on the RPF:

There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the clean up of the eFX Vader helmets and a bit of concern and criticism leveled due to the cleanup work I performed with the obvious question being why not just leave the helmet exactly as it came from the Rick Baker mold.

The answer is somewhat complicated.

There are two main reasons:

1. While many people claim to want their replicas to be as close to the original as possible, the vast majority of eFX customers wouldn't want the Darth Vader helmet as-is if they saw it straight from the mold (even for the Legend edition).

2. The more significant and unavoidable reason is due to manufacturing limitiations

Customer expectations
Make no mistake, the Darth Vader helmet straight out of the Baker mold has all the warts of the original tantive helmet. There are dings, dents, and surface blemishes everywhere. Some very noticeable, others not so much.

99% of eFX’s customer base has no knowledge of most of these topical blemishes. And even if they did, would not desire them in a replica.
Any successful business plan caters to the 99%, not the 1% of those who would want completely unmodified raw castings.

Manufaturing limitations
When castings are mass produced in a manufacturing setting (whether they be in china or elsewhere), there are going to be topical 'flaws' and air bubbles etc.. found in the production castings.
It is unavoidable on a project of this scale.

Those topical anomalies are corrected on the production line, just as when someone makes a run of replicas here, you often have to perform minor cleanup when you get a casting.

The problem is, there is no way for the people on the production line making these helmets to know which 'flaws' are original and supposed to be kept vs. ones that are new flaws and not supposed to be there.
It is an unreasonable expectation to think we could educate them to the level of knowledge that would enable them to decide which dings/boogers should be there on their own.

Because it is a standard practice in any manufacturing situation, the line workers are used to cleaning up and perfecting castings.
This practice makes them have a strong tendency to fill in/clean up any perceived flaw in the production castings.

With the Darth Vader Legend helmet, we are forcing those workers to do something that goes completely against any other project they've ever worked on which is to leave perceived flaws in the castings. It is like pulling teeth.

In order to achieve this, we took the time to sit down and map out every dent/booger we wanted them to leave alone and not 'fix'.
This was done by carefully examining the helmet and deciding which dents/boogers were the most important to keep visually, and could be easily/consistently pointed out to the factory workers.

This might not sound like a very difficult task, but in reality it was not only daunting for the skill level of the people doing the work, but costly for eFX.

It is probably hard to imagine but it actually takes MORE time and effort to selectively clean up a helemt casting than to simply clean the entire helmet of perceived imperfections.

The more dents/boogers that have to be verified, the more difficult the piece is to make, the slower the manufacturing process becomes, and the more expensive the piece is to produce.

eFX worked very hard to find the best balance.

Hopefully this helps you better understand why a minimal cleanup was necessary and unavoidable.

It is easy to throw out hypotheticals that on the surface seem like they might have been better solutions, but the truth is, given the nature of mass production, the final decisions made by eFX went far above and beyond any previous efforts by anyone mass producing a replica to preserve as much original detail as reasonably possible for the fans to enjoy.

In the big picture of things, the surface clean up was still extremely minimal.

I am certain those who purchase either the Limtied or the Legend will be beyond satisfied with what we came up with.

That should effectively end any silly debates right there (but sadly, it won't).

 

[icruise]

Sounds very reasonable to me. Personally, I'm not 100% sure that I even want "dents/boogers" on my helmet, but I decided to go for the Legend since it would be a lot more difficult to get if I decided I wanted it later on.

 

[swo77]

Definitely a rational approach given the limitations. Nobody will ever have an exact facsimile of the real, screen used article no matter how many boogers and imperfections are preserved out of the mold. It simply is not possible and keep in mind we have not even addressed the paint yet (I can see these guys arguing over the number and angle of visible brush strokes, the size of the metallic flakes in the gunmetal paint, etc, etc).

Unless you own the original article, you can only hope to get "close enough for government work" in some respects. What we are being offered, however, is something that was pulled from the original molds and finished in a manner that closely approximates the real article, all at a very accessible price point for the average collector.

That is more than most of us could have asked for and I am pretty stoked about it.

 

[Avenger]

Let's also consider, everyone is analyzing Gino's work, not production work. He's done A LOT of prop replicating and I'm sure was picked for his skills, skills the average Chinese factory worker is probably not going to have. So, even if we can make everyone agree that Gino has the most amazing and accurate piece ever made, that one helmet he did will be the only one that will fit that claim. The rest of us, are undoubtedly going to find the mass produced versions do not hold up 100% to Gino's prototype when nitpicked.

With the bump legend they will use to clean up the masks by, no doubt a worker may accidentally clean one that shouldn't have been removed and send it on down the line. So, the customer masks will certainly vary in accuracy amongst themselves by the RPF expert standards.

Unless Gino personally does every one of the 250 legend versions, things will not be 100% perfect. C-scars will be 2 millimeters off the prototype placement etc. Especially if it's 15 minutes to lunch break. That's the facts of manufacturing. So, the whole argument hardly guarantees any level of in hand product consistency no matter how many screen grabs people post, even if they had mold pics.

The way Gino described it, I can just see the blank stares on the Chinese folks when they went over that bump and ding map. And we're expecting a margin of error of .000001? Good grief. Vader experts need to buy some SSC statues. They'll quickly discover the difference between prototypes and production pieces. After that, c-scar placement will be least on their minds.

 

[Broccoli Shrapnel]

Almost pulled the trigger on one of these. A Vader helmet has been my dream collectible since I was a kid. Both versions look great. But, at the end of the day, I've gotta hold out for either ESB or ROTJ. I've always liked the solid black helmets with black lenses over ANH's two tones and red lenses.

If the ANH helmet is your Vader of choice though, I can't imagine a better or more definitive piece to add to your collection. EFX is certainly injecting a lot of excitement into Star Wars collecting.

From GINO on the RPF:



That should effectively end any silly debates right there (but sadly, it won't).

After reading what Gino wrote, any restraint I had due to this being ANH and not ESB went out the door. PO'd the LE. I don't know that ESB will ever happen, or if another mass-produced SW collectible will ever receive this type of attention again. It sounds like EFX really took a risk with this, and I can't help but appreciate that level of dedication by a company.

Edit: realized the text from Gino didn't quote. Oh well. You get the point.

 

[Avenger]

I figure if they do the other 2 movies, it may be a fine time to have helmets lined up next to each other showing the variations across the movies, sitting in my room. Uh, for academic purposes of course.

 

[swo77]

Unless Gino personally does every one of the 250 legend versions, things will not be 100% perfect. C-scars will be 2 millimeters off the prototype placement etc. Especially if it's 15 minutes to lunch break. That's the facts of manufacturing. So, the whole argument hardly guarantees any level of in hand product consistency no matter how many screen grabs people post, even if they had mold pics.

Bingo.

After reading what Gino wrote, any restraint I had due to this being ANH and not ESB went out the door. PO'd the LE.

 

[Jaycepticon]

I'm aiming for a Helmet, FX Lightsaber, PF display shelf myself

although I'd even "settle" for a Stormtrooper, Vader, Boba helmet display

 

[gibby]

I'm glad to see they released a more detailed statement about the process. Thank you Gino!

I do hope eFX explains more of the production process in the future (as they do with development) to help level set expectations (at least around potential controversial pieces like this one). I personally don't care if I'm getting all the dents/boogers or not, but there are obviously some people that do, and it is probably nice to know ahead of time that it may not come out like the development prototypes cleaned up by Gino and team.

 

[SolidLiquidFox]

Gino made sense with that and I can completely understand eFX here. What makes this item most exciting is that eFX doesn't put out crap. Their QC is very good and they do give a damn.

 

[GreatFire]

Hats off to efx and all involved for the double sell-out. What a tremendous success for fans and the company. I have never been as excited for a Star Wars item.

 

[masterreplicasguy]

I wonder if the workers are under guard 24/7 like in the simpsons when they were making the itchy and scratchy movie. One false move with the sand paper and it's big trouble

Hope all this BS over how "real" the Legend will be doesn't sour eFX from doing the next ones in line ESB ROTJ want to see how those turn out for sure

 

[willocrew]

I'm aiming for a Helmet, FX Lightsaber, PF display shelf myself

although I'd even "settle" for a Stormtrooper, Vader, Boba helmet display

The big three.

 

[IrishJedi]

These will absolutely blow the Sideshow1:1 bust out of the water. Even the LE. If you're on the fence, you better act fast.

 

[QuiGonFishing]

I am Sofa King happy I'm on the pre-order roster for the Legend! This is THE Star Wars prop I've wanted since I was a snot-nosed kid in 1977! Couldn't be more stoked!

Hang on, I'm checking the door again to see if it's arrived...

 

[furystorm]

I was considering dropping my subscription to this thread out of bitterness at being too broke to afford this. But I have to keep reading it just to see QuiGonFishing check the door at least once a day for the next year...

 

[Ultimate Weapon]

It's going to be a long wait, but this thread is going to light up with photos when people start receiving them.

Nice to hear more inside info from Gino on the production. So glad I got my order in for the Legend. It's too bad that the infighting on the RPF will most likely never end, even when these are in hand. And then if someone pulls a new mold from the efx helmet ... I don't even want to think about that.

 

[Jay1138]

This helmet has been on my Most Wanted list since I started collecting SW props. Glad I ordered the Limited.

 

[QuiGonFishing]

I was considering dropping my subscription to this thread out of bitterness at being too broke to afford this. But I have to keep reading it just to see QuiGonFishing check the door at least once a day for the next year...

A year..! If it's not here by next week I'm marching down there to have some harsh words with SOMBODY..! Wait, let me check again...sometimes the mailman get's lost.