eFX Darth Vader A NEW HOPE Helmet!

[jkno]

Thanks, Sergiu!

Well, I cheat a little bit on the mannequin. At one point, I built an extendor at the waist to give it extra height. It didn't work. It looked all wrong, and caused too much separation between the armor, chestbox, and belt. So I basically shaved off the head of the mannequin, making the neck where the head used to be, and padding it a bit. It's proportions aren't perfect, but it looks right to me. Without the helmet on, it's about 6'4" - 6' 5". Depending on who you talk to, Prowse was somewhere in that range. I've seen some people overdo it with both bulk and height, and I don't like the look. I have lots of padding if I ever want to bulk it more, but it looks right to me. The part of it I don't like is the arms. I have to do some flexible wire-based arms, but I'm not sure how to attach them to the mannequin's torso.

The result is great!! BTW cool SDS helmet there Is it the stunt? I need to get me the stunt soon.

 

[Hedji]

Thanks! Yeah, it's the stunt. Got a great price on it a few years ago.

I like it, despite the controversy. I'd really like at some point to explore some other, perhaps better TK helmets, but for now, this is a good one for me. It's not the sturdiest helmet. I have a tough time keeping the black seal along the bottom from slipping off if I handle it. But, still it displays well.

 

[jkno]

Thanks! Yeah, it's the stunt. Got a great price on it a few years ago.

I like it, despite the controversy. I'd really like at some point to explore some other, perhaps better TK helmets, but for now, this is a good one for me. It's not the sturdiest helmet. I have a tough time keeping the black seal along the bottom from slipping off if I handle it. But, still it displays well.

I know what you mean. I already have the SDS hero (plus SDS Stormie armor) and the SDS TIE Pilot helmet and armor and both helmets differ from MR/eFX LE versions. They are closer to the original helmets in the way they are made, and that is why I like them. I use the SDS Hero for my Stormie armor since it is sturdier than the stunt, and didn't want the Battle Spec. The stunt helmet, being the most fragile of the SDS helmets, will be displayed inside the cabinet on its stand and thus join the other Stormie helmets. I also had great deals on my SDS stuff. Really great.

As for better TK helmets there are some, though quite expensive too. After I get the SDS stunt I intend to get some other Stormie helmets as well, since this is my main focus: AP, CfO ROTJ, TE/2 and maybe even a Gino, but will get these helmets only if assembled by professionals (not by me LOL).

 

[Chaosorb]

You know I thought I knew a lot about SW until reading these forums and realized I'm just an average collector. Some people are just too fanatical about every little detail and yes I can understand with the amount of money some collectibles cost but give me a break. This helmet is by far the best representation I've seen of any Vader helmet on the market to date. Why can't we be happy about how awesome this thing is and stop nit picking it to death. Collecting is supposed to be fun people!! By the way Gino love your work, keep it up and who cares what the snobs think.

 

[jason2885]

They increased the edition size to 364.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing" appropriately stated Darth Vader in A New Hope. Like the Force, we should never underestimate the power of the passion and the loyalty of Star War fans, even in these challenging economic times!



First, we would like to thank you for your pre-order of the Legend Edition of our ANH Darth Vader Helmet. For your reference, your order number is: XXXXXX.



Due to the very unique nature of this piece, with all the dents, scratches and other imperfections, we thought that this helmet would only appeal to a small group of fans, thus the edition size was determined to be 250 pieces worldwide. We could not have been more wrong!



And you ask just how much of his "mojo" does Vader still have after 34 years? Well, according to the stats provided by our ISP, we got more than a half million hits between 8AM and 10 AM! This, of course, was due to a combination of so many people accessing our website to place their pre-order and people repeatedly refreshing. Due to this unusually high traffic, there was a huge lag on the site and the shopping cart suddenly got hit with a surge of BUY NOW requests that exceeded the inventory. The pre-order was immediately closed, but unfortunately, this took some time to take effect. Also, it did not affect customers who had already clicked on the BUY NOW button. One customer told me that he waited almost an hour after he clicked on the submit order button for his order to be confirmed.



There were too many variables, such as connection lag, credit card gateway connection, ISP connection speed, etc. for us to fairly determine the actual first 250 people to place their pre-orders. We have therefore decided to honor all CONFIRMED pre-orders and increase the edition size to match the pre-order quantity. (If you received this e-mail, you have a confirmed order.)



We have finished verifying each and every pre-order and we have determined that the final edition size to be 364 pieces.



Please note that this does NOT include the more than 100 people who signed up for our wait list after the pre-order was closed.



As a special "Thank You, " we have asked one of our favorite Star Wars artist, Tsuneo Sunda, to create a special art piece based on the ANH Darth Vader helmet. We will include a full color lithograph, made by our friends at ACME Archives, to complement your display. For those not familiar with Tsuneo Sunda, here is a sneak peak of the work in progress. You can see other works of this very talented artist at ACME Archives Direct .



And that's not all! We are not only pleased, but very honored, to announce that Brian Muir , the original sculptor of this iconic Darth Vader helmet, has agreed to sign an exclusive plaque to accompany your Legend Edition!



Also check out Brian's autobiography "In the Shadow of Vader" Order information is available on his website.









Of course, if you would like to cancel your pre-order, we will be happy to and refund your deposit.



Once again, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. We are confident that you will agree that it is the right decision to allow fellow Star Wars fans who followed the correct procedures and was given a confirmation, to own one of these helmets.

 

[icruise]

Just got that from eFX. Pretty big news. I'm not too happy about them increasing the edition size, although guess it's better than canceling people's orders. The other bonuses are nice.

 

[wofford29]

Might want to edit your order number out of that post Jason.

 

[automaton]

i don't mind at all that the edition size has increased... nothing wrong with another 114 very happy people on the planet. let's hope it doesn't slow tings down too much.

 

[kaidoy021]

the added signature plaque is a bonus!! me likes

 

[silentman116]

Well, I guess those of us in the Legend Edition Elite just became a little less elite. I must admit that I'm a little disappointed by this. I hope the addition of another 114 helmets to the run won't compromise the quality of the hand-painted details. I can take or leave the lithograph and signature. I'd rather have a more limited piece. Oh well. It's still the one to own out of the two versions.

 

[steveo]

Just received this letter also. The Litho looks like it will be awesome.

 

[wofford29]

As for the edition increase, well they can suck my ass. Such a ____ed up looking edition size now. I don't collect Star Wars art so I don't need a print and I don't want anyone's John Hancock signed on anything involving this unless it's George ____ing Lucas himself. Too many variables to determine the first 250? Really? Look at the order times! I don't give a ____ if someone lagged out. Give the orders to the first time stamped 250 and leave the edition size untouched. If I'm not one of the 250 oh well, sucks for me.

 

[jason2885]

Might want to edit your order number out of that post Jason.

Thanks I didnt see it before I posted it.

 

[jstep13]

As for the edition increase, well they can suck my ass. Such a ____ed up looking edition size now. I don't collect Star Wars art so I don't need a print and I don't want anyone's John Hancock signed on anything involving this unless it's George ____ing Lucas himself. Too many variables to determine the first 250? Really? Look at the order times! I don't give a ____ if someone lagged out. Give the orders to the first time stamped 250 and leave the edition size untouched. If I'm not one of the 250 oh well, sucks for me.

If it bothers you so much, it says you can cancel and they will refund your deposit...

But my guess is, you'll be keeping it

 

[wofford29]

If it bothers you so much, it says you can cancel and they will refund your deposit...

But my guess is, you'll be keeping it

Yeah, that justifies it.

I'm actually considering it.

The excuse just doesn't fit the action. If you're going to accomodate a random 114 why not the wait listers as well, after all they signed up because they couldn't get their order in which also falls under the lag excuse. They use demand as the reasoning yet only 364 orders went in out of a supposed half million people on the site? My point is you're not going to make everyone happy that wanted this thing so why bother raising the edition size. They should look at the time stamps and honor those orders. SOL if you're outside the 250. If I was a waitlister I'd be pissed as well.

 

[Avenger]

I guess I'm feeling mixed about it. Frankly, the signature was probably going to happen either way. You don't call up someone and say "we goofed on our order taking, would you sign a bunch of stuff to help us look better". The print, may or may not have been coming. I was pretty quick on the order, so I don't "think" I'd have to lose mine. But I guess it could have happened. Better to be one of the 114 now than before I guess.

One difference wofford is that they collected the deposit on all these folks, waitlisters never paid anything. So, that's one thing for better or worse. I'd be pissed to pay the deposit, spend weeks thinking I had a Legend coming, only to find out my $ is coming back and no vader period since they're all sold out now. At least wait listers were able to go after the regular. Many Legend buyers probably just bought that. I guess they could up the regular edition and offer that as a consolation. Who knows.

I do hope they make the number make sense. Not some weird random looking number like they pulled it out of a hat.

 

[icruise]

They use demand as the reasoning yet only 364 orders went in out of a supposed half million people on the site? My point is you're not going to make everyone happy that wanted this thing so why bother raising the edition size.

Well, they didn't say anything about half a million people. It doesn't take that many nerds refreshing every 5 seconds to get to half a million accesses.

 

[jason2885]

Well, they didn't say anything about half a million people. It doesn't take that many nerds refreshing every 5 seconds to get to half a million accesses.

That is very true F5 is an amazing button on the keyboard.

 

[Avenger]

I build websites for a living. With any half-decent web traffic/tracking system in place, you can distinguish hits from unique users really easy. Even the free stuff will do that.

EDIT: I see they said hits, so yeah not many nerd refreshes would be needed to rack those up. Wonder why they didn't use users...

Well, their site has needed some upgrading. I hope this fiasco will make them consider investing in it.

 

[Darth Waller]

I got the same email. While the 250 ES would've been better, I still feel privileged having a limited item such as this. The extras sound cool as well.