Master replicas collectors edition stormtrooper helmet

The only difference with the Prototype 2 helmet reviewed below seems to be a very slight softening of the ears - mainly the 3 bumps in the centre and the circular step going round the ear. The helmets are shipped with both Green and Grey lenses so you can take your pick - I've gone for the latter. Despite an original declaration that the run would be 2, as per the numbered plaque , only 1, were actually made, along with another AP's Update 8th July - Bryan at MR kindly sent me the second and final Stormtrooper prototype for review.

For comparison shots of this helmet against the fan-made GF then go here Well here it is, and its a great improvement on what already was a very nice helmet. The key changes over the first prototype shown lower down this page is that the ears are now separate as per the originals and they've also been slightly redesigned.

In addition there has been a significant change to the frown area which is now much sharper and more accurate - more of this later.

There's likely to be a few minor last-minute changes to it before it goes into production, but this will mainly be the detailing since some of the colours used on this helmet are a little too dark such as the grey of the frown and the Blue tube stripes. You can ignore the plaque as its from my Shock Trooper. So first off lets compare it with the first prototype I reviewed 5 months ago. As you can see the new helmet on the right now has totally separate ears, which are no longer part of the main helmet body.

Don't give me any of this " Well the way the Empire wouldn't have had a wonky helmet with a gap between the cheek and the ears blah blah blah " - The majority of fans want the helmets to look as close to what they saw on-screen and thats what MR has tried to achieve. Kudos to them for not over-sanitising what is a wonderful piece of film costume design!

The eye lenses are now significantly darker than before, although for the helmet I had to review they were not the final versions. Note to self, expect to see lots of " Green Hero Stormtrooper lenses - used on once, no longer required " on ebay I keed, I keed!!!! Not only is the ear improved as its separate, its also been significantly redesigned as you can see below. The overall shape of the ear has changed, with the graduated step now reduced along with a general softening of the 3 ear bumps which will be softened even more before production.

The ears on the original Hero Stormtroopers of which only 6 were made back in were really poor, since the moulds by this stage had been used so many times for the Stunt Stormtroopers that they were in really bad condition, being patched up many times in the process. MR has tried to keep the overall design in place without going for something as badly deformed as the originals were and IMO this is a sensible compromise.

There's now just a single screw holding the top in the ear, which is correct for the Hero's and its painted white. Overall the helmet has been sharpened and better defined in several areas such as the trapezoids, and this is most evident in the frown and specifically the teeth Here's a close up and you can see how sharp that top lip of the frown now is, this really is a vast improvement over the first prototype. In addition there now correctly are only 3 teeth either side and the shape of them has been improved hugely to the extent that the centre tooth has the nice, slightly "hour glass" curvature to it.

Next the obligatory shot from the rear, not much has changed here except the trapezoids are a little sharper. The black vocoder has also been slightly sharpened. So there's only a few minor things to do now.

The painting on this helmet is more accurate than the first prototype and for example the trapezoids now have a nice curve to them on the upper edges. As previously mentioned the colours need sorting out, the blue tube stripes looking really dark when I photographed then but then it was a very sunny day. So to recap, this is a fiberglass helmet as opposed to the originals which were ABS , but as you can see it really captures the look of the originals.

From from a China-volume-production perspective fiberglass was always going to be the best way for MR to go. Although MR had access to the one and only remaining Hero in the Lucasfilm archives which allowed them to get the paint and detailing correct , LFL were understandably not going to let them disassemble and recast that last helmet so instead used a Stunt as the base.

Remember in the Stunt and Hero's came from the same base mould anyway. So just to reaffirm that MR's done a superb job on this helmet and its a very well received collectible. The only shame is that due to MR losing the LFL license it will not be following up with the range of helmets we had all expected.

However, the news of e-FX's launch incorporating many people from MR should ensure a constant supply of quality helmets to talk about in the future.

Thanks again to Bryan and MR for letting us have this review helmet. In all MR produced 1, helmets plus a further Artist Proof's , which is considerably less than the 2, originally envisaged and in fact will deliver something like 70 less than originally ordered so there'll be some unhappy collectors. Bottom line is the helmet didn't actually hit collectors until MR had lost the license which probably explains the gap. Above, I'd had a few emails from people asking me whether the warping on their MR Stormtrooper helmet is "normal".

Well hopefully from the photo above you can see that it is. I'm VERY glad to say that MR did the right thing and closely replicated the asymmetry of the original helmets, which were very wonky indeed as this photo from dead above shows. So the next time your girlfriend asks " Darling, is it supposed to look like that?

Similarly if she asks about your new MR helmet you can reply the same. However there was some criticism of the prototype shown on their site and concern that this was perhaps going to be a missed opportunity for MR. Following a couple of conversations earlier in the week, Bryan kindly sent me the prototype Hero Stormtrooper helmet to look over, so I've been able to spend a bit of time studying it - and taking some shots. Remember this is the prototype helmet so areas such as the ears, frown, eye lenses and bump under the eye are already marked for change As mentioned above you need to ignore the ears, which do kind of stand out.

They're for the chop! As with the Clone's, Ive been really impressed with the build quality of this helmet. Sure there are a few things that need to be altered, but I'm really pleased that they're prepared to listen to collectors before finally going into production. Bryan at MR's already identified a few areas that will be changed on the production version, and these along with a few other minor tweaks will result in what IMO will be a really great collectible.

In the photo below the ear looks a bit odd, but more concerning is the decal on the side of the upper trapezoid - which looks too small for the indent its trying to fill. Otherwise the angle of the face looks good - giving it quite a mean look. A shot of the inside reveals its four-part design. The eye lenses are thin acrylic sheeting correct for the Stunt version. MR's added a bit of padding for the eyes as well as the roof of the helmet, and also added some kind of grill-like material for the teeth.

It sounds like there was some concern from collectors that these would be difficult to get hold of, however I do not think this will be the case given over 4, will be on their way from China over the coming weeks. In reality, given the current lack of interest in Star Wars I imagine both retailers will have stocks for quite a looooooong time.

It would be wrong to compare this with the Master Replicas LE helmet at almost four times the price, as this is clearly a budget lid. Again thanks to Matt B and Kroenen '77 for the great photos. Its when you see them side by side that you so just how inaccurate the FX was. Sure it was great at the time when it was all we could get but time moves on! Really useful comparison. Finally some shots from Darren B of his modified Master Replicas CE - which go to show what a really great looking helmet this can look - at a very affordable price.