TonyRB (Cyberant) has been suggesting I add
these to the archive. Though not 1:1 size helmets, the Riddell ad Master
Replicas "Scaled" or "Mini"
Helmets are really quite wonderful reproductions of the screen-used
helmets albeit at just 45% of actual size. Given the reasonable costs of
these little chappies it's just a darn shame that no one's been able to
officially produce anything close to these in realism at the full 10%
size.
So we'll start off with the Riddell range, with the MR lower down the
page. Riddell came to the market with these great little collectibles a
few years back, but stopped production around 2003/4 just as Master
Replicas picked up on the "scaled prop" license. In producing its scaled
helmet range, MR purchased Riddell's moulds for its range - hence
they are in may respects the same.
In 2008, Gentle Giant will continue the range, having picked up on MR's
moulds - most of which came originally from Riddell! |
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Riddell's Mini Helmets |
| We took these in the Garden the other day and the lighting's just
right. Not only do these little beasties look good on the outside, most of
them also have internal detailing making them look pretty fantastic. |
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The Luke X-Wing looks great (perhaps a bit too clean),
and C-3PO's light up when you walk past! |
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The ROTJ Stormtrooper is the rarest with prices
currently fetching $150 on ebay, and Boba's not far behind. Both are
finished really well and feature some great internal detailing. |
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The ROTJ Vader's nice and you can pull the whole thing
apart for the "Reveal" look. |
Riddell only ever produced five Star Wars
helmet which is a darn shame since a Tie Pilot, ATAT Driver, Tusken
Raider, Royal Guard and Biker Scout would have I am sure looked similarly
brilliant. Most of the range were flogged off cheap at discount toy stores
with only the Stormtrooper and Boba fetching a premium. I can only presume
Riddell backed off, licked it wounds and went back to producing American
Football and Baseball helmets. Now that's a shame!
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Prototype Riddell's |
| Here's some shots of the prototype TIE Pilot
helmet which never actually went into production which is a darn shame as
it clearly looks excellent. The Issue with Riddell's range is a common
problem in that initially sales were disappointing on the range and as
with a number of things it was only when they went out of production that
people started to realise what really nice collectors pieces these were. |
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| This above shot is by kind permission from Sandtrooper
Jason's Excellent Riddell Visual Guide which is certainly worth
checking out if you're looking for more detail on these great mini
helmets. Just click on the link above. |
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Master Replicas Scaled Helmet Range
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| So in 2005/6 MR picked up on the
Lucasfilm license, adding "Scaled" props and helmets to their range. Rather
than reinventing the wheel, MR bought Riddell's moulds and apart from a
revised "MR-style" stand, many of these are effectively the same great .45
scale Riddell mini helmets. Fist off lets get the "Riddell" ones out of
the way, and the Vader, Luke X-Wing, Boba and RotJ Stormtrooper are like for
like the same as the Riddell's, apart from the revised MR stand. Pics
courtesy of Luke S, BenObi70 and Chuck. |
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| Below our favourite Mandalorian
looks great. The weathering's slightly different from the Riddell but
otherwise its the same helmet - the Boba and Trooper pics thanks to Chuck. |
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| MR's Return of the Jedi inspired
Stormtrooper below was especially well received since the Riddell one was VERY
hard to find and at times fetched over $100 on eBay. |
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| So looking at the "new" scaled
helmets MR was able to produce, the Wedge Antilles Celebration 4 Conference
Exclusive was a rather nice helmet. Yes I know its just a repaint of the
Luke X-Wing, but it IS a really nice repaint! Thanks to Orlando for
these shots. |
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| Again, following MR's penchant for
"getting the best of their moulds", they produced a colour variation
to the Stormtrooper, giving us a Expanded Universe Shadow Trooper top go
along side their full 1:1 scale helmet - love the chrome lenses!. |
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| Above a nice shot from Msmjr2003 of
his scaled Shadow and below thanks to Chuck for his. |
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| This was the "30th Anniversary
Convention Exclusive" here in the UK, but was produced in big enough
numbers to ensure that there should be enough of these around to meet
demand. |
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| Okay, so what about something
REALLY new I hear you ask? Well to be fair to them they produced a superb
scaled Clone, and in most part reproduced the same range of helmets that
they did for the 1:1 scale collection (featured here) |
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| So lets take a closer look at them
separately, 501st Legion Clone Helmet, Standard Clone and finally Commander Gree. These great clone pics and the group shot top the MR section
courtesy of QQb. |
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| ...and in the photo below, the side
view shows just how accurate this helmet is. |
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| Like the Riddell range the MR
scaled helmets really are cool mini replicas
and having access to the original digital files has really paid off as
they've produced what appears to be a perfect scale model of the original CG
version. To illustrate this, QQb's produced this really great comparison
shot of the 1:1 MR next to the 1:0.45 scale. |
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| MR also produced other exclusives in this range including the
Shock Trooper for the UK market, thanks to Darth Fetty for these pics. |
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| ..and Darth Fetty's also given us a
good photo of the insides showing the detail - very similar to the
Stormtrooper. |
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| Finally the Utapau Shadow Clone
Trooper - again there were plans to do a 1:1 full scale version of this but
it never happened as MR ran out of time. However the scale helmet is still
do for release and is
down as a Razors Edge Collectibles exclusive due end of Jan. Thanks to Yodasnews for this
picture. |
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| So........ why no TIE?
Well MR was planning on producing the scaled TIE helmet, but just like Riddell
it ran out of time. There's no doubt that the Scaled helmet range has been
very popular and so WILL continue from Gentle Giant from 2008. My only
advice to them is therefore RELEASE THE TIE FIRST GUYS!!!!!! |
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Customised Riddell's
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These shots are from Uber Fett who's produced his own
Jango Fett for the base Riddell Boba Fett helmet, which I think is rather
excellent. Maybe this is the best way
forward, If licensees wont produce the helmets the fans want, then perhaps
we should do it ourselves! |
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| I'm really starting to like these Riddell
Helmets, especially these excellent bespoke versions. Here's another, this
one by Steve from Richie's Armor who did for Garick Hagon (played
soon-to-be-dead Biggs in ANH). Steve did a great job on this and presented to
Garick at Dragon con in 2001. |
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...and here's a shot of the helmet along with a signed
photo from Biggs himself. |
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