The New Stormtrooper Helmet Star Wars fans Are Crazy For

Star Wars Black Series Full Size Stormtrooper Helmet

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you may recall I took the plunge on purchasing a life size replica of a Stormtrooper helmet last year. Overall I was pretty happy with it, close inspection of it highlights the fact it’s a home based kit made to order, the biggest giveaway of that being I have to turn the helmet sideways to get it over my head because the mould was probably squashed somehow and the painted on elements are okay..ish - but it’s functional in that it sits on my desk as an ornament and that is the only reason I bought it.

I have an absolute obsession with the original Stormtroopers – I even have a Pinterest page dedicated to them here

Last year HASBO released the Kylo Ren cosplay replica helmet as part of its Black Series, an impressive mould and likeness from the movie, it gave cosplayers the leg up they needed when looking to recreate the Force Awakens ultimate villain.

Now on the horizon (launching just in time for Halloween 2016) Hasbro have followed up the impressive Kylo Ren mask with the Imperial Stormtrooper full 1:1 scale helmet.

Now  the armour purists out there who know the sculpt differences in the helmets between ANH, ESB and ROTJ helmets (add to that now Rogue One sculpts) and the arguments for and against Andrew Ainsworth moulds it will be interesting to see how these are received – early indications from looking at the Replica Prop Forum comments suggest that this one for the price and accuracy is a winner. For many collectors the EFX version is the holy grail for costumers and collectors.

One of the standout differences with the Black Series version to all that have gone before it and are approved by the current 501^st costuming ‘rules’ is the indents along the sides, in the original trilogy of films these hash / chevron lines are always represented by decals (see, we’re in real nerd country now) , however in Rogue One these are clearly indented...and straight not curved (see photo from Rogue One costume display below) and painted like the Black Series version which does suggest that this is a Rogue One Stormtrooper lid.

 Above: Rogue One Stormtrooper costume, note indents along side of helmet

The other difference is that the right hand eye socket doesn’t have the bump on the lower eye lid, the small movie imperfection that was in the original mould when the Stormtrooper helmets were created, collectors and 501^st troopers swear by the eye bump ( see below) as an indication of movie authenticity. See I told you it was the small things. Anyway, this is completely absent on the new Hasbro Black series lid but 90% of the collectors who are going to grab this probably don’t really care.

Throw into that a half decent voice changer this is perhaps as close as anyone is going to get to an affordable and movie accurate Stormtrooper lid.

Above: ABS plastic, sharp detail and and a movie accurate sculpt, what's not to like!?

Amazon is listing the helmets now with a launch date of 28th Oct.