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Rubies Deluxe Darth Vader
Helmet |
| When Don Post ceased helmet production, Rubies
stepped in and purchased many of Post's previous moulds. As a "costuming
company" they agreed a specific license from Lucasfilm that would cover
their new Star Wars range. Much of what they produced were low-cost
kids-dress-up sets - although they also tried (unconvincingly) to attack the
more serious collectors market. If truth be told they failed! However
there are one or two decent products in Rubie's range, and the Deluxe Vader
was one of them. It looks like they've taken the old Don Post Deluxe mould
as the source, even down to using the same incorrect (reflected) Black and
silver/grey colour scheme. Why on earth they decided to flip the colour
scheme though is just beyond me! |
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Thomas in Germany has sent us these great shots of his
Rubies Deluxe Vader |
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Superb photos Thomas, The Rubies Vader has never looked so
good! Manufactured in fiberglass its full 1:1 scale and has a very solid
feel to it. |
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| We've never seen the Rubes and Don Post side by
side but from these shots they look to be almost exactly the same. When Don
Post produced their Vader some of the later edition numbers suffered from
mould droop (sounds nasty!), but we're not sure if that had any impact here
given newer production techniques. |
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| The Rubies Vader came on this interesting Inca
style presentation base - and is not a bad package. |
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| Below a non-too complementary shot of the
helmet when it was first shown off at a trade show in 2004 |
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Limited Silver Edition (Fiberglass)
Vader Helmet |
| In addition to the usual (Black/Grey) Fiberglass Limited
Edition Deluxe Vader Helmet,
Rubies also made a limited edition Silver Version for a cool $2000!
Not sure which genius in the Marketing Department thought up this one! Odder
still in that it appears that they painted it silver. Now a
fully-chromed Vader helmet would have looked completely bonkers but cool.
This just looks cheap. Sorry to be negative but this was just a really dumb
idea! |
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Supreme Edition Vader
Helmet Next onto Rubies $130 Supreme
Edition Vader. Now given the price its really not too bad. In trying to
emulate what Don Post did with the Classic Action Rubies has produced a
"full size" Vader helmet out of cheaper vinyl materials. So its practically 1:1 scale (i.e its BIG) and features a
2-tone Gloss and Matt Black paint scheme similar to the RotS Vader. |
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| Its an interesting helmet and to be fair, given
the price-point Rubies have been working to they've done a really good job,
especially given the metal billets and mouth screens which they could have
easily copped out on and done in plastic. |
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| From certain angels it photographs really well,
although from others maybe not quite so good. However for costuming it would
be an excellent start and many will be buying these and adding their own
lenses, 2nd set of mouth screens and a repaint to produce a great low cost
costuming helmet. |
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The packaging suggests that its cast off the Original
Revenge of the Sith moulds, but I'm pretty sure its actually off one of
the ESB helmets and most likely derives from something Rubies picked up off
Don Post when they took over the LFL License. |
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Its going for about $100 from eBay sellers and at that price
for costuming its a no-brainer.
Below a Rubies Studio shot which actually makes it look less impressive than
real life. Nice on guys! |
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| The following new photos of their "Supreme Edition" Vader Helmets
are all courtesy of Stormtrooper527. His excellent photos show off just how
much better this helmet can look. |
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Made of vac-formed plastic, this two-piece design actually
has metal tusks as well as proper grills. It looks like its an ESB rather
than a RotS, which is not a bad thing. Again it has the incorrect reversed
colour scheme (gloss and matt black in this case) which I can only think is
under the direction of Lucasfilm who don't want it to be mistaken for an
original. That'd be like confusing Sarah Palin for Megan Fox. |
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| You can see that the dome's quite thin, but
then for $130 what do you expect? I think many people are going to use this
as a base for a costume since you're not investing $100 in something you
know is going to get knocked around, plus its lightweight. |
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| A close-up of the eyes and nose section. I think its introduction will
signal a fall in price of the old Don Post Classic Action Vader which used
to be the preferred costuming helmet and would demand huge prices on ebay
(for what was originally a $120 helmet). Below an inside shot showing the
strap and padding - very comfy. |
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| Below some photos from Joe S who
having just received his Rubies helmet, has already done some work to it
with a custom paint job. |
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| Joe explains " I received the helmet last week and the mould used was
nice, but the helmet was boring since it lacked colour. So I painted it gun
metal and gloss black and added an extra grill on the inside. The
difference was like night and day. It looks like a totally different
helmet. I used the incorrect reverse paint scheme since the lines were
already moulded on the helmet." Well for what appears to have
been only a small amount of effort, the results are EXCELLENT and I think
that to take it one stage further and replace the lenses and nose section
would really make this a great low-cost Vader helmet. |
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| And above Sascha sent me this
composite shot of his Rubies Supreme Vader suit. Not a bad off-the-shelf
"low cost" costume! Below is Daniele V's Rubies helmet, along with
Altmann's shoulders and a GT chest-box - with the soft parts made by
himself - nice work. |
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| Below, a couple of shots from Federico in
San Marino of his superb, heavily modified Rubies Supreme helmet |
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| Not sure what the should armour's
derived form but great work either way! |
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| Below, these pics were sent to me
from Bounos in Australia of his Rubies Vader helmet which he's adapted as
rubies helmets. However I'm not sure if it was a plastic Supreme or
the Fiberglass Deluxe (I presume the latter which would make it similar to
the old Don Post standard) |
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| Extremely impressive work! |
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Here's the Vader Costume, although
for a recommended retail price of $1,000 its still going to be sold to quite a
niche market. It features the Plastic "Supreme Edition" Helmet and
also includes a Vader voice changer! By the time it hits eBay this
will be available at a much lower price I'm sure - say $400-$500. The parts all look like injection
moulded plastic (rather then Fiberglass) and the cloth looks lightweight but
it could still be fun. |
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| Below, here's some photos from Dan
from
http://www.thedarklordofthesith.com/ of his Supreme Vader costume,
although this one is paired with a Don Post Classic Action lid (not the
Rubies Supreme) |
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| The supreme costume is not bad but
the capes are very lightweight, as is the body suit and hard parts. But on a
mannequin it looks more than half decent, although the helmet that Dan's
used (a totally remade/painted etc.) Don Post Classic Action has made a huge
improvement. See the Don Post section for more
shots of the Classic Action helmet. |
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