Rubies Clone Trooper Helmet

Jan 09 - Paul sent me these photos of a Rubies Deluxe (fiberglass) helmet he picked up recently. Though now eclipsed by the superior e-fx version, Paul's shots show that it wasn't too bad an effort from Rubies

As you can see from these shots the overall finish on the fiberglass is very good. The Aztec type stand looks nice although perhaps a little too big for most shelves, but overall it looks a quality collectible.

According to the plaque 2,500 were made. I don't know if that's how many were produced but that's a hell of a big number for something as niche as this - especially given Rubies never really marketed this range. Shame really as they got caught ion a vicious circle; they didn't promote them sufficiently so they didn't sell, hence there was little interest within Rubies to continue the range.

These are really great photos from Paul, they're nice and big, the camera's a good 5-6 feet away to minimise lens distortion, with a neutral background to help the helmet stand out - perfect.

From these photos it does lok very similar to the more recent e-fx version

...although the teeth/frown and vocoder designs are a little different - and maybe just a little rough round the edges?

Like e-fx, Rubies also included an illuminated beacon on the rear of the helmet a really nice touch.

...so now onto some comparisons, which suggest that its slightly undersize, most certainly if compared to the MR/e-fx line of clone helmets produced a few years later......

So when you compare it with the Master Replicas RotS Clonetrooper you can see that its quite a lot smaller, which is especially evident when you then compare the same comparison with an e-fx AotC Clone helmet as shown below (thanks to of Philip at Rebelscum for the shot). Now one of the accusations made against the MR/e-fx Clone helmets (RotS and AotC) is that they were made slightly oversize - however if this helmet is going to sit along another clone then it is going to look small.

..and another comparison, this time by Paul of his Rubies Clone against an MR (CE) Stormtrooper, again the size difference is quite striking (and in this case we can be sure that the MR Stormtrooper is approximately the correct size to those used in the movie)

Below, thanks to "The Living Source" for the use of these images taken at a show last year

These Deluxe helmets are now in production with a "suggested" $1,300 price tag - a ludicrous figure. However they appear to be coming up on ebay at a more respectable $500-$600 although still an premium figure for a less then 100% perfect product!.

Below the cheap Rubies "Collectors" Helmet - usually retails for $50 and I suppose you get what you pay for!

Strangely, according to their brochure, both the Collectors' Clone Trooper and Jango Fett look identical to their "Deluxe injected 2-piece mask" equivalents (ref 4118/4116). It looks like they incorrectly used the same photo for both models, as the 2-piece is obviously different. IN reality these are more "dress up" masks as opposed to collectible helmets.