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Original Imperial TIE Pilot Helmets
from A New Hope and Return of the Jedi |
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This section is
split into three parts.....
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| Personally-speaking the TIE Fighter
Pilot was always one of my favourites as a kid. I remember when the original
Kenner 12-backs came out there was no TIE Pilot so I was forced to turn to a
black can of spray-paint on a trusty Stormtrooper. However, despite the two
character sharing the same face-plate, there's obviously a huge difference
between them. |
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| Above a shot from May 1976 of Andre
Ainsworth at Shepperton Design Studio's in front of the 14 helmets made for
production. Note that one of the TIE's if fully completed with decals, tubes
and chest-box - with Andrew wearing the armor and a groovy 1970's beard. |
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| ..and above a better shot of that
completed TIE helmet, armor and chest-box. Of the 14 made for the movie it
seems that the studio were only invoiced for 12 leaving 2 over for Ainsworth
and John Mollo. |
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Above and below are shots of one of
the original "Hero" Tie Pilots (ie detailed with highlights) , used in ANH and
ROTJ. |
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Below some shots sent to me by Anson of what purports to be one of the
screen-used Tie Pilots. As a comparison the "screen accurate"
Don Post Classic Action and Deluxe helmets are (in inches)11W x 15L x13H
which make this look a little small. |
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Above, a photo from a past Christies Auction for
a "Prop Imperial Fighter Pilot's Helmet, of black vacu-formed
plastic, with ridged top and sides, simulated vents and clear plastic
eyepieces, decorated with two circular black and silver stickers -- made
for the 1977 20th
Century Fox/Lucasfilm production Star Wars; accompanied by a letter
concerning the provenance"
It then goes on to say "Identical helmets can be seen worn by
the Imperial Fighter pilots in the battle sequence with the X-Wing Star
Fighters. This helmet was presented as a gift from John Mollo to Andrew
Ainsworth after being used during filming".
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| Above a behind the scenes image from
Christie's if the Tie prop. Below a shot I had
not seen before (thanks Stormtrooper) showing the rear view of this
TIE helmet. This one has a vac-formed detail as oppose to the pill box
found on one of the other helmets. |
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| Below a shot of a completed TIE Pilot from the Might Of Magic
Exhibition (unknown source) which Tim Steele's dug out and sent to me. |
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| Below, a cool Hi Def screengrab of a TIE helmet
from ANH. |
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| ..and below some more Hi Defs from RoCKo |
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| on the next one you can see the actors eyes
through the right hand lens. Peek a boo! |
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| If we fast-forward over 30 years
this same helmet is photographed below as we were able to get our hands on this
very same helmet recently, thanks to
Stephen Lane at the Propstore. As you can see its still in fantastic
condition. |
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| The helmets in wonderful condition
and the highlighted paintwork is a graphite colour in appearance
rather than "silver/grey" which we previously thought - all hand painted
on. On the shot above you can even make out the detail in the Aurebesh
pilot-ID letter/numbering on the forehead. |
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| Above a straight on comparison with
a screen grab of the actual helmet in action and the match is clear. The
distressed weathering on the cogs was interesting - from the looks of it the
costuming guys seemed to have gone to work on it with something like wire
wool pads, with a bit of the graphite paint smudged in. |
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| The helmet was almost exactly the
same as the other Original TIE we reviewed some years back (the
Video
of which is here - and Photo's are here).
Though the great thing about this helmet is that it can be specifically
placed in the movie due to its "Hero" highlights. |
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| The graphite-coloured highlights
were added to differentiate the different pilots from each other in the
Movie and to also add lighting highlights in the dim cock-pit setting. |
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| As with the other TIE's it has
smoked Grey lenses. In addition the two plastic greeblies between the mohawk
were also present. Again thanks to Stephen for the chance to review this
helmet. |
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| When we said that the TIE's weren't
seen in ESB that's not entirely true, since one TIE was seen in Empire -
although its very hard to notice...... |
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| Not sure what the background to this
is but its certainly one of the ANH TIE's. Maybe it was an unused prototype
Bounty Hunter from the line-up, or perhaps just a case of them butchering an
old set for some ESB set dressing..... |
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If you're after more TIE info then don't forget to check out.....
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