camprandall

Cool. Just don't go and make anything required for Centurion that I don't feel like doing, ok?

We have an informal name for it now. The "Laser Ax".

I guess we'll all find out in Q4 of 2017 Q1 of 2018 Q2 of 2018 Q3 of 2018 Q4 of 2018 Q1 of 2019!

Welcome back to another episode of "why in the hell did I start this thread?"!! So there are more and more helmet options popping up. I'll post some additional pics here, but keeping up with comparisons is going to prove challenging. Good news for us though, right? ANOVOS TDK PROPS

Yeah, I see it now. Thanks! I'm working with Sean Fields on a 3D model right now so the Hot Toys stuff is awesome. I actually built most of my Megablaster off of theirs and it proved pretty dang close and gave all kinds of views the movie never did.

Where are you seeing all the pics Q? Is there a higher res of the Hot Toys stuff?

Yeah, I did a refund on a previous order and it took around 5 weeks to get the money.

That would certainly be great, but did you just chat with them and they said they haven't moved the date? That's been their MO. It's the same until they change it. If you talked with someone more personally, that could be different. I asked weeks ago and they basically just said that it still shows Summer 2017, which was just regurgitating their posted timeline.

My only optimism in this is that it might be similar to the Classic TK offering where they didn't miss the original mark by too much. Of course, some people waited a real long time and that was with us getting email updates once in a while. There's been absolutely nothing on this one at all so I'm very doubtful it will arrive in time to build it for the movie release.

I agree with your comments on the various helmets. It's super early to compare, but also helpful since people want to get things in order for the premiere.

I used these and they work great! I pulled the board out of my aker amp and velcro'd it inside the helmet. I put speaker cloth behind the cheek vents and then used craft foam to back the speaker to seal it in and cut down on feedback. I got the idea from uskwrath offering that gives you a complete kit. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LWRDHMI/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Do you have any worries about popping the magnets off trying to pull it apart to get it off? Cool idea though!

Yep. That spawned a lot more interest in the riot baton last year. We do Alamo Drafthouse for the opening and they let us carry whatever we want, but most places now don't prefer the guns. It's fine. The First Order has lots of cool stuff.

I really dig these guys, but it kinda makes me laugh with all of the caution around prop weapons and how we troop. "Please leave your guns at home. And welcome to our new chop-off-your-head troopers!"

Ok, I updated the comparison to include Jimmi's offering, though there aren't really good photos that I could find. A clearer photo of a finished bucket would be helpful.

It's typically really hard to say with lenses. That could be human skin showing through or lighting or editing or a lot of things. We'll probably need to see one of these in person to know for sure.

Ok, thanks! I'll update this later throwing Jim's in too.

I haven't even seen it. Do you have a link?

Do you keep track of a budget of things you've bought because of me? To be fair, you're the reason I spent $75 making an in-helmet mic/speaker system for my TFA, ordered wire mesh, and made some mods to my suit.

Glad you're on here Derrek! I think that one of the things our group is best at is getting better, but I absolutely don't believe in trashing people who take the time to make these props. It's awesome when prop makers and costumers create a positive feedback loop. I also don't expect perfection from people either. People are free to buy or not buy, but I know I've certainly had a lot of fun doing new movie costumes despite them not having the benefit of years of perfection. Sure, the Shoretrooper will be flawless in 3 years, but I can't wear it to the opening night of Rogue One in three years.

I don't know about that. Shipping out their TFA First Order kits in the same year as a TLJ helmet? Kinda weird.

Much better! Thanks.

And does anyone know why my post background is white or how to fix that?

Yo! So I decided to do some side-by-side comparisons of the new TLJ helmet with the offerings of Jimmi, BSP and Phoenix Props. I've ordered the latter two and have only the BSP on hand so this comparison is mostly based on the limited photos below. The resources are also limited so I'll try to stay away from very subjective stuff, but there are definitely differences. Note that this is also very much just my observation here. I appreciate the heck out of these makers, which is why I buy their stuff, but I don't think we're quite there yet. This review will be much more thorough when I receive both helmets and can see more close ups of Jimmi's, but that will take time and I don't anticipate receiving a screen-used TLJ helmet in person anytime soon. From left to right: TLJ, Jimmi, Phoenix Props, BSP FROWN The TLJ frown is much more angular with straighter lines than before. BSP's is too rounded above and below the frown but Phoenix Props is closer. Jimmi's appears to be the most accurate in this regard. Also, BSP doesn't have the mesh between the teeth as the TLJ helmet does, but Phoenix Props does. I'm not sure on Jimmi's helmet because none of the photos are good enough to tell. Maybe someone can chime in here. Following the frown around to the sides, the TLJ helmet again is much closer to straight edged than curved as you follow the frown around. The BSP is a bit straighter but has too big of a gap and the Jimmi and Phoenix Prop versions are too wide and far too tapered as it gets significantly wider as you approach the "ears". NOSE The top of the nose bridge on BSP and Jimmi's looks a little closer in the angles to TLJ than Phoenix Props, which has a more significant peak. A bit of this may be exaggerated by the angle. CHIN I think the Phoenix Props and Jimmi chins are a little closer in sharpness to the TLJ chin, especially underneath, whereas BSPs is a little soft. All three makers have a "lower lip" (under the frown) that's too rounded though. It should be sharper and not curve at the top so dramatically. DOME The BSP and Jimmi dome shapes look pretty close (hard to tell) but the Phoenix Props dome seems more flattened, making it look shorter than the TLJ. This could be angles, but I think it's the proportions. JAW This one might change dramatically with different angles, but my "gut feel" looking at these is that Jimmi's and Phx's jaw is too wide/chunky and BSP's jaw is too rounded. Hard to tell, but the TLJ helmet looks straighter and more streamlined. CONCLUSION Jimmi Despite talking about angles and curves, if you look back and forth between Jimmi's helmet and the Executioner reference in the far upper left, his really "feels" close so perhaps if the sides of the jaw were just streamlined and the black sides of the frown were narrower and less tapered you might get pretty close. BSP BSPs feels like it's probably the closest from the top of the dome to below the eyes, but is the least accurate going down from there. Too much rounding in a lot of places. What's strange about it is that I have the BSP helmet in hand and it feels a little better than this one particular angle, but still too rounded. Phoenix Props I like the chin the most on Phoenix Props. As for the rest, there are pros/cons to either Jimmi or BSP that I think are closer. Overall "feel" of it though is pretty good and I'm curious with a less upward angle if the dome is actually a bit more accurate, which would really change the sense of proportions on this one. Note: I believe Phoenix is also the only one to ship the nose plate as a separate piecel, which is a MAJOR painting help and more accurate too.

Awesome! Now the stressful part - painting 1/3rd of your helmet black.