Original Episode IV helmet pictures discovered!

[Suki]

Just an interesting story which forum members might like to learn about As a Star Wars fan since I saw the original movie back in '77, I'm quite amazed at how these items have been hidden for so long.

I can only re-tell the story as it was provided to me by Colin Sheffield, a friend of mine who is now nearly 80. Bizarrely, even to this date, he has never actually seen Star Wars at all!

The year was 1976, and Colin was an artist/photographer who was also a jobbing builder, and he was working on a building site constructing offices in Twickenham (South West Greater London). Since Colin found this building's architecture/construction quite interesting, he took pictures as it went up. The owner of the building was Andrew Ainsworth (now famously known for designing the original helmets and stormtrooper outfits), and Colin knew little about Andrew other than he was involved in making canoes. Andrew asked Colin to take some photographs of some helmets he was making for a sci-fi movie director's approval - nothing too complicated, just so that the director could see what they looked like. The director was of course George Lucas, and the Film was Star Wars. The 44 photos are of all the original helmets used in episode IV, and they feature one of Colin's friends at the time. They are all the original negatives in black and white, and they are due to be auctioned in Autumn 2017 (40 years on from the film!).

I thought it was quite a charming story behind these interesting collectables. BTW, Colin is now a sculptor of interesting objects - you can Google him.

 

[MarkG]

Interesting, but I wouldn't believe a word Andrew Ainsworth tells you. He's nothing but a crook and a liar in the prop community.

Liz Moore designed and sculpted the Stormtrooper helmets, and Brian Muir did the armour. AA (Shepperton Studios) was just the guy to vacform them. Since then he's tried to take credit for something he didn't even create... even making money from it, by selling 'recast' amour and helmets to the 'untrained' public. What he sells isn't even from 'original' moulds.

 

[lejackal]

Interesting, but I wouldn't believe a word Andrew Ainsworth tells you. He's nothing but a crook and a liar in the prop community.

Liz Moore designed and sculpted the Stormtrooper helmets, and Brian Muir did the armour. AA (Shepperton Studios) was just the guy to vacform them. Since then he's tried to take credit for something he didn't even create... even making money from it, by selling 'recast' amour and helmets to the 'untrained' public. What he sells isn't even from 'original' moulds.

That's the original stormtrooper website isn't it?
So basically a crock of sh#£ then?

 

[MarkG]

That's the original stormtrooper website isn't it?
So basically a crock of sh#£ then?

That's the one.

Everything he creates is not his original work. Liz Moore is sadly no longer here to state the truth but Brian Muir has certainly put his views across as he sculpted Vader too.

 

[Suki]

Interesting, I didn't know who designed them. I don't know Ainsworth, only the guy who took the photos. I take your point that there has been a lot of controversy over this. As mentioned, Ainsworth was only known to Colin as a guy who made canoes at the time, so what you say sounds logical - that he was just they guy who had the equipment to form them.

What's interesting is that Ainsworth only got some prints of the photos at the time from Colin, and I haven't seen these pictures reproduced anywhere else. They pre-date any professional pictures of the finished articles.

Interesting, but I wouldn't believe a word Andrew Ainsworth tells you. He's nothing but a crook and a liar in the prop community.

Liz Moore designed and sculpted the Stormtrooper helmets, and Brian Muir did the armour. AA (Shepperton Studios) was just the guy to vacform them. Since then he's tried to take credit for something he didn't even create... even making money from it, by selling 'recast' amour and helmets to the 'untrained' public. What he sells isn't even from 'original' moulds.