StarDestroyer.Net BBS

linky

They disabled the right click so I can't show some here.

Hilarious.

Interesting...

So Saddam's troops were using these?

First image linked cause its too large

http://img68.echo.cx/img68/7905/v0011dh.jpg

The right-click works fine in Opera.

And...those don't look very protective to me.

They're probably more symbolic, if anything. It's just weird that they look almost exactly like Darth Vader's helmet. I wonder how old the design is.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:They're probably more symbolic, if anything. It's just weird that they look almost exactly like Darth Vader's helmet. I wonder how old the design is.

Perhaps they knew that the American soldiers that might invade someday had been scarred to death as children by a certain Sith Lord and were hoping to duplicate it as a psychological weapon...

Anyway, to be serious, the kabuto helmet may have influenced this or it may have been Vader; I'm equally curious to know the age of these helmets.

Silly website thinking it can prevent right clicking. Firefox doesn't care and lets you righclick.

All the dudes wearing these helmets are wearing black, obviously. I think they were playing ninjas are something. Were they some kind of "elite" (:lol:) unit, or was this being issued to all their troops, just not all acquired in time?
Like JME2 noted, it seems more influenced by the Samarai helmets, which, by the way, was the inspiration for Vader's helmet as well, IIRC.
- Ra

Black helmets for desert combat. Rich.

I bet those guys are Saddam's Fedayeen militia...

Well, there can no longer be any doubt they're the bad guys...

To enable rightclick in MS IE either turn off java script or rightclick, press ok on the message box and then hit the menu button. That´s the funny button next to Alt Gr that you´ve allways wondered what it´s good for.

Vader's helmet was based on a WWII Nazi helmet, or so the production notes lead me to believe. It's not really surprising that some of those helmets survived into the modern era.

I think the connection to the Nazi Stahlhelm is mostly superficial at best, since Ralph McQuarrie himself said that he based Vader's helmet on samurai kabuto helms, as JME2 mentioned. I've personally never heard of the Stahlhelm connection before.

Additionally, Lucas has said at least once that he based the character of Darth Vader on the villian Hakaider from the 1972 Japanese live action TV series Android Kikaider (Jinzô ningen Kikaidâ), which he saw at least a portion of when visiting Japan in the early 1970s.

http://www.hlj.com/product/KYDMS11

Ma Deuce wrote:I bet those guys are Saddam's Fedayeen militia...

Volunteer Fedayeen, according to Babelfish's translation of the page.

It mentions a few times that the Iraqi helmet's dimensions are exactly based on the Darth Vader design. Or at least from what I picked up from the description. It also said out it's made out of 1/4" fiberglass and there's not much info on its history.

About the Vader style helmet,i remember when about ten years ago on the news they shown the new french fireman's helmet which they compared to Vader's helmet.

They really, really need facemasks with that helmet. Even a gas mask will do...

Utsanomiko wrote:Volunteer Fedayeen, according to Babelfish's translation of the page.

It mentions a few times that the Iraqi helmet's dimensions are exactly based on the Darth Vader design. Or at least from what I picked up from the description. It also said out it's made out of 1/4" fiberglass and there's not much info on its history.

1/4" fiberglass? That's not much protection. Good for stopping low-velocity shrapnel and little else. The only redeeming quality is the fact that it covers the back of the neck, something just about all military helmets leave exposed. My take is that the Iraqis were just going for a distinctive look, kinda like the Nazis did in WWII. Form over fuction. After all, weren't the Fedayeen SS-wannabes?
- Ra

salm wrote:To enable rightclick in MS IE either turn off java script or rightclick, press ok on the message box and then hit the menu button. That´s the funny button next to Alt Gr that you´ve allways wondered what it´s good for.

You don't need to. Just hover the mouse over the pic until the box appears to let you save\print\email\whatever the image.

Link worked fin in IE for me