Iraq Vader Helmets...

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2005-05-07 11:00am

linky

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

Hilarious.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-07 11:05am

Interesting...

Post by **Gandalf** » 2005-05-07 11:07am

So Saddam's troops were using these?

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2005-05-07 11:37am

First image linked cause its too large

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

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-05-07 11:53am

The right-click works fine in Opera.

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

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-07 12:06pm

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.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2005-05-07 01:53pm

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.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-05-07 02:04pm

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

Ra · Post by Ra » 2005-05-07 02:15pm

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

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2005-05-07 03:25pm

Black helmets for desert combat. Rich.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2005-05-07 03:33pm

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

Robert Walper · Post by **Robert Walper** » 2005-05-07 05:19pm

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

salm · Post by **salm** » 2005-05-07 07:21pm

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.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-05-08 12:19am

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.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-08 12:41am

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

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2005-05-08 12:58am

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.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2005-05-08 01:12am

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.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-05-08 01:51am

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

Ra · Post by Ra » 2005-05-08 02:28am

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

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2005-05-08 11:06am

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.

JointStrikeFighter · Post by **JointStrikeFighter** » 2005-05-09 05:34am

Link worked fin in IE for me