Helmet Store Displays...

When Star Wars Helmets were first introduced to the world. Adults, Kids and collector's absolutely loved them. Whether the helmet's were purchased for playing, dressing up in costume or solely for collectable keeping everyone just had to have one. As time went on many collector's started asking about the possibility of acquiring display stands to view their most desired helmets. Even if these Stands were simple, people just had to have one. Collector's then started making their own or just ended up buying some type of mannequin or dress-maker's dummy to display their helmets. Unfortunately This still happens even today. 

When such companies as Icons and Riddell first released their mini Display Busts and Helmets there was renewed interest in Helmets and displays. Everyone was hoping that Don Post would finally make display Stands or Busts to coincide with future or re-released helmets. Then along came The Australian Star Wars Helmet Series by Altmann's Armour and again people started screaming about the possible helmet displays.

Altmann's approached Lucasfilm about the the possibility of releasing a full sized Helmet display stand or 3-D bust for years in a row, which was only to be put on hold as other licensees at that time i.e Icons and Riddell would have license disagreements. The project was then canned and once again even to this day people are still making their own or just end up buying some type of mannequin or dress-maker's dummy to display their helmets.

Altmann's did make some Display Stand type's for the project (later dubbed Helmet Busts or replica Busts by some) and did release some of these as "In Store Display Stands" only. these were never offered as something that you could actually buy or order and stores would have to return them in most cases.. These Store Display Stands or Busts were never licensed and again were only produced in limited numbers for stores taking orders for Helmets when they were first in release. If you were to find any of these today, they are very rare and in most cases worth much more then any Helmet offered. Also the fact at the time was that if these had been licensed the cost per each would have been more than a Limited Edition Helmet! However people judging from the continued interest today, would have paid high prices for the Display Stands as the quality would have made them a collectible all on there own.

These Pages here are Dedicated to the Store Displays that were and what could have been! Although in today's standard these may be dubbed bootleg material, the quality shows just how unique these Replica's were.

 STORE DISPLAY FEATURES:

Each Store display was made out of the same material and color highlighted with each Star Wars Helmets. Each was constructed of durable high impact rigid plastic! The same grade plastic used to assemble the Character Helmets. The color schemes used on the replica store displays were based on the same color and style the Helmets had. The Display Stands were each 3-D Bust type hollow shells, they came usually in 3 piece parts: The main bust display shell was accompanied by a rigid plastic pipe which was inserted though the helmet Stand Shell, the pipe which had a soft foam pad on top enabled you to attach or place a Star Wars Helmet into any real position you desired to see your Helmet on display, you can even rotate the angle of the Helmet or move the pipe around 360◦. The 3rd part was the hard plastic disc base the pipe attaches to underneath the display shell. simple but very effective!

Finally the last piece of résistance is the detail of the actual display Stand's surface. Not only is the color scheme great but the detail etched into the busts themselves is extremely well presented. The final impression given is a life size replica bust, which are perfect to display. Each Store Display would be a perfect addition into any helmet collection. It is a tragedy that these replica bust displays were never produced in large quantity or for that matter ever licensed.. So now the only question asked is where the hell do I buy one? To answer that; although we do see some of these from time to time the only place really worth looking is on auction sites, unless of course you build your own.