Review: 75328 The Mandalorian Helmet
Posted by CapnRex101,
75328 The Mandalorian Helmet illustrates how celebrated Din Djarin has become, since earlier Helmet Collection models have originated from the Original Trilogy. This character's renowned visage definitely deserves recreation and looks excellent here.
Admittedly, the onscreen helmet is forged with beautiful beskar, while this LEGO rendition consists primarily of light bluish grey parts. I think these colours appear effective though, benefiting from the presence of metallic silver accents.
Summary
75328 The Mandalorian Helmet, 584 pieces.
£59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99 | 10.3p/12.0c/12.0c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Din Djarin's unique helmet does not achieve perfection, but looks fantastic on display.
- Outstanding shaping
- Good blending of textures
- Beautiful metallic silver accents
- Inaccurate visor proportions
- Relatively bland colours
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The Completed Model
LEGO established a consistent scale for the Helmet Collection during 2020 and Din Djarin's helmet matches previous models in that respect, measuring almost 19cm in height. This size balances affordability with ample detail and the shape of the helmet is therefore accurate, including the hollow cheeks and angled sides which are distinguishable onscreen.
Given their shared features, one might envisage that construction of 75328 The Mandalorian Helmet would closely resemble 75277 Boba Fett Helmet. In fact, the model is relatively hollow and appears more reminiscent of 75305 Scout Trooper Helmet, with angled panels flanking the visor. The whole structure is deceptively simple, but creates realistically subtle shapes.
The plinth supporting this helmet corresponds exactly with past examples, comprising various slopes and consisting entirely of black pieces. The resulting contrast with Din Djarin's helmet looks excellent and I appreciate the complete consistency across this series. The decorated plaque is also an attractive addition, although some have expressed disappointment that the character's actual name is not displayed.
Mandalorian helmets traditionally feature hollow cheeks and those are present here, formed using layered plates. Dark bluish grey 4x4 arch plates simulate shadows and are reasonably successful, also breaking up the otherwise uniform blend of light bluish grey and metallic silver. Furthermore, the designer has made good use of the 2x6 wedge plates introduced last year.
Their shape looks absolutely perfect in relation to the source material and the distinctive ridge across the top of the helmet is included too. However, the proportions of the visor deviate from the onscreen helmet, as shown below. The vertical section appears relatively wide and lacks the gradual taper present on the original character, although I expect recreating that taper would be nearly impossible.
Comparing this helmet with 75277 Boba Fett Helmet reveals the surprising difference between them, particularly concerning that visor. The earlier model includes a narrower visor that would perhaps have been more appropriate for Din Djarin, while the broader design seems nearer to Boba Fett. Even so, I think the newer design looks better than its predecessor and have started experimenting with combining their best qualities.
The Mandalorian's helmet also captures the unusual flaring at the base of his visor, where 1x2 curved wedge slopes appear in metallic silver. Nine different parts are provided in this popular colour and they are distributed nicely, highlighting the most notable shapes across the helmet. These pieces are concentrated on the angled side panels, where communication equipment is located.
These angles are delightfully subtle and I am pleased with the curvature across the reverse as well, comprising curved slopes. The abrupt transition between smooth slopes and the studded crown of the helmet is conspicuous, albeit softened slightly by cooling vents interrupting those curved slopes, which look marvellous.
Overall
75277 Boba Fett Helmet has proven exceptionally popular, but I think 75328 The Mandalorian Helmet improves upon its predecessor in many respects! The shape of this helmet is excellent, due in particular to the precise angle of panels on each side and the cheek structures. The visor varies from the original helmet though and more closely reflecting other Mandalorian characters, but looks nice.
The predominant light bluish grey colour attracted criticism when this model was unveiled and does appear relatively bland. I think the integration of metallic silver elements is great though, evoking a shiny beskar finish. The price of £54.99, $59.99 or €59.99 seems fairly expensive to me, although remains consistent with other Helmet Collection sets. I am therefore pleased with this addition to the series, despite its inevitable muted colours.
134 likes
51 comments on this article
Nice review! Looking forward for these. Hope they are coming to Finland soon
At €69.99 (for Estonia etc) all these IP helmets seem unreasonably expensive.
That comparison photo is really interesting! I wonder if the pieces would be available to build Mando's helmet in Boba Fett's colors and vice versa. The fact that their visor shapes were swapped is really something
@TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
I would say it's a valid thing to mention, an accurate rendition of a non-interesting thing doesn't mean it's a bad rendition, but it can still be boring. Personally I could do with a bit more silver ink. Obviously doing the entire thing in that color wouldn't be feasible, but I think the Infinity Gauntlet is a better example of mixing metallic and regular colors
@TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting.
@TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
While such issues are inherent, I think they should be acknowledged. Compared with other helmets, this example inevitably features fairly muted colours, which could be considered a drawback.
Also, there was the perhaps potential to include slightly more metallic silver, even though I am satisfied with the current colour blend.
@greenleaf547 said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting.
"
Indeed. Limiting the use of silver/chrome pieces and using light/dark bluish grey instead is a common choice from the Lego Group. Other companies like Mega Construx make entire sets with such pieces. A silver helmet would surely have a different visual effect, and this is well reflected in the comment from @CapnRex101.
@jokailblinnis said:
" @greenleaf547 said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting.
"
Indeed. Limiting the use of silver/chrome pieces and using light/dark bluish grey instead is a common choice from the Lego Group. Other companies like Mega Construx make entire sets with such pieces. A silver helmet would surely have a different visual effect, and this is well reflected in the comment from @CapnRex101."
Chrome/ink pieces require new molds, so it's understandable why they didn't go that route for the entire thing, and flat silver can be a bit swirly. There's definitely a balance that could have been struck between silver and grey, they just might not have nailed it this go-around
For the same money you could get a more accurate and even wearable replica.
@TomKazutara said:
" @greenleaf547 said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting."
Why not write it as such ?"
I did, twice in the review. Lists of positives and negatives should be a brief summary, so I did not include a full explanation there.
I do think the blend of silver and grey could have been better - the Infinity Gauntlet is the gold standard for blending lacquered and regular colors, in my opinion. I wish I liked this helmet more, but the color balance and the transition from smooth to studded surfaces is jarring to me. I didn't realize how wide the vertical section of the visor is, and when it's put next to Boba's helmet it looks particularly bad. It's so weird that their visor shapes were basically switched. I already pre-ordered it, but this might be the first helmet I try to MOD.
@TomKazutara said:
" @greenleaf547 said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting.
"
Why not write it as such ?
If a colourful Theme, like Ninjago or Monkie Kid got a set in brown and gray, I could understandthat it is marked as a " Bland Colour Theme ",
but this is an boring display Model, the box shows you what you get.
I mean it would be mind blowing if Lego even made it Silver Ink with Accents of Chrome, for sure.
But over all this years, we know that Lego is lazy and does silver or chrome stuff in grey, ;
Mustang, Harley, UCS R2's Dome, ect.
So it shouldn't be a bad surprise that we get the Mando helmet in grey."
Whoa, relax there. No need to get so defensive over this. @CapnRex101 gave us a great review and touched exactly on the issues you seem to have overlooked. And there’s nothing wrong with the saying that a model, no matter how accurate to source material it is, ends up not being all that exciting. It’s a very valid comment/criticism.
I'm pretty sure that creating the taper could have been done fairly easily, if the desire had been there. For official LEGO sets, realism is often sacrified for stability of the model.
The difference in color between silver and light grey is a lot more pronounced in these photos than the official ones and the Silver Ink highlights are really not doing it for me. Looks like someone started to paint it silver and immediately gave up.
One of the main sources of Djarin’s popularity has to be his not-sequel-ness. As the first new project since Disney got the keys that hasn’t driven fans away, they’ve merchandised the living crap out of him and Punt Yoda, to a degree that even Clone Wars didn’t see in 2008 after the series premiered with a theatrical release. It’s like they’re desperate to remind people they haven’t pooped the bed with every decision they’ve made.
@fakespacesquid:
I’ve heard that for years about chrome parts, which have a noticeably bad fit when they’re not properly chromed, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone claim inked parts need special molds.
@TomKazutara said:
" @greenleaf547 said:
"I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting."
Why not write it as such ?"
They did, you just chose to misinterpret it.
@PurpleDave said:
" @fakespacesquid:
I’ve heard that for years about chrome parts, which have a noticeably bad fit when they’re not properly chromed, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone claim inked parts need special molds."
Really? Trying to find a source atm but I thought it was fairly well known that the drum lacquer process added enough dimension to the parts that the molds needed to be smaller. That would be why gold ink parts all have different part numbers than non-inked elements
@Orange_Jooze said:
" @TomKazutara said:
" @greenleaf547 said:
"I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting."
Why not write it as such ?"
They did, you just chose to misinterpret it.
"
Whilst not as angry about it as Tom, I'm not sure how 'Relatively bland colours' can be taken as the same as too much grey rather than silver (which I think would have fitted in the box).
@Spike730 said:
"For the same money you could get a more accurate and even wearable replica."
I mean that goes for nearly every item in Lego's Star Wars range, but that's hardly the point of them. For most people the satisfaction comes from building a replica of something you like in a pleasing and easily digestible manner
Pre-ordered on Amazon already!
About deciding of using full silver/chrome or a combination of blueish-gray/metallic silver paint:
Do, or do not. There is no try.
Since Lego people are no Jedi, this is what we got...
(I do not believe there are new parts in lacquered silver here except 29119 as mentioned - most were introduced with the Space Shuttle).
Not a theme for me (I would buy them but I have so much to buy before that on a limited budget) but what I don't understand is: why people obsess with perfect accuracy in their models? This is Lego - a predominantly square brick medium. To me, if you can look at something and say: that thing is such and such; then it is a success - if you can easily tell what a thing represents without much of a doubt you have a pretty good rendition of the subject. Can it be done better? Always.
Happy for those who like it as it will increase their collection and happy for those who don't as it will save them money.
How about a picture with 75318?
Is it just me or does this helmet more accurately re-create the shape of Boba's helmet than 75277 did? It's a bit too wide to be Mando's, but slap a little blue on there and it might as well be Jango.
I wonder if the taper could have been accomplished using those 2x6 wedge plates. It's such a subtle taper though that even those might make it more exaggerated than it should be.
That visor is too wide but I will probably still purchase this at some point to go with the others. I like the picture at the end with all three of the new helmets. It makes 75327 look better to me than the renders did. I think 75343 looks a bit worse than the renders in that photo though with some obvious gaps at the front. I'll be interested in seeing their reviews.
@fakespacesquid:
I’m not saying it’s not true (or that it is). I just haven’t seen anyone say it before. I can’t remember considering it before either. But one way to check would be to compare inked vs plain parts. If they used completely different molds, there should be obvious differences. If they match, they’re probably from the same mold. And even if they do run dual molds like they did for chrome, parts with no studs, like tiles and various minifig accessories, might not need a second mold because there wouldn’t be a clutch issue on the exterior surface.
I am really looking forward to getting this one.
Thanks for another great review.
I hope people realize how easy it is to fix the visor proportions. Just replace the two long bricks under the black tiles, yeah?
So they basically swapped the shaping. Boba’s is Mando’s shape and Mando’s is closer to Boba’s.
Gonna see if there’s enough parts/colors from Fett’s kit and use Mando’s instructions.
Nice helmet, but I'm shocked we still haven't gotten standard white helmets for Prequel Clones and Sequel Stormtroopers. A three pack with one helmet from each era's soldier would have been a fantastic way to kickoff this new subseries, and definitely would've gotten me invested. These helmets aren't for me, but I do appreciate their inclusion into Lego Star Wars' product mix. Still holding out hope for PT and ST helmets though.
Hopefully like all the others they will be on discount on Amazon AU before long.
@TomKazutara said:
" @ShinyBidoof said:
" @Orange_Jooze said:
" @TomKazutara said:
" @greenleaf547 said:
"I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting."
Why not write it as such ?"
They did, you just chose to misinterpret it.
"
Whilst not as angry about it as Tom, I'm not sure how 'Relatively bland colours' can be taken as the same as too much grey rather than silver (which I think would have fitted in the box)."
I am not angry, what are you people talking about ?
How do you guys read texts on the internet ?
Always that someone is a mad man ?"
I think we should all just leave this where it is.
Things were said, opinions were voiced.
Let's all just agree to move on.
It looks like the model would be better off with just pieces in one color, be it light gray or dark gray. It can't be metallic silver for Legos reluctance to make parts in that color though a set like Infinity Gauntlet shows how Lego could keep true to the spirit of the original item without taking an extreme shortcut like the 5 lines drawn here.
As usual, Lego should rather produce more figure scale sets than these things.
@ TomKazutara: Grey is a bland color and metallic silver is a sparkling color (or have another adjective). Grey isn't even remotely accurate to the show, so the use of the word bland is unusually accurate.
@WovenTenacity said:
"Nice helmet, but I'm shocked we still haven't gotten standard white helmets for Prequel Clones and Sequel Stormtroopers. A three pack with one helmet from each era's soldier would have been a fantastic way to kickoff this new subseries, and definitely would've gotten me invested. These helmets aren't for me, but I do appreciate their inclusion into Lego Star Wars' product mix. Still holding out hope for PT and ST helmets though."
They're not really doing prequel sets much these days. And the same goes for ST sets. They're not the most profitable parts of the saga, so why would they even bother tapping into those all that much. We need another X-wing instead XD
Wait, I take that back. Apparently the summer SW wave is rumored to feature AOTC sets because of the 20 year anniversary. So it seems they might actually be planning to release long since untouched stuff like Jango's Slave I and the Geonosian arena!
“LEGO is something that we hope people are going to use to rebuild other things with, and we know that if you connect two elements together repeatedly that are drum-lacquered that have studs, you will gradually wear the finish off,” Michael explains. “And that we don’t perceive to be the best quality. So therefore, in almost all cases, we restrict ourselves to only metallising elements that are without studs, because that way they can be reused without their appearance deteriorating.”
https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-explains-why-mandos-helmet-isnt-silver/
@ForestMenOfEndor said:
"So therefore, in almost all cases, we restrict ourselves to only metallising elements that are without studs, because that way they can be reused without their appearance deteriorating.”"
Makes perfect sense, but it's a real shame they didn't come up with an alternate design that put chrome beneath the visor, in place of those grey wedge panels - I feel like the narrow centre of the visor is fixable (or at least half-fixable, and then it'd be 'not perfect but I did that myself' which is nearly as good), but those 'cheekbones' not being silver is really messing up the look for me, and may wind up being the reason I give this one a miss.
@ForestMenOfEndor:
I can vouch for the ink being easily damaged. Several years ago, my LUG did an outdoor show where we found out after setting up that there would be a real steam engine operating, but parked, on a nearby track, and the oily spot got all over _everything_. When cleaning my cars, I was using soapy water and a soft-bristled toothbrush because that was the only way I could cut through the grime. I ended up taking much of the ink finish off several parts used for grilles, bumpers, and side view mirrors.
However, this being the case, I wouldn’t expect they’d ever need a second mold for inked parts. If they’re not coated on the interior, there wouldn’t be any change in clutch strength there, and with no external studs there’s nothing that has any clutch to begin with. Compare to the UCS Naboo N1 starfighter, which has chromed wing plates that each have a field of studs.
So ... what are the rules about including quotations and/or links to other fan sites in these comment sections? I seem to have run afoul of them.
If it was all silver bricks, it would be a buy (if only for parts).
Why go out of your way to pick a fight TK?
Lego comment boards sure are a weird place to do it
Bullies will be bullies, I suppose. But on a toy website…?
@PurpleDave said:
"One of the main sources of Djarin’s popularity has to be his not-sequel-ness. As the first new project since Disney got the keys that hasn’t driven fans away, they’ve merchandised the living crap out of him and Punt Yoda, to a degree that even Clone Wars didn’t see in 2008 after the series premiered with a theatrical release. It’s like they’re desperate to remind people they haven’t pooped the bed with every decision they’ve made."
But... Rogue One! Sorry, but that is one of the best (if not the best) SW films. I also liked Solo.
@PurpleDave said:
" @fakespacesquid:
I’m not saying it’s not true (or that it is). I just haven’t seen anyone say it before. I can’t remember considering it before either. But one way to check would be to compare inked vs plain parts. If they used completely different molds, there should be obvious differences. If they match, they’re probably from the same mold. And even if they do run dual molds like they did for chrome, parts with no studs, like tiles and various minifig accessories, might not need a second mold because there wouldn’t be a clutch issue on the exterior surface."
I'm rather surprised by this. While I don't expect the fact that drum laquering adds an extra layer to be common knowlegde (and thus the different element numbers), you've always come across as someone who knows quite a bit more than me about Lego production than me.
I was looking for an article on NewElementary explaining this, but I can't seem to find it.
@TomKazutara said:
" @monkyby87 said:
" @TomKazutara said:
" @greenleaf547 said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"" Relatively bland colours " is a minus for this set ?
It's a friggin silver helmet in the show, what did you expect would the Lego equivalent look like, like a Mandalorian helmet from the battle backs ?
What an very very VERY odd critism ."
I believe his point was to criticise the use of grey instead of silver, which would be more accurate and more interesting.
"
Why not write it as such ?
If a colourful Theme, like Ninjago or Monkie Kid got a set in brown and gray, I could understandthat it is marked as a " Bland Colour Theme ",
but this is an boring display Model, the box shows you what you get.
I mean it would be mind blowing if Lego even made it Silver Ink with Accents of Chrome, for sure.
But over all this years, we know that Lego is lazy and does silver or chrome stuff in grey, ;
Mustang, Harley, UCS R2's Dome, ect.
So it shouldn't be a bad surprise that we get the Mando helmet in grey."
Whoa, relax there. No need to get so defensive over this. @CapnRex101 gave us a great review and touched exactly on the issues you seem to have overlooked. And there’s nothing wrong with the saying that a model, no matter how accurate to source material it is, ends up not being all that exciting. It’s a very valid comment/criticism. "
What are you talking about ? I am relaxed , I just explained my point . Guess that was a bad thing ."
While it's hard to properly read into someone's emotion from writen words alone, I have to admit I also read some uptightness/anger/fanboyism in your first two posts. Looking back I think it's because of the combination of the harsh 'sounding' retorical question, followed by heavily emphasized statements and even some explatives.
@ForestMenOfEndor :
I know that @Huw sponsors New Elementary, so linking to that site has never been an issue. And I know that posting to another site will get your comment removed because that site competes with Brickset for revenue generated by clicking through to LEGO.com, but I missed seeing the original post when that got explained. I did see your post, and that’s not a site I can remember seeing linked here before, so that might be the one that got the boot before. There are also some European sites that are published in other languages that get linked in articles that I’d assume would be okay to link to in a comment, but I don’t read any of them so I can’t recall any names.
@StyleCounselor :
Solo I’d rank after every OT and PT movie, but probably before the two made-for-TV Ewok films and the Clone Wars theatrical “movie” that was really just the opening handful of episodes stitched together into one thing. It’s definitely leaps and bounds ahead of anything else Disney has put on the big screen. Rogue One...meh. As soon as I saw the droid get shot, I started a mental countdown of every main character getting killed. I even called the one who falls off the gantry coming back to save the day before dying for real. The only one I missed was the shuttle pilot who I’d completely forgotten was even in the film. I also read an article that put forth a rather sound argument that The Forced Remake was a better film because MaRey Sue actually drives the plot forward where the main characters of Rogue One are basically just along for the ride.
@dutchbrickdad :
I probably know more than the average person, but I’m by no means an expert. I spent six years working for a thick-gauge, short-run vacuuforming company, who mostly used ABS, so I know a fair amount about the primary material from practical experience. I know from other AFOLs what a few of the other current and former materials are, but I’ve never worked with any of those. Some of my knowledge of ABS translates over to other materials (crystalline vs amorphous plastic, glass-transition temps, shrink factor, hygroscopic vs non-hygroscopic materials, etc), and I do a fair amount of on-the-spot research to fill in specific gaps.
Some knowledge comes from reading official interviews, other knowledge from reading comments by people who are more familiar with certain processes than I am. But drum-lacquered “ink” parts aren’t something I’ve ever personally worked with, nor have they really been the subject of many articles outside of basic set reviews. I do know that they’ve made parts where clutch might be affected, like lightsaber hilts, and that they seem to have stopped doing that in favor of pearl-style molded colors, but the comment that got deleted is the first time I’ve seen any official explanation. But, having read that, I’m not likely to forget about it, so one, two, ten years from now, if the subject pops up again, I might post a comment noting that they try to avoid using that finish on studded parts because repeated attachment damages the finish. Now that the subject has been raised, though, I’d still like to see something official on the question of whether inked parts required variant molds like chromed parts did.
@TomKazutara:
Put bluntly, the fact that you’re identified as posting from Germany probably causes a lot of people to form an opinion before they even start reading your comment. There has been a lot of hostility towards TLG from German commenters the last few years. Some of it is due to the shift of focus from Germany to the US, and now even to China/SEA. Some of it is due to a specific German vlogger who took an unusual level of offense to something that most people wouldn’t have cared about, and who has since basically started a one-man pogrom against TLG (one that only people fluent in German are likely to be exposed to, since he only posts German-language videos). I don’t know what else might fuel the negativity, but combined with at least one German commenter who almost never has anything positive to say about post-1980’s sets, it’s a pretty tall hurdle for anyone posting from Germany these days. And once a conflict gets started, it’s simply going to reinforce those beliefs, whether or not they were true.
@PurpleDave said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor :
I know that @Huw sponsors New Elementary, so linking to that site has never been an issue. And I know that posting to another site will get your comment removed because that site competes with Brickset for revenue generated by clicking through to LEGO.com, but I missed seeing the original post when that got explained. "
You are welcome to include links to any LEGO fan site except to those that publish leaks. The only links I actively remove are to voucher sites which, as you say, compete unfairly for affiliate revenue by incentivising you to use their links.
I abide.
@fakespacesquid said:
"Chrome/ink pieces require new molds, so it's understandable why they didn't go that route for the entire thing, and flat silver can be a bit swirly. There's definitely a balance that could have been struck between silver and grey, they just might not have nailed it this go-around"
Metallic coated (drum lacquered) pieces do not need a new mold size because the coating thickness (3-5 µm) is less than the fitting tolerances or even general part tolerances of LEGO bricks.
They mostly use it only for top layer, smooth parts and not for studded ones (with the few exception of some Agents sets) because the layer would rub off quickly and look bad. Some parts even look bad in new condition...
The chrome plating is a different story because the coating is thicker (around 10 µm). Older chromed parts used trans clear ones because PU is harder so the plating would last longer and not crack so easily and chip off.
Regarding this helmet, the thing that looks the worst is the reversed proportions to the Boba Fett one. Both the width and the visor thickness should have been the other way around to be accurate to the source material. For 60€ and no printed parts I would have expected more metallic silver parts, similar to the Infinity Gauntlet. This here is yet another example of how the product images are made to look better than the real life object.
I also wonder why they didn't call this helmet Din Djarin. All the other named characters had the name on the box. Marketing?
I need this to go next to my Boba Fett and The Child.
@R0Sch:
I know of two methods that can be used to chrome-plate parts. Electroplating only works on conductive materials because the part you want chromed is used as a cathode, and the material you want to plate it with is used as an anode, and you just run current through the system in an electrolyte bath, basically turning the whole thing into a battery.
The other method, which would work on plastic, is what Delta uses to plate their sink faucets. This method uses a minimum of three layers to complete the process. One is a layer of tacky paint so the next layer will stick to it. The next is vaporized aluminum, which is the “chrome” layer. And the third is a clear coat sealer because the aluminum is only one molecule thick and very fragile on its own. That could explain why chrome parts can have 2-3x as much material added to the surface. I’m also wondering if the ink layer can compress more than ABS.
I hadn’t heard of any official parts being chromed over clear, and if they did it over acrylic (used for trans parts decades ago), that seems like a terrible idea, since old trans parts were much more fragile than when they switched to polycarbonate. Now I know they try for a similar color, so silver chrome uses light-bley, and gold chrome uses tan. I’ve been collecting the chrome 2x4 brick keychains, but I haven’t really inspected the black, white, green, or whatever that other color was (some shade of red?) to see if they did something similar.
Anyways, this wasn’t always their policy for inked parts. 8634 has a whole host of metallic-silver parts, the studliest of which is a pair of 1x8 bricks. There’s also 14x 1x1 plates, 8x 2x2 corner plates, 3x 2x2 45 slopes, a L/R pair of 4x2 wedge plates, and four of those Speed Racer fenders. That’s a combined total of 105 silver ink studs in a single set, not even counting all the studless tiles, curved slopes, cheese wedges, and a single wheel. Now I wonder if that set is the reason they established that policy, since I have to imagine they got tons of claims for damaged parts even before it had retired.
This helmet, just like the Austin-Martin should have been made with all chrome, and if not entirely chrome parts, partially metallic coloured Lego elements. Instead TLG used all these bland light grey parts. Big disappointment.
@Huw said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor :
I know that @Huw sponsors New Elementary, so linking to that site has never been an issue. And I know that posting to another site will get your comment removed because that site competes with Brickset for revenue generated by clicking through to LEGO.com, but I missed seeing the original post when that got explained. "
You are welcome to include links to any LEGO fan site except to those that publish leaks. The only links I actively remove are to voucher sites which, as you say, compete unfairly for affiliate revenue by incentivising you to use their links."
Aha! Thank you for the explanation, and apologies for my original post. I had thought that site was "one of the good ones," and I have now learned something! It's a shame, because that was a useful interview.
@Huw:
My rule of thumb has basically been to take guidance from the articles that get posted here. If links and citations get included in articles, it’s a fair assumption that posting a link in a comment won’t get it deleted. New E just happens to be the only site I read that I could recall off the top of my head.
@ForestMenOfEndor:
I tried reading the site in question, but I just couldn’t stand the page layout that basically required you to hunt for new articles between multiple different channels.
I really enjoy seeing the new features added to Brickset! The summary at the top of the page is a top notch addition!