Cobra Trooper Helmet from VaulsAnvil

I bought this helmet off a Etsy. It’s from VaulsAnvil.
I purchased this helmet late night on the 12th and it got to where I’m at in Nebraska on the 18th.
The Helmet is a Resin Cast and made of a rubbery plastic feel. I think from first impressions I like the material used better than the hard resin cast helmets I’ve gotten in the past. (clone trooper phase 2 and Special designed limited run Mandalorian).
I paid a total of $155.15 USD.




First Step I took was to Trim off Raw resign from around the rim. I don’t want to cut it all off just doing a rough trim make it easier to sand later on with my Dremel.
For this I used my handy dandy shears. I took my time on this you most people could probably do this alot faster and cleaner than I can. Im actually very visually impaired and only have partial sight out of one eye.
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Great start!

How long from ordering did it take to receive the helmet?

After trimming I was able to actually see and feel the helmet shell better. I seems to be a bit on the small side. I put it on my ears actually touch the sides on the inside.
The helmet is super thick on its sides toward the front bottom rim and is a decent thickness in the rear. The front is very thin and already cracked. the front is going to be the part most likely to break on this helmet. It had peices seem to chip off of the from around the inside and flexed and cracked.
Looking at the outside around the outside it doesn’t look or feel asymmetrical. It has a casting seam that runs front to rear and is off center and crookedly. It has a big flatish dent off center in the top.


6 days. I ordered the helmet late at night on the 12th of January and it arrived in the mail on the 18th of January.

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These are my impressions and thoughts after looking and working on this helmet. The casting and sculpt of this is rough and not asymmetrical. To my perception the helmet doesn’t look like the completed Item in his pictures.
I honestly can not recommend this helmet.

Hmm, are you planning on contacting the seller?

I just sent a message to the maker. I’ve done the initial trimming I think I’m committed to this project at this point no matter what. I have a feeling this isn’t going to come out as well for me as I want but that’s life.

Update: Had some really good communication with the maker. He’s offered to take this one back and send me another one.
The biggest issue for me of the dent can be fixed by heating up the area and pushing it out. So I’m going to try this fix first.
He address several of my other concerns and gave me a few suggestions.

I still have anxiety on this project but I think that’s all in my head. I wouldn’t recommend this helmet for a newbie or someone not willing to put some work into it though. But I’m committed to getting this thing completed all by myself. I have better tools and implaments adapted for the blind :probing_cane: at work were I think I’m going to pretty much do the rest of this project.

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I’m glad they responded promptly. Hoping to keep seeing the progress!

Used my heat gun heated up the helmet and pushed that dent it out. From that point it turn into a pain in the butt cursing screaming mess.




Using my Dremel we with sanding bit I tried clean up the rear and the front of to the helmet. I unfortunately had bits chip off and crack from sanding around the front of the brim. After a epic amount of cursing I tried to deal with the thick areas on the bottom from on the helmet. It went terrible and extremely messy

So tried using a band saw to cut some off that mass of resin away went terribly as the saw blade just got bogged and struggles to even partly cut through as swell as the general shape of the helmet didn’t lend itself into cut. I then resorted to using carving bits on the Dremel to try and carve the thick part out. This turned out very messy even with a shop vacuum sucking as I was carving. The material got every where. Remember always wearing safety glasses and mask while carving out resin.

So as of this last statement above. I’m abandoning this project I don’t have the patience to finish this this helmet in the end it’s not worth the Money, Time, Mental and Emotional Abuse completing this so I’m cutting my losses on this. I’m doing what I should have done from the beginning if I had known.

I’m going to order one from Xero Props.

It’s very unfortunate it didn’t work out. Xero will get you a quality product and hopefully make things easy.

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When I cast helmets, they come out a little better than that, but I never ship them (especially not to G.I.Joe costumers) in that state. I am too self conscious about quality and worried about an inexperienced costumer not knowing how to get it to a finished state. I would feel awful seeing a thread like this about something I sold.

I am curious about “rubbery” casting. How did he expect you to fill in bubbles and fix the seams if it’s a soft material?

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Also curious about rubbery casting. If it’s the product that’s designed to be a flexible end result or if the mix of chemicals were incorrect or old products resulting in a bad finished product.

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You deserve major props for all the work put in till now!

I agree… i hate when someone asks for a raw kit, I’m always afraid they won’t have the skills to finish it like I would and also dread ever seeing a thread like this about one of my props :scream:… but yeah rubbery? Why? Wonder if that was choice? Or a bad mixture? Especially on a helmet…

I will admit Im not a very skilled individual I have limitations.
I’ve asked a few others in the costume and prop community here in Nebraska and Iowa who have way more experience, knowledge than I to look at and give me thoughts and opinions on it.

I want to give a fair review and interpretation off the item.