This is a Stormtrooper helmet that was made by Andrew Ainsworth of Shepperton Design Studios from the original moulds used for the helmets from the first Star Wars film – Star Wars: A New Hope from 1977.
Ainsworth developed the moulds back in the 1970s and created the helmets used in the film, and in the many years since he has worked on a vast number of major sci-fi blockbusters including Superman and Alien.
Above Video: This short film from Autosport tells the story of Ayrton Senna’s final weekend.
The helmet you see here was created as a tribute to Ayrton Senna, arguably the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time, and certainly one of the best to ever turn a wheel.
Over the course of his Formula 1 career, Senna would win the World Championship three times, he would win 41 races and take 65 pole positions, before his career was cut short in a fatal accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
As Senna was only 34 at the time of his death, many have wondered how many more wins and championships he could have accrued. He had showed absolutely no signs of slowing down, quite the opposite, and some modern F1 drivers have shown that they can remain highly competitive well into their 40s.
The helmet has a flip-up-style tinted shield on the front, a departure from the design of the Star Wars originals, but it otherwise remains true to the 1977 Star Wars shape.
Once this helmet had been created from the original Star Wars moulds it was passed to artist Jason Brooks who painstakingly hand-painted the original colors and decals of Senna’s iconic helmet and applied the requisite decals. A key change was made to the Marlboro logo, changing the spelling to Marlborough.
The helmet is now being offered for sale by Bonhams, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bonhams
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
