Identify Mad Max Gyro Captain Helmet

[philmonty]

Hi all

Trying for a screen accurate Gryo Captain from Mad Max 2 (Bruce Spence). Nobody in the mad max costume community seems to have ever identified his leather helmet (the googles are very expensive (and rare) RAF MK IVB WW2 goggles. If anyone knows of replica goggles I'd love to get some, otherwise I may try for a 3d print.

Can anyone identify the source of the helmet? When I look at this pic close up it strikes me that this is very new looking - and it could be a tank helmet rather than a flying helmet. The 3 grommets on the ears are very distinctive, but I've found nothing like this in Google search - there may have been another piece over the ears. BTW: to me it looks soviet, but I could be wrong - it would need to have been available in Australia in the early 80s. There is no chin piece on the strap.

Any thoughts? This was a fairly low budget film, so I can't see them making something from scratch..

http://patrickrigney.blogspot.com/2015/10/gyro-captain-smoke-break.html

 

[gothic]

found this "mad max costumes"

 

[philmonty]

Its a great site, but they can't identify the helmet either.

 

[gothic]

i noticed all the flying leather helmets have large earholes for what must be the headphones but if you look at old leather football helmets they are more similar the ear parts have domes with holes worth a shot

 

[Rogviler]

I think it's gotta be a flight helmet due to the lack of padding. Sports helmets and even tank crew helmets have a good deal of padding.

Easy to find helmets that are similar, but it's those ears that I've never seen.

-Rog

 

[philmonty]

I wonder if there was another piece over the ears that has been removed.

 

[gothic]

I think its adapted or someone would have recognised it, everywhere I look it comes up as "unknown leather flight helmet"

 

[philmonty]

Yes, I am starting to think the same thing. I think they may have bought a helmet from somewhere and added the earcups - they look too low to be practical. Note that the helmet stitching closes matches US Navy pre WW2 flying caps. I think we need to start looking for the base helmet...

 

[Trifaux]

i searched for this helmet last year for my gyro costume ...this and the goggles are so damn hard to pinpoint, i ended up buying a cheap lookalike but would love to get it more accurate

 

[philmonty]

Hi Trifaux - the goggles are easy to identify - they are RAF Mark IVb goggles - WW2 vintage and now cost hundreds of dollars. The helmet has everyone stumped, but I think we can assume it's not a military helmet, which means it was either made from scratch, or adapted from something else. The ear cups look way too low to be functional. My best guess is that they found a leather flying style helmet and added the ear cups. But I could be wrong

Phil

- - - Updated - - -

Hey Rog, I am starting to think the ear cups are an addition...

 

[ZeroSum]

As far as the goggles go, Mad Max Costumes identifies them asBritish Royal Air Force Mark IVB with flip sun shield.

The helmet looks similar to this Australian made leather flying helmet by Stagg Leathergoods. Presumably the earcups were added afterwards, but no idea of the origin.

 

[ZeroSum]

Some more pictures of the Stagg. It's similar but I'm not sure that the stitching and the sections match close enough.

 

[philmonty]

Does anyone know of someone who could make a screen accurate helmet? I can't find anything on the market that looks reasonable.

Phil

 

[gothic]

you could make a head cast template, cover your head in cellophane cover it in duct tape then buy some brown pleather. you could age/weather it might be a cheaper option

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODSNPYdvJRo