Adam recently picked up this Roman guard helmet from eBay, purportedly created and used for a mid-century swords and sandals film. After analyzing its details and trying to discern the ways in which its components were fabricated, Adam can't identify its specific origin. Take a look at the close-ups and see if you recognize where it might have come from!
Shot by Josh Self and edited by Norman Chan
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All right. Hey, everybody.
Adam Savage here in my cave with a Roman soldier's helmet
that I just procured off of eBay.
And I end up with more questions than answers about it.
And I thought I'd show it to you and talk to you.
What about my question?
What about I thought I would show it to you and ask these questions
and see if anyone out there actually can help me with this.
So I picked this up recently on eBay,
and it is a lovely movie made
Roman guard helmet from mid 60s
sword and sandals films.
That was what the auction stated.
When I look at it up close, I'll tell you,
for one, it smells like the 60s.
And by that, I mean I can smell trace amounts of the kind of chemicals
that don't show up in modern props.
Part of that may be this old helmet liner
that's in here has some foam that's rotting in it.
And that may be part of that smell.
But this is also a very vintage looking helmet liner.
So that helps me, I think, place it.
And its construction is pretty straightforward in a couple of ways.
This main helmet here is clearly vacuum
formed plastic with a gold paint treatment on it.
Like I've done a hundred times on any given prop.
But the the the the crown here,
what do you call that?
I'm drawing a blank on what this is called.
But anyway, the mohawk up here and the freeze
that sits above the eyes and these two pieces
are actually made of metal.
And that's peculiar to me,
because my question is, is it metal sprayed into a mold?
And I'll show you some close ups of the inside of this.
It is it's definitely metal,
but I can't tell if it's cast into a mold,
which it seems to be sort of sputtered into a mold.
The normal way this would have been done
back in the old days is a process called chasing,
where you put a backing on this, a pitch or or rosin,
and you hammer your shape into this.
But I don't think this is done that way.
But I am kind of curious
if anyone knows about manufacturing techniques,
because this is weird to me that it is literally metal.
And I can't quite picture how it was built.
Everything else about it is just gorgeous.
The leather work on the inside, this back neck piece is leather,
and it's beautifully aged.
And the horse hair of this crown of the mohawk is really,
really, really stunning.
Yes, you should see it on me.
I will put it on.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally.
I am ready to misjudge the power of my empire.
Absolutely.
Every now and then I find something like this on eBay,
and I know that it's older than I expect.
And that like that in and of itself sometimes is worth
bringing it into my collection.
I am also really interested in how prop making has changed over the years.
Everything you buy these days is sprayed, truck bed liner, polyurea,
which is super versatile, durable, easy to use, easy to work with
and inexpensive, which is why everyone's using it.
You know, 50, 60 years ago, they had to rely on other techniques.
So to me, I love unpacking old props for exactly
that kind of knowledge that they give.
This piping around here is just some shiny gold, gold
cord, you know, probably for decoration,
home decoration, party decoration.
You get this at a party kind of store.
It's all riveted together with what look like actually blind rivets caps.
That's also something that I don't know how to do.
That's an interesting one.
So, yeah, when you look at close ups of this, if you've got information
about how this might have been built, I'm I'm all ears.
It said the ad said that this was plausibly used
in Jason and the Argonauts or another one, Corleone,
an Italian version of Corleone's.
I looked at through I I fast forwarded,
but I looked at both of those movies in this home.
It's not an either one.
I don't think it's likely I'm going to be able to find the movie
that this helmet is from.
But again, we're showing you some B-roll, including these singular figures
on the on the sideburns in hopes that maybe somebody does know
what film this came from, because I would love to know.
So I would call this a piece of my collection in progress.
I don't know enough about it for it to be as interesting as I hope that it is,
which is why I'm making this video.
Thank you guys for joining me.
And I will see you with the next cool thing.
Hey, guys, Adam Savage from Tested here.
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