Frogmouth Helmet Test: Vision, Mobility. Episode 2

Hello noble ones, welcome back to my channel. This is the Metatron speaking and this is the second episode of my series dedicated to this muppet, the frogmouth helmet. On the first episode we had the chance to have a little bit of a more academic slash theoretical approach where we talked about a few excellent examples and then we spoke in theory about this helmet, pros and cons. But today, today we are all about practice. One of the things that I really like doing on this channel is to put theory and practice together because I think that only then will you really achieve a complete understanding of the subject at hand. So, in my previous video we addressed those items that normally you talk about when you study the frogmouth. So, how is the vision, how heavy is it, mobility, ability to breathe, how hot does it get in there. All of this information is impressive but now we have a chance to actually test it. So, without further ado let's put it on. On the second section of this video we will do a comparative test instead. I will be wearing a Roman legionary helmet, a medieval soldier's kettle hat helmet and a samurai kabuto. The second part is awesome so make sure to watch until the end. And if you like warriors of the classical and medieval period make sure to subscribe. Of course I'd like to begin by saying that the helmet is, yes, historically accurate. It's a really good replica but one of the things that surprises you when you first put something like this on is its weight. Literally the sheer weight of the thing. As I have explained on the previous video the frogmouth helmet is specialized jousting gear meaning that this is a tournament helmet. This is not something intended to be used on the battlefield. This helmet was used during the joust of peace. It was used during an event that was held to entertain people. Basically it's medieval combat sport and oftentimes these jousts were organized during very important events such as a marriage, a wedding and of course if one of the knights drops dead during the event well you know that could kind of ruin it for everybody. Therefore when it comes to protection with the frogmouth well it's as good as it gets. Now this specific specimen, even though as I say is quite heavy, it isn't the heaviest that ever was built. But it isn't on the lighter side either. I would say it's somewhere in the middle. So it provides an excellent example of what an average frogmouth would have weighed. Luckily though because of the liner inside which is made of linen, padded linen, the helmet is actually suspended over my head. It's not resting on my shoulders which would have been a much more problematic situation. But what's interesting is that this frogmouth is actually heavier than my breastplate and backplate configuration here. Can you believe that? Now when it comes to vision I have to say that the helmet really surprised me. I can in fact see much more than I had expected when it comes to peripheral vision. So anything in front of me I can see no problem and my peripheral vision goes all the way up to here. So of course anything to my sides I can't really see but I can move my torso and see. The real problem when it comes to is anything below this line. I am completely blinded when it comes to anything that happens in the lower part in front of me. So basically I don't see where I'm walking and this was a little bit of a problem with my little dogs as I didn't want to step on them. Now there is a way to solve it. I can literally bend but you know not the most comfortable thing to do. But as I mentioned on the previous video the reason for that is that I don't really need to. I mean it's a helmet supposed to be used mounted so I know what's in front of me. It's my horse and even though it does kind of impede my ability to walk well, well if I'm mounted I'm not going to walk anyways. So would I ever want to fight in hand-to-hand combat with one of these? No. There are loads of other different configurations or types of helmets that I would rather go with. In fact an armoured, a salad, possibly with a visor up would be my choice for hand-to-hand on foot. Still though if you did put me on one of these and said you either fight like this or I'll shoot you, you know maybe wouldn't be too bad. What I mean by that is I'm getting a lot of protection, my ability to fight is partially impeded but it's not completely compromised. So not me but I'm just saying that a professional fighter could still pull it off. It would be harder definitely but it wouldn't be impossible. So to try and recreate what I see from the frog mouth, so as you can see I've got a massive blind spot here but anything that happens directly in front of me I can see quite well. Because of the fact that it does have a relatively big opening at the top and that there is space between me and the actual frontal plate, my ability to breathe was not particularly compromised. Of course I can't breathe as easily as I could with a open-faced helmet but it did not make me feel, what could I say, claustrophobic. I would imagine however that when it comes to heating or overheating under the sun this could be a problem but during an actual medieval joust you would never wear anything like this for more than 30 minutes at a time in the worst case scenario. That is, in my opinion, why oftentimes these don't have the perforations that you do see on other types of helmets that are instead supposed to be kept on your head for much longer. I do confirm however the fact that I can't turn my head, I have to turn my torso just like I said in my previous video, the helmet keeps my head in place and I can't really move it and if the helmet was bolted to the breastplate rather than being connected through leather straps like in my configuration I would imagine I would have even less flexibility. But then again that does help to prevent spinal damage when you are hit by a lance in full force on the face. So I think I'll take the lack of flexibility over death or permanent paralysis. Ultimately when it comes to the looks you either love it or hate it. I absolutely love it, some people completely hate it. I love the fact that my wife compared me to a teapot so we kind of nicknamed it the teapot knight. Would you like some tea with your biscuits? And now let's move to the second part of this video, let's compare it with the other three helmets. Now before beginning this comparison with the Roman helmet, the medieval kettle hat and the samurai kabuto, I have to say that even though there are different possible configurations of helmets that you could wear during a joust that would be considered acceptable, so you don't have to wear a frogmouth, frogmouth just gives you the best protection but it's not the only acceptable helmet, none of the three helmets that I'm about to wear will be deemed acceptable. So you wouldn't be able to wear them during a joust because your likelihood of death would be so high that just wouldn't be acceptable. But it's still interesting, it's still interesting to have a look and compare them because I think we can learn a thing or two. However what other helmets would be considered adequate? Well for example an armet with a full wrapper around would absolutely be a good choice for a joust instead of a frogmouth as an alternative, but also some people wore salads with a beaver. Now personally I don't like the beaver salad configuration for a joust, I would use it on a battlefield but I wouldn't use it during the joust, not necessarily because it doesn't work, I mean it does but as it has happened to a person I know that was jousting full contact with a salad with a beaver that even though it will save your life if you get a full lance through the face it will still break your jaw. I'm not saying that it would happen every single time but it just wouldn't be my personal choice. I like full on, a full plate in the front. With that being said, so this is the kettle hat, it's much much smaller and a much less protective helmet but when you put it on, one thing that I like is that it allows you to do so many things that I wouldn't be able to do with a frogmouth on my head. So this is really a great helmet if you were a guard, if you were perhaps in the camp but you didn't think that there was any threat but you still wanted a little bit of protection just in case, or if you were to, I want to say fight in hand-to-hand combat, this would still be a good helmet if you couldn't afford better helmets. So this helmet gives me, oh my gosh, after wearing the frogmouth, wearing this is literally paradise. My vision is basically perfect, breathing, the wind, the air, that was one of the problems that I had with the frogmouth, I mean if you run and I would imagine if you gallop then the air would enter the helmet, it would give you a little bit of fresh breathe but if you stand still in a frogmouth it's just the air doesn't circulate, it's not easy to catch your breath really and I would imagine if you were fighting that would be even harder. Now with this helmet of course none of that is a problem, so this would be a nice alternative to wear as a light kit because it still protects you, although again as I say this would not save your life during a joust. However when it comes to the Roman helmet you can tell that this was designed for an infantry soldier. For an infantry soldier this is great, in fact if we compare it with this one you see that it does add protection for my cheeks and the reason why they're mobile is that this way when it's not on your head you can fold them inside and you can wear it on your bosom and march. So of course he said if anyone wore this during a joust probably medieval people would laugh their heads off. What are you wearing that antique for? Have you got a death wish? But as I say what I'm trying to say with the second part with the comparison is that when we compare we do need to remember the context in which these helmets were were used and what they were supposed to be used. Now of course this is a much earlier type of protection and if a medieval soldier wearing a lighter kit still wanted some protection for the side of the plates he would be wearing a male coif. But for what this was designed to do it was excellent and again this after wearing the frog mouth an absolute piece of cake, although I have to say the kettle hat it's even more comfortable than this. Now don't get me wrong I absolutely love samurai history and samurai armor this the Kabuto is an extremely comfortable and well-designed helmet. It has a nice liner inside just like medieval helmets did and it does provide good protection to the sides good protection over here and the helmet is very light compared to the frog mouth. Now of course again this is a battlefield helmet so probably would be more fair to compare it with battlefield helmets of Europe rather than to specialized jousting gear. But I still wanted to put it on and tell you how it feels after having worn the full-on frog mouth. Honestly I don't think a samurai would have liked the frog mouth they probably would have thought it looked cool but they would have hated wearing it because if they were used to this and someone told them it's going to be a duel like a tournament on horseback and they told him but you've got to wear this helmet probably samurai would have been like no not a chance. I mean it wouldn't surprise me if a samurai actually risked his life and chose to wear this but as you can see it has zero face protection so of course if you get hit in the face you would die but it's a different philosophy and even though yes there were mempo so masks that would protect your face even with a mask like that considering how close it is a lance in full gallop would kill you and probably snap your neck regardless of whether you were wearing the mask or not. Even though Japanese samurai armor sometimes can get very protective as heavy as European knight armor and I say this with a full-on understanding of what weight we are talking about in excellent examples from museums that I've studied many people think the samurai armor is going to be a lot lighter than knight armor but it really depends on what configuration and the same could be said about European armor but even with the heaviest configurations possible the samurai still never really went up to that degree of protection that today we have worn and I have to say that even though I absolutely love the frog mouth wearing it for an extended period of time I wouldn't wish it to my worst enemy. Now even though there are a lot of different possible configurations for the head well you have seen me wear my Italian Northern Italian asymmetrical style pauldrons but as you can see here I've got some spaulders completely different kind of protection for my arms and at the end of the day you always have a lot of possibilities a lot of possible configurations and how much protection you want how much mobility you want how much are you ready to sacrifice in order to gain more defense and protection really is a matter of what you were supposed to do when you were supposed to wear that specific component of your armor and also your personal choices and fighting style. But with that being said this concludes the third episode of this series dedicated to the frog mouth if you liked it and you want me to keep on going please let me know comment below like the video share it with your friends share it with your cat share it with your dogs and absolutely share it with your frogs. Thank you very much for watching noble ones and remember the metatron has spread his wings goodbye