I guess this is sort of off topic but I know of no better place to ask. I picked up this helmet today. Seems to me that I have seen these in old Ed Roth catalogs. Yes? No? It is as I know a novelty helmet. The flying skull while partially missing is hand painted. I either case, I was bringing it home with me.
Very light. Chrome plated plastic. Well made? Well that's certainly up for debate. LOL I know I saw these advertised in some old catalog.
Did a online search and Roth did make chrome plastic copies of the German Wehrmacht iron helmet. See: "The Surfer's Cross" TIME Magazine Friday,April22,1966. Was story that included the popularity of the German Iron Cross, which Big Daddy made copies of too. Bikers and Surfers loved the rebel Nazi stuff. Seems Big Daddy also made a TV (?) commercial advertizing these helmets in 1966.
Heres a thread on the commerical , also has pics of Bad Bobs helmet http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130903&highlight=roth+helmet
The commercial was classic. too bad youtube deleted it a while ago. Guess it wasn't politically correct.
Here's a pic of mine. It was chrome when Ed gave it to me back in '67 or '68. It was all scratched up so I painted it black. I had Doug Dorr stripe it about 4 yrs ago. If you look at the third pic,there's a brown spot where the foam pad was that always falls off. None of them came with a liner,like a hardhat. Looks like somebody put that on there. That's an original water-transfer Ratfink decal,I put on there about 32 years ago!! Doug painted some flies around it...
Roth made a lot of stuff over the years but based on a conversation with him many years ago at the first Goodguys at Carlisle (he was camping in the back of a U-Haul truck) he didn't make these helmets, just bought and resold them.
Hey thats in pretty nice shape. I agree, I don't think they came with any kind of liner, but I could be wrong. I'd love to have one of those in my collection! I'm amazed someone hasn't repopped them, but I do have some of the fiberglass ones, the non-DOT approved biker ones. I bought a bunch of them a few years back to paint up and fiddle with. I'm amazed at how few of them you ever see, but they probably didn't hold up well or people eventually want "shit, this is a nazi helmet!" and dumped them! The Florida knock-off of Roth, Big Daddy Rat Carl Smith, who owned the Rat's Hole t-shirt shops in Daytona, also sold those in his stores for like 2 bucks, but I have never seen one surface around here at all.
Roth told me years ago,that his helmet was a mold that was also used before him for movie exrtas helmets in war movies,Ive still got a barris hand out that roth wrote on the back : "I owe u 1 german helmet",he said he had some in a box some where in the attic........damn I miss that guy
The helmets appear the same as far as dimensions. Just that mine has the liner part. I'm sure these were as noted, made by others and Roth sold them so I guess he may have had various suppliers or the designs changed. I dunno. This one is clearly period appropriate.
Can't tell you how many times mine blew off my head and rolled down the gutter!!! Hard to believe it never broke...
O.K. clue #1. I pulled back the liner and there is a faded sticker. Buco Safety Helmet. I'll see if I can figure any more of it out.
I ordered one in the '60's and it arrived just like Badbob's pic, no liner. I should have spec'd a size because what I got was so small only a kid could wear it. wvenfield, I think someone added the liner and strap to yours so they could actually use it at speed.
The sticker is on the helmet. Of course I'm familiar with Buco. The liner wasn't added. It clearly was made with the helmet. If you look at my elongated finger you can see where one of the rivets are that holds the liner. BTW, the helmet fits me fine.
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