opinions on Japanese helmet please?

[Striking 9th]

Cover is bad. It is head to toe reproduction imo.

[beretta1934]

wow, so EVERYTHING is replica? Even the shell??

Sorry but that's the consensus and I fully agree. There are several key things which jump out, the bright synthetic thread in the helmet cover, the double loops at the bottom of the helmet net (classic Nakata repro feature), the bright shiny fold over tabs of the front star on the inside of the helmet. The helmet cover material weave, the "leather" of the helmet liner, the "fuzzy" chin straps, on it goes...

So how could you have known it was not correct immediately without being a seasoned collector of Japanese items??

Simple. This thing would have glowed like a firefly in many areas if it were illuminated with a UV light. The cover threads for sure, probably the net, probably the liner stitching, probably some portion of the chinstraps (at least their sewn areas). Sorry you didn't get what you hoped but hopefully you can get your money back and also put a UV light to this thing and see some of what I am referring to.

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[Sternjaeger]

Thanks everyone for the precious feedback! As I said, it came with a lot of other helmets, I did not pay much for it (in fact probably less than its market value as a replica), but I've got to say that it's impressive the extent to which replicas are getting to, I thought it was only a problem with German helmets, but clearly you have to go "forensic" on all gear now...