Riddell mini-helmets were a series of headgear collectibles manufactured by Riddell, a company specializing in sports memorabilia.
While Riddell's primary focus was on sports-related equipment like football helmets, they also created a few based on the Star Wars saga. Only a limited set of five were produced before Master Replicas took over production in 2003/2004. These included Darth Vader's helmet (featuring a removable mask and helmet as seen in Return of the Jedi), Boba Fett's helmet, a Return of the Jedi-era stormtrooper helmet, Luke's X-wing helmet, and C-3PO's head. The stormtrooper helmet is considered the most scarce, with Boba Fett's helmet being the second most difficult to find. Plans were in place for a TIE pilot helmet, but these never progressed beyond the prototype phase when Master Replicas assumed control.
Each helmet also came packaged with blueprints detailing the in-universe functionality of the respective helmet. The blueprints included with the stormtrooper helmet were the first mention of the Reifflex cellular padding, as noted by Daniel Wallace on his blog related to the release of Star Wars: Darth Vader: A 3-D Reconstruction Log.
- Star Wars Helmets website, which provides information on both the Riddell and Master Replicas versions of the mini-helmets.
- the TIE Pilot blueprints on Gus Lopez' website.
- aokforums propden post containing the five blueprints