The iconic helmet featured in the 1986 Top Gun movie, will be one of the highlights in an upcoming auction of movie props.
The HGU-33/P flight helmet worn by “Maverick” is probably the most famous and distinctive thing in the first Top Gun movie. So much so, it also made its appearance in the photo used by Tom Cruise to tease “Top Gun 2” (actually, “Top Gun: Maverick”) when the filming of the sequel to the blockbuster 1980s movie featuring Capt. Pete Mitchell and the U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat, started in May 2018, even though the old-fashioned Gentex HGU-33 has long been replaced within the U.S. Navy and other air arms around the world by the more modern Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System or HGU-68/P helmets.
Interestingly, the original HGU-33/P (or at least one of the helmets used in the movie) will be up for bids during The Prop Store’s August 26 and 27 virtual auction. In fact, according to a RollingStone article, the Top Gun helmet will be among the over 850 items from classic films, including props, memorabilia and costumes from movies like Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Hunger Games and Rocky. While the Darth Vader costume from A New Hope’s promotional tour carries a pre-auction estimate of $150,000-$300,000, “Maverick” helmet is expected to reach bids in the $50,000 range.
By the way, no matter you’ll be able to buy the iconic helmet or not during the upcoming virtual action, we are not going to see the HGU-33 in “Top Gun: Maverick” to hit theaters in December 2020 (it was initially scheduled for release at the end of June 2020, but the Coronavirus pandemic postponed it to later this year).
Photo leaked from the set proves Maverick is going to use a customized version of the modern @USNavy HGU-68/P flight helmet instead of the old-fashioned HGU-33 shown in the first image image teased by @TomCruise (right image edit from shot leaked here: https://t.co/mFBpWxfwAz) pic.twitter.com/eV6x4NC2ij
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— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) September 18, 2018
In fact, even before the first official trailer confirmed it, photos of Tom Cruise with the new helmet were leaked to social networks and photographers also caught shots of a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet two-seat variant jet transiting through the Star Wars canyon, showing a pilot wearing the HGU-68/P lightweight flight helmet with custom graphics.
H/T to Eric Moreno for the heads-up!
