Sean Looi Says

I received the voice changer helmet today at the airport. It cost USD30 and the shipping cost another USD30 to be sent to Malaysia (I never expected it to be this much). I'm glad to finally get my hands on one because the helmet was completely sold out during the EP3 fever in May 2005. I’m going to write about it. If you call this a review, then I think you’re very kind. Hopefully it will help in your decision to buy it.

The plastic helmet is light (for me anyway) and flexible. It actually feels comfortable, but after some time, it’ll get a little stuffy; however, there are plenty of small ventilation holes to encourage air flow. There are plastic straps, these can be adjusted to give the best fit. Looking in, one of the things that stood out was the part that rested on your nose. It was rubberized. For me, this contributed the most to the comfort. The second interesting thing was the microphone. It was attached to the helmet via flexible and thick rubber ‘thing’. What surprised me was it did not feel flimsy at all and also there was no trace of external wiring connected to the console.

The front half of the helmet is connected to what I call the 'console' via two straps (they’re durable IMHO). The wire connecting the microphone to the console is imbedded in one of the straps. The vertical red button enables the voice changing mode (more on that later). The grey button on the far left is only for show and has no function. The middle two buttons starts Vader's breathing sound and also some popular phrases i.e. "You don't know the power of the dark side" and “Don’t make me destroy you.”

The one and only purpose I bought this is because of the voice changing. I had the mask on with the voice mode activated, but I didn’t know where to start! So I just blundered and said “Well? How is it?” (lame!) The first time I tried it, Vader’s voice was very soft. But after adjusting the microphone closer to the mouth, it was better. There is a noticeable half-second delay before your voice is being ‘Vader-ized’.

I wasn’t able to speak normally without my voice being distorted by the changer, so I had to adjust a little until it produced better results. This ‘adjustment’ is also necessary so that your voice won’t be louder than Vader’s. I made a video of myself using the mask and found that I could still hear my voice. Which means the speaker isn't very loud when it comes to the voice-changing function.

The console also functions as the speaker. It’s quite loud when playing the pre-loaded phrases and the breathing sound, I think it is loud enough to be heard from (approximately) 20ft in the house. Below the console is a switch that you can slide to numbers 0-3. “0” will disable voice mode, numbers 1 to 3 adjusts the pitch of the voice with 1 as the lowest and 3 as the highest. So adults would probably go for 3 and children with number 1.

With a little bit of practice, your voice will become Vader’s rather convincingly (repeat 10 times). It is big enough to fit adults without any problem and is also very comfortable. The console plays the preprogrammed phrases and breathing sounds clearly and loudly. This is an extremely fun toy to have. Don’t hesitate to get this one – give in to the DARK SIDE!