New Helmet: Nutcase Constellations

Back in October, my helmet was stolen.  Well, my whole bicycle got stolen, and my helmet happened to be locked to the bike, so it was stolen too.  Had the Kensington Trash stolen any other helmet of mine, it probably wouldn't have been as big of a deal.  But it was my Nutcase Superstar helmet, a helmet that is no longer manufactured and appears to be available nowhere on internet.  I had gotten it in 2013 at the Philly Bike Expo and had loved it since Day 1.  In fact, here's a photo of me loving my Superstar:

That's a nice looking helmet.  I really miss it.

Isn't it beautiful?  It's an Evel Knievel pattern, and I have received more random compliments for that helmet than any other item I own (and I have a really cool piece of polished polychromatic jasper).  That's an old picture, too, as by October 2016, it had faux-rhinestone stars placed in the middle of each white star, making it even better.  A helmet like that, a helmet so awesome to behold, a helmet so fun to wear (look at that face) can't just be replaced.  Or can it?

The answer is yes, it can be, but not by just any old helmet.  I already had an 'any old helmet' for MTB, and I didn't need another one.  No, it had to be replaced by an equally rad helmet (or at least one really close).  But who could make such a rad helmet?  The obvious, Occam's Razor answer was Nutcase.  They had made the original awesome helmet, so if anyone could make the new awesome helmet, it was them.

Disclaimer:  This may sound like a shameless plug for Nutcase, and it kind of is.  When I got my Superstar in 2013, it was at the Nutcase booth on the Philly Bike Expo convention floor.  It was at that booth that I met Miriam and Chris from Nutcase, two of the nicest people you could ever meet (at a bike expo or not).  Over the years, we've kept in touch (including swinging by their fun HQ in Portland) and they've continued to be awesome people .  Their products are great and their team is great, so I am completely Nutcase biased.

Anyway, a few days ago I received an email that the newest Nutcase models were released, and that's when I knew I had my replacement.  Behold... Constellations:

Click here for a way better picture of Constellations.

Woah...  Now that's a pretty helmet!  It's covered in (eponymous) constellations and has a sparkling black finish.  Way more elegant than my old Superstar, but just as awesome.  Even more awesome was the fact that the ear pad inserts from my Superstar fit perfectly in Constellations.  Anyone that rides all winter and doesn't have ear pads is doing themselves a disservice, as they are fuzzy lobe-warmers.  Also, anyone that's having trouble reading a non-plural proper noun ending in an 'S', I'm with you.

Most importantly, while stopped into Bicycle Revolutions to show Travis, one of the mechanics said, "Nice helmet."  Looks like Constellations is going to pick up right where Superstar left off.  Couldn't have picked a better helmet to carry the torch.