Riddell introduced a new collectable helmet titled the “midi.” At 7.5 inches, it’s in between a mini and a full size helmet. Riddell generally makes five types of collectables. There are varying alternates and throwbacks in all the styles.
- Full size – about 11 inches
- Midi (new) – about 7.5 inches
- Mini – about 5.5 inches
- Helmet of Players – about 4 inches
- Pocket – about 2 inches
- Trackers – about 1.5 inches
Some may wonder: what was the helmet of players? The helmet of players was a large helmet that included tiny figures, kind of like army men. They were made in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, I guess. They had the same packaging as pocket helmets from the time. I purchased a KC Chiefs one and would like to collect all the teams. They go for about $25 each on eBay, so I will likely stick with my one Chiefs helmet 🙂
Helmets not manufactured by Riddell
Another type of helmet is, of course, the classic gumball collectable helmet. However, Riddell does not manufacture gumball helmets. These came in a variety of types.
There’s also a helmet I see a lot of called the “Mighty Mini.” These helmets look a lot like pocket helmets, but are more squat and have the team name on the front (Pocket helmets are usually blank or have the Riddell logo on the front). I speculate these were made in the late 90s through the mid 2000s. I have no idea who manufactured them, however. Maybe it was Riddell?
Riddell NFL Pocket Pro Helmets 
When I saw the above picture of the Mighty Mini helmets, I thought they were possibly the later gumball machine helmets. I pulled out a few of them I have lying around in their plastic bubbles tonight to check them, but they’re not the same helmets as the ones I have are blank on the front without the team names, so the Mighty Minis I guess were made by somebody else. The ones I have replaced the original gumball machine self-assembled helmets with the stickers and snap-on facemask. I wanna say they debuted around 2000 because the Rams, Saints and Ravens updates from 1999 and 2000, along with the Titans helmet were in this helmet design. 1999 may have been the last year of the sticker helmets, because many years later, I saw a Titans helmet with the stickers in a machine at a local dead mall, but it was in a corner of the machine and I wasn’t spending tons of quarters to finally free it. ; )
I preferred the pre-assembled gumball machine helmets with the painted-on logos and attached face masks because they looked more realistic. For example, the Bengals sticker helmet always looked odd with the stripes just on the stickers. The later gumball machine helmets had the stripes all over just like the actual helmet. A few of the logos though weren’t quite to scale and appeared much larger on the helmet such as the Dolphins, Colts and Seahawks. If I recall, I had all 31 teams, but by the time the Texans debuted I couldn’t find a gumball machine with helmets anymore. A couple years later, Riddell started to sell the entire 32-team set in a case, and upgraded to that.
I often see the sticker helmets for sale on ebay, although I’ve yet to see the later 2000-era pre-assembled helmets for sale. Maybe they weren’t as widely sold as the sticker helmets?
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