I second that my first impression was "oh, what a nice helmet". Then again, after looking at it for another second, I saw the apparent details (i.e. lasers) in the lower section of it: They suggest it would be a very impractical helmet, or, a very sci-fi one, if it was a helmet to begin with.

I think this type of criticism - us not knowing directly what it depict - only depends on us not seeing the artwork within it's original context: I'm convinced nobody that played the spaceship-game with this piece in it would ever have the thought about it being a helmet.