Those of you who've been paying attention to my ravings over the course of the past week should be aware that I recently placed an order with Museum Replicas for a new costume piece. Well, I'm happy to announce it has at last arrived!
Now first, let there be credit where credit is most certainly due. My brother and I have made a habit over the last several years of picking each others holiday and birthday presents. I don't do this with anyone else, but somehow with the two of us that's just the best way for it. This year, (we're early, sue us lol) I found that Museum Replicas had made the jacket that Luke wore in the Throne Room Ceremony at the end of A New Hope. Now, like many others out there, I realized from the beginning that Museum Replicas had VASTLY over priced their Star Wars line when it came out. As such, I'd avoided it till now. However, when I tripped over it this time, I found that the Jacket and Medal combo set was on CLOSEOUT and going out of production. The price was $100 bucks off, taking it down to $175. Still pricey, but since I knew I wouldn't be paying.... and my research turned up no other current producers of that jacket, I decided to ask my bro if we could go for it. He gave the okay and I pulled the trigger!
A little extra background for you, since some of you might be wondering why a guy who looks more like Corran Horn or Han Solo (depending on hair cut) would be so stoked about buying Luke's jacket that was only in one scene of the movies. Basically, if you pay close attention through both ANH and ESB you'll see the same jacket in various other colors on a number of characters. Most notably, in orange, on every last Snowspeeder Pilot, albeit with a big foamy collar on them. Greedo wears one as well, I believe, and Ponda Baba (however ya spell it, the guy in the cantina that got his arm cut off). My running theory, based upon which characters wear that style jacket in what scenes, is that it is a common variant of Flight Jacket in the OT era. Of course, me being the resident X-Wing jockey, that makes it something I'd like to have. (not that anything will replace my A2 style Rebel Flight Jacket mind you) Also, with the Yavin Medal of Valor being the only Alliance Medal ever shown on screen.... that's certainly not something I hate owning either.
Well, I suppose I should stop babbling about me and get to babbling about the jacket itself. (I will note first, since I think this is gonna closely parallel a review, that Museum Replicas doesn't sell lightsaber props, so no competition to Ultra there.
) As far as the ordering process, it was nice and straight forward. They sell the jacket in standardized sizes, and have a nice chart to tell you the measurements. The price as I noted is somewhat high, but when you take into account the cost of good jackets these days.... $175 with a medal isn't too bad. Incidentally, I'm a Size M for this jacket, reportedly the same size as the original Mark Hamill wore in the movie. Score one for Manny! XD
Shipping came UPS, which is blah to me, but it turned up intact at a reasonable time of day, and was in one piece, so I can't complain.
(seriously, I LOVE that ultra uses FedEx!) Also, the thing came in this wicked awesome box!
I neglected to take pics of the rest of the packing, but the jacket came in a (kind of cheap) suit bag (it's free though so that's awesome!), which was wrapped in paper and bubble wrap. Getting past all the add material enclosed with the thing, I'll note the 'COA' it comes with is more of a brochure for the rest of the line that just says 'This is a Certificate of Authenticity' on it. lol
As far as accuracy.... the original jacket was some kind of exceedingly rare English Motorcycle Racing Jacket as I understand it. This thing is made out of poly-cotton, so the material is incorrect. The color is slightly off as well I think, but that's hard to tell for sure considering film lighting, monitor and TV settings, age, etc. Under certain lighting the thing looks spot on for color, in other lighting it looks too light to me. The other issue I note is that looking at the movie, the ribs on the shoulders seem to bulge out, whereas the ones on my jacket and others I've seen photos of are a tad flat. Probably due to the change in material. Otherwise, the cut is perfect, it seems to wear exactly as it did in the film. The details all appear correct, though I've heard that the little velcro-fuzz thing over the breast pocket is supposed to have been suede, but it looks fine to me.
The thing is also very well padded, so it feels fairly substantial when you wear it.
Now, I have yet to even pull the medal out of the package, so I'll cover that later. I'll finish off tonight with those photos I promised earlier.
If there's anything you guys want me to cover or take more pics of, let me know and I'll do what I can. Here's the pics!
The full jacket:
Look, I'm a recruiting poster!:
Some shots of the sleeve detail I was talking about:
Breast pocket detail:
A shot of the sleeve cuff (they wear a little long, but they're supposed to):
And my crappy imitation of one of the Luke promo stills:
And let me just finish by saying it feels really awesome to wear this thing. I wish the weather would get cold already so I could use it. lol
