nitestar
Just a little freaky
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2012
- Messages
- 19
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I hope this is the right forum for this.
Well, it finally happened.
I took my Sideshow 1/4 Premium Indiana Jones statue off the shelf for a delicate dusting, to discover that the idol he held in his right hand, pressing against the jacket, had somehow bonded to the pleather due to humidity or some other environmental factor and torn away a small chunk of the material on the pocket panel.
This led me to looking online for replacement 1/4 jackets that may be available to all of us facing this dilemma. I found one source. The cost is more than one life-sized leather jacket, and almost 1/3 of that cost in Fedex shipping. Total around $600 USD.
With a turnaround time of 4-6 months. So good luck with a PayPal claim if that deal goes south.
That's kind of insane, even if the party doing the restorations from your original flaked jacket are reputable and follow through.
So it got me to thinking, as one of the oldest suppliers of lightweight leather bat gloves at my website superherogloves.com, that PERHAPS I could pursue a more affordable alternative with my leather goods supplier, but as is with my gloves, I know I will need to place an MOQ order, and that's IF he can do them, pending a suitably approved prototype.
I'm going to inquire and see if this is possible, but I figured a good first step would be to gauge interest to support a minimum quantity order to fulfill these.
Is anyone here interested pending a more reasonable price assessment? If so, please respond in this thread. I can then move forward getting a prototype made and presented before actually ordering them.
As to removing your existing 1/4 scale figure jacket it's definitely not for the squeamish given what a high value collectible this statue represents. I've read on other threads of people attempting to remove the jacket and shirt, that you have to BREAK the arms. There's actually a much more precise and surgical solution, if you purchase an Exacto Blade saw, as referenced in this thread, and after pulling down the jacket and shirt for access, saw the left arm off at the shoulder joint. This will provide a clean cut that you can eventually drill a hole and add a metal pin to align the arm back with superglue. The process is slow and tedious, but if you're patient you'll get a good, clean cut. You'll have to repeat this process with the left HAND at the wrist to get the rest of the jacket and shirt off. There is a metal pin where the hands meet the arms, so this task will take a little more elbow grease with the Exacto saw to get through. But it will provide you with much cleaner "surgical" cuts by which when you put Indy back together later, and more aesthetically preserved. Indy would sit like the attached images until he's ready to be re-assembled with a leather jacket replacement.
By my estimation also. the boots were glued pretty solid to the legs at the ankles, making the pants difficult to pull off. Instead of cutting at the ankles, I opted to just cut a little of the stitching on the back of the pants seam near his seat, which gave me a little wiggle room although it still took some effort to get the pants off around the boots. It will also be easier to stitch up that seam later also, which is hidden under the jacket anyway, when the time comes.
So is anyone else interested? If I can get an idea how many would like to get in on this, it will put me in a better position negotiating a price with my leather goods guy. So please post here or email me at: [email protected] so I can start a list and cheers!
Well, it finally happened.
I took my Sideshow 1/4 Premium Indiana Jones statue off the shelf for a delicate dusting, to discover that the idol he held in his right hand, pressing against the jacket, had somehow bonded to the pleather due to humidity or some other environmental factor and torn away a small chunk of the material on the pocket panel.
This led me to looking online for replacement 1/4 jackets that may be available to all of us facing this dilemma. I found one source. The cost is more than one life-sized leather jacket, and almost 1/3 of that cost in Fedex shipping. Total around $600 USD.
With a turnaround time of 4-6 months. So good luck with a PayPal claim if that deal goes south.
That's kind of insane, even if the party doing the restorations from your original flaked jacket are reputable and follow through.
So it got me to thinking, as one of the oldest suppliers of lightweight leather bat gloves at my website superherogloves.com, that PERHAPS I could pursue a more affordable alternative with my leather goods supplier, but as is with my gloves, I know I will need to place an MOQ order, and that's IF he can do them, pending a suitably approved prototype.
I'm going to inquire and see if this is possible, but I figured a good first step would be to gauge interest to support a minimum quantity order to fulfill these.
Is anyone here interested pending a more reasonable price assessment? If so, please respond in this thread. I can then move forward getting a prototype made and presented before actually ordering them.
As to removing your existing 1/4 scale figure jacket it's definitely not for the squeamish given what a high value collectible this statue represents. I've read on other threads of people attempting to remove the jacket and shirt, that you have to BREAK the arms. There's actually a much more precise and surgical solution, if you purchase an Exacto Blade saw, as referenced in this thread, and after pulling down the jacket and shirt for access, saw the left arm off at the shoulder joint. This will provide a clean cut that you can eventually drill a hole and add a metal pin to align the arm back with superglue. The process is slow and tedious, but if you're patient you'll get a good, clean cut. You'll have to repeat this process with the left HAND at the wrist to get the rest of the jacket and shirt off. There is a metal pin where the hands meet the arms, so this task will take a little more elbow grease with the Exacto saw to get through. But it will provide you with much cleaner "surgical" cuts by which when you put Indy back together later, and more aesthetically preserved. Indy would sit like the attached images until he's ready to be re-assembled with a leather jacket replacement.
By my estimation also. the boots were glued pretty solid to the legs at the ankles, making the pants difficult to pull off. Instead of cutting at the ankles, I opted to just cut a little of the stitching on the back of the pants seam near his seat, which gave me a little wiggle room although it still took some effort to get the pants off around the boots. It will also be easier to stitch up that seam later also, which is hidden under the jacket anyway, when the time comes.
So is anyone else interested? If I can get an idea how many would like to get in on this, it will put me in a better position negotiating a price with my leather goods guy. So please post here or email me at: [email protected] so I can start a list and cheers!
