Museum Replicas does it again...more Harry Potter costumes

iycis

Sr Member
*sigh*

There's some pretty glaring inaccuracies to me with these costumes but I've studied the real ones in waaaay too much detail, so I notice it right away.

I don't know why they can't get their **** together and research things just a little bit more to get things right. Not that I'd buy their stuff, because I make my own, but I feel like if I can figure this stuff out...I don't know why they can't.

You can't show off your wares to real fans and expect them not to notice that you put the Quidditch pads on upside-down and have the wrong broom for the character, etc.
 
Jeeeez. Though why would anyone pay MR 90.00 for a house sweater when you can just buy the Lochaven ones for the same friggin price anyway.

However, I will probably buy their quidditch pads lol, its been a pain making my own.
 
Jeeeez. Though why would anyone pay MR 90.00 for a house sweater when you can just buy the Lochaven ones for the same friggin price anyway.

Exactly. I like knowing that my Lochaven sweater is 100% screen accurate for the same price.
 
The quality of the pads actually looked pretty good in person. I'd need to compare it to the screen used stuff to comment on the accuracy of course. But I am seriously considering getting the pads, since they looked a lot better than most of the fan-made ones I've seen.
 
There's some pretty glaring inaccuracies to me with these costumes but I've studied the real ones in waaaay too much detail, so I notice it right away.

I don't know why they can't get their **** together and research things just a little bit more to get things right. Not that I'd buy their stuff, because I make my own, but I feel like if I can figure this stuff out...I don't know why they can't.

You can't show off your wares to real fans and expect them not to notice that you put the Quidditch pads on upside-down and have the wrong broom for the character, etc.

I'm a big harry potter fan, but I am just curious, what are some of these inaccuracies? I'm more on top of my prop details that costume ones. I had the impression that MR was on top of their game, accuracy wise... Well at least more on top of their game than freakin 'noble' collection, now THATS ****ty quality! I own MR's sweater, I had no idea they were 'found' items and would've definitely gone the Lochaven route, had I known... In fact, I still might. I'm planning on selling my WWoHP robes and my MR sweater to get MR robes and Lochaven sweater, are the MR robes accurate? and are the dress pants/dress shirt also 'found' items? If they are, do you know where I might find them myself, as I don't like the idea of paying $50 for a $10 shirt just because it's from MR.
Thanks for your help!
 
Some companies that do licensed good are contractually obliged not to make them exactly like the actual items. This is to help reduce copies being sold off as original props.

Sometimes these can be so subtle you'd only spot them if you knew what to look for. Othertimes, they can be glaring.

Personally I think the MR range is a mixed bag. On the one hand, you've got Snapes which, at a glance (I've not done a side by side comparison) looks pretty good.

On the other hand you've got their Voldemort robes which sadly (unless it's just a really bad picture) look shocking. (Sorry guys if you're reading this)

I'd be interested to see them in the flesh to see what the shape/design is like as you can't really tell from that pic, but certainly in terms of the fabric colour (and in particular, how they've dyed it) they're not even close.

Still, it's a licensed product so I guess the team at WB have reviewed the range and deemed everything is acceptable for retail.
 
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Interesting....

Wish you guys could have gotten this license. At least then then I'd know that real fans made sure they were done with the correct fabrics. :unsure

But I know you have more than enough on your plate with all the Trek and BSG stuff.
 
I'm a big harry potter fan, but I am just curious, what are some of these inaccuracies? I'm more on top of my prop details that costume ones. I had the impression that MR was on top of their game, accuracy wise... Well at least more on top of their game than freakin 'noble' collection, now THATS ****ty quality! I own MR's sweater, I had no idea they were 'found' items and would've definitely gone the Lochaven route, had I known... In fact, I still might. I'm planning on selling my WWoHP robes and my MR sweater to get MR robes and Lochaven sweater, are the MR robes accurate? and are the dress pants/dress shirt also 'found' items? If they are, do you know where I might find them myself, as I don't like the idea of paying $50 for a $10 shirt just because it's from MR.
Thanks for your help!

The big differences I'm looking at are the Lucius and Bellatrix costumes. I've done countless hours of research on these two because I costume as Bellatrix and I'm making the Lucius costume for my husband. Kessa has a really nice collection of high res photos that I've been studying like mad while purchasing fabrics, etc. So right off the bat I can see that the fur they trimmed Lucius's cloak with is wrong, the vest fabric underneath isn't right either. Bellatrix's dress is made out of something that is too thick, the corset is pleather with binding on the edge. Her sleeve fabric is made out of something completely strange.

That's the start of it.

I have not seen the school robes in person yet to say what they look like up close. The website does list that the fabric used for the robes is a poly cotton blend. For me, that's not good enough. I used wool for mine. But that might not be the case with other people's preferences. I'm just a bit too crazy. :lol

Hopefully all of this stuff is at Dragon Con so I can look at it there. Then I'll let you know which pieces are worth buying. The pants and white shirt are not found pieces that I've been able to locate. However, I have found very dark charcoal gray wool that matches the costume card swatch for the pants. Unfortunately, the fabric store not longer carries it.

I think what I'm most interested in seeing is whether or not they're going to offer shoes for all the costumes. That's always a tricky part.
 
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I'm a big harry potter fan, but I am just curious, what are some of these inaccuracies?

For beginers, let's start with.....

#1....or maybe #7....... Harry is number 7, not 6. That's Ginny, though they may be showing off their option to put any number on them, though it would most likely be an iron on. :rolleyes Because of this, the horizontal lines end much father away from the 6 than they should be because they are most likely accounting for the widest number they will offer. They also probably didn't bring a 7 because there is way more negative space on a 7 which would make the error even more noticible.

harry-potter-quidditch-ginny-weasley.jpg


#2...He's holding a Nimbus 2001, which is only shown in the movies being owned by the Slytherin team.:unsure

#3...The pants on the uniform would be from the first 2 movies (light grey), but the sweater is from the 2nd through 7(2) (dark w/no line around the collar). I have held screen used fabric swatches from costume cards. If your buying a HP sweater, DON'T BUY ANYTHING BUT LOCKHAVEN. The price is very compairable to any other replicas, and lockhaven made the sweaters for the movies and WWoHP.:$
View attachment 146727

#4...The patches all appear from these pictures to be printed, not embroidered patches.:sick
View attachment 146728

#5..The MOST glaring one to me because I've made Cedric's Third Task, THE COLLAR ISN'T EVEN THE RIGHT COLOR!!! Both Harry's and Cedric's Third Task costumes should have black collars, and they have made harry's have a maroon collar to match the other side.:angry
View attachment 146726

gofu_c11_harry_3rd_task_204-250.jpg


Mass reproduction, IMHO, is never the answer if accuracy is desired. Either they mess things up on purpose because they are contractually obligated to, or there are differences because they are mass producing instead of hand making one or two and some things cannot be recreated in a cost and time effective manner. These differences are just the ones I saw in these 2 costumes, and I'm sure Icysis being all Slytherin and such coud find just as many or more in the other two.

Am I arrogant enough to think I can make a better costume than the "pro's" from crappy screen grabs when they have the actual costume in their hands? No. But yet there are glaring innaccuracies in their work anyways.

Could you wear these around and fool the average fan? Of course. I hear all the time how great the robes are at WWoHP even though the seams are in the wrong places on the hoods. But when I went to WWoHP with my other HP costuming friends, we got complimented by the staff as to how we have identical pieces to what they have. Besides, I feel this is really a place to share how to make things for ourselves.


We should always strive to be costumers, not just consumers!
 
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We should always strive to be costumers, not just consumers!

Agreed! However, even for those who prefer to buy their costume pieces, some time and research can usually yield better results then some of the items MR is offering. And I know we have a very talented community of people here, many of which are willing to take commissions, who can create something more accurate for anyone willing to pay.
 
Man, I never knew that sometimes they are contractually obligated to make changes, and I get where that's coming from, but it still sucks. What's really unfortunate is that they have the real freakin thing at their unlimited disposal, yet choose to be lazy, while the endlessly hardworking fans on this site must work off of crappy screenshots. There's no way to make a perfect piece from screen shots, often, the whole costume isn't even shown. But the people who get the coveted access to the real things take that for granted and don't do a good job.
 
There's no way to make a perfect piece from screen shots, often, the whole costume isn't even shown
I know that feeling! Never say never though. It took me 3 years to research and make my Voldemort costume, and it took me 2 years to research the shoes for that reason (shoe's are often "out of shot", and in Voldy's case they're covered by his robes too), but literally on the day I decided to bite the bullet and buy a set of shoes I thought were right, I found new "behind the scenes" video which showed a glimmer of a shot of the shoes.

With a lot of frame freezing and some photoshop giggery pokery (I actually ran it though some software like you see in spy films to clean up really blown up images lol), I managed to get a good enough image to work from.... and it turned out, the shoes I was about to buy would have been wrong.

As a result, I'm 99% sure my shoes are not only the right style, but I think they may actually be the exact same model (I'd love to get my hands on the originals to see if that's the case! lol)

So stick at it - you never know your luck
 
Man, I never knew that sometimes they are contractually obligated to make changes, and I get where that's coming from, but it still sucks. What's really unfortunate is that they have the real freakin thing at their unlimited disposal, yet choose to be lazy, while the endlessly hardworking fans on this site must work off of crappy screenshots. There's no way to make a perfect piece from screen shots, often, the whole costume isn't even shown. But the people who get the coveted access to the real things take that for granted and don't do a good job.

I don't think that it's necessarily laziness that's behind it, it's likely more of a matter of not looking at things with as critical an eye as some people here do. There's also a matter of time, a costumer has all the time in the world to research and make their costume, yes, people can and do have deadlines but these are all, largely, self-imposed and there seldomly, if ever, are any consequences for not meeting these deadlines. For a licensed retailer on the other hand, time is money and the more time spent on researching and production the less money they make or at leas the more they'll have to sell in order to make their money. I imagine that the research dept. for these companies only have so much time in order to study things and figure out how to reproduce them and not meeting deadlines imposed on them by their higher ups could potentially mean their jobs.

As far materials go, sometimes the original material used for a particular costume isn't being produced any more, or it was a custom made material, or it's just plain expensive and would mean pricing the replica beyond what they feel is an acceptable price point. Of course, given how much some companies charge for licensed products I'm not sure how valid my last argument really is.
 
Tonka is right, the numbers come as Iron-On's (thats what the guy working the booth said at least). And he said they're going to separate the Quidditch outfit into parts, and sell it that way (including shoes).
 
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