BEWARE: Mike S. MR PREDICTA. REPLICA ROCKETEER BUCKLES!

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Let's say there's a guy selling bags of **** on the corner, labelled as "Gourmet Fudge". You buy one, paying premium dollar, and realize it is ****. So you go back and get into it with the guy, back and forth until you threaten to have his ass thrown in jail. Finally, he grudgingly gives you a refund, after lots of grief.

Then you see a group of your friends walking down the street towards the guy, talking about gourmet fudge and getting excited.

Do you just stand back and let them buy the ****? Or do you warn them so they don't have to go through the same headache you did? Or is this strictly a private affair that you should stay out of, having no ethical or moral responsibility, feeling no connection to the group of "friends"?

If I bought a bag of **** and found out that you knew about it and didn't tell me, I'd be pissed. That's not how a friend, or a community member, should act.
 
This is a simple case of Bait & Switch. Jeff was Lured into this by person(s) who utilized - Good Reputations, Misleading Information, the Buckle's Vague Background (aKa Provenance), to sell a highly sought after Buckle - Other - than the one, that the seller Hinted it Was.

Even the Jacked-up price was Used to misrepresent, authenticate & manipulate the Rarity of this Replica Buckle.

Someone Made these to sell! They Knew! Certain choices were made about How to Sell them, Bad choices! This Entire Post is the Result of Their Efforts!!!! (... Not Jeff's!) - Oh & Thanx for getting the word out, Jeff!

This Replica Buckle now has a infamous history of Not being what it is!!! Sure it's a Buckle, (duh) ...but the truth Stops here!
That's the Only true thing that was ever said about it, ...until the Buckle was unmasked & the Truth exposed.

"Oh what a wicked web we weave when first we practice to deceive." - some English guy
 
I'm am still interested in the $250 refund that was originally on the table, I never turned that down.
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I think Mike and Clint still owe myself, the other people involved and this community a real apology. They can't start making good until they understand and take responsibility for their actions.
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I don't think these points should be lost in all the posting. I think Jeff's requests are extremely fair considering the circumstances.
 
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Well, that fudge analogy really brings it home. I like fudge and I'd like my friends to warn me. The notion that it's a private matter is silly. That's what the guy selling fudge is depending on, that it's a private matter, and he'll cry bloody murder, call foul and pretend to be an injured party when all is brought to light. Wait, we are talking about fudge....right?
 
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Utini - (David (Cirrusx1) knew something about it since he had previously made wax patterns off of Bob's buckle that was taken apart, but as far as I know didn't know about the full run. I also have never talked to David before this.)

Just to clarify for eveyone so I'm not sucked into this vortex of fingerpointing. I made myself a resin buckle 3 years ago. This was done from the only known buckle in existance at the time, the Clint's real dissassembled buckle. Bob was kind enough to lend it to me. We lived blocks away from each other and both have/had a Rocketeer fettish. I made a mold from it and casted 2 resin replicas. These were for myself and I felt pretty good to finally have something close to a real buckle but I still was not satisfied so I thought about how i could make one out of metal. I took it to a local foundry where they said it could be done in the "Lost wax casting" process but it would be expensive. So I went home and tried melting wax into the silicone molds. It worked pretty well.:)
That is about as far as it went as I still pursued getting a real buckle and harness (this was before I won the Disney auction metalpack) I got really good at networking in the rocketeer community, Found the source for the fan, trigger gloves, contacted the seamstress who actually made the harness (she still has the webbing that is so hard to find) and finally contacted Brad Einhorn, a really nice gent who, after several calls and multible offers, sold me a real buckle. 2500 bucks - he asked me, are you rich? I replied, no just desparate and stupid.:lol

I really have not communicated with Bob for two years now but way back then there was talk of replicating the buckle and offering them for sale. Since I already had one, it did'nt really interest me to throw more money at it. I do this for a hobby, for myself. not a business to make money.

Lastly, when I saw Utini's buckle, I felt obligated to tell him that I thought the buckle looked like a replica because of the process I learned about at the foundry - lost wax, It leaves a sandy texture on the metal. The rivets look different. The tree emblem is cast into the piece, not stamped and the button housing looks cast, rather than stamped. It is also missing the holes in the front. Those holes act like reaining pins on the inner buttons.

I feel that these buckles should have always been stated as REPRODUCTIONS or REPLICAS and a fair price could have been established based on the demand for this item. For everyone who was involved in this deception, SHAME ON YOU! You knew what you were doing. It's the same B.S. that caused the housing bubble and financial crisis - greed.:angry
 
modeleers said:
Today, I spoke to a reliable (Old School) Rocketeer alumni & the origin of direct-castings from the Rocket pack has a questionable history as well. (this gets better/worse the more 'great-guy' rocks I look under)

Conjecture: It's seems their would be more Fans at the Finhead Dance, if the price of admission weren't falsely Jacked-Up. Holy Grail indeed! Do you hear that? It's Percival - he's not singing along, he's Laughing!

Maybe this sad episode will bring about a less-expensive Reality to Rocketeer costuming & collectibles & in a language more akin to Star Wars - Restore Balance to the Farce.
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Perhaps this isn't the place for this, but Modeleers, can you expand on your comment about the price of admission being falsely jacked-up? I'm sure we would all like to know about this. Also, your comment on the origin of direct castings being questionable....please, share with the class. As someone that wants to build a rocketpack, any info would be greatly appreciated!
 
utinni, do you have anymore info you can share? are you closer to a resolution?

I'm curious about the true value of the lower buckle. Will people purchase a reproduction for $400? Maybe, but probably not. Unfortunately, even if the ebay auction meets reserve, how sure can we be that there weren't any shill bids to pump up the price?
 
I promised myself I was going to take a break this weekend concerning this, it's been a LONG week dealing with this, work and some personal family issues that some people here know about. Clint and I have exchanged 2-3 emails between yesterday and this morning. And at the moment I don't believe we are any closer to an apology from them, Clint said as far as he's concerned he's not coming back here to read the replies after they posted or post anything more. Can't speak for Mike since I haven't talked to him directly since the 14th and before that was the 4th when he basically told me to f-off. Clint offered to return the buckle for a full refund again, but I asked for the $250 refund instead, but nothing yet.

From what I see it doesn't look like they think they've done anything wrong. And are still staying with their stances they left here in their replies. I'm in CA and he's back east so by the time I'm home and actually have the time to sit down and call, it's pretty late back there. But I told I will call from here around 6:30 on Monday.

If anything else comes up, please keep it civil and continue to discuss it. I'd like to ask the Mods NOT to lock it or make any decisions while I'm gone. I will not be on the board for the rest of the night or all day tomorrow unless I am contacted and told to clear something up.

Otherwise, have a great weekend, what's left of it any way, lol

- Jeff
 
I don't believe for a second that they're not following this thread - sad to hear they've decided to blow the whole thing off. All that's left to hope for is a happy resolution for you, Jeff! Here's hoping you get that partial refund. Best of luck!
 
westies 14 said:
I don't believe for a second that they're not following this thread - sad to hear they've decided to blow the whole thing off. All that's left to hope for is a happy resolution for you, Jeff! Here's hoping you get that partial refund. Best of luck!
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Sounds like Mr. Predicta should change his name to Mr. Pred-ator! :angry

lolz
 
I'll be calling Clint tonight after work, hopefully we can come to some type of agreement.

But I really would like to see both of them come back and post an apology and NOT a post full of excuses.

- Jeff
 
Well, the auction for the replica buckle didn't meet reserve. The highest bid was around $200.00. While that may not be an indication of the going price, it's an interesting result when the buckle is clearly labeled as a replica and not vaguely worded to leave it subject to the bidder's interpretation.
 
confusion said:
Well, the auction for the replica buckle didn't meet reserve. The highest bid was around $200.00. While that may not be an indication of the going price, it's an interesting result when the buckle is clearly labeled as a replica and not vaguely worded to leave it subject to the bidder's interpretation.
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Yeah big difference to the 700 plus dollars one sold for not labeled replica.
 
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