Got my Chris Reeve Superman Limited Edition Costume!

[supgreg]

I posted about a month and a half ago about Action Costumes coming out with a limited edition Reeve replica suit with new fabric closer to the original. As an avid fan of the movie, I had to have it. I already had their standard 70s deluxe superhero suit, and had had their 80s style one before that. In this post I'd like to show you some pics of the suit and the improvements made over the standard 70s suit.

First, here is the display as a whole:

Some close ups:



I also got a new belt from GELForever. Since he had molds of the original buckle, I figured it would be the most accurate one out there. The belt on the old costume is from a company called "Holy Replicas" which is an Argentinian company like Action Costumes, but is not affiliated as much as I can tell. GELForever's belt is a brighter yellow than the Holly Replicas one and is about half of the thickness. Anyone going for accuracy in this costume knows that the belt was pretty thin. The buckles however look identical from what I can tell other than the shade of yellow.


Here is the standard 70s costume next to the new Limited Edition one.
The contrast between the two different color blues is more pronounced in real life than on camera. Its a turquoise steely blue color in person and looks much more accurate.


I also noticed that Action Costumes also used a different fabric for the S logo and trunks. The limited edition one has a much brighter red and yellow fabric as compared to the standard costume. Also the standard one has a sheen to the fabric and the new limited edition one does not. I also requested that the leggings of this suit have the seam on the inside of the leg, vice the back of the leg like on the standard 70s one. I researched this and in every photo I could find of the real costume, the seam was on the inside of the leg. These are just minor details, but my goal is to have a costume that makes you wonder if it is real or not. Enjoy!

 

[hankey01]

Very cool! Great buy!

Need my address for the old Action costumes one?

 

[Pauleysolo]

the boots are nice did they make them as well?

 

[Cyberman]

GREAT effort!!! Looks spot on.

 

[JoeR]

Looks amazing. It is great that the replicas are getting so accurate now. Where can I get one of these?

Joe

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

Costume looks great. Terrific display. I can remember my father taking me out of elementary school early to go see Superman. It's stayed with me ever since.

Thanks for sharing your efforts!

 

[supgreg]

the boots are nice did they make them as well?

I made the boots and the cape. The boots are the only thing that I'm not happy with. Action costumes offers accurate reeve replicas now but they are $600.

 

[supgreg]

Looks amazing. It is great that the replicas are getting so accurate now. Where can I get one of these?

Joe

Here you go:

[...]

 

[CJ 617]

That's a fantastic costume and you've done an amazing display.......I love it!

 

[Martin-El]

Truly outstanding display there -
The belt looks very much at home and I'm glad you like it. One good turn deserves another though and I may be asking you to make me a cape in future as yours is fantastic...

 

[Tremas]

That is beautiful!

 

[ave4uevoli]

excellent display and costume - wish I had a little more wall to add those details you have around the costume...

I would suggest possibly padding up your costume a little bit so that the material around the shoulders isn't so wrinkled.

Great work!

 

[supgreg]

How would you guys recomend beefing him up?

 

[ave4uevoli]

Any way you can

not to sound cryptic - but really just stuff whatever you have lying around your house in there. T-shirts, plastic bags, cotton stuffing from people who sent you stuff.

I know spandex is hard to stuff - because you see all the little wrinkles of whatever you stuff in there.

I myself used plastic bags from the shopping center. Just get new, nice ones fold them a few times and stuff carefully. It'll take years off your life to smooth out all the wrinkles - but if you don't know how to sculpt with bondo, clay or filler - it was the best I could do.

this is what mine ended up looking like... (all plastic bags from keyfood and walbaums, filling out the mannequin you see in the first page...) spent a lot of time smoothing out the chest area as you can see.... the bags kept slipping and it made supes look like he had saggy boobs. :lol... worked out in the end though

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=43286&highlight=lifesize+superman&page=2

 

[encased]

I've checked their site but don't see a listing for a limited edition version. Am I missing something?

It looks great.

For beefing him up, you could do what Christopher Reeves did while he was packing on the muscle and put a sweatshirt underneath the costume.

 

[jlwshere]

How would you guys recomend beefing him up?

I have a Reeve mannequin and costume and I purchased a halloween type muscle shirt, This was a particular shirt that was silk screened with a gang type tattoo as the chest muscle padding was not as overbearing as the other flesh colored one that's out there. I cut off the arms: the pads are self contained and then sewn into a stocking like material so they cut easily. So I put the sleeveless muscle shirt on the mannequin and left the arms alone as they filled out the sleeves okay.

I then took the arms part, which were only about 2/3rds (circular of padding with the stocking material enclosing the "wrap").
I slit that material and then used the open wrap around the thighs. Padding out the thighs really does make a differences well. Mine still need a little adjustment, but I haven't messed with it as it is a pain to adjust. I used some rolled up socks to pad out the trapezoid area (I have a Reeve bust on top and the neck is huge so this was necessary) and another rolled sock to fill in the only other gap in the costume.

All in all a major improvement.

 

[Aquaman]

if u really want to talk authentic, here is a site that really gets to the nitty gritty...
http://www.originalprop.com/blog/20...-vegas-super-hollywood-ana-mugia-mgm-studios/

 

[supgreg]

if u really want to talk authentic, here is a site that really gets to the nitty gritty...
http://www.originalprop.com/blog/20...-vegas-super-hollywood-ana-mugia-mgm-studios/

That's a really good site. I have been checking it for a while. The reality is, you will never duplicate the material used for the tunic, which is why it is easy to spot a fake.

As far as the muscle suit idea, that sounds like it may work. Im going to research it and see what happens. Thanks for the idea!

 

[Aleeas]

No matter how much you paid for those fake limited edition costumes, they are not a replica! There is 4 things I noticed within the first seconds that I could tell its a fake costume and not a limited edition.

1. Fabric is wrong.
2. The shield is not sewed into the shirt, but on top of it.
3. The end of the sleeve is wrong.
4. The zipper is wrong.

I would have returned both costumes and claimed my money back, or give it to my kids for Halloween! :rolleyes

 

[teecrooz]

Welcome to the rpf. Please do some more research and then reply.

The one above was made with the most correct fabric available today. The symbol IS sewn into the costume.

There are other threads about this maker although the name he operates under has changed a few times. He does offers multiple versions:

1. Standard: Wrong color/wrong fabric with the shield sewn on top of the fabric.
2. Deluxe: Wrong color/wrong fabric with the shield sewn into the fabric
3. Limited: the correct color fabric and the shield sewn into the fabric and is not offered on the website and is considered the limited edition because there is not enough fabric available to have them for sale on a regular basis. He does offer them on ebay, however, but uses the pictures of the Deluxe suit and shows the upgraded fabric swatch at the end. You can see the color differences earlier in this thread.

The one discussed above is #3 while the ones on his site are not.

A few years ago I believe cking had him make a custom one after they first found this fabric. He even went as far as to have certain stitches dropped so that it would match one of the originals.