Max Cady BTTF Vest - Advice needed

[Jamie Riley]

I've been working on a Marty McFly costume for a mere four months, so I'm probably not as experienced as some people on here are/have been. I hope I'm not too late to expect any sort of reply from the experts on this...

I recently bought Max Cady's puffer vest from Ebay, but when I got it, it was really, really red. Bright red. The only times it looks even slightly orange is when I held it really close to the light or used the flash on my camera. Even then I'm not really sure.



Oh yeah, it even said it was red on the tag.

What really sucks about it is, I really like the Max Cady one. More than the Magnoli one, which is over $500 in Australian dollars, and it just looks so... flat. Even the colour I'm not sure about. It's orange, but maybe too orange. The Max Cady is somewhat affordable for me with my kind of budget and disposable income, the shipping was INCREDIBLY quick, taking just under a week to arrive, and they respond to my messages pretty quick. All benefits of living in a similar timezone, I'd guess.

I messaged them on Ebay about it, and this was my response:

First of all, if you don't like it, please send it back, we will refund.

The color of the vest is very difficult to judge, depends on monitor, TV, or their color modes, and the scenes you attached were lighted by afternoon sun or halogen light. Please see the attached photos form Blu-Ray. I thought it was orange in the era of video tape and DVD, but now I don't think so, we judged most scenes were color or tone corrected,

Actually a French customer insisted the original vest must be more reddish, and our vest was orange in last year.

Anyway, I understand a color image is like a personal memory that won't be changed, and you think the original is more orange, we can't deny it. It maybe be aged and discolored in the future, but there's no way to change the color quickly. So please send it back if you don't like, we will refund.

So I returned it and i'm waiting (and hoping) for it to get back to them so I can be refunded for it. If I'm going to pay for a replica, especially of the puffer vest which is more important to me than even the jacket, then for my money it has to be spot on. This vest is my cosplay passion. I can take an inaccurate shirt or jacket or whatever, the vest covers them up anyway. But I'm sick of looking at inaccurate vests.

I know I can't just buy a Headgoonie one as they only announced it in June that they were making more jackets and vests, so I definitely missed out long before I knew they even existed. And their prices are just as high as Magnoli's, so even if I didn't miss out, I can't afford one anyway. Damn I want a Headgoonie vest, that thing looks so beautiful....

I need to give Max Cady another chance. If it weren't for that French customer insisting that it be red, I'd have the perfect vest by now. And the vest is the one thing that's driving me crazy. You can't just find an original Class-5 in the right colour on Ebay for $34.95 like some people. I've been searching for hours and hours and hours, over and over again, on and off for weeks and months on end. Typing in multiple different searches.

The best thing I found had incorrect pockets and a slightly different collar. And it's five panels, not six. But I liked it, and I liked the colour. So it'll have to do for now. It's an "upgrade" from the previous ones I was wearing, at least.

So what should I do? Preorder another one when their vests all sell out, and hope that they make them in orange nylon again this time? Nag them about it incessantly on Ebay? Ask for a custom orange version somehow? Save up for the Magnoli one anyway? What?

Help!

Update: I just got the Max Cady jacket in the mail today. It's really nice, I really like it. Could do with a wash or something to make it look more worn like the genuine article. How would I go about stone washing it?

This is about as far as I'm willing to go for the jacket, in terms of the cost-to-accuracy ratio. Which is definitely a thing. It's like there's these tiers to buying the right costume parts. Tier one is whatever you can find locally. Tier two is the cheap inaccurate Halloween stuff online. Tier three is Max Cady, and Tier four is something more expensive like Magnoli or Headgoonie. . I've passed tiers one and two already, and trying to reach tier three at least.

I think I'm gonna save up for the Magnoli. $520 is a bit steep, but at this point I don't care anymore. At least it'll still be there when I have the money. Hopefully.

 

[Mark LFV]

I totally understand your concern. If you do a quick google image search of the vest, you can see that in most of the images the shade appears more of orangish than red especially in the scenes with natural lighting. Even in scenes in the dark, the vest doesn't appear this red like the ones you have attached.