Hello everyone!
This is my first post here on the RPF so if i make some rookie errors, please forgive me!!
So i'm putting together (my first ever costume) an ESB Han Solo costume on a budget, ready to go to a showing of the Force Awakens (no spoilers please!) on 18th December. I wasn't going for anywhere near screen accurate, just something that looks a little better than the £30ish fancy dress. Also, if anyone else is going to the BFI IMAX in Waterloo (UK) to the 21:00 showing in costume, get in touch, i'll be there!!...So when I say on a budget, I really do mean a budget (i'm a student). In fact, what the costume has already cost I think is really quite expensive!! Despite that, there are a lot of costumes being sold online that really don't look that brilliant, so I wanted to see what I could get hold of that at least looked resemblant of of the real costume, and share what I received here.
What I purchased:
I decided to go with "Star Wars Empire Strikes Back COSplay costume Han Solo...." on eBay. It's from China, and being sold by "skycostume". I thought anyone else thinking of getting this costume on eBay might find it useful to see some more pictures and some extra info. There are a fair few ESB costumes for sale from China with the same pictures, so its likely you'll get a similar product even if you don't buy from "skycostume". It came with the jacket, tunic, trousers and two belts (one, as you can see below, is complete junk).
I bought some equestrian boots too, also from eBay from "goldstar-equestrian". They're a UK seller, so if you're outside the UK, postage might be prohibitively expensive on these. They're rubber not leather, but I think they do have a good leather look from even a short distance.
Pictures:
Here's some pictures of what I received:
The Jacket
Tunic
The trousers
The belt
I know...
The boots:
My thoughts:
So the jacket is not bad, and the fit is good. I think the colour is too much of a light grey, but in different sorts of light it does look more like the colour of the real one. The fabric does look slightly shiny in certain lights and has a tendency to look cheap. Though its definitely useable I think.
The trousers are pretty good. The fit for a size small is really quite tight, but is wearable. The stripes down the side of the leg capture the look of the original I think, even though from reading posts on Han solo costumes here, I think they were embroidered rather than printed like they are on this costume. The brown colour and fabric even looks good, I think on one of the pictures I took they look a little shiny, almost silk-like, but that's not how they look in person.
The tunic is ENORMOUS! I don't know how on earth they thought this was supposed to fit a size small. In the picture, it is pinned at the back to do some sewing to make it smaller. The material however feels good, and it seems to ripple and crease in a similar way the fabric of the original costume did in the film. There was an option to have it made to custom measurements, but i'm not sure how reliable this would have been. That was an extra expense I didn't want to pay in any event.
The brown belt is obviously unusable. The black belt is ok, but feels cheap. Its also enormous, so i might make some adjustments, and weather it up to look more of a part of the costume.
The boots feel good, and they look quite good. They're new of course, so they don't look as worn in as they should. Also, as they're riding boots, the tops of the boots slant upwards to the outside (I assume the real boots [which i think were Russian/German army officer boots] do not?). This isn't noticeable though when worn with the brown trousers.
What next:
The next thing i will buy is the belt. I'm looking at the belt sold by "Jedi-Robe The Star Wars Shop" on eBay. Its £57 including postage, which is a little steep for me, and the quality varies from the picture of it sold by itself, to the pictures of it sold with a full costume set (you would assume its the same product). If anyone has bought one of those, let me know!
I need to make some serious adjustments to the tunic. Theres a lot of material at the back that needs adjusting for it to fit me, and i'll also probably shorten it and make the sleeves smaller. A nuisance, but i think it'll make it much more comfortable. I didn't want to make anything from scratch as my sewing skills are not that good at all.
I would like to darken the jacket, and give a more weathered look too. I'm not sure how to go about doing that, but I'll keep reading the articles on here to see where to start with that. Also the boots need to look a little weathered too.
I'm not going to get a blaster, as a good one is quite a bit of money, and i've heard lots cinemas are asking cosplayers not to turn up with any blasters or weapons. Maybe that'll be a purchase for a future event!
Hopefully this post was useful to someone!
This is my first post here on the RPF so if i make some rookie errors, please forgive me!!
So i'm putting together (my first ever costume) an ESB Han Solo costume on a budget, ready to go to a showing of the Force Awakens (no spoilers please!) on 18th December. I wasn't going for anywhere near screen accurate, just something that looks a little better than the £30ish fancy dress. Also, if anyone else is going to the BFI IMAX in Waterloo (UK) to the 21:00 showing in costume, get in touch, i'll be there!!...So when I say on a budget, I really do mean a budget (i'm a student). In fact, what the costume has already cost I think is really quite expensive!! Despite that, there are a lot of costumes being sold online that really don't look that brilliant, so I wanted to see what I could get hold of that at least looked resemblant of of the real costume, and share what I received here.
What I purchased:
I decided to go with "Star Wars Empire Strikes Back COSplay costume Han Solo...." on eBay. It's from China, and being sold by "skycostume". I thought anyone else thinking of getting this costume on eBay might find it useful to see some more pictures and some extra info. There are a fair few ESB costumes for sale from China with the same pictures, so its likely you'll get a similar product even if you don't buy from "skycostume". It came with the jacket, tunic, trousers and two belts (one, as you can see below, is complete junk).
I bought some equestrian boots too, also from eBay from "goldstar-equestrian". They're a UK seller, so if you're outside the UK, postage might be prohibitively expensive on these. They're rubber not leather, but I think they do have a good leather look from even a short distance.
Pictures:
Here's some pictures of what I received:
The Jacket
Tunic
The trousers
The belt
I know...
The boots:
My thoughts:
So the jacket is not bad, and the fit is good. I think the colour is too much of a light grey, but in different sorts of light it does look more like the colour of the real one. The fabric does look slightly shiny in certain lights and has a tendency to look cheap. Though its definitely useable I think.
The trousers are pretty good. The fit for a size small is really quite tight, but is wearable. The stripes down the side of the leg capture the look of the original I think, even though from reading posts on Han solo costumes here, I think they were embroidered rather than printed like they are on this costume. The brown colour and fabric even looks good, I think on one of the pictures I took they look a little shiny, almost silk-like, but that's not how they look in person.
The tunic is ENORMOUS! I don't know how on earth they thought this was supposed to fit a size small. In the picture, it is pinned at the back to do some sewing to make it smaller. The material however feels good, and it seems to ripple and crease in a similar way the fabric of the original costume did in the film. There was an option to have it made to custom measurements, but i'm not sure how reliable this would have been. That was an extra expense I didn't want to pay in any event.
The brown belt is obviously unusable. The black belt is ok, but feels cheap. Its also enormous, so i might make some adjustments, and weather it up to look more of a part of the costume.
The boots feel good, and they look quite good. They're new of course, so they don't look as worn in as they should. Also, as they're riding boots, the tops of the boots slant upwards to the outside (I assume the real boots [which i think were Russian/German army officer boots] do not?). This isn't noticeable though when worn with the brown trousers.
What next:
The next thing i will buy is the belt. I'm looking at the belt sold by "Jedi-Robe The Star Wars Shop" on eBay. Its £57 including postage, which is a little steep for me, and the quality varies from the picture of it sold by itself, to the pictures of it sold with a full costume set (you would assume its the same product). If anyone has bought one of those, let me know!
I need to make some serious adjustments to the tunic. Theres a lot of material at the back that needs adjusting for it to fit me, and i'll also probably shorten it and make the sleeves smaller. A nuisance, but i think it'll make it much more comfortable. I didn't want to make anything from scratch as my sewing skills are not that good at all.
I would like to darken the jacket, and give a more weathered look too. I'm not sure how to go about doing that, but I'll keep reading the articles on here to see where to start with that. Also the boots need to look a little weathered too.
I'm not going to get a blaster, as a good one is quite a bit of money, and i've heard lots cinemas are asking cosplayers not to turn up with any blasters or weapons. Maybe that'll be a purchase for a future event!
Hopefully this post was useful to someone!
