Hello everyone, I've been a member here a while and found it massively helpful, but this is my first real post so I'm hoping I can share some info instead of suck it up for a change 
I've been interested in the Alien costumes for many years now and discovered, as well as reading here, that there are quite a few different versions of the shoulder patch. It would appear that I've accidentally over the years managed to collect a few of them, so thought it might help to show the differences and comment on them.
So, for starters, here's what I have so far - from top left, moving left to right :
Patches N Pins Dark Patch (about a year old and weathered), Patches N Pins Light Patch (again weathered), Blue Tiger Trading Dark Patch, Blue Tiger Trading Light Patch, Intergalactic Trading Dark Patch, Intergalactic Trading Light Patch, Official Portfolio Thinking Cap Co. Dark Patch, Official Porfolio Thinking Cap Co. Light Patch.
So first, here's the Patches n Pins Dark Patch in detail. It's been on a shirt for about a year and has been washed quite a bit. The main thing that stands out for me is the fact that the 'S's aren't right when compared to the screen props. But apart from that, it's not bad.
Same deal for the Light version:
Next is the Dark patch from Blue Tiger Trading, bought about 2 weeks ago. The first thing that stands out is the fact that the background is BLACK, so we can pretty much wipe this out as our 'best screen accurate version' lol. Also, there's a big outer purple band - not good. And again, the font is incorrect, with the S's too defined - the screen ones look more like little squiggles
Onto the Light patch from Blue Tiger - wrong font, big fat purple band, and in addition, the unforgivable 'Big Fat Yellow Line' at the bottom....which is strangely absent from the dark version by this retailer...I'd have thought if you're going to get it wrong, get it wrong on both
Next we have Intergalactic Trading's Dark patch. I bought these about a month ago. Probably the best in my humble opinion. The font is good, the banding even, no big horrible fat lines and the logo in the centre (with the planets etc) is a decent size - it is rather squashed small on the other patches with thicker bands...
And the light version from Intergalactic : I like the background colour on this one best out of the light patches, as it's less blue and seems to contain more grey, keeping it more accurate.
Now it gets weird. The following (and final) two patches are from the Thinking Cap Co. Official Nostromo Patch Portfolio....I bought this from Intergalactic about 6 weeks ago, and it throws up a couple of discrepencies which I'm confused about.
Check out the dark patch - and bear in mind this is supposed to be 'official'.
BIG FAT YELLOW LINE at the bottom. Huh?! And a wrong font too...
And the Light patch?
Again, everything that could be wrong, IS wrong, and these are supposed to be the best you can buy. I'm not suggesting that Intergalactic Trading have swapped out the patches in the portfolio for inferior versions, but that light version looks very similar to the Blue Tiger version. If they were going to swap out the originals for cheaper ones, you'd think they'd use their own (and in my opinion, superior) ones.
Anyway, that's pretty much it. I hope it's given you something to read and think about if you're thinking about making your own crew uniforms
All the best,
Jason
I've been interested in the Alien costumes for many years now and discovered, as well as reading here, that there are quite a few different versions of the shoulder patch. It would appear that I've accidentally over the years managed to collect a few of them, so thought it might help to show the differences and comment on them.
So, for starters, here's what I have so far - from top left, moving left to right :
Patches N Pins Dark Patch (about a year old and weathered), Patches N Pins Light Patch (again weathered), Blue Tiger Trading Dark Patch, Blue Tiger Trading Light Patch, Intergalactic Trading Dark Patch, Intergalactic Trading Light Patch, Official Portfolio Thinking Cap Co. Dark Patch, Official Porfolio Thinking Cap Co. Light Patch.
So first, here's the Patches n Pins Dark Patch in detail. It's been on a shirt for about a year and has been washed quite a bit. The main thing that stands out for me is the fact that the 'S's aren't right when compared to the screen props. But apart from that, it's not bad.
Same deal for the Light version:
Next is the Dark patch from Blue Tiger Trading, bought about 2 weeks ago. The first thing that stands out is the fact that the background is BLACK, so we can pretty much wipe this out as our 'best screen accurate version' lol. Also, there's a big outer purple band - not good. And again, the font is incorrect, with the S's too defined - the screen ones look more like little squiggles
Onto the Light patch from Blue Tiger - wrong font, big fat purple band, and in addition, the unforgivable 'Big Fat Yellow Line' at the bottom....which is strangely absent from the dark version by this retailer...I'd have thought if you're going to get it wrong, get it wrong on both
Next we have Intergalactic Trading's Dark patch. I bought these about a month ago. Probably the best in my humble opinion. The font is good, the banding even, no big horrible fat lines and the logo in the centre (with the planets etc) is a decent size - it is rather squashed small on the other patches with thicker bands...
And the light version from Intergalactic : I like the background colour on this one best out of the light patches, as it's less blue and seems to contain more grey, keeping it more accurate.
Now it gets weird. The following (and final) two patches are from the Thinking Cap Co. Official Nostromo Patch Portfolio....I bought this from Intergalactic about 6 weeks ago, and it throws up a couple of discrepencies which I'm confused about.
Check out the dark patch - and bear in mind this is supposed to be 'official'.
BIG FAT YELLOW LINE at the bottom. Huh?! And a wrong font too...
And the Light patch?
Again, everything that could be wrong, IS wrong, and these are supposed to be the best you can buy. I'm not suggesting that Intergalactic Trading have swapped out the patches in the portfolio for inferior versions, but that light version looks very similar to the Blue Tiger version. If they were going to swap out the originals for cheaper ones, you'd think they'd use their own (and in my opinion, superior) ones.
Anyway, that's pretty much it. I hope it's given you something to read and think about if you're thinking about making your own crew uniforms
All the best,
Jason
