sucker alert

[dr greg]

I can't help myself lol lol the more I see of this kind of thing, the more amazed I get, some people will try anything, the blood chit is the clincher.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=220129959156&rd=1&rd=1

 

[eniksleestack]

Are Avirex jackets known for being cruddy? Or is it that this seller's trying to pass it off as a WW2 jacket?

 

[dr greg]

As I see it

Avirex are to my knowledge:
A: low-end of repro jacket territory
B: not, as claimed by this guy, official US Airforce wear, therefore most likely not worn in Top Gun if the costume dept were being accurate, and...
C: the blood chit is a WW2 era adornment, Flying Tigers to be exact, and unlikely to be on a jet pilots jacket unless the guy had some special reason to put it there and perhaps one of the ex-servicemen in this forum could tell us if it would be allowed.
D: look at the thing, it looks like something from a suburban disco. I'm not a fanatic collector of A2's or G1's, leaning more to old Motorcycle stuff, but I reckon I can pick this for a con easily. Unless of course the seller is a complete novice and believes his listing is accurate, it does happen, but not often.
Caveat Emptor on eBay my friends, but this forum is a good place to learn about what to look for, and what not to.
It amused me, anyway!

 

[Milu]

Avirex (pre cockpit) did have something to do with the airforce and the reissue of the A2. So there is something to officialise them.

Avirex was born in the 70s so obviously could not have provided Maverick's father with his G1 in TopGun. At the time the TpoGun was was current the "TopGun" repro jacket was a fashion item.

There were, I believe, ex Navy pilots in the AVG so it is possible they placed a bloodchit on their G1s. I have a vague memory of a photo of AVG pilots wearing G1s with the comment that they were issued the jackets, this could be my memory playing tricks on me.

I think Avirex gets a worse rep than they deserve. They are very low level on authenticity but some of their jackets are much better quality than some think. (and some are truly awful!)

 

[Feraud]

Avirex jackets are not all bad. A friend of mine has an older a2 in seal brown and it looks really nice.

 

[Naphtali]

Then the mil spec numbering I have on inside label in an old (circa 1970s, I believe) Avirex jacket is marketing nonsense?

Regardless, the jacket has held up well. It has character.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Reminds me of a listing I saw some time ago wherein the seller tried to pass off one of the more poorly done Avirex "reproduction" jackets.
It was one of those over done things with pictures and certificates and all sorts of junk printed on the lining. As if that wasn't bad enough, it was supposedly an AVG jacket and the American flag part of the blood chit had 56 stars on it!

 

[Mojave Jack]

Then the mil spec numbering I have on inside label in an old (circa 1970s, I believe) Avirex jacket is marketing nonsense?

Regardless, the jacket has held up well. It has character.

It must be. The Air Force didn't bring the A2 back until the 80s, and I doubt they were still producing jackets under the WWII contract!

On another interesting note, the seller claims that it's a US Air Force jacket, though the label clearly says US Navy, and further there is what appears to be a Marine Air Wing patch on the front (the red diamond-shaped patch on the wearer's right breast; can't tell which wing, though). Add to that the cheesy antique finish on the leather and it all adds up to Averix's idea of what would sell to a public hungry for Top Gun-like paraphenalia. I can see the intern in their design office getting sent on an errand to pick up a random assortment of military patches that they could reproduce en masses to make the jacket sell. Who cares what they were and even if they were the same service, as long as they make the jacket look cool! lol

Thanks, Dr. Greg, I needed a good laugh!

 

[dr greg]

wait there's more

It must be the season for it over here, there's another one that's truly hilarious that I'll post once the auction's over.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Yes, when I used to sell records guys would tell me earnestly that their copy of Glass Houses was worth a lot of money. Come to think of it, people still 'inform' me that they don't make records anymore.

 

[Benny Holiday]

look at the thing, it looks like something from a suburban disco.

lol lol lol Classic comment! So true!

 

[Edward]

To be fair, it reads to me like ignorance rather than somebody trying to pull a deliberate fraud. The "As worn in top Gun" business is poorly worded - leaving aside for a minute the inaccuracies, I suspect that what they actually mean is "in the style of those worn in Top Gun" as opposed to "this particular jacket was actually worn in that movie." I see this sort of thing on eBay a lot, and it's generally obvious that it is poor wording rather than an attmept to pass something off as worn in the film. If that was what they were donig, I'd expect a whole lot more of a song and dance about it.

I've encountered a fair few modern Avirex jackets in shops. They're not as nice as WW2 era spec A2s and similar IMO - that modern, baggier bomber cut I don't like as much - but the quality of the ones I've seen personally has been good in terms of the leather etc.

As to the details.... the thing is, to most folks out there, this is the same jacket. I see the same thing in Rocky Horror, or anywhere else that costume or clothing details are important - to a hardcore few (and really, that's what we are on the FL, some more so than others), it will be screamingly obvious that all these little details are wrong, but to your average Joe in the high street (or often the average joe who is selling these things), details simply aren't seen. I've got costume pieces that are close to screen/stage, but to me are still screamingly obviously "wrong" in certain respects - the average person who sees them simply can't or doesn't spot that. To them, a brown leather bomber jacket with patches on it is the Top Gun jacket.... hell, we're talking about the kind of person to whom any brown fedora type hat is the Indiana Jones hat. Most people out there simply aren't oriented to those sorts of details - either because they don't know or don't care - and I think it's easy to forget that sometimes. Especially if you're terminally anally retentive, like I know I can be.

 

[Flieger]

According to a 1992 Avirex pamphlet I have they state that "the jackets worn in the Top Gun movie are Avirex". The G-1 jacket shown in the pamphlet looks very much as the one on eBay.

Flieger

 

[Smithy]

fftopic:

...but talking of trying to pass things off as something not entirely the real deal, there was this on eBay last year:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sopwith-Camel-Joystick-1918-World-War-1_W0QQitemZ140065881843QQihZ004QQcategoryZ13966QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A "genuine" joystick from a WWI Sopwith Camel, only problem was that the photos were of...

...a table leg lol

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

fftopic:

...but talking of trying to pass things off as something not entirely the real deal, there was this on eBay last year:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sopwith-Camel-Joystick-1918-World-War-1_W0QQitemZ140065881843QQihZ004QQcategoryZ13966QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A "genuine" joystick from a WWI Sopwith Camel, only problem was that the photos were of...

...a table leg lol

What!? A table leg?
A typical example of my bad writing. Sorry.
I meant to say that it was, "a table leg that was used as a joystick, ofcourse! lol

 

[Twitch]

It's just a piece of junk. Curious why the seller didn't use the all encompassing "vintage" in the description.lol

 

[rebelgtp]

fftopic:

...but talking of trying to pass things off as something not entirely the real deal, there was this on eBay last year:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sopwith-Camel-Joystick-1918-World-War-1_W0QQitemZ140065881843QQihZ004QQcategoryZ13966QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A "genuine" joystick from a WWI Sopwith Camel, only problem was that the photos were of...

...a table leg lol

well shoot the picture is down now when i tried to check it...what i loved was the part about " the item doesn't actually belong to me..."

 

[J. M. Stovall]

It's been a while since I've seen it, but when Cruise is riding around on his sport bike I think that he does wear an A-2 with a bunch of patches on it.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Just found this, it's not the same.

 

[Smithy]

well shoot the picture is down now when i tried to check it...what i loved was the part about " the item doesn't actually belong to me..."

Now you know why they used to smash up the furniture in the mess during parties in the RFC...

For spare parts