Club Obi Wan

Just out of curiosity, as I can't even afford one at present, but in the forums' opinion, who's got the best Raiders shirt to date since Noel Howard's passing?

Travis T. Cowsill
Former adventurer

Did you look through the forums for an answer? I doubt you'll find consensus as there are as many opinions as there are wearers. But didn't Toddy copy a screen used shirt? I think he did and I think people are pretty impressed with the accuracy.

Howdy,

I can't answer for any shirt except Todd's. I just got one in last week. Design looks to me like a Raiders shirt, but I think the shoulder flaps are about an inch too short. Color seems too dark for Raiders, much more TOD-ish. (Todd copied this from a screen used shirt, but from which movie?) Fabric is thin but good, construction is good except for some hanging threads which were easily remedied.

Overall: I think it is a VERY GOOD Indy shirt, especially for the price. I will definately wear it a bunch. At the same time, I think I will keep looking for a shirt that, to me, specifically screams Raiders a bit more.

Sizing note: I normally wear a Large shirt of this type, although some are a little big on me. I ordered an XL from Todd and it fit me like a lilttle-too-big Large normally does. I washed it and dried it (the label says not to!). It noticeably shrunk and now fits perfectly. So FWIW, I think the shirts are about a half-size smaller than other comparable shirts.

I'm starting to think of Todd's as the "Wal-Mart" of IndyGear: low price, good (sometimes great) quality items, big selection. I mean this in a good way, not the "giant-evil-corporation-that-destroys-local-businesses" way. ;-)

Now if only Todd had an official greeter . . .

RaiderZee

I have a Magnoli and a Todd, and I love my Todd's so much I think I'm going to order another one just so I can put darker buttons on it and make it a Temple of Doom shirt (I think the fabric was the same color in all 3 of the first movies)! It's a fantastic shirt, very comfortable, and durable enough to stand up to most wear and tear (though from personal experience I can say that it doesn't stand up very well to lion's claws).

Shane

Shane, which shirt are you wearing in your avatar? It looks more stone colored than mine does outside. Maybe mine will lighten up after more washings, or maybe I got one of the older Todd's shirts that allegedly had a bit more yellow.

RZ

I love my Wested shirt. Water seems to practically bounce off it. I use it fishing all the time, and it is a great color too.

See??? No consensus on shirts. We all have our favorites.

I have a Todds, Magnoli, and a Wested. Todd's is more wrinkled and is a more casual shirt. Magnoli and Wested have a more "dressier" look to them.

I have an AB, two Todd's, and a Noel howard. I also had a WPG and a Wested. I would put Todd's and the AB on the top of my list.

Jake

I have a Magnoli Shirt and I think it's great, expensive but great. Compared the my Todd's, I think it has a better fit, feels softer and better color. However, let it be known that I have rather long arms so I always have problems with fit (I usually wear t-shirts). But that just my 2 cents!

RaiderZee wrote:Howdy,

I can't answer for any shirt except Todd's. I just got one in last week. Design looks to me like a Raiders shirt, but I think the shoulder flaps are about an inch too short.

An inch too long, surely...

The epaulettes on my shirt stop a full inch from the collar. Upon further review, that is about where they stop in Raiders; although in some pictures they touch the collar, this maybe to the neck pulling to one side:




To me, the epaulettes seem a little bit shorter in TOD; this looks about where Todd's stop:


No epaulette shots from LC. Todd's epaulettes are definately too long for CS, but my understanding is that his shirt was patterned from a screen-used shirt from one of the earlier movies:


IMHO, the Todd's is a very good Indy shirt that is most closely SA to TOD.

RaiderZee

As a follow-up, here's a shot of my shirt; the shirt is darker than what I see on screen, but in truth it is a little bit lighter than this. Note the epaulette buttons sewn even with the edge of the front pleat. To me, this looks to be the slightly shorter TOD epaulette:


Now, to further confuse things, here is a shot of Todd's shirt from his website. You can clearly see the epaulette button sewn signifcantly closer to the collar than on my shirt. To me, this is Raiders length:


So, question for Todd: why the difference in the epaulettes and color? Is there a newer/older version of your shirt?

Again, a nice shirt; just trying to clear things up.

RaiderZee

From the look I would say Todd and Adventurebuilts are the best second choices. I never liked the Magnoli's look and I dislike the wested for an indy shirt but I still use it for under sweaters... but I have hope that Wested will offer eventually a very accuarate product... (Peter, HINT HINT) ;-)

Best repro shirt??

Hmm...

As far as I know, the best two options are Todd's and AB which as the manufacturers state are copied from original shirts.

AB is very good. Excellent construction and correct in terms of body-size analogy. The epaulettes should be placed a bit further on top(very easy if you give to a tailor) and the colour is a light khaki with a hint of green to resemble the Raiders Cairo scene. I, personally, redyed mine to match the MBA colour. I can post pics if you want.
From other fans' experience:
Todd's is also very nice. Slightly longer epaulettes than the AB, darker in colour than the original shirt. It will lighten after a few washes. Check out the shirts body lenghh because it might be too short.
Magnoli and Wested are very sturdy shirts, and they are dyed of a lighter colour than Todd's or AB. They are lighter for sure than the original.

Hint: You make a CS shirt really easily if you alter Wested's or Magnoli's shirt epaulettes and make them shorter. The reason is because, Wested and Magnoli's epaulettes have their sides paraller.

Indygr

I *thought* I read somewhere recently that Todd made some small changes to the shirt?

It's nice to have choices, but it can be confusing too. Everyone has their own slant on things.

Gentlemen, I think we have come to a clear consensus ( ). Anyhow, I have an Adventurebilt, What Price Glory, and I sold my Todd's. I think Todd's shirt is supposed to have a better color now, but when I bought mine it was way too Temple of Doom dark yellow khaki for me. The What Price Glory is an interesting shirt, tough material, it shrinks a lot but is larger sized so that aids with the shrinkage factor. The Adventurebilt is nice but the sleeves will almost invariably have to be altered by the buyer since they are extra long to accommodate a variety of arm lengths. I still need to have at least three inches taken off the arms and have not worn the shirt yet in public. Just from photos it seems the Wested shirt is rather pale and I'm not at all familiar with Magnoli's shirt. NONE of the shirts I have owned have had the proper screen accurate Raiders gray tinge right "out of the box". They are just basic shades of perfunctory khaki which will pass for the non-Raiders films. I do my own "graying" by tossing a shirt into a load of black socks. Sounds dumb but it works. I assume in person even the Raiders shirt was khaki without a gray tinge, maybe it was the lighting that made it look gray on screen? I don't know, but I want mine with a little gray since that is what appears to be on the screen.

Hey bigrex,

There is a way to shrink the sleeves of your adventurebilt. When I was dying mine I put it twice in boiling water for half an hour. Now the sleeves are shorter.

You could try to dip the sleeves of the AB in boiling water to try to achieve a shrinkage only on the sleeves.

By the way, the Raiders shirt did have a gray tint along with the beige. If you ll ever see a NH shirt in person you ll understand. The NH shirt is the same material used in all the three movies... Depending to the lighting conditions it changes colour accordingly. The shooting method and lighting conditions changed throughout the movies thus changing the shirt's appearance.

Indygr

I'm holding off any further shirt & pants purchases until (hopefully) Wested can incorporate NH's patterns and fabric. PLEASE PETER, we really need these!!

RaiderZee

It'll happen.

I'm waiting for that too

Imahomer wrote:It's nice to have choices, but it can be confusing too. Everyone has their own slant on things.

That's because a big percentage of people, after purchasing something, have to believe it's the best thing ever, I guess they do that in order to justify their choice and the expense they just sustained or also because they haven't previously owned any other similar item to compare it with. That's something quite normal to happen. Then some other people are more obsessed and can never be happy with anything. Keep these things in considerations when readings the many "in my opinions" no one excluded (not even myself).

I love my Todd's. And am going to order another shortly. Though, I'd like to try an AB and Magnoli also.

Randy