Evolution Props: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

Just a little bit of background, when I started to build my Boba Fett costume, I seriously considered buying the complete costume from Evolutions Props. This was before my indoctrination to TDH. All I can say is "Thank the Maker" I did not follow through with that idea (of course, the stuff I have now is FettPride, Bobamaker, and MOW which is all top shelf, so consider my point of reference). That being said, I did buy close to $500 worth of stuff from Evolution Props. Most of it I re-sold on E-Bay for a slight loss. I would call most of the Evolution Props entry level stuff that you will eventually upgrade if you are serious. In general, it's a step above Rubies, but not a big step. Gabriel Campos, the proprietor, is an honest person, a good human being, and will bend over backwards to make things right. However, you may get frustrated long before you reach that point and just cut your loses. I ordered a flight suit in early June and here we are in October and I do not have a flight suit that I can even get into. He has re-made the suit once and sent extra fabric another time (which did not match the color or texture). Since I am out of time before Halloween, I took both the first and second attempt at the flight suit to a local seamstress and now I have a patchwork Boba Fett. It'll get me by with the armor over it and considering most people don't know the details. But your typical TDH member would laugh me out of the building. So here is my unbiased review (and I really like Gabe):

The Good

Gauntlet Rocket - I'm not sure if it is at the same level as a Russel Replica, but it's pretty darn good. Gabe will send both rocket ends so that you can change between ESB and ROTJ. You have to weather the rocket on your own. My only complaint is that it is heavy. Of course, it is solid brass and aluminum. Also, I compared it the Fettpride rocket casting that I received with my gauntlet. The Evolution Props is larger in overall size and diameter. I'm not sure which one is correctly sized, but when I see the Evol rocket on the gauntlet, it looks too big. I think the FP resin in closer to the truth. I am going with the FP rocket due to weight, but the Evol rocket looks good (just bigger and heavier). Picture attached show the FP rocket compared to the Evol rocket (with silver tip removed). Notice that the overall length and dimated are larger on the Evol rocket.

Gauntlet Darts - Excellent

Knee Darts - Excellent

Laser Emitters - Excellent

Boots and Spikes - The boots are what I would call pretty good, especially for the price. I've read that they are not too far of a drop off from CABoots, but that assessment seems to very a good bit. The only complaint against the boots is that one of my boots was detached a slight amount from to sole when it arrived. Easy to fix with some shoe goop and good as new. This seems to be a common problem and fix. The shoes are very light. All and all a good buy.

Pouches and Spats - These both seemed pretty decent to me. Good quality stitching and form.

Shin Tools - These are decent. You may have a part break off if you are rough, but it will be easily re-attached with some JB Weld.

ROTJ or ESB Cape - Read the fine print. People have been disappointed when you order based on the picture. The picture for Evolution Props shows a nicely weathered cape. The cape that arrives will be brand new fabric and not weathered at all. This will be stated in the description, but it's easy to overlook. That being said, I used the weathering tutorial off of YouTube and my cape is flat awesome. The weathering is actually easy. The material used by Evolutions and the stitching is good. You just have to do a little work. Here's the link to the tutorial:


The Bad

Chest and Back Armor - Don't buy this armor expecting great things. Buy it expecting to upgrade at a later date. The pictures from the advertisement will almost certainly look much better than the product you actually receive. The silver looks to be done with a paint marker, so the layered effect if very two dimensional. The grime paint looks like a bad varnish. Armor may even have a varnish smell to it when you open the box and you will see brush marks. Armor is flimsy and I doubt will hold up over time. I bought the backpiece and the butt piece. Back piece will last until I can get BobaMaker stuff and it will be hidden by my MOW jet pack anyway. The butt piece never arrived. Gabe keeps saying he forgot to ship. After 5 months, I am just going to give up on it.

Knee Armor - Gabe threw in the knee armor for free after all the mess ups with the flight suit. Paint was horrible. Again, looked nothing like the picture. Silver paint marker and lacquer brush marks for the grime effect. I had to sand and repaint. Molds are only okay. Because the lines were not straight and I mean they were really off, the knee darts point in different direction. Buy these only as a low budget option, but plan on repainting and replacing eventually.

Collar Studs - These are okay, but I am giving them a bad rating because of the 6 studs I received, no two were exactly alike. They are also relatively square (or at least most of them) and opposed to having the slanted shape. They are taller than accurate ones.

Gloves - The gloves are okay, but some of the stitching of the the white parts had some pretty big gaps and will likely not hold up. To the casual observer they probably look good. It's only on close inspection that you will be critical of quality. They are cotton and lightweight, so they will be cool (which I like), but for the money, I thought they were overpriced. I expect the durability will be very short. In all honesty, had I been able to see them first, I would have opted to pay an additional $30 and gone with some better gloves or Bobamaker. The button on the glove shown in the picture was not part of the glove I received. Sort of a common thing that the picture in the advertisement will be the best case scenario and may not be strictly what you receive.


The Ugly

Flight Suit - This gets real ugly. The flight suit would be pretty good, if it would fit. I had read that the dimensions (particularly circumference type dimensions) ran a couple inches small. I added several inches to each measurement, and in two attempts, I could not get a flight suit that would even zip up because of the tightness. The first one actually split when I tried. I hear a lot of people are having this problem. So let me tell you how bad it is. I have a 38" waist. I put 44" on the first suit and 46" on the second suit. Both were so tight around the waist that I could barely zip, much less sit down without splitting the suit. I am 6' 2". I put 6' 4" for my height, and one suit was too small by an inch in length and the other looked like I was waiting for a flood. I added 6" to my actual chest size and both were too tight. I took both suits to the local seamstress and she had to add 4" to the length (which puts a silly 4" band around the middle of the sit) and she had to add a 3" V-shape material to EACH side of the suit. It's a little bit like driving from Los Angeles to Vegas, but arriving in Seattle. How do you get that far off twice. I think the suits come from a warehouse and they try to pick one that most closely fits. Fit is a big problem and he changes material from time to time. One more thing, the distance between the top of the shin tools pocket and the bottom of the cargo pocket is barely enough space to wear the knee armor. You will not be able to wear the shin tools unless you take it to a seamstress and have the pocket lowered about 3" (as I did). The Pictures shown below illustrate the last flight suit that I received AFTER I took to the tailer for modifications. Notice the 3 inch band that runs around the waist to give it the length needed for me to fit into the suit. Also notice the 3 inch V-panels on each side (that run top to bottom) that were added to allow the right girth for me to be able to zip the suit. The picture that shows the shin tools pocket was taken after I lowered the pockey 3-1/2". Velcro patch shows location of knee armor. The pocket used to butt up to that velcro.

Flak Vest and Neck Seal - It is made of a very shinny material. Great if you want to look like a pimp at a disco, but not so good for Fett. I sold mine on E-bay as soon as it arrived. Also, he had to make it twice. Again I added several extra inches. The first one I could not zip or get my head through without choking. The second one (used the same dimension) fit well, but just didn't care for the shinny look. Also, the first vest was very puffy and the second one was a different material and not puffy (which I like much better).

Wookie Braids - These are trash unless you think Rubies stuff looks good. Sold mine immediately and bought some horse hair to make my own braids. That is probably a difference in $90 of cost, but at least the hair looks real. Doll air looks like, well, doll hair. It's way too uniform. I guess the black and the brown braid are okay in a pinch, but the yellow braid is a joke. Would have been better to go with white or silver. Picture shown below ( I took this picture to make them look as good as possible since I was re-selling on E-Bay). There are no loops on the braids - only straight lengths.

Jet Pack Harness - Also trash and looks nothing like the picture. Don't waste your time with this component. The webbing is probably half the size of what is pictured. It's very thin and doubt will hold any weight comfortably.

Comments welcome.

In summary, metal parts are pretty decent. Armor is strictly starter (upgraded version of Rubies). You take a BIG gamble on soft parts fitting.

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This is a really well written review & I appreciate it.
Many times, people just bash the seller themselves or say the item is "garbage" without any details.
This one was refreshing.
 
I actually pretty happy with the items (most of them) I bought from Gabe. The fligthsuit actually fits me quite well as well as the flak vest (surprising since I have a 46 chest and 33 waist). I am not too happy with the flak vest material (too shiny), but since it does fit well I will probably stick with it (most of its hidden anyway). Things I bought from him: boots, flightsuit, vest, shin tools, wookie braids, spats, pouches, gloves, ammo belt, girth belt. Everything else was bought from TDH guys (knew not too get any of his hard parts). The things I did not like, like previously stated, wookie braids stink, the ammo belt is very cheap, the girth belt is also cheap (will have to replace this), and the JP harness is complete junk.

I did receive everything much faster than I thought. Communication was good. biggest hold up is customs for me. If it helps I can also can provide pics.
 
I can fully agree with your quote about the wookie braids. At one point in time I ordered a set of these and they are bad, the "blonde" one is a joke, it's bright yellow, and in general they were too thick all around. I literally had put them on ebay within an hour of getting them in the mail.

I've also seen a set of the shin tools in person, the good side is they are lightweight, but the bad side is that whatever he uses to cut the edges, he let slip several times and there were dig marks into the aluminum, and some of the edges were actually sharp from rough cuts.

I agree his stuff IS a step above rubies, but not much and not enough for the prices he charges.

Just my 2 cents.
 
i bought a pair of gloves from him, they are ok but i think my dog could have done better stitching. im going to use them for this halloween but ill be replacing them afterwards
 
thats not cool, i've seen his stuff on ebay and to me it looked great but i didn't like his feedback so i didn't buy anything. i understand he's a member here. what does he say when other members buy from him and he doesn't send them their stuff.
 
I made the mistake of purchasing the entire Boba Fett costume from Evolutions. He sent less than half the items. His jetpack harness is a piece of ****. The webbing is thin, about half an inch and it doesn't look like the picture. His belt is made of some cheap plastic fake leather material and it is totally inaccurate. The girth belt looked like a bunch of strings with a really cheap belt buckle. He sent me the flightsuit and I was barely able to zipper it. The flak vest was about two sizes too small. I sent the flak vest and flight suit back to him for a replacement. He kept both items and never shipped anything back to me. As far as the jetpack, gauntlets, armor, and gloves, he never shipped them. He gave me some bogus tracking numbers and kept on stringing me along. He ignores your emails after a while. I ordered the stuff in June and we are now in October and I don't ever expect to receive anything from Evolutions. I left him appropriate feedback. I also ordered the shin tools from Evolutions, I have not received them after 3 months. He also got the appropriate feedback for that also. This is my personal experience and the guy is dishonest (he never shipped the stuff, and kept what I sent back to him). His stuff is expensive and low quality. I also wrote him an email to tell him that the flight suit smelled like cigarrette smoke. I told him that he should tell people not to smoke when they're making garments for his customers. I came on this board and purchased everything from the members here and I am extremely happy! I even posted a photo of my finished Boba Fett.
 
I forgot about the harness, but totally agree with your assessment. I will modify my original post. Sounds like you got a really bad deal. I had my secretary translate my communication to Spanish before I sent. Maybe that helped with my level of service. Also, my stuff also smelled of cigaret smoke. I mean, I spent hours inside some North Carolina bars and came out smelling better.
 
Hi guys!
This is Gabe from Evolution and I am back after some time of being afar due to different situations at work!
I've been reading with attention to the thread on evolution's stuff. I took note of the weaknesses and strong points you guys talk about. We have been working hard lately in tasting new materials to make the hard parts more consistent and durable adding a new fiber-glass process, among other actions taken to improve Evolution's customes. Also we decided to change specific people who worked with us due to their habits of smoking while manufacturing the costumes and encourage them to control the quality process. This is something we could do due to your comments on the cigarrette smell some of you guys found in the costumes and sincerely this was something we did not notice since our dealers packed the costumes in plastic boxes when delivering us the orders. In addition, we decided to hire new personnel to do the customer support work, which only work is to solve any situation the customer might experience while the transaction and stay tuned via email, being as warmer, faster in giving solutions and with a better understanding and writing of English language as possible.
Because of the recommendations received from you guys which only purpose is to help us to offer a better costume or part, we want, as a way to thank you, to offer special prices for those members of the forum interested in our costumes. We keep opened to any type of recommendation. So, please take note of my email, just in case, customersupport@evolutiontoys.com.ar
Thank you!!
Gabe
 
Not even the size of the plates are acurate... They look like if they were made for small kids... I saw them in person and they are almost half the size from the templates of WOF or another prop maker...
 
Very nice resposne but spare me the bull. You are the most dishonest seller I've ever dealt with. You kept the jumpsuit I sent back to you. You never shipped the shin tools I paid for. You jerked me around for months and gave me bogus tracking numbers. Your stuff is of the worst quality and your prices are too high for that low quality stuff you sell.
 
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