Tampa Florida Future Ghostbuster

General Discussion Introductions
1

Hi all,

Figured I would drop a line here and say hi. I have been a fan since the 84 movie. A costumer for almost 20 years now and Im just finally getting to building a GB set up.

I was very into star wars and have built some awesome costumes over the years. My Chewbacca costume is quite famous thus the name I chose.

This year I dove into a few new genres. I have a screen accurate Batfleck DOJ suit now. And I have started a full on GB1 set up.

I will say that I have been struggling with building my pack. About three and a half months ago i had ordered from BenofKent. I had watched a bunch of stuff and his pack looked great. Plus it was a one stop shop and I liked that. Well that went south for me. He had told me he shipped it, sent me a number that never worked. For 60 days I kept getting told its shipped, its in customs, the shipping number is gonna change. No one at DHL could find the package or anything. When I knew I was getting close to the 90 day mark I messaged him and said Im getting close to where I may have to press a claim. That you did not give me an active number and I kept getting a run around.

To his credit he refunded me. But claimed that hes gonna contact DHL and get them to stop delivery. If I could not find something directly asking for information, how could you stop a package that cant be found? My only inkling was he never actually sent the items.

Oddly I had another package shipped from England via DHL that was insured for twice what the pack was and it arrived in 3 days and crazy enough DHL had an active tracking number on it the whole way. So I reached out to a few other people and this has happened to those few other people. Three guys locally to me had a similar experience and Eric, the guy who I ordered a vent kit from said he had a similar experience.

That was incredibly frustrating.

I had plans to be done by Halloween to join in a local event in full gear.

I scrambled to get what I needed. Throwing chicken had a great wand kit and I had all the upgrade parts from the store here. Im almost done with it. I even scratch built my own pop mech. Works really well so Im happy bout that. Been adding my electronics kit that I got from Ninjatunes. Hope to have this all done by sunday.

My pack is on the way. I thought I had to cancel the pack for a bit because of some life issues, but a friend paid for a Karnivorous Creations shell and mobo. That may be here soon. So i might actually have a full suit soon. Sadly no way I can finish before Halloween just cause I wont have the time to put it all together by then.

I do have a found parts replica of the ecto goggles. I snagged a matty PKE for 180 on ebay. I even have a real gizmo.

Flight suit I currently have is a TRU spec. I didnt know it wasnt accurate at the time. So I ordered a nomex suit with the correct pockets. I also super heavily modded a walmart trap. Added a accurate GB pedal to it.

Simultaneously doing a Charcoal grey Suit too. I really liked that look. Ill be reversing a Rothco suit for that.

So thats me. Looking forward to getting out there and busting ghosts and having fun with all my Florida Franchises

2

Welcome aboard!

3

Welcome aboard, DJ Chewie!

4

I’m glomming on to this BoK experience because mine over the last ~5 mos trying to buy a full kit on Etsy was exactly the same: a misery of 2 bad tracking numbers, strange DHL claims, refusal to give tangible info, my inability to corroborate evidence of a shipment existing, etc etc etc… but a refund issued when I drew the line near dispute claim day. Even that was shady.

Bottom line was that he never shipped anything but put a lot of effort into the runaround. All said and done, it was another non-delivery, soft fraud attempt, my third for GB parts!

All to say I feel your pain. I hope your build(s) finished well. I’ve had more heartburn over the past 18 months with various maker-builders than I ever thought possible. The GB prop building community has been great; the sellers are far too often unreliable - and that’s me being kind.

5

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Sorry, I don’t know how to say it in Shyriwook.

6

Yep, It was complete bull on his part. It seems like being state side is a detriment to you getting something from him. Promptly after my refund and complaint he blocked me on facebook.

I make props and stuff in different genre professionally. So I like to invest in good work with people who deserve it. Everything looked great. But hes a liar and a soft cheat. I believe hes spending the money before he makes things and hes making stuff for others on our dime, Then makes yours based on someone elses orders. Its a push it forward game. Zero proof of it, but every time I see a scam like his its what the reason is. Had I waited maybe over a year Id of seen something. Even then when he did ship ive heard stories of people missing stuff. Its why I did not feel bad when the Italian guys recasted him

7

Welcome!

I ordered an aluminum bumper for my Spirit Pack from BenOfKent and had no issues, and I live in NY

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It actually arrived pretty quickly from England, I was surprised.