I’ve been meaning to do this review for some time, and I have to mention a huge thank you to the guys over at ChopShopStore for being so patient and understanding.

Everyone who knows me well knows that I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and that I’m pretty much an avid collector: I’ve got a huge set of collection of 1978 figurines from the original movie. And so, when it comes to Star Wars goods, I’m danged fussy and critical of the merchandise that appears on the shelfs. So when I received this in my mail, I wanted to check out everything in precise detail.

Design, Color And Concept

Simply put, very cleverly executed. The Tuskan Raider resides on Tattoine, and is often referred to as Sand People, and Jay Hillyer took this into consideration and put the design on a dune themed color. How brilliant is that? The artwork itself is a clean fresh view of a Tuskan Raider sketch, something that you’d probably see in the sketchbook of George Lucas’s designers. What better way to get like-minded fans attention than owning one of these? Hell, I was walking the other day in the mall and I noticed some glances, affirmative smiles, beeps and Chewie growls all directed at me. Ok, maybe not the last two, but you get the picture. The placement is just perfect, it falls dead center in between the nipples and just below the navel. That’s what I call precision. You gotta get the right size though: I got the L, and it’s pretty darn big for me and I’m not a small guy. For an average Asian, it’s best to settle with an M. The L’s are like our XL’s over here. Overall though, the entire design is just perfect.

4.5/5

Screen Printing Quality

One of my personal aims is to become very professional when it comes to screen printing, and to get all the minor creaks and small hitches out of the way. Saying that, it isn’t the easiest thing to achieve. The guys over at ChopShopStore has, with flying colors. In fact, I kind of regret getting a single color print instead of perhaps one of their multi-colored tees because it’s too easy right now… the single print is so darn good. When I briefly spoke to Jay Hillyer, he came across as someone who was very confident in his products, and now I can see why. The print runs are perfect and consistent. How do you know when a screen-printer is very good? I’ll leave the image below to take the words out of my mouth.

4.5/5

T-shirt quality

ChopShopStore uses various tees, American Apparel Baby Rib and Fine Jerseys for Women and Hanes Beefy tees for men, which pretty much explains the larger sizes, so again, my advice is to choose wisely. They also use Gildan for their Bush Brains and Franken Kerry tees, but have since switched the majority of their designs to Hanes: and it’s quite obvious why. Putting it on is not the easiest of things to do, but once I managed to put my big head through, it feels like a second skin. The material is almost cooling, is made of 100% cotton and the colors don’t run after wash. It good to use on warm as well as cooler days, you don’t quite notice temperature issues in either situations.

3.5/5 

The Last Note

What can I say? These guys are making it real hard for me to put out a negative review. From design to quality, it’s just getting ridiculously hard to pick out negatives… in fact, the only thing I would change on this tee is probably the size which I had received, so I can look smug like the dude in these images. Simply put, buy it. Click on the images below to see their other designs as well.

The envy of the bunch: I’d kill for this glow in the dark Tron Master Control Tee!