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HPA thread at TFL

Smithy

Well-Known Member
I used to be a member over at TFL but haven't been over there for a couple of years. I remembered though that I thought Chaz had posted some photos of the Air Comfort in his "Affiliate" thread awhile back and wanted to go over and have a look at them. So I toddled over there and it appears either Chaz himself or the mods over there have deleted his rather large, and long running vendor thread. I remember him badmouthing VLJ awhile back but now he seems to have either been banned or exiled himself from the Hat Place.

It really is amazing the amount of drama in the repro leather/military jacket field.
 
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SuinBruin

Well-Known Member
Interesting. I had heard some unsavory things about Charles in the past and was always put off by his constant huckstering and self-laudatory tone. He and TFL seemed made for each other, I wonder what led to the breach?
 

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
Somewhere I had heard that Charles was dealing with some health issues. Not sure of the accuracy of that information.
 

Boyo

Well-Known Member
Smithy, Charles’s user name on TFL was “HPA REP” if you Use the search tab for recent threads you’ll find his last post appears to be at the end of January..
I respect Charles for his knowledge, as he always seemed to have a good grasp WWII jackets and repros and have I’ve purchased a few bit from his site in the past. It’s one thing to be banned over a dust up.. but I hope his health is not the issue.
 

Otter

Well-Known Member
He hasn't posted there since late January and the HPA website has not been updated in a while.
 

Falcon_52

Active Member
I ordered a couple of items from HPA back in early March (before the pandemic scare really accelerated in the U.S.). The business was/is still up and running.
 

Grant

Well-Known Member
Yup, two weeks ago, a buddy of mine ordered and received a Buzz L.S.L B-10 from HPA, so all systems go.
 

ButteMT61

Well-Known Member
Like most vendors, he was pro "what he was selling". I would expect that to be the case.
He did have some health issues that he mentioned over the years. Hope too that he is well.

Some of the content in the HPA REP thread were not so cleverly disguised bashing of other brands by a couple of guys that would never stop. It got old.
 

Smithy

Well-Known Member
Sorry for the late reply guys but been up in the mountains and only just got back.

Sounds as if there might have been a bit of a bun fight over at Salon du Chapeau as Charles has either been given the boot or got the hump and closed down the thread.

I talked a few times with him years ago and found him to be a nice chap. Over recent years though he'd seemed to get a bit unsavoury. He basically said that VLJ member Cocker was a racist a couple of years back for questioning whether a Buzz jacket was based on an actual one when it obviously wasn't. Charles in his marketing had been going on about it being so, and didn't take kindly to be found out to be telling porkies. He posted a whole lot of racist WWII posters about the Japanese and pretty much said that that was Cocker's attitude. He went down a long way in my estimation after that.

I think the last time I posted over there was about the Buzz red MA-1 which Charles was making out to be the jacket worn by F-89 test pilots. He'd been talking quite a lot of marketing drivel about it which was nonsense but he was trying to set as truth, and when I posted that It wasn't and supported it with photos he got pretty stroppy with me.

I think he knows quite a bit but what perhaps doesn't work as well for him, he tries to twist the truth about certain of his offerings to make them sound as if they are based on real jackets when some of them are quite simply not. He'd be far better off not making things up and being straight up about what he offers. If a jacket is one of those Buzz fantasy jackets, don't spin a load of codswallop but just say it's inspired by such and such.

Saying that in these trying times, I hope he's well and doing fine. After all this is only clothing. If anything has made us realise that this stuff is really way outside the periphery of what's really important it's now. Getting into fights over this stuff isn't worth it.
 
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