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This is the O-Review podcast
Welcome to another review
I decided to do something that a lot of people have requested
because it's been a while as always
but I do have a good reason
basically what i want to do was pick a piece that
really defined Oakley back around the turn of the
century twenty / turn of the millenium, 2000 era
where they just decided to go crazy
The knew this wouldn't sell well
they knew that the price point, the craziness of it
the whole mad scientist factor
would just basically make the common man
not want this.
But we are not the common man; we want crazy we want
mad science to the max.
and the Medusa pretty much
encompasses all of that, so this is the era where we had Overthetop
to a lesser degree the Splice, Plate, the glasses you could actually wear.
But things just went nuts and they had a lot of fun doing it and I kind of wish
those days were coming back.
They might, they might not. It's hard to say
We can always hope.
So what I have here is the medusa and...
the medusa goggles. There were actually two pieces that were sold.
So taking it off Mr.
Shadowhead
We basically have
the medusa helmet
'helmet' in very loose terms
and the Medusa goggles, which snap on
Just though normal snaps. Now if you didn't have the goggles
The helmet itself would come with caps,
and it would hide them
so they're not out there in the open
and the nice thing about the caps is that they have the icon on them so it does look nice
and looks like it is part of it is a helmet even if you didn't have the goggles to go with it.
Now a lot of times, you would order these together so you would have the complete set
but there seem to be a lot more
helmets than there were goggles, or the goggles got scratched so they slowly
filtered out over time.
And it's a lot harder to find the goggles nowadays than just finding the base helmet
My brother actually got his Medusa at the New York O Store for
...I want to say...
Two hundred dollars? Real cheap, but it was a small version
Because there were actually two sizes
and it didn't have the goggles, so less desirable and you want to have the whole set
but the medusa by itself is really
cool to have.
Now about having two different sizes, there were actually two variants.
The Small / Medium and Large / Extra-Large
This is the
Large / Extra-Large and I have yet to really find anyone fits that Small / Medium which
is
It's too small. It won't even fit on the Shadowhead.
But luckily
the Large / Extra-Large which is awesome.
I got this actually at
Oakley Headquarters back in 2005
I wanted this for years but I figured it was never going to happen; it's too much money
it's too hard to find
But...
they had it at headquarters and I was able to
pick it up there
The guy was somewhat impressed
Life is good.
I did find it in Hawaii because I went to Hawaii first for a conference then I flew over to
headquarters because I figured that I wanted to go there
while I was out west and
I could just visit there on the way back.
I regret not buying it in Hawaii
1) because the box that I got it with
with the generic box whereas in Hawaii they actually had the Medusa in the branded box
and sales tax in Hawaii was four point something whereas sales tax in
california regionally was
up above eight maybe at the time. I forget but
basically I paid doubled in sales tax, and for an item like this
you get whacked.
I don't regret it as much nowadays because trying to buy one of these now is impossible...
it is possible but
it's not as easy.
There was a time where you could get these much cheaper than retail. I paid full
retail plus tax and that is actually the low end at this point.
But no regrets, I have it.
It's not going anywhere
So it is made out of
hand stitched leather
and it has
almost a copper stitching which really accents on the leather.
Technically it's the dark brown color
Supposedly there was a black one but I have yet to see one. You hear rumors all the time.
But officially this is listed as dark brown.
The lenses are Black Iridium
on the goggles
And basically everything is made out of the same material. All these dreadlocks, and
the base itself
is made out of the same type of leather as well as the goggles.
Now the nice thing is inside is padded
Over here there are holes for hearing
so basically if you have this on you will still be able to hear a bit because the sound can penetrate
through the leather and it just has to go to this padding on the inside
So let's try this on
and see how it looks.
Off the bat, it is comfortable. It really hugs your head
the padding on the inside is really really nice
This strap here
is almost like
a buckle-less belt
sneak in there but
it doesn't really
hold all that well so you can get it to stay, but fo
display purposes I leave mine
unbuckled
Peripheral version is really non-existant. The flat frame
of these lenses here doesn't allow for really much passed about here.
So you really can't
see out the sides.
It does look like you have tunnel vision because they are set so far away from
your eyes, it's like looking through a projector that's
inches away from your face.
For practicality?
I don't know.
not for me
I have know people who have gone downhill skiing with the Medusa.
More power to them
I'm a condition nut, so I keep things on a pedestal and in a collection.
But that's alright.
Even though there are holes here
technically you can hear through it, but
the fact that everything is rubbing on you and these tassles are
touching your back
every sound gets channeled into this
capsule here and then right to your head
every little thing
that rubs
ends up right in your head. It is like having a cold where your ears are stuffed and every little thing
you hear is stuffed into your brain
That's kind of how it is here. As far as practicality goes...
...yeah it's a cool piece. You buy it because Oakley is crazy
...they were crazy...
...hopefully will be again
and you really love the
things that are out there
Out of the box
So i can't wear that too long without feeling like
I will have a brain hemorrhage
Awesome piece. Awesome, awesome piece.
If you do
have the chance to get one of these and it's not going to just totally slaughter
you...
or at least your bank account, I highly recommend getting it. It is just
one of those must have pieces.
Things like the Overthetop and Medusa..
If you can get it, then get it. Because if you have a serious
collection
you have to have one of these in it.
It is just a really cool piece.
Back when these were being prototyped, they were actually called the 'Wombat Hat'
and they didn't have the goggles as a separate piece
The goggles and the main helmet were actually merged into one, and there was just
stitching around here that held it permanently in place.
There are a few pictures online. You can do a google search, or I will actually
display them right now.
Where there is one with Jim Jannard, and there is one with Scotty Cannon back when he
was doing his drag racing
They had either a one-off or possibly a two-off; either one of them had it.
There was probably not just one
But they were wearing them on the racetrack, and you can get a feel for how that prototype looked.
So who knows where those are now. Probably in
their personal collections, never to see the light of day again.
Just some trivia that is kind of cool.
Alright, so what I have here is
the one we have been looking at.
And I have an example of the small one.
So it came in the original, almost like
a shoe box from around the time.
So here is
the Small / Medium
and here is the Large / Extra-Large
So as you can see there is
a noticeable difference in size
So we are going to put each one on.
and we are going to show you how they look
on someone who can fit a Small
and someone who can fit a big one.
You look crazy in those.
You look crazy
So now we are going to try...
...I'm going to try and fit the Small one.
but it won't work.
I can barely fit it.
on the top of my head
Whereas this one on you is going to be rather
...rather loose.
So there is a substantial size difference between
the Large / Extra-Large and the Small / Medium.
and as such you do tend to find the Small / Medium a lot more
but it tends to not fit as many people.
Otherwise the design is pretty much exactly the same, it is just really that size difference
that tells them apart.
Alright, so the last thing we are gonig to take a look at are the boxes. This is the more generic box.
This came on the earlier ones.
But the official box has the Medusa image on it, which is a lot nicer.
I wish mine had come in that, but
so be it
Alright, so I would like to thank Anton for sending me this shirt. It has the grips from the STPL ad.
Which was not a grip that was produced as it has the Oakley logo a few times here
but it is still a cool logo.
He also sent me this.
Signed bat
from Salvador Perez
and...
it is just a really cool display piece. I have this in
my cabinet that has my Put Boss, my Medusa, Overthetop, and some SI Boots.
so thanks Anton, they are really awesome and look great in my collection.
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