So, of course I had to fix that. :) I remember reading on the LotR costume research site that the cheap Evenstar had a white film on it that made it look so fake. I'm sure that the film was there to keep the necklace from getting rusty or something, but my Evenstar was old enough (not to mention broken-- one of the "jewels" has been missing for years) that it couldn't hurt it very much.
Out came the X-acto knife, and I set to work scraping the film off. I was surprised at how different it looks! Here are the before and after pictures (sorry about the picture quality, my bedroom has got bad lighting). The pictures don't really do it justice. Especially because of the different lighting.
Here is a picture of the (now seven dollar) Halloween version, the seventy dollar "real" version, and the fundred and fifty dollar "replica" version.
