3 posts tagged “lightsaber”
UltraSabers has released some more of their popular "initiate" stunt sabers, which are super-bright Luxeon LED sabers at a smaller size of 23" long (in a 9" long handle).....at $40 each they're perfect for the young Star Wars fan!
They don't make noise, but everyone knows that's easy enough to do yourself. The color choices, price, brightness and durability are well worth the lack of sound effects.
Just an FYI for all you moms and dads. They sell out of these quick. First I've seen them in several months.
*I hate the word "padawan". I hate most of the words Lucas came up with. Dooku? Grievous? Mon Calamari?? WTF man. Attend a creative writing class some day.
Ok, after talking about the Force FX lightsaber construction kit on my Star Wars Kid post yesterday, I looked into it and yes, it's $50 and for sale in-store at Radio Shack. SOOO I went up to my local Radio Shack (how are those things still around?) and bought one. Because I am both a geek and a brat that way.
This is the Official Review.
First of all, they are on sale at Amazon for over $100. Rip-off. Get one at Radio Shack. I would check to see if they have them in stock at your nearest one, first. I had to go to a different one to get mine.
What it comes with:
A tubular (totally!) hilt that needs 3 AAA batteries, with an attached blade. The blade is not removable. (None of the FXs are without modification.) It is slightly shorter than the other FX Sabers you may have seen, by about 4".
The blade does not light up sequentially. It is not filled with LED bulbs, it has three LEDs at the base that shine into the blade, similar to the stunt saber I'd bought from UltraSabers but not nearly as bright. BUT there is a switch that changes the color between red, green and blue. You can only access it BEFORE you fully assemble the design you want (see below), but it's a nice feature to ensure novelty. Also, the red setting uses what they call the "Sith" sound effect, which is a deeper, more metallic sounding hum. Nice touch.
3 designs each of a top emitter cap, first grip section, ignition switch, second grip section, and a base cap. Plus a handful of decorative pegs and screws.
Unlike other MR lightsabers, most of these are plastic.
Only the top emitters and base caps are metal.
You slide the components onto the hilt in whatever configuration you want. You do need to go in order of top section, first, switch, second grip, and base or else it won't fit. Each section has grooves that make sure you are putting them on in the right direction and orientation. This removes some of the design variety you can come up with, and some pieces just don't really complement others very well. Still, it's fun to "figure out" how you want it to look.
When the pieces are all in place, and you put the base cap on (don't forget the battery holder too.....I did a few times) there is a little bit of play in the sections. Not a lot, but enough to let you know it's in several pieces and not one solid unit. It feels plastic. There's no getting around that. You can't screw the base cap tight enough to keep the sections from moving even that little bit.
Turn it on, and you're greeted with the blade color of your choice and the matching sound effect. It's a little dimmer than the full-fledged FX sabers, and not as loud, and exhibits what they call the "flashlight effect" where the base of the blade is noticeably brighter than the tip. The red is the dimmest effect, but that's just because of the nature of red light. Blue looks the brightest. The light comes on with a gradual fade-in effect, rather than just being "on". Same with going off, which is slightly fancier looking than going on. But there's no sliding up/down effect.
The movement sensor is good. Better than some FX collectables. The clash sensor is very sensitive, which is nice. I assume you can play around with it more than the better FXs because there's no lights in the blade to break, but due to its plastic hilt construction I wouldn't go overboard. If anything it could snap at the hilt with a good whack, I figure.
It looks pretty good in a darkened room. It loses its punch in bright light.
All in all, it's a fun toy for a Star Wars fan of any age. Its price is not out of reach. It's worth the $50, I think, but not much more. Considering the crappy plastic ones they sell at Target are like $20, this is not a bad deal for what you get. But it is a toy. It is not 3 Force FXs in one. I was disappointed by all the plastic parts....I really thought they had put in the same aluminum bits that the other FXs are made of. That would have been a lot nicer, but there may have been some problem with sharp edges I guess, or keeping it under $50. Oh well. It's fun, and I would have gone nuts over it if they'd had it available when I was 10 or 11.
Or 32. :P
My rating: 4 (out of sith)
(Note: UltraSabers offers a modification service to this saber, where they will replace the bulbs with much brighter Luxeon III LEDs. That is $80 plus shipping costs. Adding a stronger, brighter blade is another $20. This does work, and the effect is pretty cool, but I wouldn't bother on this model only because you're still going to get a bunch of plastic hilt sections at the end of it all. Still, if you really love the idea of do-it-yourself and want a brighter blade, that does the trick nicely.)
...you can only imagine how thrilled I was to get my new toy delivered last week!!!
I've said it before, I want a lightsaber, and I got one.
Ok, ok, it's not a real lightsaber (somewhere I read that they are pretty much technologically impossible.....at least to fit into a flashlight-sized thingy) but it's the next best thing so far: one of Master Replicas'....um..........replicas!
The ForceFX Vader Ep.IV, to be exact.
A spot-on prop replica of Vader's saber as seen in Star Wars: A New Hope (that's the '77 flick, ladies.)
**ducks**
Took it out of the box, popped in 3 AAA rechargeables and turned it on.....pssshwwzzzzzz! Sucker lights up RED....pretty bright too, I think brighter than the other red ones I've seen in the stores (but I admit I haven't tried it in a really brightly lit mall-type environment) and it's LOUD. Very cool. Hilt is all chromed metal with matte black top shroud and rubber grips, fairly heavy. A little weird on the motion sensing, it does pick up swing movement but sometimes not, and sometimes makes a double-swing noise when you just move it slightly. But a small touch on the blade will make a clash sound....so it evens out I guess. And it the blade lights upwards in sequence, and powers down likewise.......very very cool.
I got it right by my desk at work. On the sill. :)
Actually......this is not my first one. I had gotten one a few years back, when they first started making them. They were a little bigger then, and didn't use LED lights but instead an electrosensitive paper rolled up inside the pc tube, they only had a blue one (Anakin's from Ep.II) and it didn't light upwards on the blade but all turned on at once. It was still very cool, but these new ones have been brighter, lighter and smaller (in the hilt). I've always played with them at the Borders or Sharper Image, but when I saw the ones from the first film announced I just had to have one, plus MR is no longer going to be keeping the Star Wars license after this year (supposedly.) So these may be the last batch to be released.
Hey. Didn't want to miss the boat. (Again.)
So, the irreconcilable bargain-hunter, I found a site that sold MR stuff cheaper than the MR site, Sharper Image and lots of others called StarWarsAttic.com. They had the highly anticipated Luke version from Ep. IV for $99....$20 cheaper than listed! That's the one I wanted-wanted. So I ordered one of those and sat waiting for it to come in, only to find out that they weren't shipping until at least mid-August! So I grumbled and whined like a baby.....and contacted them and almost canceled my order in lieu of another style just to have something to play with.....but instead kept that one waiting if they would give me a deal on shipping on the Vader model. They did, and so I got that one too. :)
Never hurts to ask.
Anyway.......if you're like me and have a somewhat dispensable income when it comes to toys, and have always wanted a lightsaber like the boys in Star Wars, and have a place to put it ('cuz they're like four feet long).....check out StarWarsAttic.com.....they have quite a few in stock still, and their prices are good. (They even have some of the Mace purple styles and Obi-Wan Ep. III in, which have been discontinued........if you're in the market.)
Oh.....and you have to be a big dork too. Highly recommended.
ETA: Here's an amusing little bit on How Lightsabers Work from howstuffworks.com.
My Groups
-
Dallas Voxers Updated: 9 hours ago
-
mp3eme VOX Updated: Yesterday
-
Ask for Advice Updated: Yesterday
