What are the main things one should consider before picking out a lightsaber?
Knowing what you want is the key to picking a good custom lightsaber. It gives you base to start choosing what and where to buy one.
You have to figure out what you want to do with the lightsaber and your budget. Do you want a cool collectible piece that’s a replica of something from the Star Wars universe, or do you want a battle-ready “stunt” saber which can take a beating, or maybe even both?
Once you’ve figured out what you want to do with your lightsaber, it’ll make choosing easier. After all there’s so many custom lightsabers out there and it’s not only their shape that you’ll be choosing. There’s even sound, flash on clash and colour changing options to take into account. It’s a vast world of custom lightsabers out there and it can be hard to just pick one so once you’ve narrowed down what you really want out of a lightsaber, you’ll be able to figure just what to get.
Of course if you just want a cool collectible piece to start of with, you can consider the Hasbro Force FX series which has a pretty decent range that you start collecting with.
These are officially licensed lightsaber replicas of popular characters such as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Yoda, Kylo Ren, and more. They light up and have sound but they’re really only meant as a display piece that you can occasionally swing around.
We’ve broken quite a few of these in our early days before discovering stunt sabers. As these are made for the mass market in mind, they are also somewhat behind in terms of technology now. You could say they were really high tech when they were introduced about a decade ago but have largely been superseded by custom sabers for the past few years. In terms of price, they range from about RM700 to RM1000.
For those with much shallower pockets, there is a cheaper licensed alternative called Ultimate FX, also by Hasbro. It is basically plastic lower cost version of the Force FX version. They are around the RM200 to RM300 range. You can buy them at Toys R Us and they look similar to the Force FX series.
As for sabers that you can duel with ( seriously, who doesn’t want to duel with lightsabers?) There are plenty of choices. As performers, we look at a few factors when determining which sabers to buy. We need something durable, comfortable to grip, has good overall balance, is affordable, and easy to maintain.
There is also the matter of sabers with choke and saber without a choke. A choke is a curve part of the hilt that allows for a more comfortable grip and also easier spin during duelling. A saber without choke will have a more solid grip and better for quick strikes. I am personally a big fan of saber with a choke.
If you have the cash, you can add extra bells and whistles to your saber, like sound, flash on clash (basically making them flash a different colour on impact) and colourchanging, which is a recent development for custom sabers. The soundboards that support colour changing are programmable hence allowing you to have basically any colour you want.
My recommendation for soundboards is Plecter Labs. It is company based in France and the founder, Erv Plecter single-handedly revolutionised the saber soundboard scene. He invented the Crystal Focus (now in its seventh iteration CF7.5) and it is the most advance soundboard in the market (with colour changing ability) and the Holy Grail of all soundboards. It would more or less look like this in action:
He also came up with the Petite Crouton, basically a lower cost version of the Crystal Focus while retaining most of the bells and whistles, Nano Biscotte, the world smallest soundboard designed for smaller hilts, and most recently PRIZM, a compact colour changing board. Adding soundboard to a hilt will usually add an additional 200USD minimum to the overall price of the saber.
As for the power source, sabers are generally powered by AAA batteries or Lithium Ion (li-ion). Most stunt sabers are run said batteries as they are cost effective and easily replaced. They typically last about one hour of non-stop usage in a saber without sound FX.
For sabers with sound you need a more powerful source and this is where lithium ion comes in. Able to produce more voltage (1.5V from alkaline vs 3.7V from li-ion) and have more capacity, lithium ion batteries are an increasingly popular alternative especially if you want a saber with sound, flash on clash, and brighter LEDs.
The drawback of Li-ion is that it is expensive and you need a special charger for it but if you do get it, you will never need to buy batteries ever again.
