Luke Skywalker Force FX Base Lit 12 Heavy Dueling Lightsaber - DamienSaber - Roleplay

Review | Discussion

Duel Worthy, Display Worthy

  

Review

Force FX lightsabers have been around since Master Replicas debuted them in 2002, with Hasbro taking over the design in 2008. Since then, private companies have created far superior designs that can not only be used for display, but for combat competitions as well. These high quality dueling lightsabers feature LEDs that are no longer in the blade which means there's no chance of damaging the LED strips when full contact combat ensues. And, with removable blades you can easily showcase and use the hilt. One such company is DamienSaber, a lightsaber manufacturer out of China featuring a stellar range of RGB Lightsabers.

DamienSaber was nice enough to send us a sample to try out and review for those interested in learning more about these custom built lightsabers.

Official Product Specifications

• Durable and Comfortable Aluminum Hilt
• 12W RGB LED
• 3000mah 3.7V Rechargeable 18650 Battery
• 2mm Thick, 92cm Length polycarbonate blade
• 23mm Electric Full-Range Speaker

Packaging & Presentation

The packaging itself is no-frills, with a simple, generic lightsaber branded box holding all of the contents. In this case, it's what's in the box that counts. Our sample came shipped directly in the lightsaber's packaging, so the box is not much more than a place to store the blade and parts in.

   

The sample we received is inspired by Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Return of the Jedi. While not exactly screen accurate, the design is close enough to the original to give you that feeling of wielding the original.

What's in the Box?

• Lightsaber hilt with rechargeable battery
• Detachable 92cm polycarbonate Blade
• USB-C charging cable
• Accessory bag (Includes spare hex screws, spare wrench, and alternate power switch board plate)
• Instruction manual
• Hex tool
• Lightsaber plug
• Display stand

Aside from the obvious lightsaber hilt and blade, you also get a small, USB-C charging cable, instruction manual, lightsaber plug, hex tool, and an accessory bag. Included in the accessory bag are some spare hex screws, a spare wrench, an alternate lightsaber button cover featuring 'electronics', and a sheet of two sticky pads used to keep the cover in place.

      

   

Setup

Admittedly, I had no idea what the plate was for at first. And, with the included plate slipping off easily when you handle the saber this was going to be my first complaint about this hilt. But, after a little more investigating into the parts included I realized that the plate cover was an 'alternate' look to the saber, and the small sticky pads were to be used to keep the plate secure once you decided on a look for your hilt. Once adhered, the small, round sticky pad holds the plate securely in place, but can still be removed if forced so you can change the plate if desired.

   

The lightsaber plug is also a nice touch. This is a decorative 'plug' to put in place of the blade for safety reasons if you are handling the ignited hilt without the blade around other people. It will prevent the bright LED lights from shining directly in anyone's eyes, but still allow the color to be displayed. Of course, the plug is optional and wouldn't normally be used for general display. The plug would be removed and replaced with the actual blade when using the saber.

      

Both the plug and the blade can be secured in place with four hex screws so that it stays firmly in place when wielding the saber. The included tool is much easier to handle than a standard hex wrench since it has a nice handle to use. This is a nice touch since DamienSaber could have simply included a generic wrench as most manufactures tend to do.

The last thing to do in order to set up your saber is to charge the battery. This might be the best part about this hilt compared to the standard Force FX sabers: a rechargeable battery. Not only does this allow for the hilt to remain appropriately scaled and not 'bulky', you don't have to constantly replace the batteries. Simply unscrew the base of the hilt to reveal the charging port, and use the included USB-C cable to charge the battery.

The hilt also has several removable sections for part replacement and upgrades. However, it's not necessary to remove these parts unless you need to replace or repair a part.

      

Play Features

Once charged, hold the button down until you hear the 'power on' announcement.

This will bring the saber out of sleep mode and ready to use. From this point on, a variety of actions with the power button will set up your saber. The included instructions have a nice table of button actions to let you know how to set up your preferences. We'll get to some of the options shortly, but first and foremost just push the button to activate the saber in its current setup mode. And, don't worry about accidentally leaving the lightsaber on. Once the blade is powered down, the lightsaber will go into sleep mode after 10 minutes of inactivity.

Along with button options, there are several 'motion gesture' options to use. For example, pointing the blade forward and performing a stabbing motion will also activate/deactivate the blade.

This particular model does not have an LED indicator so you have to rely on the timing for each mode. It took a small amount of trial and error to learn the timing for the modes, and the included chart does a good job of letting you know the proper timing to activate each mode.

After taking some time to familiarize myself with the controls, it quickly became easy to change the saber at will to set up a variety of options for customization. The ability to customize both sound and visual aspects is an amazing way to personalize your saber to your liking.

SoundFonts

The 12 SoundFonts included allow you to customize the active sound used while wielding the lightsaber. This is a nice touch to let you personalize your saber. You can have 12 different lightsabers and have each saber with unique ignition/humming/swinging/striking sounds. Here are the included SoundFonts and their startup/shutdown sounds (I've included the ignition effect, blaster deflection effect, and shutdown effect for each SoundFont):

The Dark Lord

The Dark Sword

Dark Ages

The Second

Serenity

Emperor

Scavenger

Princess

Rage Knight

The High Ground

The Count

The Fallen

Alternate Colors

Along with customizing your saber's sound, you can also pick from a nearly unlimited range of colors. No longer are you stuck with one single color! The color-changing modes will either slowly cycle through the infinite color spectrum, or cycle through primary colors only for a faster choice selection.

   

Sound Effect Options

There are also several options to allow you to control how much special effects are used during play, as well as the volume of the saber. You can keep it simple and opt for only humming/swinging sounds, or you can turn on 'clash' mode so that your impacts make a clashing sound. Volume modes include low, high, and mute.

Lighting Effect Options

Three lighting effects are available: Stable, Unstable, and Pulse. Stable is the standard 'lit' lightsaber effect we are all used to. Unstable gives off a flickering effect as if the blade is having a hard time staying activated. And lastly, Pulse, giving the blade a fast 'breathing' effect from bright, to brighter, and back to bright (repeating infinitely).

Motion Control

When Motion Control is activated, specific motions can turn the blade on and off. A stabbing or twisting motion shuts the blade off or turns the blade on. Also, if the blade is off, a spinning motion will also activate the blade, giving you an action ignition option. If you want to avoid accidentally turning off the blade, Motion Control can be deactivated.

Overall Thoughts

While there is a small learning curve getting used to all of the button press options, this does not deter from the quality of this DamienSaber lightsaber. Beautifully crafted and sturdy, this quality saber has impressed me both for its displayability and usability! As mentioned before, this is NOT an exact replica of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Return of the Jedi, but merely inspired from Luke's lightsaber in design. There are subtle design differences which are noticeable when the two are compared side-by-side, as well as the "clean" versus "weathered" look.

Wielding the saber was a thing of beauty too. With the blade attached, the hilt and blade together offer a very balanced swing. With the blade detached, the weight of the hilt is very comfortable both in-hand and as a cosplay accessory. And, it looks great on the included display stand.

I also found putting the blade on and taking it off fast and easy. While you NEED the allen wrench in order to properly secure the blade, once secured it holds in place firmly and I never had any fear of it flying off while swinging or spinning the saber. When the blade is attached and ignited, the blade has a very uniform glow.

Best of all, if you are looking for not only a functional lightsaber along with a great display piece, it will set you back HALF the price of the mainline Hasbro The Black Series version, and with FAR superior quality, effects, usability, and display value... AND with a convenient rechargeable battery!

DamienSaber ships out of China, but they do offer free shipping to the USA and a one year warranty. They also have a variety of custom hilts as well as other character hilts to choose from. There are quite a few quality companies to choose from out there right now offering hi-end, duel-ready lightsabers, and if you are not sure which one to go with I would start with DamienSaber as a top option.

Promotional Video

Below is the promo video for the Luke Skywalker-inspired lightsaber. You can browse through the DamienSaber YouTube channel for many more videos on their wide range of custom lightsabers.

External Links:

• DamienSaber Home Page
• DamienSaber FAQ Page
• DamienSaber on Amazon