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Hasbro removable blade Anakin RotS saber review

Discussion in 'Costuming and Props' started by Doberman, Jul 28, 2010.

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  1. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    This is a repost of my original which was submitted to FX Sabers yesterday.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Just got mine from Brian's Toys. It's nice to live close by, so I get one-day shipping for the standard rate. :)

    Quick overview, with an unboxing & a full review to follow this evening.

    Externally, it looks exactly the same as the fixed blade version. There's an ever-so-slight shading difference on the bronze buttons, but it's possible that this is just a manufacturing run difference that might be existant between runs of either model. Other than that, they're completely identical. No way to tell the difference, as far as I can tell.

    The blade is held in by a screw that passes through it, attached to the back of the large bronze button. It's TIGHT. At least on the initial removal. (I've only pulled it off and on once so far.) I've got pretty strong hands but had to wrap the button in a washcloth (to keep it from marring) and use a pair of pliers to get it off. It seems, if anything, to be even MORE sturdy when attached than the fixed version does.

    When you pull the blade, there's an insert which goes in its place. It's not actually necessary, as the hilt gives a "short circuit" sorta sound when you flip the switch with the blade removed, no matter whether the insert is there or not. I initially put my insert in upside down, as it actually seems more intuitive that way visually. I thought that they musta screwed something up though, as once in upside down, it doesn't look right. You'll see in the pics. After reading the instructions, I flipped it over and inserted it the correct way. Both the blade & the insert have a slot & tab mating with the hilt so they align correctly, allowing the screw to pass though. You can, as I noted, put the insert in "upside down" but it'll still line the holes up. With the insert in correctly, it's seated very deep and fits very tightly in the hole so I needed to grasp the little protrusion with a pair of pliers to remove it as well. Use padding so you don't scratch it.

    This blade has a different sound font, which I believe has been noted based on the ToyFare videos. I don't think I like it as much as the previous Anakin sound, but I'll hafta hear it a few more times to make a definitive judgement.

    As I said earlier, this blade is IN THERE. It's, at least for my initial waving around, VERY sturdy. FX's aren't really meant to be full-on duelling sabers, but I'd hazard a guess that this thing will be able to stand up to some light banging around, just as the fixed blade version is.

    The blade, under flourescent lighting, looks to be a slight bit brighter with the same shade as my fixed Anakin. It is nearly 3 years newer with brand new batteries, so that may be the reason there.

    The belt clip is a slightly different design than the original cell phone clip that was used for the movie prop. It's got a metal insert, the words "Star WArs" embossed on the back (where you can't see it while it's being worn), and seems very sturdy. Moreso than the original clip that my friend has.


    My first impression is VERY positive. For not much more than the cost of an eFX resin Anakin stunt saber, you get a good looking hilt with sound and a removable blade that'll likely stand up to a bit of light fun use. I see at least one more of this one in my future, as well as a couple of every other model they release. Smiley

    Check back later tonite sometime for a full pictoral unboxing & closeup shots of the attachment and comparison against a fixed blade version.
     
  2. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    Lets get on with some unboxing and detail pics. :) Click on the photos for a larger version

    That was quick! Email from Brian's Toys listing these as in stock went out Friday night. I saw it Saturday night at about 10:00 and immediately ordered one. It shipped from Wisconsin on Monday (standard Fed-Ex) and arrived today (Tuesday) since I live just down over the border in IL.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/01.jpg]


    Today's pocket carry knife that gets the opening duties. A Benchmade Mel Pardue design that's no longer in production. Until I get buy a working lightsaber, a sharp knife is probably the most useful tool available.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/02.jpg]


    Well packed, as everything from Brian's Toys always is.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/03.jpg]


    Ahhh! There it is!
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/04.jpg]


    If you've never ordered from Brian's, you owe it to yourself just so they'll send you their catalog regularly. Paging through it is like reading a Sears Christmas Wishbook that ONLY holds all the toys you've ever wanted.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/06.jpg]
     
  3. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    Alright, enough with the preliminaries, let's get to the good stuff.


    Packaging is pretty standard. All of my other FXs are Master Replicas, so I dunno how this compares to the new Hasbro packaging.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/07.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/08.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/10.jpg]


    There's the magic words! "WITH REMOVABLE BLADE"
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/09.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/11.jpg]


    Here's my attempt at replicating the opening scroll.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/13.jpg]
     
  4. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    Opened!

    Standard layout. The belt clip is on the left above the emitter, while the blade insert is on the far right.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/14.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/15.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/16.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/17.jpg]


    And finally out of the wrapper. Looks just like the old one to me. :)
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/18.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/20.jpg]


    The little Allen bolt above the bronze button (yes, mine came outta the package a little scuffed) looks like it my be physically just a touch larger. The recess that you put the Allen wrench into certainly is. And on mine that recess looks like it's been mishandled and stripped a bit. These things must be assembled by hand. Looks like mine was put together on a Monday when everyone was still hung over, or on a Friday when they just wanted to get outta the sweatshop.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/24.jpg]


    Poorly focused shot, sorry. This button unscrews to remove the blade.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/26.jpg]
     
  5. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    Belt clip.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/29.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/30.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/31.jpg]


    The insert that you're supposed to put in when you remove the blade. You can see the tab that aligns it in the hilt.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/32.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/33.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/37.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/38.jpg]


    New stand for the removable blade sabers. It has a compartment in the back for storing the belt clip & the insert, as well as two troughs in the arms so you can display the hilt & blade separately.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/41.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/42.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/43.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/45.jpg]
     
  6. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    Let's get that blade out!


    The retaining pin/bolt thingie is integrated with this button.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/46.jpg]


    Like this.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/47.jpg]]


    Close up of the pin and its mounting area on the hilt.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/48.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/49.jpg]


    Here's the blade itself. The hole on the left is what the pin passes through. The one on the right seems to be some sorta other pin that keeps the blade together. There are 9 contact pins on the bottom of the blade that most touch matching contact spots in the hilt in order for the lights & sound to function.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/50.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/51.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/52.jpg]


    Looks like autofocus chose the wrong thing to lock on to, but here's a pic of the pin passing through the hilt where is fits into a little recess on the far side.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/54.jpg]


    So, as detailed in my first post, you can only put the insert in facing one direction, due to the tab & slot. But you CAN put it in upside down. This is what it looks like when you do. :)
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/55.jpg]


    Here's how it's supposed to go.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/56.jpg]
     
  7. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    On the new display stand that holds both hilt & blade. Not working for me. If it's ever displayed (instead of sitting on my desk next to the keyboard which seems likely to be its normal resting place. :) ) it'll be either just the hilt or fully assembled.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/57.jpg]


    Here it is with a Master Replicas fixed blade (which has had the stickers removed. This one will follow suit shortly.) You can see in the first pic that the button which houses the retaining pin is ever so slightly taller. And the belt clip thingie inner circle is a hair different circumference. From a few feet away, they're essentially indistinguishable.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/58.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/59.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/65.jpg]


    Another internal change (maybe this has been done to all the Hasbro FXs?) is the battery holder. It's got a cover that screws on and actually locks the batteries in place. You can see it pulled halfway off in the second pic.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/61.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/62.jpg]
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/63.jpg]


    Battery holder compared with a Master Replicas.
    [image=https://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/saber/64.jpg]
     
  8. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    And some videos. I'd prefer that you guys right clicked and saved the video to your own system, then watched it from there if you're gonna watch them on more than one seperate occasion. If you stream it then come back later and do so again, it eats my bandwidth. I shoulda put these on one of my other servers. Lemme know if I hit a limit and I'll make them available elsewhere.


    The sound quality isn't top notch, but you should be able to get a bit of an idea of how these new one sounds.



    Here's the "shorting out" sounds you get if you turn it on without the blade attached.


    New igniting, hum & shutdown sounds.


    New swing & clash sounds


    Comparison of ignition & shutdown vs. Master Replicas fixed-blade Anakin RotS. Left is new, right is old.


    Comparison of swing & clash vs. Master Replicas fixed-blade Anakin RotS. Left is new, right is old.


    Comparison of blade intensity in a lit room. New is on top, Master Replicas fixed-blade Anakin RotS is on the bottom. Please note that this comparison video is actually pretty useless. :) Between the new one having a fresh set of batteries and the old one being directly on the reflective white surface, what you see here doesn't really mean much. :) They're close enough to the same as to make no difference though.


    Comparison of blade intensity in a dim room. Also sorta useless. :)


    Those last two do let you hear the ignition & shutdown sounds from a different angle and shows us that the new blade extends and retracts slightly slower than the old one.
     
  9. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    So actually now that I come to it, there's really not much more to say in review than I did in my initial post.

    I've done a bunch more swinging of it and (for now at least) the blade still seems very solid. As I said earlier, moreso than any of my fixed bladed MRs.

    Unfortunately, I really don't care for this sound font. I can live with it, but the original was MUCH better. I'd hafta watch the film again (something I'd rather not do if I can avoid it.) to see if this seems to be an actual Anakin sound from RotS. (If it is, I'm really looking forward to a removable Luke with his sound font.) It's deeper & slower. The hum barely even sounds like a lightsaber to me. Oh, and though you can't really tell it from the video clips above, the new version is louder than the old. Not much so, but a bit.

    Mine came outta the box in less than pristine condition. It's not trashed by any means, but it's got a few little imperfections that would be noticed with even a cursory inspection. I don't really care, cuz I'm just gonna ding it up anyways, but it's something to be aware of if you're hoping for an immaculate display piece. I've not been on the forums lately so I dunno if there have been any detailed reviews done since Hasbro took over. Maybe it's just something we're gonna hafta accept now. I do know that none of my Master Replicas had this amount of scuffing & whatnot on them outta the box.

    I've taken the blade out and back in a few more times now. The pin & insert are both a little easier to work than they were, but they're still really solid. There's really no way of knowing how it's gonna hold up but it SEEMS pretty well constructed.

    So, I mean, I guess really that's all there is. It's just like the old one, 'cept you can take the blade out. Smiley As an alternative to an expensive custom built one, or modding one yourself, it's a pretty solid win in my book.

    As before, if anyone's got any specific questions that I didn't address, go ahead and ask. I'll do my best to answer.
     
  10. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    So is this the new brand now that Master Replicas no longer has a license?
     
  11. Doberman

    Doberman Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2007
    Yes, and has been for a couple years now.
     
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