Count Dooku's (awesome) lightsabers...

Hey,
I'm planning a movie in which one of the characters fights with 2 Count Dooku lightsabers. I was going to remove the plastic blades and insert wooden or plastic dowels in their place. However, after purchasing the two (expensive) toy Dooku lightsabers, I realized that the blades did not unscrew or anything. They were permanently sealed to the top of the toy (which does unscrew but i need the top).

I was wondering what I should do. The plastic blades are pretty stable, but I don't want stop after one minute of filming just cause my damn toy broke.

So help me, please! I guess my only option is to cut the blades off and insert (heh heh, insert. Aaaanyway...) the dowels in the toy, right?

A google thanks.

PS- Is PVC really not good to use for dowels? If not, could someone tell me what type of wood to buy for the dowels? Thanks again. (sorry about the "insert" joke)

 

I don't know what wood to use for dowels, I just use the toys as they are. The blades are pretty stable, they won't break unless you really get violent with them (trust me, I have experience in that).

If you cut the blade off you will have the lightbulb underneath, and I'm not sure how you can remove that.

Well, if you do this, bear in mind that unless you get a thick enough dowel it won't fight tightly enough in the hilt, and so when you fight it will shake around lots.

 

go with the toy saber blade, it's really stable. The length of the blade is quite short though, so you may have to shoot longer when you rotoscope your blades

 

yeah, i came across that problem myself. I have every one of those toy lightsabers and have broken the blades on all of them. I was trying to find a way to replace the blades on them, but there isnt one.

The older ones ruled, and it was simple to remove the blades because you could take them right out of the top because the lightbulb part came out to replace the bulb. But the new ones unscrew like half way down that handle and they suck.

 

So help me, please! I guess my only option is to cut the blades off and insert (heh heh, insert. Aaaanyway...)

....Shaddap, pervert!



















Carl

 

What about using the Rubies ones?

 

Thanks everyone.

I also realized last night that if I do cut off the blades, there's about less than 2 inches of space for the dowels to go into and that might be just a little unstable.

So I guess if I wanna go with the original blade, I'll have to pull back a lot although I intended to get pretty violent. Oh well...

Again with the PVC, should I go with that or wood? heh heh, wood. (Alright I'll stop this time. Heh, sorry)

 

the blades on the saber atleast the darth maul ones are REALLY strong. I was practicing to figure out the fights with my sister, and i actually broke the PVC pipe she was using. But the saber did break into two pieces

 

You might want to talk to Ryan W ... he did the Alternate Light Sabre Duel and used a Dooku blade.

 

I think he may have made it himself. In one of his unrotoed pictures, it looks like he used a dowel inside it.


Good luck with having a person fight with two curved sabers. If you plan on him using Dooku's fighting style, it won't work for you, but I assume your just using curved ones because they look cool.

 

Yeah, he used lightsabers he built himself.

M. Scott

 

Thanks again.

About the strong Maul light saber, which one are you talking about? There of two different versions of the toy: On one, the blades completely retract, on the other, (the one I have) the blades stick out some all the time.

Yeah, don't worry about the double-Dooku style. My friend knows a double-sword form. I picked the curved sabers because it hasn't really been done yet to my knowledge (besides the Alternate Fight), plus the swords he uses in the form are curved.

Don't forget, Dooku was supposed to fight Yoda with two lightsabers, remember?

I know a single-sword form and I actually found it easier to use the toy than the sword I practice with (I have blisters on my hand from swinging it so much!!).

Anyway, how would I go about building my own curved saber of light?

um.... yeah. Thanks!

 

mine dont go completly into the hilt there is still some sticking out...it broke it two after some serious fighting.

 

About the strong Maul light saber, which one are you talking about? There of two different versions of the toy: On one, the blades completely retract, on the other, (the one I have) the blades stick out some all the time.

The Hasbro one (with lights and sounds). We gutted ours and filled the center with epoxy to make it more sturdy (and allow us to make a simple device so it was fightworthy, yet could split in half on command). Worked out well.

Yeah, don't worry about the double-Dooku style. My friend knows a double-sword form. I picked the curved sabers because it hasn't really been done yet to my knowledge (besides the Alternate Fight), plus the swords he uses in the form are curved.

So you're only getting it to look cool? Bad idea.

I'm guessing the swords your friend uses have curved BLADES, not hilts. You might want to double check on that.

Don't forget, Dooku was supposed to fight Yoda with two lightsabers, remember?

Yeah, one of them being Anakin's uncurved one.

I know a single-sword form and I actually found it easier to use the toy than the sword I practice with (I have blisters on my hand from swinging it so much!!).

Don't hold it so tight.

Dooku's is designed for a VERY SPECIFIC style of fighting. If you don't intend to use it, save yourself the headache of the bent saber.

M. Scott

 

Here's my advice to you:

Practice with dowels. Yes, the weighting is different, and you'll need to adjust a bit, but it will save you a lot of punishment on your plastic blades during initial choreography.

We broke two blades during filming of our fanfilm, learning this the hard way. The blades are tough, but only for so long.

 

just thought of something if you still having trouble with blades. Take all but the bottom one or two sections of the blade off....so there is like half a saber blade, then put a piece of pvc inside the remaining blade and tape the shxt out of it so it is stable. That might work.

 

Scott,

Sorry if I sound all "NO! I am right, and you are wrong!". I don't mean to. Actually, it is the hilts that are curved, the blades are curved slightly.

[image=http://www.amas.net/items/009pp.jpg]

It basically has that^ shape and design but slightly different.

Thanks for the advice. I am open to any critisim or advice on how to spell (heh heh, i'm too lazy to open Word).

 

That doesn't count as a curved hilt. Duuku's was curved much more, and was gripped in the center, so the blade seemed to come out at more of a forward angle. This is a completely different style of fighting compared to the style that is used for the sword in the picture. This will not work so well with two curved hilts. Only if you grip it from the top, so there will be no curve except at the bottom... which in that case there will be no point in having a curved hilt. May as well go with two regular ones and save yourself some trouble.

 

Actually, the Dooku saber WAS gripped towards the top. The difference is that with the fencing style, the hand and wrist were bent WITH the saber, held along the curved back. The saber body was held in the crook of the arm rather than perpendicular, as it would be with standard sabers (and as with the style of the sword shown above).

As Animaster said, if you made that sword in the picture like Dooku's, the blade would be pointing toward the lower right hand corner of the image, rather than to the right.

Best of luck, but I don't think it's the best idea.

M. Scott

 

Thanks to all those who replied.

But I'm still gonna use the Dooku sabers. I've already spent too much money not to use them (this film has a budget of about -7 dollars, heh heh).

And if it doesn't work, then you guys can rip me all you want. At least I can say that I tried.

Just always remember what Yoda said: "Hey, my name is Yoda."

 

just use the plastic. i've watched a lot of fanfilms, and rarely are the fights choreographed well enough that the actors go fast and hard enough to break them.