YODA LIGHTSABER

does anyone know what kind of flash tube is used for Yoda's lightsaber? and also the other parts? basically, i need to know how to build yoda's saber.

 

There was no actual lightsaber made for the films it's all CGI. I beleive the one made by Master is a complete custom... So you may have to improvise.

 

This replica is uncanny in its accuracy to the lightsaber seen in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. With Yoda wielding a lightsaber for the first time on-screen, this replica has been long anticipated. As expected, the lightsaber has an especially distinctive look with the replica's size and elegance reflective of Yoda's unique stature.

That is what master replica's has to say about their yoda lightsaber. Go to THIS for the full thing.

 

I believe that the original Yoda saber seen in the VD was created from a Bosley(sp?) flash. this was the inspiration for the CG saber and the later MR saber. The VD Yoda saber also had a plastic wheel piece from a model car kit attached at the emitter. There might be some of these type sabers on EBay you could use as reference.

 

It was based off a Praco flash. Very hard to find. Very similar to the Bolsey, but reversed. The first Yoda saber was actually done for the EP I Visual Dictionary by the guy who is now at MR, even though one had never been seen. It was pretty much made up. Lucas decided to base Yoda's real saber off that. The CG version is only slightly different, though you could never tell because it's hard to see it still in the film. I do know the emitter in the VD was a wheel hub off a model kit (and the activator was an oil pan), but they changed it in the CG version so it doesn't look so much like a hub. The MR version will be like that as well.

 

The very first Yoda sabre was made from a Praco Flash gun. The part that holds the reflector was moved down for the central switch band. Four grips were added along with an emitter guard attached with a pm nut. The emitter was the wheel hub of a model car. The CGI model was designed from this first model. Apparently the first model was made as a kind of joke by M.R. from stuff they had laying around. Lucas liked it and bought the rights to it. The CGI version is slightly different from the first. The switch is different and so is the emitter guard.

And now you know a little of the rest of the story.

 

Sorry to correct you Quag - the VD version was not a Bolsey but a Praco. Pretty similar - but if you do your homework, you'll see why it's a Praco.

;-)

Start here:
http://pub23.ezboard.com/fpropreplicasfrm42.showMessage?topicID=24.topic

Finish here:
http://www.partsofsw.com/Ep_1/yodasab.htm

Parts of Star Wars in general is a good resource for very accurate authentic saber info. These guys don't just surf and read rumors - they do their research and sometimes - as in this case - talk to the people who actually built the originals.

The Bolsey will do fine as an alternate - but to me it's the difference between using a Heiland for Vader's saber vs. the actual MPP that was used.

Oh, and this was a post straight from the proverbial "horses mouth" (Steve, the guy who built the first one and now works for MR):

No offence, but...

Since Ed couldn't tell what the parts are or how they were made (because he was not IN MY SHOP WHEN I MADE THEM)

Here they are (again)

-Oil sump pan from a 1/12 scale Monogram 1967 Corvette (nobody seems to get this right...they are always too skinny)

-1/16 Lamborghini Countach front wheel (The one with the little tubes sticking up from the 5 holes) NOT the Koenig as the experts keep saying. And it ISN'T from an 1/18 scale diecast model as other experts have expounded...I can't remember the brand, but it was definitely a Japanese kit.

- 4-40 PEM nut near the emitter shroud (this fact was all over the RPF a few months ago)

NEITHER of us had a clue what the flashgun was at first. Ed found it at a flea market. He showed it to me and asked me to "fix it up" into something. (As I had done for him 1000 times before) We mutually agreed that it would be funny to make it a lightsaber for Yoda.

I went through and generally cleaned the tube up, as it was kinda beat when he first gave it to me. I relocated the black tube to the center, repainted it, and cut a notch out for the brass "thingie" in the middle. I also went in and drilled and tapped a few holes for the "attachments".

The grips were originally cast in a hard resin (by me) from aluminum master patterns machined by my shop. I made the rubber molds from these metal masters and cast the grips. Ed didn't like the hard resin grips, so a few weeks later, I recast another set for him in a dark gray/ black resin with a 60 durometer hardness. He attached those himself. As opposed to what someone on the RPF recently said, the grips were never flat. The master patterns were machined to match the curvature of the 1 1/8" tube from the beginning.

A little later, I produced a second saber for myself from a second set of parts that I had here and a praco I got from ebay (before anyone knew what they were and the price went crazy.) The one photographed in the VD IS indeed Ed's, not the one I have here. Ed's friend, David West Reynolds was instrumental in getting the saber into the VD. Without David, there would be no Yoda VD saber. (Thanks, Dave!)

HOWEVER, Ed later signed away his rights to the saber design. I did not. I went on to finalize a contract with Lucasfilm and coordinate with ILM on the final design used in the film. (They thought the VD saber was too small to be seen well on-screen, and the small details would not have shown up well on the big screen anyway, so some were eliminated)

SO, what Ed said is TRUE to a POINT. I just figured that the WHOLE truth should be told. So there ya go...