TOPIC: 12w Amber Warrior Acolyte

Pretty happy. The pommel unscrews easily to get the battery out but isn't so loose I think it will ever accidentally fall off.

Color is bright (a little yellower than I expected but I got quick-connects), weight is good. The balance point feels a little odd but this isn't an actual energy blade so I suppose that's to be expected. And if it really bugs me, there's room enough in the pommel cap to add a little weight. Not a ton of room, but enough I think.

Speaking of room: there isn't any. I had thoughts of adding a soundboard myself later on but I'm rethinking now. I bet there's enough space in there to fit something small but I am not excited about having to get it there.

I wouldn't necessarily cite that as a negative but it's certainly something to be aware of. One minor con: the brushed finish scratches up pretty easily. I wear a couple silver rings on one hand and just unwrapping this hilt put some noticeable marks on the finish.

One other little annoyance: lack of instructions. I got a sheet of paper with instructions for attaching and removing the blade, replacing the batteries and using the kill-key charging port. Unfortunately, my saber came with a battery that needs to be removed and put on a charger. Fairly straightforward but I don't know what a blinking orange light means. Charging? Full? Battery damaged? I don't know.

Last thing: the blade plug is too long. The blade-tube bit shows through the emitter's "teeth." Still looks very cool (much better than without it) but thematically I feel like there shouldn't be even a little bit of visible "blade," since the idea is that there isn't one. I'm having trouble putting into words what I mean but the bottom line is a shorter emitter plug would make more sense to me.

Overall: pretty happy with my Acolyte. Nothing protruding to cut-up my hand, belt clip wheel conveniently-placed. Haven't had opportunity to wield it yet but I'll update this review once I have. Can't wait to lord it over my brother-in-law's 250-dollar toy company display "replica."

UPDATE: Did some light dueling and it handles pretty well. Compared to my wife's JadeFire, the balance is awful. But it spins like a dream and overall feels quite good in the hand.

Saw a couple other people mention this so I will also. The blade does have a bit of wiggle IF YOU DON'T TIGHTEN THE SCREW. Personally, I think the single retention screw is kind of a risky way to hold a blade in place if you're going to be dueling with it but I haven't seen anybody complaining that it doesn't hold. But you DEFINITELY have to tighten it tight enough to leave a VERY noticeable mark on the blade to eliminate the wiggle. I'm not saying "this sucks! I'm damaging my blade!" I'm saying take your blade out and look at the base. If it looks good enough to pass as "like new" or "unused," you're not tightening it enough.

I'm sad to hear there is no space for a sound card. ACK! The current SF cards must be small. You definately need to tighten it enough to leave a mark. I have never had trouble dueling but I have a SP so the blade seats a few inches. No significant trouble with marks on any of my hilts but then I only wear one ring. Go easy on the brother-in-law... he probably just didn't know any better.

I've seen acolytes and other apprentice sabers with several different types.. so yeah, it's small, and I wouldn't suggest doing it if you're not proficient at it, but I know it can be done

Other than that... get some pics up and show it off!!

Yup! The rule is...no pictures...it didn't happen!

I didn't mean to imply that a sound board wouldn't fit; just that I'm not looking forward to working in the confined space of a single-piece aluminum tube.

And yeah. I'll get pics up as soon as the battery is charged. Assuming the orange blinkey light starts doing something else when it's fully charged. I'm starting to worry that it's not charging because it's been on the charger for several hours (more than six) and it doesn't even feel warm.

For now: here's what one looks like in normal daylight from an East-facing window. Will play in the studio later.

In the meantime, maybe someone could tell me how to insert a photo?

Click on add file, then insert next to it. The forum doesn't like large file sizes so make sure you shrink it down a touch first. Or, you can use an image hosting site such as photo bucket and use their link codes.

Hmm... Trying to get my photos up. What's a "large" file? I've got 2-3mb jpegs. I'm a photographer by trade, so I consider that very small indeed.

Well, for now here are the ones I took with my phone.

Okay. I've got the filesizes all down to less than a megabyte. Let's see if it works this time.

I like this first one (blade plug removed) because it reminds me of how the lightsaber blades look in the old Marvel Star Wars comics.



No real commentary on the others, unless somebody wants to know about camera settings or post processing.

Wow. You weren't kidding about "the forum doesn't like large files." On my hard drive, those photos are all smaller than 900k and they still look good enough that I'd show them to people. Once I upload them to here, I want to take them down immediately so no one knows I ever produced such a poor-quality image. Yikes.

Yeah.. that's why I started using photo bucket insread and just linking. Pic quality when uploaded to the forums is terrible

Aproximo wrote:
I'll do one better. He's stationed at Pearl Harbor and his Vader is in his mom's basement here in New York. I'm gonna get a conversion kit and fix it up for him so we can duel when he comes home.